50 years ago it was, if you for some reason are unable to work it out, 4 September 1962. by a quirk of the way of the calendar, much like 4 September 2012 it was a Tuesday. something happened on this day back then that you kind of really, really hope something similar is happening right now. what happened is one of those rare things that truly changes the world - for the better.
what was it? four young men, for the first time together, walked into a recording studio called Abbey Road and recorded five or six songs.
pedantics shall point out that versions of the band had indeed been in a studio before, but today marks the 50th anniversary of The Beatles as the world knows them recorded together.
yes, sure, "popular" music had been recorded before - Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly and indeed The King, Elvis Presley, had in two of those cases had their full careers and lives cut short by 1962. it was The Beatles, though, that changed things.
all of a sudden, music and the musicians that made it could seem like the be all and the end all of lives, particularly of course "teenagers". the 'Beatlemania' phenomenon was like nothing before it but would become the way of music. those with the good looks and outstanding music would come to have their pictures hanging on the walls of millions of bedrooms, their records on even more turntables.
it was not just popularity that The Beatles brought. their music, a variant of skiffle and considered to be disposable, trivial entertainment, soon attracted praise, careful consideration and appreciation from critics and classical ("proper", if you will) musicians alike. this "noise" that seemed to attract fleeting attention from the young simply would not go away, disposable popular music transformed into an art form in the hands of The Beatles and their peers.
one of the songs recorded on this day 50 years ago was Love Me Do. i remember seeing a documentary on Liverpool and it showed this song as part of a new phenomenon - fans at the Kop End of Anfield sang it in unison during matches. sadly the songs sung now at Anfield and beyond tend not to be as melodic or pleasant, but at least it all started with the greatest of intentions.
oddly, i've had the 'Red' best of set from The Beatles on in the car recently. William simply can't get enough of them, insisting that i rather put "Daddy Music" on instead should i have a different disc in. that The Beatles ended some 3 or so years before i was born puts an odd spin on "Daddy Music", although in fairness i would refer to them as being my Daddy's music too!
pretty much any day is a good a day as the next to give The Beatles a spin, but if you've not played them for a bit, well, why not today?
from me to you,
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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