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Ring out the false, ring in the true . . .

Have a Zooey new year . . .

Skeeter!

Rubber Soul was released in America on 6 December 1965.  I was 15 years-old and heard the first songs from it on the radio in my family’s car.  I was home from prep school for Christmas vacation.  I got the album as a gift from Santa at Christmas and I have ever since associated it with the holidays.  It was like a magical present from the Beatles to me personally, and it was a nice present to the Beatles from themselves — it entered the U. S. album charts on Christmas Day and stayed there for 59 weeks, topping the charts for six weeks starting on 8 January.

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I love a lot of rock and roll songs, but I don’t love any rock and roll song more than I love “She Loves You” by The Beatles. A combination of great song, first Beatles song I ever heard and the onset of puberty conspired to etch this record into my consciousness and my heart in a unique way.

It takes me back, sure, but it also propels me forward — the same way it propelled me forward in 1963.  It was about the future then, and it’s about the future now.

Santa Claus will come tonight down on the bayou . . .

Listen to me . . . it’s truly amazing, that spirit of Christmas — ain’t it so?