The Beatles Forever

British invasion

I've been listening to the Bob Spitz biography of the Beatles. Have to say that the Fab Four still inspire me, some 36 years after they broke up. Much of the group's early appeal was that of the clean-scrubbed, adorable mop-tops in matching Beatle suits. This image was pretty much the creation of Brian Epstein, their young manager. As "Johnny and the Moondogs" or "The Quarrymen" (previous names for the group), they had gone for a rough-and-tumble leather jacket look. The innocent music like “Love Me Do” and “She Was Just 17” was also antithetical to the brooding, American style that the earlier Beatles were hoping to co-opt from Elvis Presley or Buddy Holly. The musical selections, like the Beatle suits, were also at the direction and behest of Mr. Epstein.

Good moves from that Mr. Epstein. The Beatles wave actually started in about May of ’63 when George Martin produced their first album. The wave finally crashed upon the American shore in February ’64 when Ed Sullivan featured them on his show. America had just been through a Cuban Missile Crisis and a presidential assassination. Most of the songs getting airplay were about teen angst or rockabilly swagger (see my 2005 blog on the 60’s music). The Beatles presented a new face to masculinity and to musical identity itself. They were fresh-faced, self-effacing, silly and irreverent. To girls they were irresistible, but not ever menacing or dark. For an America whose favorite men were cowboys, astronauts or war heroes, the Beatles represented option “D”, none of the above.

It was possible to be a man who didn’t want to kill, rope, imprison, conquer or master anything in particular. You might just be a man who wants to be – with a Beatles ‘do and a guitar. The impact of their group is still with us today; many who weren’t born when they broke up in 1970 have a complete collection of their CD’s. Likewise, there is no group today, be it Coldplay, Oasis or the Vines that can approach the electric dynamism of the Fab Four. In the group’s later years, they sang “All You Need Is Love”. I might add as a prerequisite to that – you need the Beatles.