My mother, born 1930, loved The Beatles, whenever they came on the radio she turned it up loud. When I hear The Beatles, I’m back in my mother’s kitchen.
My elder brother, born 1951, had all these Parlophone singles from them plus the Magical Mystery EP. I was only eight or so, but that Dadaist psychedelic world they created drew me to it.
My dad, born 1931 - though I doubt he ever got as far as being able to tell Lennon and McCartney apart, he just wasn’t really interested in any type of music - at least didn’t dislike The Beatles (nor, strangely, Deep Purple, yet he thought the Stones noisy).
My younger brother, born 1966, prefers Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five to The Beatles, but as a younger brother he’s ineligible as a matter of principle and, anyway, all families have black sheep.
I’m no Beatles connoisseur (though I have all their released boxed sets) and I have only seen Macca once live, but to me to this day there is The Beatles and then there are all other rock and pop bands. They have a solitary status for me. And while this might sound trite, there has never been a time in my life when Sgt Pepper has not been an desert island album of mine. And my favorite Macca bass line is, yes, the one in Silly Love Songs - its bubbliness encapsulates the man. As Ian Paice once said: “
Paul McCartney is the only bass player who can play a two-step bass to a rock song and it won’t sound like Country & Western at all.”