More Music Friday – The sun is up, the sky is blue

This week the big music news was that the Beatles entire catalogue was re-released, totally digitally remastered. I remember back in the mid-nineties, when they released the Beatles Anthology, and I begged for it as a Christmas gift. My dad would always laugh at me, saying my music taste was a bit strange for a ten-year-old, but on Christmas Day, I found the first discs of the Anthology under the tree, and spent hours listening and reading all the liner notes. I would tell my dad I was just trying to understand the music of “his day,” but he’d just scoff and say he already had two kids, a wife and a mortgage by the time the Beatles got famous. Then I’d tell the old man that he was losing it and should probably have some prune juice with that side of sarcasm. We have a special bond, my pops and I.

I haven’t yet purchased any of the tunes in the new set, but I probably will at some point. I listened to All Songs Considered this week, and they played the old tracks next to the new ones, and the difference really is incredible. None of that crackling background fuzz here, just full clarity and amazing harmonies. I actually got chills.

I can’t write today’s post without noticing the date. I’ve written 9/11 tributes and stories here before, but today I figured I’d just post my personal favorite Beatles song. It’s from The White Album and was released in 1968. For some reason, when I hear this song, it evokes an emotional response that ranges from happy to sad to depressed to joyful to hopeful, which is how I usually feel on 9/11. Watching all the stories and reading touching tributes online, I hear this song in the background. Whispering. Giving me permission to remember the sad, but move on with hope for good things to come.

“Dear Prudence let me see you smile
Dear Prudence like a little child
The clouds will be a daisy chain
So let me see you smile again
Dear Prudence won’t you let me see you smile?”