Anyone that knows me even casually knows that I’m a pretty big Beatles freak. (Ironically enough, my oldest brother is a huge Rolling Stones fan and my next oldest brother loves the Who. I always chuckle when I think of that and consider how that defines our similarities and differences.)

Anyway, I really didn’t get the Beatles into my blood until I lived in for a while in London. While studying at Thames Valley Unversity, I had the chance to take a course in British Pop music and nicked my first book on the Fabs from my instructor, which I still have today. That book, a stack of Beatles tapes, forays to Abbey Road Studios and Liverpool as well as countless long rides on the Tube forever changed how I listened and appreciated popular music.

When I later attended Northwestern in Chicago for my masters degree, I elected to take an undergraduate course in Beatles history in my last semester. (Funny side story: when I told my academic advisor — a staunch and well-respected Mozart scholar — that I was going to take the course, he quickly sized me up and stated matter-of-factly “You’re not going on to the doctoral program, are you?”)

As a musicology graduate student in an undergraduate pop music course, I knew that my final project would be scrutinized in more detail than my classmates. So I opted to do a detailed manuscript study of seven Beatles lyrics sheets that were a part of the John Cage “Notations” collection at the NU library. And for 3 days, with uninterrupted access to these lyrics sheets, the songs running through my head, and just trying to wrap my head around the history I was holding in my hands, I had what remains as the high point of my collegiate career.

Recently, a friend at work passed on a link via Facebook to I Met The Walrus. Starting off as an encounter in 1969 between a brash 14-year old boy and John Lennon that resulted in a recorded interview, 38 years later it finally manifested itself fully as this animated, Academy Award-nominated short film. With words that still ring true today against a backdrop of incredible motion graphics work, I found it to be mesmerizing.

And, of course, the film couldn’t help but remind me of my own journey in discovering the walrus and his cohorts.

[Props to Rosygirl for the link.]