It’s fascinating what YouTube will send my way. My search history is so bizarre, I am recommended everything from unsolved murder cases to complex pastry instructions.
One day last week, a recommended video was a reaction of someone hearing “Hey, Jude” for the first time.
First of all, how is there someone living on the planet who has never heard “Hey, Jude”? I had to click on it. I’m happy I did, and for the dozens of others I clicked on in the next hours and days.
There’s something about witnessing someone appreciating something for the first time that makes these old, familiar songs new again.
“How is it even possible for someone to have that voice?” someone asked after watching Queen in one of their live performances. Even though I’ve heard Freddie Mercury’s superhuman range of vocal talent since I was eight years old, I reconsidered that question. I’ve known Queen is amazing since I first studied the “A Night at the Opera” album cover, its pastel and slightly psychedelic coat of arms imagery incomprehensible to my preteen brain, while the album spun under a penny-weighted needle on a seventies turntable. Until this reaction video, I had forgotten the awe of the first experience.
The comments always reflect things I want to comment on–why “Hey Jude” was written, who is “Sara” in “Sara Smile”, the sad truth of Zeppelin’s “All My Love”, the heartbreaker who inspired Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain”, how the Stones were influenced for “Paint It Black”, the meetings of genius combinations such as Bernie Taupin and Elton John, Simon and Garfunkel, Lennon and McCartney. It’s not just the music itself. The stories behind the music add to the legendary status. Why are there songs on the last Beatles’ albums that sound like they aren’t Beatles’ songs? I so wanted to explain. I can only hope the new fans will find out on their own.
Thanks for the reaction videos, newbies. All this magic I’ve taken for granted is magical again.
