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The Beatles -- the 'Fab Four' group of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr -- hit the shores of the United States in 1964 like a sorely-needed breath of fresh air.
Over the next few years, their innovative musical sound and brilliant lyrics not only transformed the world of Rock and Roll but gave us much more than just a few memorable tunes. An integral part of the British Music Invasion of the mid-1960's, no musical group before or since has perhaps done more to transform our culture as we know it today. No one reflected the political turbulence, turmoil, anxieties, ambiguities, ambivalence, conflicts, and uncertainties of their era better.
Or contributed more to redefine it.
Pictured above (left to right) are Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon on the cover of LIFE magazine, August 28, 1964. The title reads, "THE BEATLES: They're here again and what a ruckus!" Photograph source: PDX Retro.
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PLEASE READ THIS
Whenever I post diaries like this -- What is Your Fav TV Sitcom of All-Time? and Snowy TGIF: What is Your Favorite Classic Rock Song -- some of you with dial-up, older pc's, slower processors, not enough RAM, and the like complain that you could not easily scroll through the comments as way too many videos had been posted. If you'd like to post a few favorite videos, feel free to do so but just don't go overboard. Embed one YouTube video per comment and post links to the others.
Example: This is a YouTube link to the 1967 song "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" by the British group Procol Harum.
http://www.youtube.com/...
Thanks.
By the time of the 1960 Presidential Election, the staid, predictable 1950's - which had ushered in the politics of superficial tranquility and an era of conformity - were drawing to a close. If the country had largely coasted through the previous decade, new frontiers and possibilities suddenly appeared over the horizon. A charismatic, young President challenged all Americans to work harder to give of themselves to their country and to scale new heights. Optimism and excitement seemed to be the new buzz words.
It was to be the dawn of a new period of American renewal in more ways than one.
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With 1963 comes the end of rock 'n roll and the beginnings of "rock." Of course, in 1963 John Kennedy was assassinated, and his vice president Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president. Soon LBJ escalated the United States' involvement in Viet Nam and declared war on poverty as part of his Great Society program... Meanwhile, the televised police beatings of members of Martin Luther King's nonviolent Civil Rights movement made it plain to many people that the powers that be were not necessarily interested in protecting people's human and constitutional rights. Thus it wasn't long before the youth of America was finding itself deeply questioning its country's leaders. A large part of the innocence went out of pop music. And then came the British.... The Beatles were merely the most visible of the many British music acts that found success in America in the mid-60's. Many people count the Fab Four's landing at La Guardia airport on February 7, 1964, and their performance on the Ed Sullivan Show a week later, as the official beginning of what came to be called the "British Invasion." link
The British Invasion was a cultural movement fueled by musicians such as The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and of course, The Beatles. These artists represented the youth of Britain, who were facing many of the same social questions as American youths were. They achieved international appeal by combining British and American music styles and reached superstar status on both sides of the Atlantic. From this movement, rock and roll became universal, and American music was heavily inspired by British themes. This influence was so complete that it is hard to find present-day musicians who are not inspired by bands like The Beatles. link
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The British Invasion was much more than just the Beatles. Numerous other British singers and groups inspired by the sound of American blues and Rock 'n Roll made their mark in this country and in doing so, established Britain as an important center of musical creativity.
Among many others, these included The Animals, Cilla Black, Petula Clark, Donovan, Gerry and The Pacemakers, Herman's Hermits, The Hollies, Tom Jones, The Kinks, Lulu, The Moody Blues, The Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield, The Troggs, The Who, The Yardbirds, and The Zombies.
Below are some of the songs I have selected for the diary poll.
An article in the New York Review of Books in 2004 by Andrew O'Hagan reflected comments by a group of Baby Boomers prominent in our politics over the past couple of decades. Looking back, the optimism of the American spirit in the post-World War II era had a profound effect on the British as they "listened to America and lived on fantasies of everything their culture lacked."
O'Hagan brilliantly captures the essence of the Beatles, their American-inspired message of hope and optimism, and importance to the defining decade of the 1960's
'Back in the US of A'
The Beatles were somehow very British yet they sang with American accents, which shows you what Britain was becoming in those years...
This was clearly not the Sixties that everyone experienced - not the Sixties of J. Edgar Hoover, for instance, or George W. Bush - but the modern personality the Beatles promulgated is the one that broke the old culture's back. As much as John F. Kennedy, the Beatles brought a new attitude front and center, creating at once a ferocity of love and hatred, the kind of appeal, we now understand, that sometimes finds its resolution at the tip of an assassin's bullet. The Beatles' songs got so complicated they couldn't be played by the band live, and the lyrics, from one album to another, grew very keen to recognize the delirium that lives somewhere inside democracy.
To learn more about the formative years of the Baby Boom Generation, see this long diary that I wrote in late 2010 - The Baby Boom Generation, Part I of III - The Wonder Years. The diary covers the years 1946-1964.
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A Note About the Diary Poll
You are welcome to discuss music not only from the early British Invasion but, also, later bands and singers like The Jeff Beck Group, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Bad Company, The Police, Elvis Costello, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, and Billy Idol in the years that followed the initial explosion. If you have seen any of the singers or groups mentioned in this diary, I am particularly interested in hearing from you. When you saw them in concert, what did you think about them and how have your impressions changed over the years?
As always, these songs I have chosen for the diary poll are not necessarily the best of this era. You can look at these web sites to choose songs that you like - Top 100 Hits of 1964, The Top 100 Songs of 1965, and Billboard Top 100 Songs For 1966.
Don't forget to take the diary poll. Thanks.