To be a kid in the Sixties. Actually I never really considered myself to ‘know’ the sixties. I had just turned  7 when the sixties ended. But from a music perspective, I’m appreciative of my early brush with the Beatles – even if it was from a kid perspective.

Many of us younger children were influenced by our older siblings. And while I didn’t get that traditional ‘turn on’ with Hope and Lee, there were glimpses of how it would start. I don’t know who’s 45 it was but I remember one day coming into the basement of our tri-level house, the Red House as we referred to it, with Lee listening to ‘Nowhere Man’ by the Beatles. Actually, I think Lee was ‘grooving’ to ‘Nowhere Man’, that’s want we called it when we really got into something back then. I don’t know how many times he had played the song but he picked up the tone arm of the portable record player and dropped the needle on the beginning of the 45 again.

It it seemed every home in the sixties had to have a portable record player. I remember ours mostly played Disney soundtracks and childrens albums. We ‘skip to the lou’ and went ’round the mulberry bush’ alot back then. This was the first time I remember hearing pop song being played on the record player. Actually, this was the first time I remember seeing a 45.

The 45 was a new type of record. It went alot faster then the bigger records, and it only played one song. I remember listening to it with Lee. The song sounded sad. The ‘Nowhere Man’ wasn’t happy at all. Apparently all the minor chords were really bringing him down (not that I knew what a minor chord was back then). It sounded like the Beatles were trying to cheer him up with their ‘la la la’s. Lee play played the song again and from its a cappella beginning. Again I was enveloped in its sadness and hearing the instruments – the guitar solos and drum riffs.

I thought alot about the Nowhere Man in the next few days. What was he planning? did he really do nothing all day? What made him so sad? How do you cheer him up? Being a kid, everything was easy – you played games, you explored, you played with your friends. The poor Nowhere Man did none of that. Did he even have friends? I never wanted to be a ‘Nowhere Man’ yet there was an attraction to him just the same. And to be honest, being a kid wasn’t always great. I would get in fights with my brothers and sisters once in awhile and sometime my mom would yell at me or my dad would get mad at me.

So from then on, when those fights happened, or if I got in trouble and was sent to my room, I would hear the melody of ‘Nowhere Man’ playing in my head. And me and the Nowhere Man would be alone together making plans for no one – but ourselves. Sometimes, when I was particularly tearful, I would cry and sing to myself “I’m a real nowhere man” – getting rid of my only friend at time of my isolation and self pity. Kids can be that way.

What I didn’t know what that my friend had a name – his name was Jeremy. In fact, his full name was Jeremy Hillary Boob, Ph.D. OK, a quick Beatles discography lesson here: ‘Nowhere Man‘ was originally released on Rubber Soul back in 1965 but NOT in the US, it was release on Yesterday…And Today. It also appeared on the Yellow Submarine movie but not on the soundtrack itself. The Yellow Submarine album was originally released as an EP – Extended Play – in England. Again, apparently, Capital decided us Americans would not buy an EP so they created an entire album with the EP songs from England, added the “All You Need Is Love” single and all George Martin’s soundtrack instrumentals. We Americans can be so fickle, right Capital?

And like all kids of the sixties, and now seventies, I love cartoons. So the Yellow Submarine movie was perfect for us kids. “Back when I was a kid” <insert new millennium eye roll here>, we didn’t have a channel that showed animated shows 24/7 (truth – and I walked to school both ways up a hill and in the snow). I was part of that crowd who rushed home to see Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer at Christmas.

It was years after listening to ‘Nowhere Man’ with Lee in the basement of the Red House, in the fall of 72, the Fab Four’s Yellow Submarine made its American television premiere. And we all watched it. It wasn’t a great show and I don’t think the adults got it as much. I mean, even this nine year old could see its flaws. But it was animated and it was colorful, and most importantly, it had cool music. I learned my sad friend had a name and he wasn’t really alone, he had made four friends and made a difference in their lives – on their Yellow Submarine.

And for weeks afterwards, we sang ‘Yellow Submarine’ while we were played. And we ran you own submarines from our jungle gyms. And from then on, in my moments of isolation and self pity, I always kept my friend Jeremy. And we were Nowhere Men together. And together we made our plans for our friends and our families.