![\"Stairs](\"http:\/\/excrcl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/84CF56E0-878D-4D91-AB92-588B34556660.jpeg\")
<\/a>It was 8:50 p.m. when the doors opened and we all flooded in, desperate to get a seat and out of a downpour outside. I looked around at my peers. The club doesn\u2019t allow anyone under 18, but other than that, the audience spanned the full range of ages, from 18 to 88, I would say. One of the teenage girls I saw reminded me of the young Cubans of the Beatles\u2019 time: short, purple-dyed hair, leather jacket, and band t-shirt (Red Hot Chili Peppers). I thought I perhaps recognized her \u2013 I recognized several people as regulars at Submarino last year. Clearly, the charm of the place doesn\u2019t wear off easily. In fact, people even reserve tables up front or the cushy couches parallel to the stage. In no time, all the Cubans in the bar were taking group selfies and ordering full bottles of rum and cans of TuKola (essentially Coca-Cola), to make their own Cuba Libres.<\/p>\n By 8:58, the neon \u201cSubmarino Amarillo\u201d sign illuminated the stage. It\u2019s difficult to admire the great decorations in Submarino because it\u2019s just like a submarine: dark, cold, and underground. However, I made out the familiar cut-outs of Blue Meanies and strawberries on the wall, as well as the lyrics from various songs. For the first hour, the music blared from a large screen that plays music videos, beginning with a video for the Beatles\u2019 \u201cYou\u2019re Going to Lose that Girl.\u201d As I watched the following videos for songs by the Beatles, Bon Jovi, and Santana, I was reminded of another reason why the Beatles are popular in Cuba today: Cuban sentimentality and stubbornness. When you go to Cuba, it\u2019s practically walking into the 1950s, just with cell phones. And the cell phones barely work on the practically non-existent WiFi. However, despite growing demand for modernization along with the rise of tourism, Cuba refuses to embrace any capitalistic tendencies. It will remain in the 50s for as long as it possibly can. So, popular songs and new trends are slow to arrive in Cuba and slow to depart. Top 40s songs that we Americans overplayed a year or two ago may be popular now and won\u2019t leave for a while. Even in Submarino, the music videos played aren\u2019t current; they\u2019re from 2008 or earlier. I think that in a similar vein, though the Beatles\u2019 music is older, it remains because it reminds Cubans of a different time, one they wish to cling to.<\/p>\n About an hour in, the room went darker and \u201cYellow Submarine\u201d played, the cartoon movie on screen. The cover band for the evening, Aire Libre, was familiar to me; seven young musicians \u2013 a male and female singer, two male guitarists, a male bassist, a male drummer, and a female pianist. And they rocked<\/em>. They played a full repertoire, with songs by Of Monsters and Men, the Beatles, Jesse McCartney, Amy Winehouse, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and several more. Their reggae rendition of R.E.M.\u2019s \u201cLosing My Religion\u201d was particularly good. Meanwhile, the Beatles songs they played \u2013 \u201cRoll Over Beethoven\u201d and \u201cCome Together\u201d \u2013 reminded me of my earlier musing on the emotion of the Beatles. Their songs are fun to sing, to play, and to listen to because you can really get passionate in the moment; it doesn\u2019t matter your age. These young musicians certainly poured their heart and soul into the songs.<\/p>\n Something else, however obvious it may be, also showed me why the Beatles are popular in Cuba still: they bring families together. The middle-aged Cubans and the twenty-something Cubans in the bar aren\u2019t ever unrelated; they\u2019re parents and their kids. Parents who grew up listening to the Beatles, kids who grew up listening to their parents\u2019 Beatles tapes. In Cuba, family is far more important than it seems to be in the U.S.;with a huge lack of housing, you\u2019ll often find three generations of a family living under one roof. This necessity can only breed loyalty and respect for pastimes, including listening to the Beatles. My little epiphany would be further corroborated countless time in the following days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Returning to Cuba was like reuniting with an old friend. The humid air, long lines, and 50s automobiles puffing out smoke, while a nuisance by the end of my time there last winter, were a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beatles"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=830"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":851,"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions\/851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a>