A Lasting Obsession

An obsession of mine that stil continues today
On
July 28, 2010
We all had at least one obsession during our childhood. Some lasted long, some lasted short, some still continue today, and that's the case for me. For nearly 11 years, I've been totally obsessed with the Beatles. And why not, everyone likes the Beatles (except for some teenagers who are too much used to today's crappy music). I'm not going to talk about all those 11 years of my obsession, but the early years of it, when I was more obsessed with the Beatles than I am today. Why am I so obsessed with them, why am I not obsessed with them as much as I used to? Well this article will explain it all, so I hope you read it carefully.


Pre-obsession
Prior to my obsession with the Beatles, my tastes in music were Sesame Street, Barney, Disney songs, and any other form of children's music. I did, however, enjoy listening to The Heart of Rock and Roll by Huey Lewis and the News, and unfortunately I kind of liked the Backstreet Boys. I too saw Yellow Submarine as a young child, and I remember it kind of freaking me out a little. I also had the cassette tape as well. Unfortunately, due to my foolish acts as a young child, I ripped the tape and that was the end of it, for now. A few years later, while browsing the DVD/VHS section of Circuit City (alone), I noticed that there was a VHS of something that looked familiar to me. I looked at the back of the VHS and right when I saw Ringo's face, I knew exactly what this was. Of course, I didn't get the film then, later on, I finally purchased the film at Suncoast, and it wouldn't be long until I would have my first obsession.

1999- The start of an obsession
When I got home, I finally got to watch the film that I haven't seen in years. When I saw it, I was not only fascinated by film, but the music as well. After I watched it, I asked my father to get me the soundtrack. Of course, it wasn't the one I had when I was younger, this was the newly released soundtrack in 1999 which featured all the songs from the movie, even the ones that they didn't play fully. My parents knew how much I was into the film, so they recommended me another Beatles film, and that film was Help!. So I rented it from the library, and soon after, I rented something you'd never expect a 6-year-old to rent, The Beatles Anthology. That documentary helped me learn more about the Beatles. On December 31, 1999, I was at my aunt and uncle's house in Long Isand for New Years Eve. There, all my relatives did a bunch of acts and performances. I got into the act by dancing around on their trampoline to Yellow Submarine to what my cousin called "Ethan's favorite song". It was then my little and older brother's turn to get into the act by doing their performance of Hey Bulldog, but because of my obsession with the Beatles, I kicked them out of their act, and I took over.

I litterally know every line in that film because of how many times I've watched it.

Websites
In late 1999, I discovered a new phenomenom known as, the internet. I then went onto my first site, which was Google. I then typed in something Beatle-related, I can't remember what it was, and I found loads of Beatle websites. To me, finding all these sites was heaven to me. One of the earliest Beatle websites I remember going on was "Songs, pictures, and stories of the Beatles", which still exists today. But for me, I was more into the Yellow Submarine-related websites because that's was my favorite thing of the Beatles then. I always went on the official site for the new Yellow Submarine soundtrack, of course that site no longer exists anymore. In fact, a lot of the Beatle websites that I had gone onto when I was a kid either no longer exists, or they haven't been updated in years. Anyways, I was soon a Beatle-addict, I was going on so many Beatle websites, maybe too many. That was around the point when parents told me not go on anymore of those websites again. Maybe they were worried that I would accidently end up on some inappropriate website. That didn't mean I can never visit another Beatle website again, I eventually started going on more Beatle websites, and I didn't care what my parents said.


Merchandise
What would a Beatles fan have without its merhandise, and I certainly had a lot of it. Books, cards, t-shirts, posters, etc. My collection of Beatles merchandise began with a poster. At my other aunt and uncle's house in Pennsylvania, where in my cousin's room, she had a Beatles poster. I knew she had this poster even before I was a Beatles fan, but now I knew who they were, and I really wanted it. Luckily, my cousin was in college at the time, so she let me have it. Today, I still wonder what happended to that poster because sometime around 2000 or 2001, the poster was gone. At TOYS R US, I started getting the McFarlene Yellow Submarine action figures. I also got the Sgt. Peppers action figures as well. Over time, because of how I've been playing with them so much, I broke every action figure I had, and they were all thrown away. I finally got to my senses in 2007 and I re-bought the Yellow Submarine actions figures on eBay, and now, I keep them in the box, sounds nerdy, but it's the only way they won't break, and I'll still have ownership of them. I still haven't re-bought, the Sgt. Peppers action figures, but someday I will. In 2000, I was at the mall, and then I walked past Spencer Gifts (I actually already explained this in another article of mine), and I was amazed to find stacks of the 1999 Yellow Submarine merchandise. They had everything from, t-shirts, hats, cards, lava lamps, lunch boxes, toys, well I can't describe them all, so click the link below, and it'll show you exactly what they had. Though I was too young to be in that store at the time, my mother let me in anyways, and soon, Spencer Gifts became my favorite store at my mall. Anyways, I had so much Beatles merchandise, I just loved getting them.
http://www.rarebeatles.com/ysub99/ysub.htm

The young Beatles fan I once was. Circa July 2000.
2000-2001
By 2000, I was getting into more than just Yellow Submarine. It was around this time when I started listening to more Beatles music. My parents first got me Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, and although it had songs I already knew such as A Little Help From my Friends, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, and When I'm Sixty-Four, I soon started to get into new songs such as Getting Better, and A Day in the Life. On my 7th birthday, I got more Beatles merchandise. One of them was an entire set of Yellow Submarine cards which contained screenshots from the movie, and on the back of each of them, it would talk about that scene. I still have some of the cards, but a lot of them went missing over the years. I also got their negatively-recieved film, Magical Mystery Tour. My mother made me a birthday card which was a perfect drawing of the Beatles based of their characters in Yellow Submarine, and she pretended it was actually from them. I probably got more Beatles merchandise then, but that's all I remember getting at that time. During Halloween, I dressed up as Ringo. I was my first Halloween costume to be dressed up as a real person. Two years later, I dressed up as John, which was a better choice in my opinion. Also, around that time, there was a new Beatles documentary that I obviously watched. I don't remember what the name of it was, or what it was for, but considering it's from 2000, it may have been for the 30th Anniversary of the break-up of the Beatles. I then discovered more of the Beatles' music by getting The Beatles 1, which soon became the best-selling album of the 2000s.

Me as Ringo. 2000.

Me as John. 2002.

Meet the Beat-alls
In February 2001, while browsing through the TV Weekly (hey, a kid's got to know what's coming up on tv), I noticed a picture, which happened to be a Mock-up picture of Abbey Road with the Powerpuff Girls villains(see picture below). Above, it said "The Powerpuff Girls, those crazy crayon-carrying crime fighters, look defeat in the eye when Townsville's most evil villains-Mojo, Him, Princess, and Fuzzy-band together to form the ultimate criminal group on 'Meet the Beat-alls,' a tribute to the Fab Four at 9p.m. on Friday, in anniversary of the Beatles' first appearance on 'The Ed Sullivan Show'." While I was a Beatles fan, I did watch of a lot of Cartoon Network then, so I was definately going to watch it. So it's Friday night, I'm pumped up to see this special, and I was really excited. Right when The Powerpuff Girls came on, what did I get, some episode with Buttercup knocking out people's teeth for money. Not what I was hoping for. Finally comes "Meet the Beat-alls", and I was very surprised, nearly every line said in that episode were quotes from Beatle songs. Looking back at it today, it's still somewhat enjoyable. I think my favorite part of that episode was when Mojo and that Yoko Ono-like-person was screaming, there was a cameo of the Beatles from Yellow Submarine. Whenever that episode re-ran on tv, I'd always be watching it.


Beatles/Yellow Submarine Birthday Party
On my 8th birthday, I did a whole Beatles/Yellow Submarine themed party. On my birthday, I got more Beatles stuff (can the fun get any better). My mother did a full-sized drawing of each of the Beatles based on their characters in Yellow Submarine, and she did them perfectly and she hung them up in the basement, where the party took place. Everywhere, there were all the Yellow Submarine cards that I got for my 7th birthday, and there were a lot of Beatle posters. So the party starts, all my friends show up, and we do all sorts of fun stuff. Such would include throwing water balloons into the basketball hoop, dancing to Beatle songs with blow-up guitars, and even making Yellow Subamrines by taking a water bottle, filling it up with water and yellow food-coloring, using straws for the tubes, and put stickers all over it to make it look pretty. The birthday cake I had was a Carvel cake with a screenshot from Yellow Submarine taken near the end of the movie during the song, It's All Too Much. The birthday party went really well that day, and it's still one of my favorite birthdays ever.


Declining of an obsession
By early 2001, my obsession with the Beatles started to die down a little. I started getting new interests around this time. I had an interest in skyscrapers for some reason, and I also became a big fan of *name and address withheld*. With these new interests I had, I didn't have much time for the Beatles. On the 11th of September, I soon found out about that horrific incident that occured that day. Because of that, I decided to lay off of the Beatles for awhile and focus more on what was going on in America. Instead of constantly going on Beatle websites, I was going on websites that had to do with what went on that day. Thus, ended my crazed obsession with the Beatles.

The incident that ended my crazed obsession with the Beatles.

2001 and onward
Did this incident made me lose interest in the Beatles, no. I still enjoyed them, I still enjoy them today. Overtime, I began learning more stuff about the Beatles. I still buy their merchandise sometimes. I also have a lot of their songs on my ipod. I recently got all their remastered albums, and they sound better than before. Unlike most bands/artists these days when you here their music a lot, you get tired of having to listen to them, the Beatles' have the kind of music that you never get tired of listening to, no matter how many times you play them. Which is why I still consider myself obsessed with them. In 2009, my dream came true when for the first time ever, I saw both Paul and Ringo, live in concert at Radio City Music Hall. It was one of the best nights I ever had in my life. Well, that ends my article, I hope you enjoyed it, but now let me ask you all this, what was your life-long obsession?
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