The Fab Four at Fifty

I didn't like the Beatles at first, probably because they were too clean cut compared to the Rolling Stones, whose defiant lyrics and bluesy instrumentation appealed to my adolescent sense of rebellion. The first albums I actually bought with my on money were Out of Our Heads by the Stones, East West by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion by the Grateful Dead, Shotgun by Junior Walker and the All Stars and a great Chess double album collection called Chuck Berry's Golden Decade. It wasn't until Rubber Soul came out that I began paying attention to John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Originally, Paul was the cute one, John was the brainy one,George was the quiet one and Ringo - well, we ALWAYS made fun of Ringo. Ironically, some of Ringo's tunes have had the most staying power, most notably "A Little Help " , "Yellow Submarine", etc. Besides Rubber Soul's improved content, I soaked up "Hard Day's Night" and "Help", but I didn't buy any Beatles albums until Sergeant Pepper's, unique for the acid references and the streetcorner band aspect, proving to be the beginning of my veritable Beatles buying spree. I guess - to me anyway -  The White Album had the greatest impact simple because of the multiplicity of styles, from the blissful lyrics of "Dear Prudence" to the barroom tale of "Rocky Raccoon" to that seminole disembodied voice intoning: " Number 9 - Number 9 - Number 9."

I was on the air when John Lennon was shot, part of an all news station outside Boston, in the middle of some earnest local "police blotter" story when the News Director abruptly came in and motioned for me to turn up the volume on the Associated Press feed. The details unfolded stupidly and sadly, Lennon cut down by a crazed fan. It was decades later when I was working for rocker WHJY in Providence that I saw an exhibition of Lennon's artwork, an aspect of his boundless creativity that I had been dimly aware of , never realizing the actual depth of his talent.

Of course it is nostalgic to see Paul and Ringo teaming up yet again, a sort of survivor's salute to fool the Baby Boomers into thinking they're still young, but it just seems mercenary, brand reinforcement to the max, a far cry from the more purist goals of the Quarrymen Skiffle Band when John and Paul formed it back in Liverpool. The Beatles' impact on the Twentieth Century is undeniable. Only time will tell. if they are remembered as cultural icons, laying the groundwork for the explosion and rebellion of the Sixties, or if they were simply cruising, responding to the moment, making it up as they went along. On second thought, that decision has perhaps already been made.