Nostalgia. Emotions. The 60's and The Beatles

I came across this on YouTube. It's from a 2002 concert. It's from one of the giants in music from my generation. Paul McCartney. Perhaps THE GIANT from my generation. I am just speaking personally here. If you are from my generation (baby boomers) you and I were privileged to see and hear the flowering of popular music. Our parents didn't get it or us because we were lucky to grow up during a time when this country was flourishing and just zoomed past everybody else in  almost every respect. Now don't get me wrong not everything was peace and love, in fact not much really was. We were the first generation that was enjoying post World War II prosperity and there were a lot of us and we had some money to spend. Yeah we must have seemed really strange to our parents in many respect and we were also naïve. On the other hand it was heady times. We still have the same problems now as we had then. Only the names have changed. There was the war in Viet Nam, race riots, shady politicians, greedy business men, well you know what I mean. The Beatles happened and we all went nuts over them and they sparked a great reawakening in popular music. Of course there was plenty of crap music as well but the Beatles were special and you know what? They still are. Nobody will ever touch them for the song output. From 1964 (here in the States) until 1970 they just cranked out one great song after another. They were quite foreign to our parents generation, especially with their long hair. This now is quite laughable. Hair is just hair nothing more nothing less. I wish I had as much hair now as I did then. Yeah some of the clothes and ideas were pretty wild and a departure from the previous generation. They also got me interested in the guitar which at first could be seen as a trendy thing but I was and still am musically inclined. I had taken piano lessons and was mildly interested in it. Then a couple of years later when I heard Eric Clapton with my other favorite band Cream (Which meant cream of the crop and musician wise they were.), I was truly smitten with six strings. 

I, by no means, am making fun of the previous generation. They were called the greatest generation for a reason, they were! All you have to do is watch films of the D-Day beach landings and watch some of those brave men who were cut down before the even made it to the shore! All the training they went through to fight in the war and their lives ended in the first few minutes. I have the ultimate respect for them. Still as Bob Dylan said back then, "The times they are a changin'." For good and bad. We in my generation saw some spectacular things and some horrifying things.

When the Beatles were first seen on American Television was  the Jack Parr Show, but things really got rolling when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9 1964. None of us will ever forget the impact that they had on an entire generation. They were different and quite refreshing and a real mystery to our parents. Mr. Sullivan knew that there was something special about them. Thanks Ed! And lets not forget that this was just a couple of months after President Kennedy was assassinated. The country was still trying to recover from this senseless act. We got to watch on live television as his alleged killer was shot and killed as he was being transported from the Dallas jail. A few years later we had Martin Luther King assassinated, then Robert Kennedy. The Sixties were very turbulent times. If you are old enough, who could forget The Cuban Missile Crisis? Talk about scary! Russia trying to put nuclear missiles 90 miles from our shores and Kennedy sending the Navy to blockade them. A major international game of chicken. Who knows how close we came to Nuclear war. Of course we had missiles in West Germany pointed at them. We also got to watch the moon walk on live television. That's pretty incredible! But back to the music. I remember Ed Sullivan telling them on their 3rd and final appearance (I think) in 1964 that Richard Rogers of Rodgers and Hammerstein had sent a wire saying he was a big fan of their music. Even though it was still boy/girl teenage stuff he recognized their innate ability for melody. He knew there was something special about them. The quickly matured lyrically as well. 

I remember my friends grandson saying that we (my generation) were lucky. We had the Beatles. Yes we were! I never have stopped listening to them. They are special.
Here's the first song we got to hear in 1964.

And here is the video I mentioned at the beginning.  While watching this I could feel a swell of emotion inside which is what prompted this post. Check out the man at the 1:17 point. He is overcome with emotion. In a later interview he stated that this was he and his wife's song. She had recently passed away from cancer.

And look at the spread of ages of the people enjoying and singing the song. Kids of 10 or 11 to people in their 50's. Their music is timeless and universal. Here's my personal favorite. It speaks of the past and present. It is beautiful in melody and lyric.

    Well it's quite late or very early depending how you look at it. I just wasn't very sleepy tonight or maybe that should be last night. In any event, it's time to go back to bed.

I'm outta here.