The Invasion: B-day, 2.9.64

Naturally, the first I ever heard of the Beatles was from a wannabe girlfriend in 1963. As you may have figured, I was the “wannabe” in this relationship – she was incredibly beautiful, and no doubt still is, wherever she lives. But if she said, “I love the Beatles,” I had to pay attention.

I was living in New York at the time. No, I wasn’t in the studio on Feb. 9, 1964, when the Beatles debuted on the Ed Sullivan Show. But in those days, just being in NYC was enough. It was in the air, and stayed there. Local legendary DJ Murray the K on WINS used to be the first in the country to play new Beatles releases – they were phoned in to him and his audience – literally, before being released on record in the U.S.

I was privileged to be in London in 1966 for a couple of weeks during a summer between my junior and senior years in college. The British who weren’t in the first wave of the invasion were planning their assault. I was accosted on the street by the “Get Rich Group,” who, upon hearing that I worked at a college radio station in the U.S., played their wannabe hit single for me right in the street.

I used that status of college radio DJ to finagle my way onto one of the pirate radio ships off the U.K. coast. These ships were the only real source of current music for Britain, programmed exactly like American radio stations. I traveled to the ship aboard a skiff out of the British port of Felixstowe. How I survived this experience, I don’t know.

I stayed at a small hotel in London W1, recommended by the radio station personnel. The price I paid was rooming with an Irish dishwasher who insisted on playing a portable record player with failing batteries, so the music was all off-speed. But the band called the Troggs (“Wild Thing”) practiced in the hotel’s basement!

I did visit a local record store. They used to let you sit in booths and listen to records before you bought them. I bought a Beatles Parlophone EP (4 tracks, two on each side). They sounded MUCH better than the Capitol Records releases in the U.S., which seemed somewhat distorted. An audio engineer explained to me that recording standards in the UK were different then.

The Beatles sort of lost me after “Rubber Soul,” but I wasn’t a hippie. Maybe I liked to shower daily too much, don’t know.

But the Beatles were a precious phenomenon: a collective American experience (actually, a worldwide one). That appearance on the Ed Sullivan show was important for many reasons, not the least of which was that it was the first such experience – a joyous one -- after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Believe me, the Fab Four were there when we needed them.

Falling Dominoes

It’s nice when you only have to worry about your legacy and not re-election. President Obama said he was going to make use of executive action, and he has. Attorney General Holder announced that the federal government was extending full rights and benefits – or as much as current law would permit – to same-sex married couples. These rights will apply where federal issues are involved, even in the states (still in the majority) where such marriages are not yet legal.

So it appears Mr. Obama’s “evolution” is now complete in this area – and it begs the question, what’s next? Legalized pot, most of us will probably say. Will the federal government do the same, at least agreeing not to prosecute in states where marijuana use is OK?

It may seem that dominoes fall with great speed and in rapid succession. Of course, they don’t. The actual fall takes no time at all, but the fall is only made possible by very slow but inexorable underground tectonic forces at work long before plain old gravity takes over. Mr. Holder’s announcement was preceded by Stonewall in NYC a half-century or so ago. It’s been more than a half-century since the release of “Reefer Madness.” The abolition of slavery took decades before proclamations were made and laws were signed, and way more than that for full acceptance, which some would argue hasn’t happened yet.

I have my own answers to the “what’s next” questions. For instance, I think the smoking of tobacco will be illegal in 10 to 25 years. Smoking is a pretty big no-no already. Cigarettes are prohibitively expensive. There are fewer and fewer places where one can indulge this habit. When all medical benefits are denied to smokers by the federal government and insurance companies, that will just about be the end. I am old enough to remember smoking. I actually enjoyed it – when “it” included things like the glow of cigarette-ends in the dark during an intimate late-night discussion with a friend.

How about the consumption of red meat? I probably won’t be alive when that’s outlawed, but I have no doubt that it will happen. There will be laws regarding the raising and treatment of cattle. Beef will become prohibitively expensive (if it isn’t already), and eating it will be thought of as barbaric. Personally, I still like the stuff and will be perfectly happy to be outta here when it all comes to pass.

The simple rule is, you stick around on Earth long enough, and what was anathema 50 years ago may now be cool, and what was cool 50 years ago may now be anathema. Some of this is enlightenment, and some may be mostly fickleness – but it takes more time than we think. That’s what history is all about.

Anniversary Waltz

B’day greetings to Facebook, 10 years old today. And no, I don’t want to give it a gift, but it does have a place in my life.

I was first invited to FB by a former colleague who accidentally hit the button to invite all her contacts. In those days, I was worried about the now-quaint concept called privacy, so I didn’t bite. Then I was invited by a former boss, who probably hit the same button. Curiously, to this day, he almost never posts anything, while I, always needing to perform, am whaling away at it.

Addicted? Not quite yet, but a “user” nonetheless. Working alone from home now, I realize how great it was to have actual co-workers, even though I didn’t always like the job. FB allows me to keep in touch with former colleagues. Since most of them are about half my age, they keep me in touch with the world. The real world? That’s another discussion.

There are people in my life whom I never thought would still be in it – and maybe a couple who don’t belong in it – because of this invention, created so that male college students could evaluate females. I could look down my nose at that, but if I were that age and a college student in 2004, I’m sure I would have been a major player.

Now I’m at a certain age where I seem to keep reminding myself that Facebook is an artificial tether. There are those whose lives I wouldn’t be participating in – even those on other continents – were it not for FB. But hang on a minute. Didn’t people of a certain age say that at the arrival of the telegraph, telephone, radio, TV, or Skype -- how all these would alter human interaction forever?

They were right! None of these is a substitute for flesh-and-blood contact. But the healthy among us (not necessarily including me) have managed to make room for these devices in our lives, putting them where they belong.

My dear FB friends, some of you are boring (not many). But some of you are enlightening, some are entertaining, some pierce my soul, and most of you do all these things at one time or another. I just hope I’m holding up my end of the bargain.