Love me do

I have an incredible craving for a gin and tonic. I do not know why. Normally I am a beer drinker, but a G&T sure sounds good. Yes I know it is 8 am.

I have been reading a biography of the Beatles. It is by a bloke named Bob Spitz. At more than 800 pages it is a big read, but so far very entertaining and well researched. This is the second Beatles book I have read this month. I tend to get obsessive about a subject and study it until my interest is satiated. In the past I have delved into the Boer Wars, The Civil War, The Zulu Wars, The revolutionary War and WWI and WWII. I read every book I could find on the US Indianapolis. Now I am stuck, I guess, on the Beatles. What is interesting is I have never been a huge Beatles fan. I think my CD collection consists of the Number 1 album. In the days I owned vinyl, a worn copy of Meet the Beatles stood gathering dust, passed to me by some unknown source.

I am at the part where the boys are in Hamburg, learning their chops. The are living the high life in the St. Paulie District (for those of you who like foreign beer do you know a St. Paulie Girl is a hooker?). The book talks about the Red Light district and the Reeperbahn. This area was/is a free wheeling entertainment and sex district since the middle ages. The part of town where sailors came to 'relieve the pressures' from months at sea. I have been to this area of Hamburg twice. I wrote about one such visit here. I remember yelling at Hans-Jurgen to "mach schnell mother fucker" as he stood by the car taking a piss as we stood freezing in the rain after a long night of drinking. The bars and strip clubs blasted electronic techno funk instead of rock and roll. I would have liked to visit in 1960, what a sight it must have been, as rock and roll began to grow up.