Woodstock

[kelber at mindspring.com]

The first time I heard about the Beatles was when my big sister dealt out 4 Beatle bubblegum cards (the black and white ones) and told me that these were the Beatles and I had to pick out my favorite.  I pointed to George, and she said "No, he's mine," so I pointed to Paul.  I've felt called upon to defend him against nay-sayers to this day.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
>Sent: Aug 16, 2009 10:39 PM
>To: Pynchon Liste <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: Woodstock
>
>The first time I heard the Beatles was at a "sock hop" (yes) at the  
>"Y" during Christmas vacation 1963.  (Note - this was less than a  
>month after President Kennedy was shot in Dallas.  I think the Beatles  
>music and phenomenon was a part of our recovery process - for the kids  
>anyway.)
>
>I'm pretty sure the song that was playing that night was "I Want To  
>Hold Your Hand."   I'd not heard it before and I wasn't impressed.   I  
>wanted them to play "The Bird"   ("Bird.  Bird.  The bird is the  
>word.   Well a bird, bird bird,  well a bird is the word.   Have you  
>heard about the bird?  Everybody's heard that the bird is the word.     
>Bird bird bird well the b-bird's the word." - something like that -  
>very, very hard, fast, heavy beat,  danceable surf-type music.   When  
>it came on everyone in the room jumped up and started dancing with  
>whomever was standing there - alone if necessary.
>
>So with that competition, I wasn't terribly impressed by the Beatles  
>until I saw them in Life magazine a month or so later.  "I Want To  
>Hold Your Hand"  was not exactly revolutionary music.  It was heavy on  
>harmony and the lyrics were quite sweet.  This was NOT "... makin'  
>love underneath the apple tree."
>
>I think I fell when I saw their photo in the back of Life or Saturday  
>Evening Post some time in January.     When they came on the Ed  
>Sullivan show in February (1964) I was in my girlfriend's basement  
>screaming and crying with the best of them.   I saw all three shows.   
>Never got to go to a concert  - probably would have been too much for  
>me.   (heh)
>
>Shoot, kids,  I remember this stuff better than I remember what I had  
>for dinner.
>
>Bekah
>http://web.mac.com/bekker2/
>
>On Aug 16, 2009, at 10:42 AM, Henry Musikar wrote:
>
>> Don't confuse rock'n'roll with rock.  Beatles started out by making  
>> R&R a
>> little smarter with some off/jazzy notes thrown in, and one might  
>> say that
>> as they developed, they created, for better or for worse, rock  
>> without the
>> roll.
>>
>> If you heard the Beatles when they first washed up on the American  
>> East
>> coast (DC, Ed Sullivan, and Shea Stadium), you almost definitely  
>> remember
>> how much gd fun "our boys" were.
>>
>> Henry Musikar
>> Sr. IT Consultant
>> http://astore.amazon.com/tdcoccamsaxe-20/
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Robin Landseadel
>>
>> John Carvill wrote:
>>
>> The Beatles cooked up the Art School shuffle, took scruffy low-class
>> Rock & Roll by the neck, fed it latest psychotropics  and made self-
>> consciously arty "Statements" like "Revolver" and "Sergeant Pepper's
>> Lonely hearts Club Band."  One could say they destroyed "Rock & Roll"
>> in the process but a musical infrastructure as flimsy as Rock & Roll
>> could be blown away in a heavy downpour anyway. One just might look
>> upon Woodstock as that downpour. By the time Woodstock rolled around I
>> already turned my back on the new noises and turned toward the past
>> and genuine musical revolutionaries like Berlioz & Beethoven.
>>
>> A huge part of the Beatles Myth comes out of their early "interviews"
>> with the New York press corps, where they displayed just as much
>> cynicism and "cheek" as the ink-stained wretches of the press, circa
>> 1964. The Beatles were College students-"Art School" students, fer
>> chrisakes-not factory workers, and it showed. Reminds me of Elvis
>> Costello-the music critics loved him 'cause he looked just like 'em.
>>
>> Chuck Berry-there's your factory worker. Helps to explain the  
>> assembly-
>> line nature of his musical compositions.
>>
>> Of course, Mick Jagger was on course for a MBA before he figured there
>> was a bigger paycheck in playing "black" for teenagers too hormonally
>> overwrought to know what hit 'em.
>>
>>
>
>http://web.mac.com/bekker2/
>
>On Aug 16, 2009, at 10:42 AM, Henry Musikar wrote:
>
>> Don't confuse rock'n'roll with rock.  Beatles started out by making  
>> R&R a
>> little smarter with some off/jazzy notes thrown in, and one might  
>> say that
>> as they developed, they created, for better or for worse, rock  
>> without the
>> roll.
>>
>> If you heard the Beatles when they first washed up on the American  
>> East
>> coast (DC, Ed Sullivan, and Shea Stadium), you almost definitely  
>> remember
>> how much gd fun "our boys" were.
>>
>> Henry Musikar
>> Sr. IT Consultant
>> http://astore.amazon.com/tdcoccamsaxe-20/
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Robin Landseadel
>>
>> John Carvill wrote:
>>
>> The Beatles cooked up the Art School shuffle, took scruffy low-class
>> Rock & Roll by the neck, fed it latest psychotropics  and made self-
>> consciously arty "Statements" like "Revolver" and "Sergeant Pepper's
>> Lonely hearts Club Band."  One could say they destroyed "Rock & Roll"
>> in the process but a musical infrastructure as flimsy as Rock & Roll
>> could be blown away in a heavy downpour anyway. One just might look
>> upon Woodstock as that downpour. By the time Woodstock rolled around I
>> already turned my back on the new noises and turned toward the past
>> and genuine musical revolutionaries like Berlioz & Beethoven.
>>
>> A huge part of the Beatles Myth comes out of their early "interviews"
>> with the New York press corps, where they displayed just as much
>> cynicism and "cheek" as the ink-stained wretches of the press, circa
>> 1964. The Beatles were College students-"Art School" students, fer
>> chrisakes-not factory workers, and it showed. Reminds me of Elvis
>> Costello-the music critics loved him 'cause he looked just like 'em.
>>
>> Chuck Berry-there's your factory worker. Helps to explain the  
>> assembly-
>> line nature of his musical compositions.
>>
>> Of course, Mick Jagger was on course for a MBA before he figured there
>> was a bigger paycheck in playing "black" for teenagers too hormonally
>> overwrought to know what hit 'em.
>>
>>
>
>