I don't know why I am even writing this down... but it's a little story about how I used to think ab

I don't know why I am even writing this down... but it's a little story about how I used to think about The Beatles.

I have always liked Paul Simon. I think the first time he really entered my consciousness though was when his iconic video with Chevy Chase for "You Can Call Me Al" came out on MTV. I feel like I can still remember the first moment of seeing it. I know for sure what room I was in. I didn't have cable, but a boy named Randy down the street did, and I would go over there and watch MTV and Nickelodeon with him after school. I loved the song, though it was years until I had a copy of the album. I must have had it on audio cassette. The song about Fat Charlie the Archangel really amused me.

Later I'd buy it on CD and later still I would buy it over iTunes. It may be the only album I have bought that many times.

When I was maybe 22 or 23 I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine at one of my first jobs about Paul Simon. She was much, much more knowledgeable about music of all kinds than me. And I said: Wasn't he a member of the Beatles? She started laughing. I think that's when she said something like, "He's a little Jewish boy from New York City!" Because of course the Beatles were famously all from Britain (Liverpool, right?)

And I realized at this moment (this would have been 1999 or 2000, fwiw) that all older white musicians who were viewed as "venerable" on some level were "ex-Beatles" in my mind. He seemed to basically fall in the same mental slot for me as Paul McCartney, so why wouldn't he be a Beatle? I might have also thought of Eric Clapton the same way at the time.

It's probably worth noting here that I also hadn't really come around to the Beatles yet at this point, but it's also just funny thinking about the conclusions our young brains can quietly come to, the associations it makes and settles on that we never really think to investigate.