I meant to get this one posted yesterday, but a night of bowling and dinner out with friends got in the way of my blogging.
On February 9, 1964, music in North America was changed forever. This happened...
(Sorry that it cut out there, I spent a fair amount of time looking for videos of this and many of them had been taken down due to copyright rules.)
That's right, 43 years ago yesterday, the Beatles did their first lives show this side of the pond and (North American) Beatlemania began.
As I watch this video I can't help but feel that I was born a solid 4 decades too late. Whenever I see old videos related to Beatlemania I am absolutely amazed at what I see. The sheer energy, and excitement that they brought wherever they went is simply unmatched by any of today's artists.
My father was fortunate enough to see them play live at Maple Leaf Gardens, and he still speaks highly of it all these years later. I can't help but feel robbed. Not only because I will never get the chance to tell my children about an amazing concert that I went to with the same aura that his story has. Sure I saw The Stones, AC/DC, The Guess Who and Rush at Sarsstock a few years ago, but those really don't have the same mystique as The Beatles. Mainly, because none of those bands were in their prime at the time. All four of those bands have been on a decline for a while and it was more of a nostalgia trip for older generations than anything else.
Who does our generation have to compare? U2? Eminem? Justin Timberlake?....exactly. But I suppose that's what makes them so special, they were only able to be seen and truly experienced by such a limited amount of people.
I was looking for more videos to post on here and I had a lot of trouble deciding what to post, so I recommend that you all just go here, and enjoy the miracles of 21st Century living.
But I decided on this one, a clip from their concert in Paris in 1965. They are playing "I'm a Loser" and "I Wanna Be You Man". I love their attempt at speaking French, it makes me laugh.
I love watching the guys in the crowd dance, man people were weird in the 60's.
I think that's about enough for me, I'm going to put Abbey Road on and drift off a little bit more. But whatever you are doing today, try and take a moment to pay your respect to the greatest band ever. If you disagree with that last sentence, then you are wrong, simply put. I don't even want to get into that one.
Until next time,
G
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1 comment:
Glen, some great thoughts here.
Your comment about the lack of a Beatles for our generation is quite telling, but it says less about the quality of today's music than it does about our generation's place in the world as a whoel. I was going to write something new here, but I was reminded that I had a conversation similar to this on a message board last year, and I think that what I wrote applies quite well to what you're discussing (I was responding to someone who argued that rock and roll's glory days are long over):
"Absolutely true. And not surprising. Let's keep in mind that rock and roll came to popular fruition at an incredibly unique time, when two key developments intersected:
1. The baby boom generation, creating a society organized around and catering to young people.
2. The early rise of mass communications (national radio and television).
Because of these, rock and roll transformed from a backroom fusion of country and blues and into a cultural revolution. Rock and roll music was the soundtrack to an entire generation, from Elvis to Woodstock.
Then, as mediums of communication - radio, television, and now the internet - became demassified and more diverse, so too did rock and roll splinter: into folk rock, into punk, into the early years of hip hop, into alternative rock, into new wave. The children of the Reagan Revolution were living in a more individualist age, and Napster, the iPod and the decline of radio all signalled the end of rock and roll as a singular movement.
So of course rock's glory days are over. Rock and roll's ability to change the world died with the baby boom. Now, rock and roll can only change yourself. Which, I suppose, is still worth a damn."
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