Tag Archives: The Beatles

Uncategorized

Can’t get past this Beatles glow

For the life of me I think I need someone to intervene.

I cannot get past this Beatles glow in the wake of the Sunday night tribute that celebrated the 50th anniversary since The Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.

The link attached here contains some scathing reviews written just as The Beatles began taking the world by storm.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-beatles-quotes-20140209,0,1146431.story?page=1&utm_medium=social#axzz2syCGq3FX

I take one thing away from these blistering comments: The elders should have listened to their children, rather than the other way around.

Consider this gem from the late great William F. Buckley, published on Sept. 13, 1964 in the Boston Globe:

“The Beatles are not merely awful; I would consider it sacrilegious to say anything less than that they are god awful. They are so unbelievably horribly, so appallingly unmusical, so dogmatically insensitive to the magic of the art that they qualify as crowned heads of anti-music, even as the imposter popes went down in history as ‘anti-popes.'”

Oops, sorry Mr. Buckley, wherever you are.

There are moments in our lives when we remember where we were and what we were doing at historically significant moments: The Apollo 11 moon landing, JFK’s assassination, RFK’s murder, the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters, 9/11? I recall vividly where I when all those events occurred. The moment I first laid eyes on the girl I would marry, my wedding day, the birth of my sons or the birth of my granddaughter? I can recount those moments in equally vivid detail.

I also remember the first time I heard what I consider The Beatles’ greatest song, “Hey Jude.” I was in U.S. Army basic training at Fort Lewis, Wash. in the late summer of 1968. I placed my transistor radio on my bunk, turned it on and listened to that legendary ending of a song I never before had heard. You know, the “nah, nah, nah” riff. I turned to someone and asked, “Is that The Beatles?”

It was.

That describes the impact these guys’ music had on me.

The old folks way back in 1964 had it wrong. We young people had it right.

Uncategorized

Beatles tribute causes mind-blowing flashback

Music is ringing in my ears as I write these words.

CBS Television has produced a tribute to The Beatles that for people my age — heck, for anyone old enough at this moment to appreciate music — is to experience a bit of popular culture that cannot be duplicated.

Fifty years ago these four then-young men came across the ocean and changed the world.

No, they didn’t cure deadly diseases. They didn’t bring world peace. They didn’t invent some marvelous technological device. They simply made music.

I’ve been fond of saying for many years that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr had a hand in raising me.

A half-century ago they appeared on our TV screen about the time I was coming of age. I was 14. Their music resonated from the opening chords of “All My Loving,” the first song they sang on The Ed Sullivan Show.

I’ve been in love with the music ever since.

Think about this for a moment. If you watched the tribute show this evening, did you notice all the young people singing along with lyrics that were written and recorded decades before they were born? Our generation and seemingly every generation that has come along since know the words.

Is there another contemporary artist who has had that kind of influence on us?

My heart is still broken at John Lennon’s sudden, tragic and shocking death more than 33 years ago. I mourned George Harrison’s death from cancer more than a dozen years ago. They’re gone, but then again they’re still here.

As Ringo said tonight, whenever he and Paul play together, “John and George are with us.”

That’s as it should be. Their music is timeless.

I’m now going to wait for my life to stop flashing before my eyes.