JAN 28 — Watching Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of The Beatles at the Grammy Awards presentation shown live on TV yesterday was to me like witnessing Malaysia winning an Olympic gold.
Even Ringo’s rendition of his old solo hit Photograph sounded fresh.
Finally, 50 years after the Liverpool group changed the world with their music and slightly more than 40 years after they broke up, the long-awaited acclaim has arrived even if John Lennon and George Harrison, the other two members, are already dead.
Their music will live on — just like the newspapers, whom many have predicted will die. After 37 years, I am retiring from the newsroom but the news you get in print each morning will prevail for a long time.
The Beatles hit us in Malaysia literally like a rock towards the end of 1963 with I Want To Hold Your Hand. And what a time it was since we were still celebrating the formation of the federation of Malaysia, while TV was slowly making its way to our shores.
The excitement of TV was so great that you could find a whole neighbourhood crowding in front of the small idiot box in someone’s home just to catch the test pattern before transmission began, programme summary for the evening was read out and Woody Woodpecker came on.
I Want To Hold Your Hand was not the first singles released by The Beatles but it was the first to break into this country’s radio-listening rage. It was then that the levee broke.
The staple of songs from Cliff Richard, Elvis Presley, Paul Anka, Roy Orbison and Neil Sedaka gave way to a completely new sound from these four chaps from Liverpool, England.
At that time, I was hooked on listening to the “small records” played on the portable turntable by my uncle who would spin to no end Only the Lonely, Oh Carol, My Hometown and especially Devil in Disguise (we would pronounce it hilariously as devil in the sky. Of course, at that time no one noticed).
And when I Want To Hold Your Hand broke new ground and opened the floodgates, I was floored.
“She loves you yeah yeah yeah” became the rallying cry in every corner and Beatles’ mop hairstyle coupled with drainpipe fashion set a new trend among youngsters even in the kampung.
Beatlemania had arrived and it was only months later and exactly 50 years ago that we read about the Fab Four appearing on the celebrated Ed Sullivan Show in New York and thereafter starting the British invasion of the United States.
Inevitably, as a boy growing up with so much more hair then, I was sucked into the whole new trend and began to sport Beatles hairstyle by combing my hair forward, incurring unkind remarks from my grandma.
“Budak ni nak jadi tak ketahuan dah,” (this boy is getting off his rocker) she used to say.
Aptly so perhaps, except that it was not only me but probably the entire generation was going yeah yeah yeah.
Which explains the explosion of Malay “pop yeh yeh” groups.
Inspired by the guitars-bass-drums setup of Beatles, popular Malay music migrated from P. Ramlee and Saloma songs to the upbeat melody of the kugiran.
And the bands came with such colourful names — Les Kafilas, Teruna Ria, Rhythm Boys, De Fictions, The Wisma, etc. Even Nirwana — long before the Kurt Cobain’s grunge band came to being.
But that was long ago and all things must pass.
And like everything else, I am going through yet another phase as I leave The Malay Mail this week to pursue other things.
It has been a wonderful one year at the paper which in itself is going through a transformation process.
Though my stint is only for a year, the 118-year-old paper is no stranger because it used to be part of The New Straits Times Group where I had spent the most of my working life as a journalist.
Despite the challenges faced by the conventional printed newspapers, I still believe there is a great potential in The Malay Mail to make an impact.
For one, it is made up of very dedicated staff and although the turnover has been quite high lately, I had the privilege of working with a good team the past 12 months.
But it is time to move on and as the line in a Beatle song goes “all these places have their moments”.
That came through In My Life which is my favourite Beatle song because it carries a lot of meaning.
But more meaning right now will come from Nowhere Man which should be a significant song for most of us in the country given current circumstances and I dedicate the words to all Malaysians.
You interpret it anyway you want:
He’s a real nowhere man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody.
Doesn’t have a point of view,
Knows not where he’s going to,
Isn’t he a bit like you and me?
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.
