60 years ago!

60 years ago! Did I blink? I seems like just yesterday I was listening to this on the radio.

On the 05th October 1962 "Love Me Do", The Beatles first single released starting it all. Within twelve months, their popularity and thirst for their beat music had become such a frenzied worldwide phenomena, in late 1963 a new word was coined to describe it by the British press, thus "Beatlemania" entered the lexicon. 

A Beatles aficionado to the core, I couldn't find an original full B&W video clip of The Beatles performing "Love Me Do, so in celebration of that epic day, here's my favorite Beatles' tutor paying homage to them & "Love Me Do". 

Just wanting to share my awe and joy of this day 60 years on.

1958 through to the 70s' all the way to the present. A timeless and priceless legacy we've inherited thanks to bands like these and other iconic legends. The legacy of the electric guitar. And how such a portable instrument could make so much diverse music possible. Such a blessing. 

Thanks for the memories, manXcat.  I heartily agree with you and Drake the Red.

So I guess that.... It was 50 years ago today, Sargent Pepper taught us all how to play.

What I still find spectacular about the impact of The Beatles in their time, for me at least, was how certain moments of their songs, films or album releases were captured vividly in memory for me like the record provided by a time capsule. i.e. I recall precisely where I was, what I was doing, who I was with, even down to the time, season and weather on the day when I first saw and heard their "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album in 1967 on that June (winter's) day it released here in Australia. Exceeding even their later "Abbey Road" album numbers by 25%, sales volume were phenomenal considering Australia's total population of the time was just under 12 million, less than a third of the over 40 million population of just Califonia alone today! 

I remember the mixed feeling experience in that time frame. Radical departure and avant-guarde would be understatement. Regardless, one of my favourite Beatles songs released on that album, "A Day In The Life" (Lennon-McCartney). 

 

  

I watched Baz Luhrman's Elvis on Bluray lastnight for the first time. Such an emotional movie. I can imagine there will always be naysayers against films like these, but I actually enjoyed learning about the King through cinema. Does it strike you as odd, though, that these musical biographies never show you how iconic legends learn to play guitar or sing? They just emerge into history fully formed. It was nice to see what inspired a young Elvis. At least the film gave us that.

My thanks! 👍

I would add that not only is the guitar portable... It is idealy suited to accompanying the human voice singing. 

Sixty years later, here we are, from "How much is that doggy in the window" to "Day in the Life" and everything that followed... what a wonderous cultural journey those plucky Liverpuddling lads set us all loose on. "So let me introduce to the act you've know for all these years" ...  as the rest of modern music history...  It is all dirivitaive from "I want to hold your hand". 

Now back to the woodshed.

As well as documentaries relying heavily on B&W archival film and narrative script, I had seen a bio epic film some time ago on young pre-fame Elvis which as critical and observant of factual history as I am I thought was OK in its portrayal given theatrical licence and sensibilities. I hadn't seen Luhrmann's film nor even aware of it until your mention of it, so thanks for the heads up, ...I think? With the exception of his initial more conventional foray into film making with"Strictly Ballroom" which I did enjoy, Bas Luhrmann's subsequent what I'll politely term cinematic 'flamboyance' is lost on me. 

Nevertheless, looking it up, "Elvis" initial cinema release here was on 23rd June, so curiosity tempting I sourced a copy yesterday. Knowing how long I lasted into previous Luhrmann films prior to switching off either metaphorically and walking out, or literally, I'll watch it in my HT rather than potentially waste $$ at the cinema or on a BD. Will be a week or so as I want to watch it in 2160p on the 75" but am awaiting Samsung On Site Warranty service repair on our 6 month old screen! Sincerely hoping the film is good but prepared for the unwatchable worst.

Regardless my love for The Beatles, I grew up on Elvis immersed in all his hits of the second half of the 1950s through his formulaic Col. Parker film making heyday of the early 1960s  ..remember those teenage brothers of mine? Before The Beatles, as a youngster I 'lived' at the suburban cinema's Saturday afternoon matinees from about 1960 where absolutely no one was cooler than Elvis on screen.