John, Paul, George, Ringo and Me

A pretty apt description

Note : Although this has been strictly a blog about movies, I will take the opportunity to write about the FabFour in the coming year, starting with this initial entry. These will cover the group through the good times and bad times they shared, not just with each other but with the world at large and how they challenged and changed the world we live in, from our sense of fashion, music, religion and cultural, but moreover, how they changed me - forever.

The arrival in New York City. They couldn't believe the brouhaha was for them.

    In 1964 America was hurting. Having lost their young President to an assassin's bullet, America - nearly three months later - was still in a state of shock and disbelief, licking it's wounds and trying to recover from it's national car crash. America needed an antidote and maybe that is why we took to their irreverent humor and the raucousness of their music so much. On Sunday night, February 9,1964, America got it's first glimpse of what had been happening in the British music scene for nearly two years. That's right, two years a hit in England before the U S of A finally caught on to the big brouhaha that had been building to a fever pitch across The Pond. In the mid-fifties America had Elvis Presley burst upon the scene followed quickly by Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino. They were the ones who brought Rock n' Roll to the Hit Parade, but by 1964 Elvis had been tamed and was turning out bland family fare movies, Buddy Holly had died in a plane crash { that also claimed Richie Valens } and the rest had been phased out, pushed aside by the record companies who, by 1963, offered up pop ditties like Dominique by The Singing Nun { I know, the mind spins at such a concept }, Sugar Shack performed by Jimmy Golmer and the Fireballs, Steve Lawrence with Go Away Little Girl and in early 1964 Bobby Vinton and his numero ono song There! I've Said It Again { a title that sounds similar to Brittany Spears' Oops! ... I Did It Again }. In other words, Rock n' Roll had drifted far from where Elvis and his brethren had been almost ten years previous. But all that was about to change. Rock n' Roll was about to get fun again, and eventually, a little { and then a lot } more wild.

Can you imagine being there ?

    We forget that they were not quite men. These were college age kids, barely out of high school, conquering the world. John and Ringo were only 23, George not yet 21, when they came to America to perform on the biggest variety show {"shoe"?}  in all of show biz. They were familiar in Europe, having schlepped across Great Britain, Germany and France. After appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show, they would to go to be familiar around the world. John, Paul, George and Ringo would be as well known and welcome as a favorite family member, although a little wild and more than a touch irreverent and supremely talented. For the first time since Elvis, girls { and no doubt some boys } screamed with delight as they performed on the world's stage. From Portland, Maine { or Portland, Oregon } to Timbuktu or Cucamonga and back again, we all followed their exploits. Setting attendance records, album sales records, number one hit record records. The Beatles conquered the world like only a handful of mortals have: Elvis for sure, Sinatra yeah, Michael Jackson too. Justin Bieber is famous worldwide yet how many folks, picked at random, could name or sing one of his songs? With The Beatles, even seniors knew what "yeah,yeah,yeah" meant. I venture to say no one brought the throng together quite like the mop tops from Liverpool. The Beatles made being British cool and without them to lead the way who's to say when The Rolling Stones, with their unique brand of bad boy attitude and hard driving, blues-rock music, would have made it to American shores?  The Beatles paved the way for the British Invasion that took over the radio waves of the mid-sixties { remember The Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermit's, Gerry & The Pacemakers, etc} .These are facts that cannot be ignored. They became a part our nation's consciousness. Their songs are a part of our DNA, weather one chooses to acknowledge them or not, one could not { still can't } ignore them. But for one chubby, crew-hair cut boy from the middle of the country, they brought so much more. 

The first album to hit America, an iconic image.

    I suppose The Beatles were the first performers I wanted be. Not quite five years of age in February 1964, I can't remember a time when the group and their songs were not a strong part of my life. They went with me as my family moved from Santa Paula to Santa Barbara to Santa Maria and back to Santa Barbara again, all in a matter of three years. They have been with me on the bittersweet day of my high school graduation, the day I got married, the amazingly surreal day I became a Father, that dark day I was told to leave my home and got divorced, and the joyous life affirming day I became a Grandfather, when everything came full circle. I've always thought of them as my best friends. My faves growing up were John and Paul, natch. Makes sense, I guess. Lennon & McCartney, the great songwriting partnership of the age, raising their voices in perfect harmony.  Even at my tender age I was aware of the myth-making of those two guys. Only I didn't know it was a myth. John and Paul were a fact ! They were the two who wrote the songs coming from everyone's radio's and they were the two on everyone's list of greats. I have an older sister who loved the group far greater than I did at the time. We would put on the records, and when Mom or Dad were gone we'd get out the tennis rackets, pretend they were our guitars and lip-synch to the songs on the stereo that was as big as a piece of furniture. Of course Sister, being older, would take all the best songs and leave me with the George or Ringo leftovers like Honey Don't or Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby. She rarely let me in the spotlight of our own creation. But that didn't stop me. I would go to my own room and mouth the songs she would never let me and I was the star of my own show. You must understand the powerful imagination behind all this. Anyone who imitates The Fabs with a crew-haircut has got to have a pretty well-developed fantasy life.

I didn't know it at the time, but the U.S versions of every Beatles album, until Sgt.Pepper, was altered from the British originals to create more albums, and therefore, more $$$$.

    From The Ed Sullivan Show the group went on and on. The evening news would follow them from city to city, country to country. They were big news and they made us feel good and forget our countries numerous problems, if only for a while.Then they were in a movie, which everyone knew was a quickie rip-off to make a fast buck on a fad that couldn't possibly last more than a few more months, or maybe, at best a year. Then A Hard Day's Night saw the light of day in movie palaces. People were somewhat shocked; it was good, some said great. The script was witty, the direction clever and fresh. The Beatles seemed to have an ease and natural presence on screen, seems they would be fun to have a pint with. John's biting sarcasm, Paul's cuteness, George's dead pan, and Ringo's everyman, the ordinary bloke, with his hangdog expression;  the luckiest man in show biz. And maybe the nicest. Now we know these were not the real men, bur the reel ones, simple variations on a theme, but it gave each one a separate identity, even if it was a bogus one, that would serve them well in the years ahead as individuals. This was important because when the group first hit the American shores, to some eyes, one seemed almost imperceptible from the other. They all dressed alike, talked alike, and with their bushy full head of hair, looked alike. 

        At first there were some dissenters. Most of the media thought they were at best amusing, at worst an offensive joke, bordering on lunacy. Music journalism was basically non-existent, and what there was of it wasn't taken seriously, most of it being of the TigerBeat variety, appealing mostly to teen and pre-teen girls. No one expected their level of fame to last, maybe a year or two. That they have outlasted such fame and fanfare is due to the amazing legacy they have left us with; the rich tapestry of music, images and words that have survived the group's own self destruction. However, the "older generation" { those over 30 and not to be trusted }, or most of them, didn't "get" The Beatles. To the over-30 crowd who grew up with Patti Page, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Rosemary Clooney and the like, rock n' roll was an affront to their ears. Remember this scene?

Even James Bond didn't like them. But eventually even the older crowd came around. In 1967 Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club, considered by many "serious" critics and lovers of music the first rock album worth simply listening to instead of dancing to. Shortly after the album's release the group would take a huge hit when McCartney came out in favor of LSD. But by that time it was open season on The Beatles, Lennon's "we're bigger than Jesus" mis-quote from 1966 made sure of that. Still the innocence of 1964 remains perhaps the purest form of the group's genius. Bathing in their new found world-wide fame, not yet finding Beatlemania a bore and pain in the ass, the lads enthusiasm in the music and interviews was, and still is, infectious. Their first "quickie" exploitation film A Hard Day's Night was unleashed in July 1964 and to most folks came as a complete surprise. Their ability to handle dialog and throw charisma around the big screen was not expected, to say the least. The screenplay earned an Oscar nomination, though the music, the movie's most memorable aspect, didn't. Oscar never cared much for The Beatles. After the brouhaha of 1964 others achievements would lie ahead of them : Shea Stadium 1965, the success of Sgt.Pepper, their first double album, the embattled The Beatles, forever after known as The White Album. Drastically things would change for the band in the seven years of intense razor-sharp, white hot fame. They would part bitterly in 1970, once boyhood friends no longer on speaking terms with each other { except maybe Ringo; everybody loved Ringo }. 12 albums { 16 in the USA }in seven years is an extraordinary burst of creativity that won't be surpassed anytime soon.

My ten favorite Beatles songs { not in any order of preference }:

A Day In The Life

Hey Jude

Strawberry Fields Forever

Taxman

Let It Be

Ticket To Ride

I Am The Walrus

Norwegian Wood

The Long and Winding Road

While My Guitar Gently Weeps