Were you alive 50 years ago?

[Archae]

I was, I was 3 years old.

[cliffordu]

1. I was

EVERTHING changed then.

I know it seems impossible, but it's true.

Fucking astounding.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Yes, I was in high school and was one of the few (very few) who did not like the Beatles.

[Archae]

5. You didn't like the Beatles?

Why?

[Arkansas Granny]

10. I didn't think they were that good at the time and they were played incessantly on the radio.

My sister had a large poster of them in our bedroom, they were on the covers of all the teen magazines. Everywhere you looked it was Beatles, Beatles, Beatles. It just turned me off.

[Archae]

13. What about nowadays?

Still dislike them?

[Arkansas Granny]

15. Some of their later stuff was OK, but I still think most of their early stuff was unremarkable and

overrated. I have never bought or owned any of their records, tapes, albums or cd's.

[Archae]

17. I agree.

Sgt Pepper was one of their best.

[LiberalElite]

68. Some of the early stuff wasn't so great -

like "Love Me Do" - makes me cringe. But they were just starting out.

[Arkansas Granny]

69. "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was the one that made me cringe.

[LiberalElite]

71. Any others? There are several

Beatles songs I can't stand, for instance anything they recorded in foreign languages. Also, Mr. Moonlight nearly makes me want to run out of the room screaming AAAACK!

[B Calm]

6. Did you go to Heber Springs to see President Clinton

couple weeks ago? My brother who lives in Heber got a photograph signed.

[Arkansas Granny]

7. No, that's almost a 3 hour drive from where I live.

[B Calm]

9. You up around Mountain Home?

[Arkansas Granny]

11. No, Fort Smith.

[B Calm]

14. Real close to Red State Oklahoma!

[Arkansas Granny]

16. Yep. It's about a 15 minute walk from my front door to the state line.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

30. I used to live in Fort Smith when I was a small child back in the 1950s

My dad and his entire family was from Fort Smith and he grew up there. My grand parents had a big two-story Victorian style house on Grand Avenue, not far from downtown. My grand dad worked in the railroad in Fort Smith as a train engineer, moving trains from one track to another in the roundhouse. I lived in a small house (don't remember the street) right off Grand Avenue next to a park with a statue of a World War One soldier and that also had Chinese style gazebos in it. The bridge spanning the Arkansas River from Fort Smith to Moffett, Oklahoma was inaugurated when my grand ma was a young girl and she was voted the beauty queen who cut the ribbon to open it, many years ago.

[Arkansas Granny]

35. You wouldn't recognize Fort Smith now. I moved here in the late 60's and so much has

changed since then. That statue that you remember was at Tilles Park. That was where I used to take my kids when they were growing up. The statue has been moved to the American Legion post after being vandalized at the park. You can read about it here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunnybrook100/2079221043/

[Sherman A1]

91. Same here

I was a bit younger, but never did like any of their songs nor really much of the whole rock n roll era. A piece here or there, but that's about it.

[Bertha Venation]

3. I was a little more than 7 months old. n/t

[B Calm]

4. I was almost 13 years old.

[Ptah]

37. Me too.

Just weeks from my thirteenth birthday.

[pipi_k]

8. Oh yeah...

I was 11 years old.

A couple of the boys let their hair grow and started wearing the Beatles suits to school.

[Archae]

12. And I'll bet the school administrators threw a fit.

[pipi_k]

18. They did, but

it was mostly about the hair.

Nearly every guy during that time had one of those "buzz" cuts. So the school administrators (and nearly every other adult) were convinced that the Beatles haircuts were going to doom Society.

[handmade34]

21. Oh...

hair really scared the establishment really, funny but seriously... my brother who is 3 years older than me was not allowed to graduate high school because he refused to cut his hair (he was in a local band at the time)

[In_The_Wind]

19. Yes, I was 15.

[img][/img]

[Scuba]

78. Me too, and they're still my favorite band of all time.

[Paladin]

20. 21 November 1963? That was a Thursday---I know that without looking it up.

I imagine those of you who are around my age---I was 13 at the time---know it was a Thursday, as well.....

[nolabear]

26. *sigh*

[Blue_In_AK]

51. I recall that, too,

because our homecoming game was the next night, which they went ahead with, because it was "what the president would have wanted." It wasn't a very good time.

[Paladin]

59. I find it tough to think about, even now. (nt)

[walkerbait41]

22. Yes I was 13 years old

[benld74]

23. Yup I didnt care about much then, most 7 year old kids just wanna play

[HappyMe]

24. I was 5.

Probably was playing or something.

[nolabear]

25. I still have the scar.

I was eight and The Beatles were coming on Sullivan. My girlfriend Michiko and I were at her trailer, desperate to improve reception on her TV, so naturally we climbed up onto the top of the thing to monkey with the antenna. No, I didn't fall off; I just gouged hell out of my forearm on something metal. There was no way I was going to miss them, so I just put something on it and we went on.

It was, as I recall, wonderful. My parents were very anti-Beatles (anti-damneareverything, really) so most of my early formative experiences were at friends' houses. I have no idea how I explained the cut, but I smile every time I look at the very faint scar.

[Archae]

33. Ouch!

My Dad especially hated the Beatles, (he was a big polka fan,) but he said once that the Beatles caused all the druggies in the country.

I said to my Dad that his favorite polka band leader then was to blame for all the boozers.

(My Mom didn't like that band leader, Romy Gosz, because he loved to fool around with all his groupies.)

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

27. I was in Junior High - 13 years old

[CanSocDem]

28. Sixteen and ready for...

...something new.

Not that it wasn't hard to give up all the "Bobby's" in my collection:

Darin, Rydell, Vinton, Vee, Fuller, Gentry, Hadfield etc. etc.......


.

[warrior1]

29. Yes

I was 7.

[hamsterjill]

31. I was 4 and already a Beatles fan!

I don't think I actually knew who or what the Beatles were, but my two older sisters did, and I wanted to be cool like them...so I liked the Beatles!!

Lucky for me, as I grew up and had the chance to learn for myself who the Beatles were and what they stood for -I still liked them and do to this day.

[rug]

32. Yes but I was not yet masturbating.

[Iggo]

34. Only burly.

I was a few days shy of 3.

[mnhtnbb]

36. Yes. I was 12--in 7th grade.

[OriginalGeek]

38. I was negative 2 months old

ask again in December

[Still Blue in PDX]

39. I was 9.

My mom actually bought me the album "Introducing the Beatles." I didn't have a clue who they were.

[elleng]

40. Yes, in college, a great time!

[RebelOne]

41. I remember when the Beatles invaded the U.S.

I was 24 years old. I wasn't impressed with their music, but of course, most of it is classic today.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

42. I was alive then; I was 20 and in college...

I LOVED them.

Still do!

[Demoiselle]

62. I was in college. I loved (make that LOVE) them, too.

[truegrit44]

43. I was 17 in high school and remember it well.......

I wanna hold your hand played 24 hours a day on the radio it seemed! I thought they were ok but didn't go wild over them. I had a steady bf and my mind was on him most all the time.

One way I was a real maverick tho is I HATED Elvis and still do, can not stand him!

[sakabatou]

44. Not me

My parents on the other hand probably did see it.

[mulsh]

45. I was 6 in '63. The first time I heard the Beatles I my mother was driving us to my grandparent's

house. Almost as soon as the song started she pulled the car over and turned the radio up a bit. After that the Beatles were played all the time on local (SF bay area) radio stations. This was a few months before they appeared on Ed Sullivan's show.

My dad was teaching 4th & 5th grade, CA had a dance requirement for grammar school kids. Mostly they learned square dance but my dad would buy rock and jazz records and teach kids current dances. He bought two copies of the Vee Jay "Introducting the Beatles" record and gave one to my brother and me. I still have both copies.

I prefer their early songs. the stuff from around the White Album on mostly sounds like a dirge to me.

Get their BBC cd's if you want to hear why they were such a screaming band. L

[Auggie]

60. We're the same age mulsh

My grandfather bought me my first Beatles album. I listened to that thing over and over again on a little portable record much like the one shown here.

[haele]

46. Yes, in fact I just turned 4 today - fifty years ago.

So today, I'm 27 the second time around.

I also remember seeing "The Yellow Submarine" in a theatre in Berkley, CA when it came out (a matinee treat that was part of Dad's birthday present, from what I can recall), and saturday morning cartoons at my friend's house (who had a color console TV!) watching the short-lived Beatles cartoon.


Haele

[Boomerproud]

47. I do remember this. I was 7.

I was in the second grade and just got my first pair of those god-awful cat eye glasses. To answer another post-yes, it was a Thursday and my parents and I drove up to Akron, Ohio to fetch my then 13-year-old brother who was a freshman at a seminary (no, he never came close to becoming a priest) for Thanksgiving (I assume).

[livetohike]

48. Yes. I was 11 years old and in teeny bopper heaven

George was my favorite Beatle and he still is .

[WCGreen]

49. The Beatle 'sound' was cultivated in the the years they spent in Hamburg Germany...

Hamburg was a port town and the sailors from all over the world worked hard and demanded good entertainment as they spent their free time off the boats in clubs where the Beatles honed their craft.

One of the reason they were able to adapt musically is because they had to play tunes from the 30's, 40's and 50's to placate the patrons they were hired to entertain.

So if you listen to the songs and how they progress, you could actually hear all those influences. Plus they played seven days a week, twelve hours a day honing their craft.

The Beatles are unique in that they paid a lot of dues that 99.99% of all the "pop" groups never did. They literally played and performed and developed until they got, as John once proclaimed at the end of a song, I got blisters on my fingers...

[steve2470]

55. interesting, never knew all that nt

[Art_from_Ark]

77. I think it was actually Paul who got blisters on his fingers

at the end of Helter Skelter

[nomorenomore08]

80. Nope, Ringo. That voice is unmistakable.

[Blue_In_AK]

50. Yes, I was.

I was 17, the prime demographic.

[sinkingfeeling]

52. I was 15.

[snappyturtle]

53. Yep. "Sweet" 16....good times. nt

[steve2470]

54. yep I think I saw that, I was 5 nt

[malthaussen]

56. Yep, seven years old.

But I frankly don't remember that or the more important event that happened the next day... I do remember the first Ed Sullivan appearance, though.

-- Mal

[MuseRider]

57. Just a few weeks shy of 10.

They changed my life. After this I discovered I no longer had to be who my parents wanted me to be. The set up was clear, they HATED the Beatles and I loved them. Ahhhhh preteen angst.

[Ron Obvious]

58. Yeah...

But I was about 50 years younger than I am today if you can believe that. Bloody hell, time flies.

[47of74]

61. No.

12 years before my time.

[texanwitch]

63. I was nine years old.

I do remember the old kids getting all excited about them but I didn't care.

[trof]

64. I was 22 and in USAF pilot training. I was in the Officer's Club and a friend grabbed me.

I was from Alabama, and not so hip.
My way cool classmate was a surfer from California.
I was drinking nickel beer in the Stag Bar and Mitch came in.
(You could come in the Stag Bar in your flying suit. Not allowed in the main bar.)

"Hey man, you gotta see this. Come back in the TV room."
"What?"
"THE BEATLES, MAN!"
"Who?"
"THE BEATLES! ON ED SULLIVAN. WHERE YOU BEEN?"

And that was my first exposure.
Liked their early stuff.
Not so much the Sgt. Pepper and later.

[DinahMoeHum]

65. I was 7 in 1963, but I don't recall watching the Beatles. . .

. . .until 1964 (on the Ed Sullivan Show)

[cristianmarie533]

66. No

Though I often wish I was around during that era. It would be a very interesting experience, to experience firsthand what the 1960s were like.

[LiberalElite]

67. Yes -

I remember the Kennedy assassination like it was yesterday. I was in 8th Grade. On a lighter note, I knew about the Beatles before anyone I knew because I had a pen-pal in England who was constantly writing letters about them and sending me fan mag articles.

[frogmarch]

70. I was 19, which means

I'm old enough to have babysat the parents of some DUers.

I wish I hadn't thought of that.

I remember the British Invasion very well. (Not the one during the American Revolution.)

I loved the Beatles!

[femmocrat]

72. Yes and I still love the Beatles.

I don't know if I remember the Ed Sullivan performance or just remember it from clips.

[IrishEyes]

73. Not unless reincarnation is real.

I think I might have fit in in the 1960s. My conservative republican father affectionately calls me his "pinko, commie, liberal, hippie daughter".

[Generic Brad]

74. Old enough to remember that

It was a seminal moment in my family life.

[kwassa]

75. I saw Ringo and wife walking down the street ....

in the early '90s in LA.

I saw this newscast and the Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show at the ripe old age of 11 in 1963.

I was more fascinated with all the screaming by the girls than the band. I had never seen such hysteria before. I wished I could inspire it.

I didn't actually like the music until much later. My first rock album, a birthday gift, was Rubber Soul. It is still a great album.

[DFW]

79. Sure

But it feels like about 500 years ago.

[nomorenomore08]

81. No. I was born in October, but not for 21 more years.

My parents would've been 8 and 7. But whereas I don't think they were ever particularly Beatles fans, I've been listening my whole life - had a tape of 'Sgt. Pepper' in Kindergarten, which along with Tom Petty's 'Full Moon Fever' was one of the first albums I owned.

[tandot]

82. I was born March 1964

So, I was kinda trying to make it in my mom's uterus

[SteveG]

83. I was 13

in 8th grade. I was never a big fan of the Beatles.

[murielm99]

84. I was fifteen.

What a year that was!

The Beatles, the Kennedy assassination, and I was allowed to date for the first time.

I think it is hard enough to be a teenager, without all the wrenching changes we were experiencing in those times. There was no routine, just one jarring change after another.

[Sancho]

85. I like the Beetles...

listened to them on the AM radio and saw them on tv. I had some records. I still think they were ground-breaking and creative.

The 60's were quite a time of social change, and the Beetles were a big part of it. My parents hated them.

[AngryOldDem]

86. I was 3, as well.

In fact -- my first, really clear memory is the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. The TV happened to be on that morning.

[LWolf]

87. Yes. nt

[Shrek]

88. I was 3 months old

But I remember it clearly.

[Taverner]

89. Nope. I was alive for Abbey Road tho (1970)

[No Vested Interest]

90. Yes, married with two kids!

[hermetic]

92. Yes. 15

I liked the Rolling Stones better than the Beatles. Until Rubber Soul. That won me over forever, and of course they just kept getting better. I finally got to see Ringo's All Star Band some years ago and it was almost as good. Clapton played Harrison's songs and many of us in the audience were crying our eyes out.

[tabbycat31]

93. no

And to put things in Beatles terms, I was 8 months old when John Lennon was killed.