#my lads

"I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did.'" - Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake.

The Beatles certainly did this. And I am convinced that their music still sounds so fresh because they took so much joy in making music, and the joy is what makes it ever-new. You can't fake joy, which translates into a certain sort of holy energy, energy that transcends even their own brokenness. The Beatles, those four men as a single unit, made people appreciate being alive. And the more I think about it the more miraculous it seems to me that four scruffs from the squalid provinces of the north did that. Made me glad to be alive, while I listened.