What Steve Jobs forgot to say
Life, for the most part, is a series of arbitrary, incomprehensible, and inexplicable events happening without a guiding rationale or purpose to them. Sure, Steve Jobs talked about connecting the dots looking back, and I wholeheartedly agree with his thinking, but for most of us, for most of our lives, nothing is ever really going to make sense. We are going to spend an awful lot of our time in places we have no reason to be, doing things that serve no purpose of ours, and surrounded by people who mean nothing to us. I think this phase of our lives, which, for the majority of us, will consume the better part of our existence, will be the challenging plateau of self-doubt, anxiety, and indecisiveness which we all need to battle. For some, it will be their journey of self-discovery and finding a meaning to their lives. For others though, this struggle may turn out to be the only constant they’ll ever have.
But far removed from this race to find one’s purpose, or eternally stuck in a vicious cycle of struggle to survive, there will always be those odd few who choose to step off the hamster wheel. Comfortable in their own skin, and not adhering to norms or benchmarks set by society, they’ll only be happy to be called outcasts. And as much as we try to single them out as flawed or failed, the world will never be able to get under their skin. They forever remain undefined, impenetrable, and therefore unsettling to the rest of us, and “our way of life”. Our inability to comprehend their lives and to explain their happiness makes them an anomaly to us. And it has always been in our nature to fear, mock and ostracize what we don’t fully understand. But perhaps, it is our definition of what we think should matter to them, and what we think they have to accomplish in order to feel fulfilled, that needs introspection.

I think this man is testament to this fact. Life is nothing more than a series of sheer happenstances. The good, the bad, the ugly, none of it is ever going to be in our control, not even with the most impeccable and elaborate planning. And no matter where we are today, none of us can ever really be sure where tomorrow will take us. How else can you explain this amusing old busker distracting you from everything else happening on that merry, crowded stage of the David Frost show, as The Beatles sing away, holding us under their spell? Bill Davis, hard to miss with two mismatched flowers oddly sticking out of his thick rimmed glasses, a bottle in one hand, a confusing piece of board in the other, theatrics that often seem comical, and awkwardly invading Paul McCartney’s personal space at times is one of the quirkier bits of this legendary band’s trivia. And incidentally, he stands much more pronounced and remembered from the video than any of the well-dressed baby boomers crowding around the band as they sing Hey Jude.
Now, because I was born a few decades too late to have been around to watch them on whatever channel they had before MTV existed, I was in love with what I saw and the era it represented when I finally got around to this video on Youtube. And for the first couple of minutes, I was admittedly lost looking into Paul’s gleaming eyes and that precious face, before the crowd erupted in celebration around the band, swinging from side to side as they sang that infinitely looped outro a grand total of 19 times! But not even the pretty girls or the exuberant singing could stop old Bill from catching my attention and stealing the show the moment he came into the picture. So, curious to know more about this peculiar guy, I remember spending a good few hours digging through forums and articles about the band, but nothing really turned up. But with this iconic song turning 50, I was fascinated to once again go down the internet’s rabbit hole to find out more about this man.
Sadly though, there is only so much that’s ever been documented about this unusual character that we will ever get to know. It is said that he’s a homeless old alcoholic who performed on the streets. And whatever little is written about him has a belittling undertone to it. But the precious few photographs that exists of him show a happy man, singing and goofing around with The Beatles for the most part. Now obviously, living on the streets or developing an alcohol dependency is never recommended for anyone. But I’d like to think that this man was more contented in life that most of us can ever hope to be. And contrary to how the world constantly tries to narrate the lives of his kind as insignificant and wasteful, there’s no denying the fact that this supposed reject of society had his time and place in history just like the rest of us. Honestly, I’m jealous. Of course, I’d kill to have hung out with the fab four. But I’m also envious of the sheer look of joy on his face, and I’d gladly have been around that jolly good spirit, perhaps sharing some jolly good spirits even. Which seems to be how McCartney took a liking to him in the first place, leading to the band inviting him over while they’re working on the Magic Mystery Tour album, as well as when they played on The David Frost Show.

Here’s a thought. What are the odds of old Bill ever having met The Beatles? What do you think the trajectory of his life that took him there would look like? Or was there even a trajectory to begin with? I think this man is proof that not everyone has everything figured out all the time, and that sometimes, that’s okay. Because some of us are going to be too simple, yet intensely complex for the world to understand. I think Bill Davis represents the anomaly that Steve Jobs never accounted for when he spoke about connecting the dots. So, here’s to Bill Davis.
