British People Spell Funny

When I was a kid, I used to sit at the bottom of the steps leading up to my sister's attic bedroom when she was playing her vinyl 45's of Motown, bubble gum pop and British Invasion groups. My sister was five years older than me and introduced me to a phenomenon that pretty much changed my life. She started playing four or five songs over and over again from this British group called "The Beatles." I remember thinking that British people had a spelling problem...I mean, they would spell really simple words like "color" all wrong. They spell it "colour"... and how could they mess up the word beetle by spelling it as "Beatle?"

After further review, I came to the conclusion it's really we Americans that probably screwed up the spelling of certain words. I mean after all, the language is called "English" for heaven's sake. And I read how "clevour" those four lads—who talked with a thick Brit accent but clearly sang "American" on all their records—actually were. You see, they actually do spell beetle the same as we do, but the name "Beatles" came from the style of music that was attributed to all of those British Invasion groups before they ever invaded the states. Some one coined the phrase "Beat Music" to describe the sound of the music played by the bands that came from the Liverpool area. And that was our first clue as to the cleverness of this hard-working, hard-drinking band previously known as "The Quarrymen." Because of the influence and their admiration for Buddy Holly and the Crickets, They wanted to change their name to the "Beetles" but came up with that little twist in spelling: The "BEAT-les"

But I digress. You see, during those listening sessions sitting at the bottom of the stairs from my sister’s room, Ringo actually taught me how to play drums. Okay, he wasn’t really there in person, but I learned to mimic his drumming just by listening to Beatle records whenever my sister would play them—which was constantly. I basically played “air drums.” But the Beatles music changed my life. They made me want to play music. It wasn’t a school teacher that introduced me to music theory, poetry, art and songwriting. It was four guys from Liverpool. And it wasn’t just me, but an entire generation. Their music is brilliant; timeless. They taught our generation about peace, about loving one another, about expressing ourselves; they inspired us to develop our talent—whether we actually had any or not—all through their wonderful music music and poetry.

I wanted to join a band and play music because of the Beatles. And because of the Beatles, I did. I never did get to play drums in a band, though.