THE LOVE YOU TAKE

I must admit I have been lucky because in 31 years I have had twice the honor to meet and see one of the greatest geniuses of our times, Sir Paul McCartney , one of the “four lads who shocked the world”.

Twice. I must take a deep breath when I say that. Twice.

I was there among the audience of his live performance on Sunday, 27^th November in Milan and I would tell a lie If I said that feelings were not involved.

There is the happiness of the first time.

It was in 2001 and that day marked the first time ever for me for a no-show to the University lessons. But, you know, which better reason than Sir Paul in Milan to sign autographs? Impossible to miss out. So there I was queuing at 7 am in the morning, with a handful of boys and girls from Florence…good Lord, I was not the only crazy one then. I remember I waited for the longest 10 hours (maybe more) of my life, without drinking or eating or needing any of the common human needs. The only need seemed to be singing each one of the Beatles’ songs (isn’t that one of the main needs for those human beings whose only nourishment is music?) and obsessively thinking of the spelling of my name. R-o-s-a-m-a-r-i-a. R-o-s-a-m-a-r-i-a. R-o-s-a-m-a-r-i-a. No mistakes allowed in such context as the prize was the so longed AUTOGRAPH.

There is the curiosity mixed to the enthusiasm for a discovery that changes the life.

Turning back time with a 27 years long step back I remember when I was a little baby girl asking “mum, dad, what’s that song on TV?” not knowing that the answer would have changed my life forever and for good. “We have that song on an old 33. You can have access to that if you wish to” daddy said. The song was Yesterday and the rest was a Copernican revolution in which Beatles music was the sun.

There is the pleasure of playing and learning.

The shaping of my cultural background is every inch deeply influenced by The Beatles’ idea of music. Such idea of music could be seen as some sort of old-fashioned today but its features are winning, because simple & beautiful & meaningful. Discovering music was key to decide my future as a musician and as an author. Famous or not, that’s not so important after all because the feeling of playing with my band mates in front of nobody or just a bunch of friends is worth all the years spent cursing solfeggio or all the scales to be learnt by heart.

There is the passion for music.

For me that is the purest form of all arts. And I have witnessed it blossoming into the strongest kind of love. The love you take from someone you heard on TV as a baby and that will always be with you making your life every day better.

I do not know if in my future there is again Sir Paul, that is why I will bring forever the feeling of singing the chorus of Hey Jude together with 13.999 other people, the feeling of trembling while listening to Yesterday, the feeling of light-heartedness while shouting the non-sense of Ob-la-di Ob-la-da, the feeling of sweetness singing I’ve just seen a face, the feeling of frailness singing Eleanor Rigby, the feeling of dreaming singing A day in the life, the feeling of insecurity singing Maybe I’m amazed, the feeling of future crying on Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight / The End.

The list could be endless…

So these songs, in this particular order, from last Sunday on will forever have a special meaning to me :