To my eternal shame, I have to issue a big mea culpa this week.
In the Oscars piece I co-wrote Monday, I incorrectly referred to The Beatles song James Taylor covered during the show’s memorial segment as “There Are Places I Remember.” Obviously, the name of the song is “In My Life.” The error is all the more embarrassing since “In My Life” ranked No. 23 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Up to that enormous slip-up, I liked to think I had a legitimate claim to being a Beatles fan. I wrote about them all the time, own all their albums and interviewed Pete Best (admittedly not much of a claim to fame, but still). I’ll even, if no one else is around, sing my guts out with any of their songs, including “Octopus’ Garden.”
Normally, I would save a correction like this for the end of the column, but an error of that magnitude knocks me down several levels of fandom to “just casually aware of their music.” As such, it deserves more attention.
Now, I can only claim to be a fan on the same level as people who are “pretty sure” The Beatles are a European band from some time before New Wave arrived. They just aren’t sure if John, Peter, Reginald and Gregory wore copious amounts of makeup when they played.
Other than working on a razor-thin deadline, I have no excuses for my error. Still, I’d like to point out that any of the following assertions about the show would have been much worse:
* Miley Cyrus is a “master of comedy.” (Actually, that was a real claim made by ABC red-carpet interviewer Kathy Ireland. God save us all if that’s true.)
* Sarah Jessica Parker wouldn’t win a look-alike contest with a horse. Alternatively, that “Sex and the City 2” should have any subtitle other than “The Pointless Sequel.”
* George Clooney took the gentle comedic jabs from co-hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin with professional grace and didn’t look like he’d been force fed questionable Mexican food.
* Jennifer Lopez’s dress didn’t make her look like a rogue piece of pink insulation from the space shuttle.
So you see, in the greater scheme of things, redubbing “In My Life” to the most-repeated line in the chorus really isn’t so bad, right?
Yeah, I know, it really is that bad, so again, my abject apologies. I’ll be returning my Beatles fan certificate and decoder ring posthaste.