Musical Mondays: Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite

Let me start with a confession.  I shamefully admit to having not been a Beatles fan growing up.  I pledged my allegiance to a different monumentally influential singer-songwriter, and refused to consider any other artist on the same level.  If pressed, I would reluctantly agree that the Beatles were alright, especially George.  I knew their songs from the radio and from the anthologies my mom would listen to while cleaning and occasionally I would even hear them coming from behind my sisters bedroom door (her childhood talent, preserved in a paper she wrote early in grade school, was being able to tell which Beatle sings which song).  I may even have borrowed Sgt. Pepper from my sister, and perhaps I listened to it somewhat frequently, enough to know that “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” was a somewhat controversial favorite song on the album.  Still, when asked about them, I would decry how they only became good after a certain American singer-songwriter influenced their ideas and lyrics, and only later in their brief career.  Over time, I have, of course, come to recognize this (rather large) folly of my youth.  My favorite Beatles song, however, has not changed.

Today is the 43rd anniversary of the day John Lennon purchased the antique circus poster that inspired “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”.  Let us all rejoice.

Beatles – Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite