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49 years ago tonight...


specialk

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I was 13.5 years old. A hormonal epihany. Here was a way to meet girls besides being a jock! You could play in a band!

God only knows how many amp-in-the-case Silvertone/Danelectros were sold in the next few weeks because of this event.

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I was born that morning. My mom tells me she was not watching television that evening.

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I was 8. We watched it. I remember my 14 year old sister screaming.

Then they were on the next week, and my older brother decided "we" didn't like the Beatles, so I missed that show, sitting upstairs booing with my brother, while my sister screamed again downstairs.

Next thing I remember, I decided I did like 'em, and a friend and I were standing around with brooms pretending to be John & Paul.

Still love 'em, still play their songs on the Hamers, still enjoy watching videos of 'em.

If you haven't seen it, get a hold of the DVD with all the Ed Sullivan Beatles performances. It has all the entire Ed Sullivan show for each performance, including all the other acts on the show, and the commercials! Puts their magic in perspective.

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I was in Kindergarten at the time, just a few months before turning 6. I remember our teacher, who had to be in her 20's, asking us the next day if we saw them.

I didn't understand the fuss then, and never have. The only songs I ever liked were written by George, (Something, While my guitar gently weeps, I want to tell you).

Guys I started hanging out with years later, all 4-5 years older than I, all felt the same way. IMO the most over appreciated band of all time.

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I too was 8 years old and I'll never forget how the whole family crowded around the small B&W TV to watch both shows. My parents were very progressive musically and loved them as much as my brothers and I. What's interesting now, especially living in the D.C. Metro area, is when I take the Red Line Metro into town and pass by the dilapidated Washington Coliseum. Had to believe that was the site of their first U.S. concert.... Years ago, I ended up buying a DVD called "The Beatles first U.S. Tour (Apple) and it had that concert footage. Absolutely terrible audio and video but a blast to watch.

It really doesn't seem that long ago and I can't believe I'm this old!

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I had to have been a toddler, but I DO remember the fuss, and watching them on Ed Sullivan. I coudn't get enough of them, if I heard them on the radio, I had to stop what I was doing to listen. I do remember their appearance on Shindig '65 vividly, as well as the Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane videos that were shown on Ed Sullivan. My parents weren't really into music. If anything, my dad would only really watch the Wilburn Brothers and Porter Wagoner shows when they were on TV. I think that Dolly Parton had at least as much to do with my dad watching the latter show, as listening to Porter did. :rolleyes::lol:

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I had turned 10 the previous November. By the time they were appearing on Sullivan Feb 9, I was already hooked from frequent airplay of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and the flip side, "I Saw Her Standing There." My brother (14) and I couldn't wait and we watched with our mom & dad. Of course they couldn't see what the fuss was about either, and it didn't help that one of the vocal mics wasn't working for that first show, so the vocals and harmonies sounded threadbare. Still, we tuned in to the subsequent shows and kept track of their concerts at Madison Square Garden and San Francisco's Cow Palace, AKAIK the only two venues they played on that tour.

A LOT of people dropped what they were playing and picked up guitar because of that show. Pat Metheny dropped French horn and picked up guitar. The owner of Organ Center turned it into Guitar Center. Both of them specifically cite the Feb 9 Sullivan appearance.

I was in my first year of drum lessons and by the following Christmas I got my first drum set (pictured below). Soon I was playing it with fellow 6th grade friends, even at school functions. My two regrets are that I didn't buy all the Beatles albums as soon as they came out and that I didn't have more respect for Ringo, because I could have learned a lot about anchoring a rhythm section a lot earlier had I had the humility to watch and learn.

A few months ago I found an original Capitol release of their third USA album, "Something New" in mono, they way it was intended to be mixed. It is one of the gems of my 1200+ LP collection and it never fails to move me.

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