Marco: The Mix Tape (Track 1)

The Beatles The End

For the Ursis, The Beatles are The Bible. My father and mother were huge fans of the band in their youths and passed on The Passion of the Fab Four to me and my two sisters, Danielle and Lisa. We know every record. We know most of the dialogue in A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, and even The Beatles Anthology by heart. Danielle, the most devout believer, has probably purchased more than $1,000 worth of lunch boxes, buttons, mugs and bootlegs from the now defunct Beatlemania shop in downtown Toronto. And where many kids played House, we played Band, and more often than not, the Band we played was The Beatles.

Many family dinners were spent on Favourite Beatle debates and though I remain partial to John, I do hold a soft spot in my heart (and my hands) for Ringo; after all, the Big Nosed One was my first drum teacher. Around Grade 7, I decided I wanted to play the skins. Only trouble was I didn’t have any. To alleviate this minor snafu, I arranged some chairs into something resembling a kit, put on one of my dad’s workboots to replicate the booming bass drum sound, and started banging along with The Beatles. When my Grade 8 music teacher asked me to play a solo for our spring concert, I duplicated Ringo’s solo from this Abbey Road track and got a massive ovation. As for my lack of drumset problem, I played the chairs for two whole years before Nonno Joe—sick of my banging on the table every time I visited his house—decided to buy me my first kit for Christmas.