What's your favorite Beatles album?

The History Channel is showing some sort of Beatles somethingorother.  I'm enjoying the music; they're as far as Revolver, which happens to be my personal favorite.  Well, it's probably tied with the first album of the White Album, but Revolver was my first favorite and so will always hold a special place in my heart.

My Daddy planted and cultivated and grew my love for his favorite band from the time I was born.  The Beatles still have more photos on the walls of the family room in my parents home than do actual family members.  The day I told Daddy I wanted his collection if he ever tired of it or, Heaven forbid, died, I could hear his smile through the phone.  "I'd wondered and worried what would happen to it, to be honest with you, Nat.  I'm glad it'll go to a good home."

I don't mean to make my Daddy sound like a kook - he's not.  He's quiet and strong and somber and dignified and reserved and observant and respectful.  When his guard is down, and he's relaxed and comfortable and at ease, he's hilarious and a brilliant story-painter.  I say painter rather than teller because he paints the whole picture for you - the weather conditions and the smells in the air and the clouds in the sky and the political climate of the time - he tells the WHOLE story. He's a romantic.  He's fun and non-judgmental and moral and good and kind and gentle and wise.

The Beatles is something I try to use to bond with him.  He's so hard to know; he's so reserved with his personal feelings and thoughts most of the time, it's hard to find a way to open him up and get him talking.  Even when we don't know how to say anything to each other, though, we can talk about the Beatles; which of the newly remastered CDs we still need to collect (we're buying them together, to share, because we're geeks like that), a new cover we've recently heard, the Dirty Mac recordings that I only recently discovered.  I guess it's an extension of that universal truth that says something about music traversing all languages; for us, the Beatles can open a dialog that leads to deeper conversations and topics we don't otherwise know how to broach.

So I love the Beatles, in a way that branches off from the deep, bare-bones part of my soul that loves my Daddy.  The two separate entities will forever be joined together in my mind.  And this music, this brilliant, vibrant, makes-me-want-to-sing-and-dance-and-smile music - it resonates inside me and takes me back to the days of innocence and happiness of my childhood, and I don't think that will ever go away.  I will always smile and think of my Daddy when I hear "Yellow Submarine" or "Get Back" or "Yesterday".

All you need is love.