I have no emotional attachment to the Beatles...but here's a Beatles story anyway.

[WilliamPitt]

They were well established by the time I came along. I like many of their songs, meh to some, bleh to the rest. "Rocky Raccoon" and "Blackbird" are extraordinary...but honestly, they've always been just another classic rock band on WZLX out of Boston to me. I missed the parade.

That having been said, and since today is the 50th anniversary of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, which means we are required by Boomer Law ( ) to tell our Beatles stories, here's mine.

My favorite Beatles story is entirely allegorical. I don't remember who said it to me, but someone I know said the Berlin Wall started to crumble and the Cold War began to end the day an American airline pilot smuggled a copy of the White Album into the USSR under a pile of jeans in his hand luggage.

Songs not bombs.

Happy Beatles Day, Boomers. Many happy returns.

[lapfog_1]

1. Back in the US, Back in the US, Back in the USSR - n/t

[Jefferson23]

2. ha ha, good story. I love their music, all of it. n/t

[Tikki]

3. Mr. Tikki bought this record album early in 1964..It's so cute…if you turn the album cover over….

you can see a running total in pencil where he paid a dollar down and then made two more payments
to equal $3.63 to the record section of our local furniture store…Yes, where we lived the furniture stores sold
the vinyl records.

This is the vinyl record he bought.


Tikki
ps I had my crush on Ringo…the oldest Beatle, he looks pretty damn good even today.
ppss we still have that vinyl record in our collection.

[stuckinodi]

9. That is very rare

and worth a lot of money now

[Tikki]

10. It's worth a little less or a little more, depending on the buyer, because the particular album….

JUST LOOKED IT UP>>>THE MONO version was the primary 'JOLLY WHAT' pressing so the STEREO pressing
would be way more valuable.
he bought was in MONO and the Beatles were really bringing STEREO into a new century.
Most of the 'JOLLY WHATS' were recorded in MONO.

So in some ways it is even rarer, but the only buyer would be someone who wants all
of the Beatles…even the MONO recordings.

Tikki

[Dr Hobbitstein]

12. Actually,

The Beatles didn't care about stereo throughout most of their career. They were present for George Martin's mono mixes, but thought there was no difference going to stereo, so never stuck around for the mixes. That's why there was a bunch of hoopla a few years back when they reissued the mono albums on CD. What we got here in America were the American versions of the albums, almost all mixed in stereo. The mono mixes are THE definitive mixes. So much depth in them. Keeping in mind that we made the move to stereo in the US long before they did in the UK.

[Tikki]

17. Excellent…I did not know that. Thanks

We have much vinyl and most are good shape and we still have the equipment to enjoy them.


Tikki

[Dr Hobbitstein]

19. Same here...

I have a thousand or so records and a good table to play them on. I'm a musician and a recording engineer, myself. My band plans to put our album on vinyl and digital download (skipping CD entirely).

[Tikki]

20. Much of our vinyl is from the later 70's…Prob have nearly all LA Punk and P U...

albums that were out there then.

Hey, nice on the Collection…



Tikki
We have many cassettes, also, radio shows and all...
They last forever if you take care of them and don't pass them through bad equipment.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

22. We record to digital, but we also record to tape...

I have a huge 1" 8 track tape machine in the garage. Tape reels are expensive as hell (just dropped $60 on a USED reel), but the warmth of analog vs digital... So much different.

[canoeist52]

4. Crossing over the border from Poland into Russia in 1977,

the border officials picked the one homemade cassette with the "contraband song" that deliberately didn't have the title written on the case, to pop into the dashboard cassette-player to test for illegal literature and music.

Of course the title was "Back in the USSR". They just and carried on searching our micro-bus and bags and laughed.

[The_Commonist]

5. Here's my Beatles story:

If her sense of it and her math is correct, my wife was conceived 50 years ago tonight.

We have the Sullivan show on DVD, and will be watching it tonight with friends at 8pm sharp. It's the entire show, other acts, and commercials included. One of the most interesting parts is that Davey Jones, later of the Monkees, performs a song from Oliver, which he was in at the time. Little did he know!

We will also watch the Maysles Brothers film "The Beatles First U.S. Visit" in which the camera follows the band around for their first week in the U.S.

And then there's this:

[KansDem]

6. I remember watching them on the Ed Sullivan Show

I had heard a couple of their songs on the radio before their appearance and wondered about this group. I saw them on the show and thought, "What's the hullabaloo all about?" I, too, never developed an emotional attachment to the Beatles.

I never bought their recordings or watched their movies, yet to credit pop culture's omnipresence and the power of marketing, I could name all four of the Fav-Four, tell what instruments they played, recall a little biographical information, hum several tunes and sing the lyrics to a few.

They simply weren't my "cup of tea."

Of course, my "idol" was Gerry Mulligan! I listened to Mulligan all through my early teens. Still do!

I remember getting into debates with my junior-high school comrades:
Them: You ought to be listening to The Beatles!
Me: You ought to be listening to Gerry Mulligan!

Yeah, I know--completely different. But still...(this was junior high, after all).

Here's an album of Mulligan's I bought in the '60s: "Gerry Mulligan: If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em"--

Okay, so "King of the Road" wasn't a Beatles tune, but the LP also included renditions of "A Hard Days Night" and "Can't Buy Me Love" (not available on YouTube. "King of the Road" was the only track I could found)--

Track Listings of the LP--
1. King Of The Road
2. Engine Engine Number 9
3. Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte
4. I Know A Place
5. Can't Buy Me Love
6. A Hard Day's Night
7. If I Fell
8. Downtown
9. Mr Tambourine Man
10. If You Can't Beat'em Join'em

...so it seemed Mulligan was "joining" this new music.

For what it's worth, I've "mellowed" over the decades and find myself listening to many styles of music I might have ignored in previous years. Perhaps it has to do with getting closer to the end than the beginning.

(But I still like Mulligan!)

[LWolf]

7. We sang along with them on the radio,

my mom and I, while I was still in single digits. My favorite was "Yesterday," but I can remember my mom singing "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" quite lustily, holding my hand and swinging me back and forth off my feet while we walked home from the bus stop.

They were deeply embedded in my musical self by the time I approached adolescence and the White Album, which remains my favorite.

[NastyRiffraff]

8. Thanks, from a Beatle lover

The Beatles were my LIFE for a year or so, and I still have all their songs on iTunes.

Back at you for Happy Beatles Day, Will!

[Brother Buzz]

11. I read the Beatles were prophets sending "tuned-in" people messages within their music....

connected it to the Bible.

I listened over and over again and determined I was not one of the chosen few. Neither was Tate or Labianca.

The Non Revolution Was Not Televised but it sold a lot of ink.

[1000words]

13. I have an original "Daily Mirror" issue, reporting their U.S. arrival.

Found it in the trash, (along with other issues reporting events such as the Queen's coronation.)
Needless to say, as a big Beatles fan, I was ecstatic. It hangs in my music studio.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. For me, R.E.M. appearing on David Letterman in 1983 was a more seminal moment.

But still, I do like the Beatles.

[truebluegreen]

15. The Beatles are in my DNA, or might as well be.

I saw them live (rare enough) at Red Rocks in August 1964--I forget the day. Sat in the third row with my older siblings and neighbor kids. Had just turned 9.

eta: Had tickets to a tribute band performance in '04 but ended up at the emergency vet instead...you can't go back anyway.

[Beringia]

16. My Beatle story

My sister's best friend was a Beatle lover. I think my sister had all their photos on the wall. Her and 2 of her friends performed a dance to the song Imagine at the grade school. But first the principal sent them all home to change because they were wearing hot pants and the principal didn't like it. I performed too, with the song Crocodile Rock with my 3 friends. I was never one much for radio music. I wondered how people changed the channel and found things they liked. I couldn't discern what I liked from what I didn't like.

[Tikki]

18. Ah….the original 'Speaker Dancers', eh?

Silly school principal..you can't dance without hot pants on, especially to the song Imagine.

Tikki
Wouldn't you just give anything to have a video of those performances?

[Omaha Steve]

21. "Blackbird" was about the civil rights movement

http://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/blackbird/

A solo performance by Paul McCartney, Blackbird was composed shortly after The Beatles' stay in Rishikesh, India, and featured on the White Album.

The song was written on McCartney's farm in Scotland. Shortly afterwards, on the first night his future wife Linda Eastman stayed at his house in London, McCartney performed the song to the fans waiting outside the gates.

Snip.

The lyrics were inspired by the civil rights movement in America; the 'blackbird' of the title was said to represent a typical woman facing oppression in the era.

I had in mind a black woman, rather than a bird. Those were the days of the civil rights movement, which all of us cared passionately about, so this was really a song from me to a black woman, experiencing these problems in the States: 'Let me encourage you to keep trying, to keep your faith, there is hope.' As is often the case with my things, a veiling took place so, rather than say 'Black woman living in Little Rock' and be very specific, she became a bird, became symbolic, so you could apply it to your particular problem.

Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

MUCH more at link.