And in the end …

Faithful readers of these weekly musings will long since have come to realize the importance in my life of music, and especially the music of the late 1960s and early 1970s, coinciding with my formative years as an undergraduate student at Carleton.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy more contemporary sounds; indeed to the contrary, and my current CD de choix is the sound track from the recent film version of The Great Gatsby, which apparently I can listen to endlessly, as the other inhabitant of my house will be quick to attest, having been subjected to it more times than she cares to remember.  But with a few rare exceptions, I can’t tell you the lyrics of any of those songs, whereas I can sing along to entire album sides that are now in their fifth decade of life. 

I have been thinking about those years long ago in recent days, no doubt prompted by my participation in an event last week which marked the 40^th anniversary of my B.A. graduation.  And yesterday morning – Thursday September 26^th – The Globe and Mail’s historical vignette at the top of page 2 marked the 44^th anniversary of the release of the last album ever recorded by The Beatles: Abbey Road.

Aha, some of you may be saying.  He clearly has a fixation with that album, or at least Side Two, since he has used it as a continual source of blog titles over the years.  And indeed you would be correct.  I have often used Abbey Road as a source of meaningful words, and hence of inspiration, both the titles and the actual lyrics. 

And thus you may not be entirely shocked to learn that a hot Saturday last July found me in London, long suffering partner in tow, riding the Bakerloo line tube up to St John’s Wood, and then making the short trek over to what may be London’s most famous pedestrian crosswalk – or ‘zebra crossing’, as they say in Britain. 

I was not alone!  The street was thronged with tourists, most of them very much younger than me … and one enterprising individual was making some serious coin by taking pictures of groups crossing the street in emulation of the fab four.  There is even a webcam trained on the crossing in question, running 24/7, and while I haven’t checked it out, I have been told that it is a busy spot both day and all night.  A few years ago I had the pleasure of teaching a seminar course on the theme of ‘Saints and Pilgrims’, and one of the themes we explored was the concept of meaningful travel.  I can assure you that this visit to Abbey Road was very much a ‘pilgrimage’.

What is it about 22 minutes of music (the approximate length of Side Two) that still attracts thousands of visitors to an otherwise unremarkable London street some 44 years later, including many who were not even born when the record was released?  I won’t even begin to try to explain it, but clearly the words and music resonate with others, as they do for me – including 15 of the truest words ever written.  And that’s the amazing thing about music.  It helps create meaning out of chaos, sanity out of madness.  It turns despair into hope.  It becomes part of who and what we are.