I was getting my nails done in a Vietnamese salon the other day, one with a particularly fine sound system I might add, and wanting to hold my hand out to examine the new copper shade I had eschewed for my usual Lincoln Park After Dark, when out wafts the most intriguing, almost-but-not-quite familiar music.

Turns out it was the early Beatles—I mean really early—pre-Ed Sullivan Show, and it sounded so…contemporary.

Even my manicurist, a guy who grew up in Ho Chi Min City, thought so. Anyway, it got me thinking—always a dangerous occupation for a design geek/music freak: what has allowed John, Paul, George and Ringo, two posthumously, to transcend time? Why are they as inspiring in 2008 as they were in the 1960’s? And what do they have in common with the other Fab Four, Harry (Bertoia), Charles (Eames), George (Nelson) and Eero (Saarinen)?

Here’s my theory. To a person, they are iconoclasts who defy definition, yet they all subscribe to modernist theories and practices:

Keep it simple, but distinctive. Live organically and without borders. Think outside the box as you re-invent the box itself.

After all, what is Beatles’ Rock-n-Roll if not Mid-Century Modernism set to music?

As Harry Bertoia’s son Val put it, “I believe it was Harry’s intent to always have the mystery contained within his sculptures as part of our living universe, and to question why humans are part of it all. It was Harry’s intent to enjoy the vast amount of true wealth this planet has for us all, by way of plants, animals, environments of Nature and man-made expressions in metals movements, and sounds.”

Sounds like Rubber Soul to me.