But the Beatles were able to communicate musically to me in very profound and delightful ways. Yes, the lads definitely had it.

There’s been a few documentaries on TV lately about them, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Ed Sullivan show debut (yes! I watched it!). Invariably, these documentaries feature some contemporary film of a journalist or critic of that era looking sagely at the camera and pompously droning on about how silly these boys and their hair, and their music are.

PS. It is now believed that the fact Liverpool was a busy seaport contributed to the musical renaissance there in the early 60s. Seamen would bring 45 singles from the US, and the locals fell for American rock, R&B, and of course, the blues. We owe the Brits a great deal.

My own personal theory is that the British working class understood perfectly the music of the American Negro–they had a lot in common with them and identified with them on an emotional level. Without the Brits, the blues might have vanished forever. By the 50s, even American blacks had moved on to other genres.

Liverpool is a bit removed from London, sure, but please remember the war in England was quite a bit harsher than here in the US, which doubtless effected the parents, and through them all children from that era. …And that list of parents included a merchant seaman, already out on the waves, dodging German U-boats.

As for classical training, I took piano lessons as a child, which taught me and my parents that I have no visible talent in that area at all. I can, however, read music, and there was an inclusion of classical comprehension and composition — and, I suppose, appreciation.

Yes. I, too, am classically trained in music.

ER, I put to you that “unable to read” and being “illiterate” are two very different things. I am unable to read — my mind wanders so — but am quite literate. I can jot music, but don’t expect a symphony.

The lads had it, whether they knew it or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlShC-GxFNw

Zen? maybe after their flirtation with the Maharishi, years later. And Ringo planned to open a chain of beauty parlors if the ‘music thing’ didn’t work out. And what if they all were born during WWII? So was my wife. I don’t think any of them remember it. She doesn’t.

I’m not sure what you’re trying to tell me, but I meant no profound philosophical dissertation. The Beatles were the last of the old music, and their roots lie there. They are also the sole source of the new music, everything that followed owes them a great debt. They did it with style, humor, and songs that still are shower-hummable, if not downright breathtaking. Did they set in motion a cultural revolution, or simply exploit one that would have happened anyway? Does it matter?

Who knows, maybe they did both, simultaneously. After all, that comes under the category of questions that cannot be answered, even if they must still be asked. All I know is that the world was different before they came than it was after. And I think it changed for the better. And after they were gone the world changed again…perhaps for the worst.

But that’s only my opinion. I’m grateful for the immense body of work they left us, but I miss them terribly.

Actually, it was indeed a genre-wide war, which sometimes spilled to other forms, a true “Battle of the Bands,” where the win for these four boys from Liverpool was a cake-walk. The gentlemen arrived with hopes of winning the world, and they got it, hands down. Cake. A classically trained musician, a swingster base, a Zen poet and a drummer who loved to drum, all with a pencion for the outrageous.

According to Guinness, Sir James Paul McCartney is the “most successful composer and recording artist of all time.” “All time” is a pretty long time, but then transmission media have changed a bit over the centuries. Paul was born in 1942, in the heart of WWII. His father played in a Jazz band in the ’20s and kept a piano forte in the living room of their home. He encouraged Paul and his younger brother, Michael, to be musical, with Paul taking piano lessons. He was, therefore, somewhat classically trained in musical comprehension and composition, but grew to prefer learning by ear, and eventually gave way to the acoustic guitar.

George Harrison was also born during the war, in 1943, to a mother who was particularly supportive of his chosen vocation. Growing up, he enjoyed the rhythms of George Formby, Cab Calloway, Django Reinhardt, Hoagy Carmichael, and Big Bill Broonzy, a pleasure I enjoy as well.

John W. Lennon started out as a jazz skiffler (I suppose that’s spelled right), a somewhat obscure genre, with homemade instruments, sort of jug-bandish, what Mac Davis called po-boy music. Born in 1941, he spent his early childhood enduring WWII, with his father being a seldom-seen merchant seaman. It was a very troubled childhood, with his parents rather heated separation. At 11, his mother played Elvis records for him and taught him to play the banjo. Being a fair poet, as well as somewhat musically enclined, he wrote.

Richard Starkey (AKA Ringo Starr) was also born during the war years, in 1940. His mother enjoyed singing and dancing with her husband, a fairly righeous man who just happened to be an avid fan of swing, as I am. In 1953, he contracted tuberculosis and was admitted to a sanatorium, where he remained for two years. During his stay the medical staff encouraged him to join the hospital band, more to stimulate motor activity and relieve his boredom, leading to his first exposure to a percussion instrument; a makeshift mallet made from a cotton bobbin that he used to strike the cabinets next to his bed.

The above was from my reading up in the pages of Wiki.

Then came the Quarrymen and, a few years later, The Beatles.

I recall hearing of a letter to Elvis Presley, written by Dean Martin. Back in 1964, “Everybody Loves Somebody” knocked The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” off number one in the United States. This was what prompted the writing. Escentially, Dino wrote that if Elvis couldn’t keep The Beatles off #1, he would be willing to take up the slack.