The Licking County Ukulele Club Does The Beatles

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​The Licking County Ukulele Club Does The Beatles

​      A couple of weeks ago, we the people of the the Licking County Ukulele Club were in the midst of our weekly Tuesday night session held in the meeting room of the Licking County, Ohio library when in walked a woman who introduced herself as the library manager.
       My immediate reaction, shared by some of my fellow ukulelists, was that we were about to be told one of two things, either:  1. to keep it down, or 2. that we needed to find a new home for our ukulele club.
        But as it turned out, the friendly library manager was there to tell us that she'd been enjoying listening to our music, which she could hear from her office, and to ask us if we knew any Beatles songs.
       Did we know any Beatles songs?  Oh, you know we did!
      When we made this clear, the manager brought up  the Library's current exhibit, "Beatlemania, 60 Years Ago Today," a collection of memorabilia, stories and personal experiences in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Beatles' arrival in the U.S. in February, 1964.

​          She then asked us if we would be willing to perform a program of our Beatles songs in tandem with the exhibit.
           Would we be willing to perform a program of our Beatles songs? Oh,  you know we would!
           And so it was agreed that we would play in the exhibit area the following Tuesday, February 20, from 6:30 pm to 7:00 pm. We spent the rest of the evening roaming through some of the Beatles songs in our répertoire,  and a few days later Bruce, our club administrator,

...rustled together a playlist for us, tweaking the arrangements where necessary.
           The next Tuesday we met at our usual time and place, 5:30 pm in the library meeting room, for an hour's worth of practice before our 6:30 performance.

    When the time approached we headed down to the library exhibit area, 

...where a space was set up for us,

...surrounded by the remembrance of Beatles things past,

...and the nice audience that awaited us.​

      We got ourselves arranged and ready,

...then dove into our music.

      And while I  strummed happily along with my ukulele mates, there wafted through my brain the memory of all those piano recitals I used to angst my way through (see post from 3/15/2019, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/still-angsting-after-all-these-years),

...compared to how positively, joyfully, zen I was feeling during this, my maiden voyage ukulele ensemble performance.

      I also got to pondering, what if back all those years ago when I was a raving 12-year-old Beatlemaniac  (here are the remains of my Beatles collection before I bid the last of it adieu a few years ago),

...what if I could have looked into a crystal ball and seen myself sixty years later playing Beatles tunes with a ukulele group?
       "You probably would have wanted to die," suggested my sister when I posed the question to her. And she was right. At twelve years old I wouldn't have wanted to be caught dead playing Beatles tunes with a ukulele group  in public.
​         What a difference sixty years makes.

     For anyone who'd like to hear a bit of Beatles on the ukulele, here's a little snippet of our playing.