We are currently celebrating the 50th anniversary of the arrival on these shores of the greatest popular music group that ever existed. I hesitate to call them the greatest rock ‘n roll group, because their range was so much broader, so in that narrow category we will let the Stones reign supreme. But no one beats the Beatles for all around musical versatility. I’ve been listening to their entire catalog as I go back and forth to work. I created a playlist on my iPod and sorted the songs by length, so as I go the songs trend toward the later stuff, but lots of the early stuff pops up as well. It’s truly incredible. It’s all great, even the stuff you hardly ever hear.
Almost everyone alive back then remembers where they were a few months before, when JFK was killed. Those of us of a certain age also remember that first Ed Sullivan show, when the band that only recently hit the airwaves appeared live on television. I am ashamed to confess that I opposed watching the Beatles, not because I didn’t want to (I did), but because I wanted to torture my older sister. We insisted on watching Walt Disney, which, as I recall, was running what we would now call a miniseries about a character named the Scarecrow. Thankfully, I lost that argument. Unfortunately, there are no complete songs from the Sullivan show on youtube; no doubt because the Sulllivan franchise prefers to have us buy its DVDs.
So, I think these videos represent the next best thing; a couple of videos from a Beatles concert in DC in 1964.
Their own songs were great, and if they covered a song, it was always better than the original.
Now for the strange part. Shirley Temple was by no means a musician,but I feel I must pause to pay tribute. Her movies were played repeatedly on television in those more innocent years way back even before the Beatles. I saw them all, I’m sure. Back then I would have impatiently sat through dance scenes like the following (I would want to get back to the story), in which she takes a turn with Bill Bojangles Robinson (Mr. Bojangles, himself)who appeared with her in quite a few flicks. Apparently, poor Mr. Robinson had most often to play addle brained characters, as was only fitting for a black man, but I understand Ms. Temple herself was genuinely fond of him as a human being. She herself was certainly flawed, inasmuch as she grew up to be a Republican, but we must remember she did so when one did not have to be certifiably crazy to make that choice. And, give her credit, given the weird life she lived as a child, she grew up to be a pretty sane individual. Anyway, here she is dancing with Mr. Bojangles.
Post a Comment