The Beatles made their big splash on American TV the night of February 9, 1964 on, of course, The Ed Sullivan Show. Two days later, the following article appeared in some newspaper written by someone named Paul Jones. Read it and we'll discuss it…and if you need to see it larger, click on the image below and it should magically grow in size…
I have no idea who Mr. Jones is but I would guess that he was astonished at how popular enduring the music of John, Paul, George and Ringo has been. It may have been garbage to him at the time but to folks of my generation — I was on 2/9/64, less than a month from turning twelve — The Beatles were and remain pretty darned important. Still, to be fair to Jones, he was hardly the only member of his generation who at the time felt that way.
I came across this article online and I thought I'd post it here to preface a number of pieces I'll be posting here in the coming weeks. They'll be about something that bothers me more than it probably should. And what this thing is that bothers me is this…
A lot of friends who are my age, give or take about ten years — folks who revere The Beatles and other groups of their era — are starting to sound a lot like this guy.
They're dismissive and sometimes even contemptuous of the music of today, the movies of today, the television of today…anything created by folks of the current generation. And they're aghast and sometimes outraged that "These Kids Today" don't know and love everything that we knew and loved back when we were in our early teens.
I shall have more to say about this topic in the coming weeks.