I was born in '55 and saw JPG+R on the Ed Sullivan show. The Beatles changed everything. Even at my age then, it was magical and mesmerizing, and I was never the same afterwards.
I grew up in Beaumont, Tx, an oil-industry backwater east of Houston. In a world with three black and white TV channels, no internet, no FM radio, my teenage girlfriend's mother went out and bought her 'Sgt. Pepper's' on the day it was released at the local record store (those are flat, vinyl, analog music storage media for our younger readers) and had it waiting on her bed. We all knew the day it was coming out. We listened to it straight thru and were dumbstruck. They had mustaches and no suits !
And against the backdrop of that was Motown, the rest of the 'British Invasion', the West Caost stuff. AM radio was king, and the charts ruled. Then FM came along, and you could hear all those OTHER tunes that weren't 'chart singles'. I saw Elton touring behind 'Yellow Brick Road', ELP touring 'Brain Salad Surgery', Wishbone Ash, Foghat, Sly, and lots more in Houston. Even remember this little boogie band playing in some of my old beer joints on their way up: ZZ Top.
And yes I would not dare wade into the polititcs of those days. But I will propose a backdrop to all this: When I started first grade in 1960, Kennedy had just replaced Eisenhower as president and the whole world was like an episode of 'Leave It to Beaver'. Ten years later, two Kennedys dead, ML King dead, Woodstock, Kent State, dope, The Pill, and on and on and Nixon was president as Viet Nam was already gone dreadfully wrong. The music was a great escape, but it's hard for me to separate the music and the time period. Though actually, 30 years later, it's actually nice to separate them.
J o e y
