A proper emotional roller-coaster

I do love BBC4 on Fridays. They always have some interesting music programs on and last night was no different.

Last night gave us the excellent George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Martin Scorseses portrait off George Harrison. Three hours of great tele. It brought us right through from Beatles to death. Much of the music on the program had me thinking. Has there been another band - or indeed even as single artists - ever whose music could bring you right the entire emotional roller-coaster of emotions?

Sure there are songs that when you hear them trigger emotions. As a Liverpool fan, You'll Never Walk Alone always gets me going, but that's due to the association with my club as much as the song. Nessun Dorma is another but again due to the 1990 World Cup more-so than the song itself. But watching that program last night got me thinking.

They played While my guitar gently weeps and it just takes you over. Something, Yesterday and A Day in the life are other songs that seep into you. Then the early Beatles music can just make you feel happy and want to dance, Sgt. Pepper and Yellow Submarine make the mind wander and chill you out. Some are just plain fun tracks. Again, I have no moments to associate with many of the tracks but what they do to you just shows both the power of music and also the power of their music.

To me, its truly astounding. Feck the begrudgers, I love 'em. No one nowadays comes close to that power.