Born 3 Days After Abbey Road and Let It Be — Masayuki Hamaoka

Table of Contents

1. 5 People in Two 6-Tatami Rooms, My Art University Friend Who Painted Oil Paintings
2. I Only Knew Yesterday
3. 3 Days After Abbey Road, I Was Born
4. I Thought Let It Be Was Good
5. Learning from My Art University Friend, Getting Hooked
6. Jumping Jack Flash at the School Festival
7. The Beatles Shop on Takeshita Street and John's Solo Work
8. Let It Be Always Hanging in My Room
9. Editor's Note

I remembered something again, so I'll write about it.

This time it's about The Beatles. It's about when I was in Nerima.

When I wrote about Sting in Vol.4, it was also about Nerima. That time I focused on the person who let me stay with them, but going back a bit further, there was another room in Nerima. It was when 5 of us lived in two 6-tatami rooms.

5 People in Two 6-Tatami Rooms, My Art University Friend Who Painted Oil Paintings

5 people in two 6-tatami rooms. By today's standards, that's quite cramped, but for us at the time, it was normal. Who would come home first, who would stay up late, who would sleep where. These things just naturally fell into place.

One of the 5 was into jazz. And there was another crucial person. A friend who attended Tokyo University of the Arts. I think he majored in oil painting.

He owned almost all of The Beatles LPs. He was constantly playing them in the room.

I Only Knew Yesterday

I'll confess, the only Beatles song I knew was Yesterday.

That famous song that everyone knows. The first song that comes to mind when you hear "The Beatles." But I had hardly listened to anything else.

When the LPs played in the art university friend's room, at first I just thought "the atmosphere is nice." I wouldn't say I liked them that much at the time.

But there was one album that I thought was "good" from the beginning.

3 Days After Abbey Road, I Was Born

The Beatles' last album is said to be essentially 'Abbey Road'. 'Let It Be' was recorded earlier but released later.

I was born 3 days after 'Abbey Road' was released.

Abbey Road came out on September 26, 1969, and I was born on September 29. When I tell people that my birth and an album release were only 3 days apart, they're usually pretty surprised.

But if you ask whether 'Abbey Road' was my favorite, at the time it absolutely wasn't. I honestly didn't understand its appeal.

What I thought was good was 'Let It Be'.

Well, I still do (laugh).

I Thought Let It Be Was Good

I can't put into words what was good about it. It probably wasn't logical, but I think the sound of this album really fit with that atmosphere in the Nerima room.

The title track "Let It Be" is a masterpiece that everyone knows. But I wasn't just hooked on that - it was the whole album's slightly worn-out, casual feel. The recording period couldn't have been a happy time, but that rough, gritty quality was actually what made it good.

Learning from My Art University Friend, Getting Hooked

And my art university friend taught me about The Beatles, and that's when I got hooked.

'Rubber Soul' and 'Revolver' especially. These two were incredible. The way they made music that made classifications like rock or pop meaningless. The shock that they created this in 1965 and 1966.

But when I tried to copy them, it became incredibly difficult. Chords, melodies, arrangements - everything flowed pleasantly when listening, but when I picked up an instrument to try the same thing, I realized they were doing something completely different.

So later, when I tried to copy The Beatles, it became too difficult and I gave up.

Jumping Jack Flash at the School Festival

Eventually, my art university friend asked me:

"Hamaoka, we're doing a live show at the school festival, would you play guitar?"

Eh, at the art university... I was a bit intimidated. Playing guitar at an oil painting department's school festival live show.

The only song I remember from that performance was the Stones' "Jumping Jack Flash". We didn't do any Beatles. Copying them was too difficult to even attempt live.

The Stones, you could say, were more "playable with your hands" than The Beatles. The guitar riffs were easier to memorize. I still have a strangely vivid memory of playing that opening riff of Jumping Jack Flash while trembling with nerves.

The Beatles Shop on Takeshita Street and John's Solo Work

Wanting to know more about The Beatles, I borrowed books from the library and read them. I read books about John too. (By the way, I still haven't returned that book. Laugh.)

Then there was a Beatles specialty shop on Takeshita Street in Harajuku. They had everything - records, books, goods. I went there regularly and bought various things.

They also had bootleg records, and there I made a shocking discovery.

There was a version of "Let It Be" with a guitar solo that was completely different from the official release.

The official version has George Harrison's beautifully composed solo. But what I heard on the bootleg was rougher, heavily distorted, and just incredible. It was said to be a solo played by John.

I wonder who actually played that. George Harrison or John? It's still not clear. But that solo was heavy and incredible.

The Beatles weren't just about the finished albums that were released - there was a vast collection of "alternative versions" sleeping beneath the surface. I realized this at that Takeshita Street shop.

Let It Be Always Hanging in My Room

On the wall of my room, I've always had the 'Let It Be' record hanging there.

No matter how many times I've moved, I always take this one record with me and hang it on the wall again. Every time I see the jacket, I think of the 6-tatami rooms in Nerima, my art university friend, and the dimly lit Beatles shop on Takeshita Street, one after another.

If asked what my favorite Beatles album is, I could say without hesitation: 'Let It Be'.

It's the best.

Editor's Note

When Hamaoka-san wrote about Sting in Vol.4, he talked about "the person he was staying with in Nerima." That person loved jazz and had a habit of saying "Sting is great" when he drank.

This time, we got a story from a bit earlier in the same Nerima period. The story of when 5 people lived in two 6-tatami rooms. According to Hamaoka-san, these 5 people were originally companions from when they delivered newspapers, and Hamaoka-san had nowhere to live so he asked to stay with them. The householder was into jazz and attended Hosei University. From there, each of them went their separate ways, and everyone scattered - that's the span of the Nerima story.

The place he stayed in Vol.4 and the two 6-tatami rooms in this story were different places with different people. For Hamaoka-san, Nerima existed not as one room but as a series of rooms. The newspaper delivery companions and art university friend in the 6-tatami rooms, then later another place to stay - different music played in each room.

Hamaoka-san, born on September 29, 1969, 3 days after 'Abbey Road', encountered The Beatles through his art university friend in Nerima, was shocked by "the solo that might have been played by John" on a Takeshita Street bootleg, and still has 'Let It Be' hanging in his room today.

I think music sticks to these personal details of our lives. We're now in an era where anyone can stream music anytime, but the feeling of "hanging it in your room" is something you can never get from streaming. The experience of seeing that record jacket every day makes Let It Be something that transcends the official recording itself for Hamaoka-san.

The next time an album introduction post from Hamaoka-san flows through my Facebook feed, I'll probably end up listening to some music again after a long time. That makes me happier than anything.