Downtown Doodler: My Love of the Beatles

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On December 8, over 31 years ago, John Lennon was shot and killed. I wasn’t alive then, but every year I morn the loss of a music legend. To say I like the Beatles would be like saying Mariano Rivera is just ok at baseball, or that the NYC subway platforms get just a little warm during the summer. I LOVE the Beatles, they were a part of childhood and their lyrics keep me in one piece on a daily basis. I have Beatles movies, books, documentaries, and I would even get Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr’s autographs tattooed on my arm if I ever would to meet them.

I have spent many hours pouring over Stephen Spignesi and Michael Lewis’s book, “Here, There, and Everywhere: The 100 Best Beatles Songs” while listening to the song that corresponds to the section I’m reading. With a subjective ranking order from Number 1 to Number 100, each song’s has a few pages with expert commentary, historical context, interview material, and lots of great sidebars and tidbits of information. Appendices include a complete song list, discography, videography, and bibliography, making it a one-stop source of Beatles facts and figures.

George Harrison died a day after my birthday in 2001, and John Lennon only 10 days. So in honor of their memory, I want to share the Beatles album covers I drew, in a cartoon style, for my mom (a huge Beatles fan as well) for Christmas a few years ago. Below are a few of my favorites, you can see them all on my Downtown Doodler facebook page.