Random Picture Entry: Laura in the Beatles, 1964-1965

If you read nogoodforme.com with any degree of regularity whatsoever, you have indubitably noticed that there is this one girl who never shuts up about the Beatles. Yes, I know. Even I sometimes marvel at my often exhausting and apparently never-ending desire to pontificate about all the things the Beatles ever did or said. You'd think that at some point I'd run out of things to say, but it hasn't happened yet, and I can safely say it won't, at least not for a "long, long, long" time. And I suppose if it ever does, I can just rephrase all my past Beatles opinions and start over from Square One. The thing is, the Beatles weren't a) The Greatest Rock Band of All Time, and b) The Best Thing that Ever Happened to the Universe solely because of dumb luck. Every stupid thing those four dudes ever did was exceptional. Even silly little Ringo had his moments of relevance- accidentally titling "A Hard Day's Night," writing the favorite song of every five-year-old on Earth ("Octopus' Garden"), and christening himself Ringo Starr, a name so deeply ingrained in our collective consciousnesses that it's easy to forget how cool he was for doing that.

I have championed the Beatles as style icons many, many times on this blog, but mostly for their post-Revolver contributions to the sartorial landscape. When paying homage to the Fabs through the medium of An Outfit, I usually reference either dizzying Walrus-style pattern-mixing, breezy Rishikesh cas, or scuzzy White Album/Let it Be shiftlessness, though that one is not really a conscious allusion so much as a handy justification for my own sloth.

But lately, things have been changing for Laura Jane. I'm growing up. I've noticed that people take you a lot more seriously when you're not wearing your body weight in costume jewelry and thirteen different items of clothing that don't match. As tempting as it remains to wear tie-dye with plaid and also stripes, polka-dots, a New York Knicks t-shirt, three different socks and twenty-five hairbands, these days I have been attempting to look more "severe" and perhaps even "polished." Conveniently, my desire to look less like the girl of Timothy Leary's dreams, I mean acid trips, has coincided with my finally acquiring a pair of honest-to-goodness Beatle boots.

In short, I'm really into doing an Early Beatles thing these days. It's totally chill and sleek and easy; about as conventional as I'll ever look or dress I'm sure.

1964:

At left is Laura in the Beatles' Ed Sullivan Show outfit (for a more in-depth explanation of my Laura in the Beatles fantasy, additional info can be found here). I think this is probably the most eloquent "look" I've ever conceptualized; I mean, really- what else could a girl-Beatle possibly have worn on February 9th, 1964? I guess all those good things they say about a Little Black Dress are true after all. At right is what I'd be wearing in the "Can't Buy Me Love" scene in A Hard Day's Night. The only possible discordance you could find in either of these two looks is that Laura in the Beatles probably wouldn't have tattoos reading "Lennon" and "McCartney," though maybe Laura in the Beatles is just a big sweetheart and highly supportive of her bandmates.

1965:

The Beatles were really cool in 1965. It's weird how I think that, since I totally hate them and think they sucked every other year. I love how sleepy and stoned they were circa Help! through Rubber Soul, like they existed in a permanent state of sun-blindness and were always squinting. At left is my outfit for the "Another Girl" scene from Help!, one of the sort of crappy film's high points, such loveliness! The actual best part of Help!, however, is John Lennon's super-cool and cozy-looking recessed bed (Ringo is lounging in it melancholically in this clip)- if I ever get rich, you better believe a bed like that is the first thing I'm shelling out the big bucks for. I also think the scene where Paul is sitting on a bed and left-handedly throwing a baseball at the wall and then catching it back is really sweet, but enough of that. At right is my outfit for the cover of Rubber Soul: the easiest way to do a good Rubber Soul look is to focus on Earth tones. I think this look is a pretty right-on balance of Early Beatles sharpness with '65's nascent sitar-y psych influence.

Okay, cool. I just really needed to get that out of my system. I swear I'll refrain from doing any more undiluted Beatles posts until at least the middle of June. Though I'm sure I'll manage to incorporate some incisive new (or old) Beatles opinions into dozens of other posts about things that the non-Beatles obsessive would naively think have nothing to do with them. I even managed to work an All Things Must Pass reference into my post about the chick from The Hills. Nice job, Laura. If there were ever a girl in the Beatles, it would most definitely be you.

Posted by Laura in Random Picture Entry
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