We Can Work It Out

I feel like I haven't totally been honest, claiming this blog is innocently for the benefit of just recollecting memories. It's also about me dealing with the death of my mother. She is dying of cancer or HIV or God knows what else. I know that sounds weird, but that's not what's important right now. I'm sure I'll go into that at some other time, but right now we are dealing with the fact that my mother spends the majority of her days in a hospital bed set up in her living room, watching anything on TLC, Food Network, and MTV. She is literally skin and bones and she is dying. I am going to need something like this blog to be able to work through what is to come. By gathering my thoughts and my memories--by whatever means possible--I think I will be able to handle it in a positive way.

We were talking today about family and a personal philosophy. I told her I believed how we were the quintessential Irish family: we work hard, we play hard, and life is hard and then you die. We talked about my two sisters and how they haven't put it all together yet. I mentioned that I thought Kelly needed to accept herself for who she is--disorders and all--and once she could, she could accept Erin and my father and everything else in life. Kelly clings to the idea of people--who or how they should be, never really accepting how they really are. Kelly is a big Beatles fan and for some reason "We Can Work It Out" kept coming into my head. Once I begin thinking of The Beatles, it's hard to stop. One of Cassidy's favorite songs is "Ticket to Ride". I will never forget her singing that song into the end of my sweatshirt string as we listened to the Bealtes tribute band at Epcot. I remember many an hour spent down in the basement of one of the Division St. houses playing with my train set and listening to Beatles 8 Tracks like "Beatles '65" and I think it was "Beatles 62-65". I remember it having a picture of the lads looking over a balcony. Many an hour of my childhood was spent listening to The Beatles and even though the lyrics don't quite fit (or maybe they do if I stop and think about it), it's no surprise that one of their tunes popped into my head as I talked about our family's strife and struggle to not just be good to each other but also to ourselves.

So here are some Beatles tunes for your listening pleasure. "We Can Work It Out" was a legitimate McCartney/Lennon collaboration and was released as a "double A-side" single along with "Day Tripper". Both songs were recorded during the Rubber Soul Sessions. I love the "Superstereo" sound of it, I could listen to the song in either ear and love it just the same. "I Feel Fine" was written by Lennon but, as was tradition, both Lennon and McCartney shared writing credit. It's from "Beatles '65, one of my favorite albums and album covers of all time. I honestly could not pick a favorite song from that album (maybe "I'm a Loser" if I was hard pressed, which I remember singing along with Paul Salamone at the top of my lungs on the playground at St. Luke's School). "I Feel Fine" makes the cut because I happen to have the song handy. "Ticket to Ride" here is from a live recording from the Sam Houston Collosseum in 1965. I chose the live version because it is a rarity and also live is how Cassidy first experienced it.

Click the play button next to each song and enjoy:
We Can Work It Out
I Feel Fine
Ticket To Ride