God created The Beatles! Computers wrote SFF! My world is being turned upside down.

Quoted from walrus_21

I said, "I thought computers wrote them."  
To defend myself -- computers were all over popular culture at the time as these evil-genius things; all those Sci-Fi TV shows.  And, I just couldn't fathom how you came up with something like "Yes It Is."  It was otherworldly, to me.   I guess I wasn't the brightest young lad.

When transistor radios first came out I was convinced that because of their size they could only play music and not words. In retrospect I think it was because my parents big old wireless was tuned to serious radio, while my older brother's groovy little red tranny was permanently tuned to the new fangled popular music station.

So you was a bit of a divvy even back in them days...

Quoted from Ssarah

I grew up with them.

Same here. I'm an EXTREMELY PROUD first generation Beatles fan...meaning I was there at the beginning. I remember distinctly seeing them on Sullivan in early Feb, '64 on CBS. We were still living in my homestate   (northern NJ) (only ten miles from nyc)  Mind you, I was a mere child of 10 at the time, but the buzz that had been building the previous few weeks about their immiment arrival here (and how Murray-the-K was just about going nuts on the radio hyping them (WNEW) (not to mention Bruce Morrow--"Cousin Brucie"--another extremely famous DJ in the metro ny area at the time). Everybody NOW has seen the famous footage of them getting off the plane at JFK (note: it might've still been called Idewild then because Kennedy was just killed only 2 months earlier--I can't remember exactly WHEN they changed the airport's name--but I DO remember the TV news then made such a big thing when JPGR touched down ! (I look back and I think it was not too far from our house in Teaneck NJ...but I wasnt able to be there --later I made up for THAT when they came to Shea a year later !! (but that's for another post THEN THE SULLIVAN THING HAPPENED ON TV. We were ALL ready for that. I'm lucky enough to come from a family that got into music so my father wasnt the type to frown down on them (except for the hair part LOL..but after they started to play, that part was forgotten by him)They were AMAZING ! My mother said it was all too loud (hahaha yeah, right--43 YEARS AGO and I still remember her saying that)I remember Ed could barely finish introducing them when the INCESSANT SCREAMS BEGAN--I remember that part so well. Ed was probably thinking to himself STFU !!! lol The kids just would'nt shut up...but this was, after all,  the hallmark of "beatlemania" so it was something everyone got accustomed to in the 60's. If u just MENTIONED any of their names it was instant pandemoneum. But SO MUCH ELSE about the period was very exciting and NEW because of the Fab. It was a pretty innocent time compared to now and I'd go back there if I could, believe me. EVERYBODY talked about the Beatles almost all the time---no one EVER saw anything like this before. EVERY RADIO station played them non-stop, Beatles mechandise was everywhere. I had a "beatle wig" lmao..damn I wish I'd KEPT it..it'd probably be worth a fortune now. People that were older said that Elvis brought about almost as much hysteria...but EVEN THEY said it was NOTHING like what JPGR set off...no kidding! I was there! (and I wouldnt trade my "kid in the 60's memories of the British Invasion" for all the money in the world. When The Fab first appeared on Sullivan (and several more Sundays after that) the country was GLUED to the set. You HAD to watch them...God must've planned the timing--it seems so obvious to me now--we  NEEDED the healing after JFK assasination--people of my generation (the kids of the sixties) always remember how dark & sad everything was in late '63 after the President was killed. Camelot was destroyed. Some heavy-duty melancholy was going on. When '64 dawned everyone was still in mourning--it took The Beatles invasion to make everyone forget that sadness. JPGR NOT ONLY changed music, they changed HISTORY. You had to BE there to really appreciate those times. Anyway, I could write a THOUSAND more things about it, but it would be longer than "war & peace"--so I better save all that for later. Meanwhile, I just made myself real nostalgic---think I better go listen to With The Beatles and just let the memories flood back. PEACE

Great post, Mean Mr. Mustard! I love your personal views of the time. It's very exciting!

I was 5 then, too young to appreciate it. I remember JFK being killed. My mom was crying and my dad came home from work and they sat forlornly in front of the television set. I was awed by this parental display of emotion. Overwhelmed, I remember asking my mother, "Did you know him?"

But I don't remember the Beatles arriving at all. For that, I need people like you. Cheers.

I was 5 then, too young to appreciate it. I remember JFK being killed. My mom was crying and my dad came home from work and they sat forlornly in front of the television set. I was awed by this parental display of emotion. Overwhelmed, I remember asking my mother, "Did you know him?"

Hari --

I didn't put this in because I go on too long anyway, but THAT's the reason I thought I remembered Ed Sullivan at two years old -- because I could swear my first memory was my mom crying at JFK's death.  I swear it -- I can remember exactly where she was sitting and such.  People keep insisting that she was watching an anniversary program on the news, or something.  But it was the shock of seeing her cry.  Definitely.  

best, w

Wow, yes, walrus_21. Powerful memory. Mom was in the family room. I can still see where she's standing, and my dad coming in next to her, silently putting an arm around her. I knelt on the sofa in the living room and looked out the big front window to the street, trying to work out what was happening. It was like the world was ending.

That's why this struck such a chord:

Quoted from Mean Mr. Mustard

we  NEEDED the healing after JFK assasination--people of my generation (the kids of the sixties) always remember how dark & sad everything was in late '63 after the President was killed. Camelot was destroyed. Some heavy-duty melancholy was going on.

Thx harihead and Walrus for totally understanding where I was coming from w/ all that. Even if you were only a child when JPGR stepped onto American soil for the first time (or should I say, airport tarmac), then you're someone I can relate to...you're a "Beatle person." Only 77 days prior to their much-heralded arrival in the States, the terrible events in Dealey Plaza the previous November had blown a hole deep into the American psyche just as sure as it did into JFK himself. As you both described very well, we watched the horrified reaction of our elders who vainly tried to shield the children of the early sixties from the aweful truth of what happened that day in Texas. But there was no hiding from it. The all-pervasive gloom had taken hold that entire weekend. The indelible images were forever to be a part of those who lived through it...regardless of age. I was just a grade school kid from Jersey-home that particular Friday with asthma, watching a Slinky toy making it's way down a steep flight of stairs in the dim hallway of our apartment building. Inside the apartment my mother was ironing while watching The Edge of Night on our black and white Motorola. Suddenly I heard her call out from inside "Oh my God !", which startled me enough to lose all interest in the Slinky and came running in to ask her what was wrong. She said nothing. She had pulled the plug on the iron and was seated in the den's brown-upholstered lounge chair with a look of horror on her face that I'd never seen before or since. She stared intently at the tv set, and there was Cronkite himself, I recall seeing how ashen-faced and shaken he was as he broke the news to a nation taken totally unaware. Kennedy was shot. We did not hear "dead" yet just "shot in a motorcade". The rest of that weekend was kind of a blur for me. As a child of 10, the full impact of this event was lost on me, but the pall of the people around me was remembered...even now, 44 years later I can see in my mind's eye Ruby shooting Oswald, the solemn funeral procession through Washington DC, Jackie Kennedy's dark veil (and her numb, stunned yet stoic face behind it)...and I remember John John saluting....everyone alive at that time remembers that. It was....all too much.
Then came 1964. The early weeks of this new year brought no relief from the national trauma and no one ever suspected the amazing uplift that was just around the corner. In the grief-stricken winter months of 1963 there were curious murmors coming from across the Atlantic of this "new" music which was stirring up the UK. Of course, American AM radio was still heavily-laden with teen idol fluff from Bobby Vee to Shelley Faberes with seemingly no end in sight....but these "artists" had no idea that their days were surely numbered. That winter, I remember some blonde-haired girl in a seat two rows away from me in school excitingly saying something about "the beetles are coming" (b-e-e-t-l-e-s We thought at first she meant she was bringing insects in for Show-and-Tell, but we soon got wise. When I look back I think that kid must've been in the "in" crowd or something..apparently the little miscreant had caught the "bug" before the rest of us and I remain eternally jealous of her for that   (anyway, by January of the new year the "buzz" was everywhere. The anticipation of almost every kid and teen in the tri-state area was palpable. The late-great "Murray-The-K" of WNEW radio in NYC was really stoking the flames (and Bruce Morrow "Cousin Brucie"-another very famous NY DJ I grew up with at the time had also joined the formidable hype-bandwagon)--this is why when The Fab finally got here (to NY first, I'm proud to say), American kids were READY--there in frenzied, fainting force. As for me, I wasn't lucky enough to be at JFK International that cold February day in '64 --but I made up for that a year later when the guys invaded Shea Stadium--mind you, I was miles away from the stage and they were tiny little figures that I couldnt hear either, but I knew I could still claim bragging rights in my old age by being one of the lucky few to say they actually saw THE BEATLES IN CONCERT !...a memory I'll cherish till I die. The kids at the airport no longer had anything on me.
Then came Sullivan.. MY GOD WHAT AN EVENT!  I think everyone in the U.S. was watching CBS that night. It's been said that there was hardly any crime on the streets that evening..I remember the anticipation of sitting in front of the bigger tv in the family room impatiently sitting through intermidable "pop-pop, fizz fizz" Alka-Seltzer and Chevy commercials waiting for Sullivan to come back on..
The vivid memories I have of that night remain staggering. Before Ed could even finish introducing them, the incessant screaming began and never let up for the entire show! (That noise of course is now considered a hallmark of Beatlemania, but it took a little getting used to in the early days--eventually it drove the boys themselves nuts) Luckily, the sound reproduction that fabled Sunday evening was good (at least for that time) and we could actually hear JPGR. (nevertheless, I can't help remembering my mother's famous comment--"it's all too loud!" with loving affection)(and yes, my father complained about their hair --as did every self-respecting patriarch of that era. Thankfully all these criticisms ultimately fell on dead ears..shut up, Dad!!..The Beatles are on !!))Looking back, the whole thing was new, exciting AND revolutionary. I hate having to repeat this tired old phrase..but...you really had to be there to appreciate the mood of the country then.
From national tragedy to the all-encompassing novelty of Beatlemania all occurring in such a short time span was stunning.  After Kennedy, we really thought we'd never recover. Children watching their parents crying at the breakfast table, flags continually hung at half mast, nothing seemed secure. But from darkness came light....and it was a light that emanated from a truly unlikely source...it came in the form of four English boys from Merseyside. From Sullivan onwards I've remained a dedicated (even fanatical) Beatle fan. It's means just about everything to me (note to self: dude, you gotta get out more ) Seriously, I believe wholeheartedly that God planned the timing of their historic arrival to these then heartbroken shores. Nothing is ever by accident. JPGR saved this country from unraveling at a crucial, harrowing  juncture in our history. I believe this. At least no one can deny they saved America's kids.  Where would we have gone in those gloomy, frenetic days?? The Beatles are the rightful owners of my childhood...not the Yankees, not Batman...the Beatles  LONG LIVE THE FAB

OH, i would have done anything to have been there!!! i was born toooooooooo late!

that's ok Andy..if u love The Beatles, that's good enough !!

Quoted from Mean Mr. Mustard

"the beetles are coming" (b-e-e-t-l-e-s  We thought at first she meant she was bringing insects in for Show-and-Tell, but we soon got wise.

Great write-up, Mean Mr. Mustard. Thanks so much for sharing such rich memories.

As for many, it was the first 'Ed Sullivan Show' appearance that turned my life around. What a night!

Great posts, Mean Mr.Mustard! I really enjoyed reading your personal experiences, and thanks for sharing! Unfortunately, I wasn't around to see all of this happen (I'm just 16), except for in my Beatle movies. But, both of my parents say that they remember Beatlemania and watching them on the Ed Sullivan Show. My mom was about 8 and my dad about 7 at the time. My mom especially was a big fan before they appeared on the show, and she remembers her two older sisters sitting inches in front of the tv screen, and practically crying and just going hysterical! She also remembers dancing around the room to the music! And my dad said he heard She Loves You play endlessly on the radio every single morning for weeks. My mom collected every single one of those trading cards that came with the bubble gum, and EVERYTHING else Beatley. Unfortunately, when she moved out of her parents' house, her mom threw ALL OF IT AWAY!!! That stuff would be worth soooo much now, and plus I would enjoy it soooooo much. The only thing we have is some old records she had from the '60s, and 4 books, including In His Own Write, all over 40 years old. I'm so angry that all of that valuable stuff is gone!  

I really wish that I could've been around to see all of this happen, my movies can't compare to actually being there. You and all of the other people that experienced it must feel very proud and lucky to have been there. I even feel nostalgic when watching Beatle movies of this time, even though I wasn't there. I really feel like I'm living in the '60s most of the time. I love everything about that decade, especially the music and the Beatles. It's funny, 'cause most kids around today love that thing they call music that's around now. I'm fortunately out of the ordinary, because I love all of the music from back then! A lot (I'm not saying all) of kids nowadays really don't understand what true music is, and they don't understand about the impact that the Beatles had on this world. They don't even know the names of the Beatles, what decade they're from, what some of their songs are, nothing. They're missing out on something truly special, that happened over 40 years ago and is still continuing to happen today. They have no idea about Beatlemania and what it is. I'm just very thankful that I discovered this wonderous thing called the Beatles. I'm not really sure how, but I think our lives today might be different if not for the Beatles having the huge impact that they did.

And I agree that everything truly happens for a reason, and the Beatles are like the epitomy of that. LONG LIVE THE BEATLES!!!

Hi Mean Mr Mustard!!

I tried posting this to you in a PM but it kept bouncing back fro some reason. Anyway....

I just wanted to say that the two pieces you wrote in the "How did you discover..." section were bloody brilliant!! To get a perspective from someone who was not only was there, but was permanently affected by the events of that Feb in 1964 is just priceless!

I am REALLY looking forward to hearing your Shea Stadium story!

If I haven't said it already, WELCOME ABOARD MATE!

Speak soon

All the best

AL