By Shelly Peiken
My next single is for anyone who’s never gotten over the dissolution of the Beatles. Or more understandably the idea that half of them no longer exist. I promise…this one’s for you.
For the longest time I had this vision — I wanted to write a song that compared the agony of losing half my heart in a breakup with the pain of losing half of the Beatles. In my mind the concept seemed brilliant. I just could never figure out how to execute it effectively. No melody, lyric or cello lived up to the vision.
And then a few years ago while on a writing trip to London I described this song-in-my-mind to colleague, writer/producer/artist-in-his-own-right/fellow Uber Beatles Enthusiast — Phil Thornalley. He totally got it. So much so that he offered to write me a piece of music that could inspire the right words to this emotional analogy.
I was skeptical. There was no way anyone could capture the magnitude and character of that loss. A few weeks later, after returning home to L.A., there was an mp3 in my email queue. Silly Phil, I thought. He’s just wasting his time. Curious though, I reluctantly pressed play. My jaw dropped.
The words started pouring out and I they wouldn’t stop. In fact I didn’t get out of my chair until they were all written. One fell swoop. I swear they channelled themselves. I hardly did a thing. I was simply the vessel.
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