PARKING VS. POP CULTURE: 2


The Beatles: ‘Lovely Rita’ theMost Famous ofMeterMaids


BY ISAIAH MOUW AND LEIGHTON TRENT Parking vs. Pop Culture is a series of articles


dedicated to significant parking references found in pop culture. The winner, either parking or pop cul- ture, will be determined by whether parking ended as a positive or negative experience in the particular pop culture reference. This issue’s parking reference is taken fromThe Beatles’ song “Lovely Rita,” from the Sgt. Pepper’s LonelyHearts Club Band album.


album. Even though they were together less than 10 years,TheBeatles changedwhatwe call rock ‘n’ roll.


T Not many other modern musicians can be called as


musically revolutionary as the Fab Four. John Lennon, PaulMcCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They were listed in Time magazine’s compilation of the 20th century’s 100 Most Influential People. Abbey Road Studios in London is wheremost of theirmag-


ic happened – even outside it, too, in the formof a parking ticket. ToMcCartney, this parking ticket must have been a part of that magic they found in the studio.A song was born from this infa- mous parking ticket, and the woman who “…looked like a Rita …” became the most famous of all “metermaids.” There is one universal


truth among celebrities: No one is exempt from parking tickets. Just this year, the tabloids have witnessed LeAnn Rimes, Jennifer Gar- ner andMadonna getting one. But surely McCartney is


older, and the bag across her shouldermade her look a little like a militaryman.” The Beatles, named by Rolling Stone as the GreatestArtists


A song was born from this infamous parking ticket, and the woman who “… looked like a Rita …” became the most famous of all “meter maids.”


exempt from this unwritten universal truth? Not accord- ing to Meta Davis, a former traffic warden who claims to have ticketedMcCartney’s vehicle while it was illegally parked out- sideAbbey Road Studios in early 1967. “I had to make out a ticket which, at that time, carried a 10


shilling fine. He [McCartney] looked at it and read my signature written in full –Meta Davis. He said, ‘Oh, is your name really Meta?’ I told him that it was.…He said, ‘That would be a good name for a song.Would you mind if I use it?’And that was that. Off he went.” The number of negative slurs in “Lovely Rita,” although


quite funny regardless of your profession, range fromthe overuse of the term “meter maid” to the verse “in a cap she looked much


46 OCTOBER 2010 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com


of All Time, presented an entire song, written by McCartney, about getting a parking ticket. At least the magazine’s second greatest artist of all time, Bob Dylan, warns everyone to “watch the parkin’meters” in his song “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” (The meter maid could have been avoided if The Beatles had listened to more of Dylan’smusic.) Instead of becoming


angry with her, McCartney accepted the ticket with good grace,MetaDavis said, and would go on to express his feelings in song. All in good fun, “Lovely Rita” put the “meter maid” job title on the radar and probably influ- enced a generation of angry


motorists to turn frommetermaid haters tometermaid suitors. Besides, Meta Davis got the last laugh with her infamous


quote, “I was never a Beatles’ fan.” Pop Culture won last time (see “Cool Hand Luke,” Septem-


ber PT), but Parking easily wins this round, to even the score at one a piece.


Isaiah Mouw, who works for Republic Parking System, can be reached at imouw@republicparking.com. Leighton Trent, who attended a Los Angeles Film Studies Center, can be reached at leighton.trent@yahoo.com.


PT


HE BEATLES ARE THE best-selling music group of all time, and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is considered by many to be their greatest


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