It Was 60 Years Ago Today When The Beatles Began to Play in the USA
Back then fans said “Beatles 4ever,” and they have proven to be eternal
The Fabs Still Rock Me & Popular Culture
In 1964. when The Beatles first led the pop-rock music British Invasion of America, there were observers, commentators and crusty old farts who predicted that the beat group out of Liverpool would be little more than a passing fancy. At this juncture it’s safe to say that they were dead wrong.
Their debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on February 9, 1964, 32 days after my 10th birthday, launched my life’s trajectory into rock’n’roll in ways I still marvel at as my fondest dreams came true and then some. Click on the link above and dig the propulsive groove of their first song on US television, “All My Loving.” And its constituent parts: the way Lennon and Harrison’s double rhythm guitars drive the song. The way Ringo swings. George’s country-picking lead copped from the Chet Atkins six-string songbook. The spot-on harmonies. And the infectious energy. Still a thing of wonder.
The only Beatle I ever met and interviewed as a rock journalist was Pete Best, who answered my question about whether he regretted missing out of the Fab Four’s proverbial magical mystery tour with a terse “No, I don’t.” Yeah, sure…. (He later admitted that of course he did.)
My only other Beatles contact was once getting a $15 check from John Lennon. In the late ‘70s I felt it was cool that John and Yoko lived in my Upper West Side at the Dakota 16 blocks away, frequently… until that loser Chapman shot him. Reports say he was triggered by an article in Esquire about John’s wealth (aided by Yoko’s business savvy): the Manhattan apartment, luxury house on Long Island, dairy farm in Upstate New York and more. Lennon’s murderer took it as a summation John’s “hypocrisy.” I’d read the same piece a some months before John was slain on TK. My response was, good for him, he deserves wealth and personal peace for all he gave us. And me.
A dozen or so years later I was interviewing Yoko, and she said to me twice in our 25-minute talk, “You must really love John because you know so much about him.” Indeed. John, Paul, George and Ringo ushered me through puberty into young adulthood. Now, here in my seniority, I’m thankful they pulled more than a few potent pints of magical elixir from the fountain of youth that is rock’n’roll.
The Long & Winding Road Never Ends
Last year we were treated to the final new song from the full Fab Four, “Now and Then.” And for the first time with a Beatles song, its songwriting credits are John. Paul, George and Ringo (on the final version), as maybe they should have done all along. The track started with a Lennon piano/voice cassette recording made in 1977 during his years as a house husband and loving father to his son Sean at his and Yoko’s Dakota apartment. It is the last possible recording to feature all four Fabs, as detailed in a 12-minute minute mini-doc, “Now And Then - The Last Beatles Song,” streaming on YouTube and other channels.
Released as a two-song “single” – few even issue 45rpm seven-inch vinyl records anynore? – with the band’s first single, “Love Me Do” (remastered) on the flipside, The word from the Beatles camp is that it “bookends” their career.
Let’s not cue up the resonant orchestral chord at the end of their song “The End.” Yes, the new song is the final note on their recording career. But by now The Beatles are eternal.
As they deserve to be. The group started out as a totally smoking and tight-as-a-knot four-piece rock combo – as good as any that ever hit the stage, thanks to the seasoning they got playing long nights in Hamburg in their early years. John Lennon and Paul McCartney quickly developed into masterful pop-rock songwriters and then evolved into splendid composers and writers of songs. And George Harrison and Ringo Starr became better and more creative as musicians and also songwriters while producer George Martin expanded his studio and recording skills alongside the band’s stunning progressions.
An Eternal Legacy
What they accomplished in a mere seven-and-change years as a recording act over 13 studio albums – averaging two albums a year; virtually no one does that anymore – is a musical legacy pretty much without compare within the 1950s and after rock era. Although I am loathe to use the words “best” or “greatest” when talking about music – my mantra is that music is qualitative not quantitative – I would have to say that The Beatles catalog is just about the finest by any rock band.
Which is one big reason why The Beatles remain popular today. To wit, “Now And Then” hit #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 (then did drop to #76 the next week) and #1 in England, and was something of a media sensation.
Last year also saw the publication of “Living the Beatles Legend: On the Road With the Fab Four: The Mal Evans Story,” taken from the diaries of the band’s driver and dogsbody. More tomes are sure to follow in what’s become a Beatles book genre.
The allure of The Beatles isn’t just limited to boomers like me, who saw them debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and had the trajectory of my life blast off towards becoming involved in rock music. I have come to know on Facebook a young woman here in Austin, TX who’s some 30 years younger than I am and chose the Beatles as her field of academic study, and earned a PhD in The Beatles from Liverpool Hope University.
But there is something ineffable I feel blessed to experience about sitting down with the family around the television on Sunday evening, toasted cheese sandwiches and Campell’s Tomato Soup on our folding TV trays, to watch the Fabs on the Sullivan show. And having my mind blown. They changed my life. And the world.
Successive generations continue to he wooed and wowed by the Fab Four just as I was six decades ago, and it shows no signs of fading away. Beatles 4ever? You bet!
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love that you make. Ahhhh. (((papal cadence)))