50th ANNIVERSARY

As we speak, iTunes is playing on my computer. I decided listening to the Beatles as I write might give me some kind of inspiration although to be frank, I really don't need inspiration. Afterall... we're talking The Beatles here. Oh yeah. I probably should tell you right off the bat btw, that I was always the person who put Elvis in the number slot rather than The Fab Four. What can I say? The King is the king.

Don't get me wrong, however. There are zillions of Beatle songs that I absolutely love. Including zillions of their solo songs once the band broke up and branched out. I mean seriously... the minute I hear the opening chords of Paul McCartney's Jet, I get all psyched and as soon as it starts to move into the song itself, the rocking of the rhythm along with all the instruments has me up and dancing all over the place in seconds flat. I totally love it. And, I played the White Album and Sergeant Pepper a million times over while in college. As for Lennon... he's in a class all his own. But even Ringo and George had a few that I also loved. Which reminds me... did you SEE Ringo at the Grammy Awards? Oh man... he looked way too thin to me which then of course made me want to scream into the TV... GO EAT A DOZEN DOUGHNUTS IMMEDIATELY. But whatever.

In the meantime... 50 years ago today the entire country changed. THE BEATLES WERE IN NEW YORK! ON THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW! And boy did they ever make an impact. THE PEOPLE WERE SIMPLY CRAZED WITH HYSTERICAL DELIGHT. Don't even fucking ask.  I never saw such a thing. Ever. Not even when I mySELF saw them a week later in Miami Beach. February 16, 1964 to be exact. When I was 15 years old. It was THE hottest ticket in town, but I was not even CLOSE to the raving fanatical girls going absolutely crazy in the audience.

Granted... both Claudia and I loved the hottest Number One records of the Beatles at the time, but neither of us remember being so damn stricken with orgasmic delight as was everyone else in the crowd. It was more like: YIPPEE. ISN'T THIS A GREAT DEAL?? WE GET TO SEE THE BEATLES PERFORM LIVE! It was far from: OMG. I THINK I MAY TOTALLY DIE FROM THIS MOST EARTH SHATTERING, LIFE CHANGING EVENT EVER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. Which I probably felt more of when first I saw Elvis, Elton John or Tina Turner in person. We must have been idiots I guess because we had no clue whatsoever we were basically viewing a MAJOR part of history. A subject which Claudia majored in college, btw.

In the meantime, here we are 50 years later and The Beatles are STILL the most amazing band ever. Their songs are STILL the most beloved of all. Paul and John are considered musical genius's and I can't think of a living human being that can't tell you their alltime favorite Beatles tune. Nor where they were when John was shot.

In fact some of my absolute happiest musical moments were when I was in my mid 20's, at a friends' house, TOTALLY blitzed, head phones on, stereo BLARING and listening to George Harrison and Leon Russell sing BEWARE OF DARKNESS in Bangladesh. I swear... I was so high that this song took me to an entirely different universe EVERY DAMN TIME. Which of course is why I repeated this exact scenario HUNdreds of time back in those days. I couldn't help it. The lyrics and rolling melody carried me away like nothing ever before. Bottom line: don't tell ME that drugs don't help create fantastic artists. Nor that they don't help listening to fantastic artists. It was a total win-win situation. 


Oh yeah... get this. The song for my first dance as Mr. and Mrs. at my wedding?? SOMETHING. Uh... Abbey Road for any of you unknowing Beatles fans out there. And with that... am off to watch the special which naturally I'm recording. No wonder. They are by far... the greatest band of all time.