The Fab Four

On By ptero9In Music

Although I was only five at the time the Beatles played on the Ed Sullivan show, I already knew who they were. That’s because my big sister was eight. Admittedly, I had no idea what the big deal was and at the time the only song I knew of theirs was She Loves You, yeah, yeah, yeah.

A black and white image of four men are standing in front of a crowd of people at the bottom of an aeroplane staircase.But by the end of 1964, my sister and I were dancing and singing to the Beatles ’65 album on my parents stereo. Yes, stereo, because my dad was an audiophile even before stereo was available. We had AR speakers, a pro turntable and reel-to-reel tape deck to fill the house with every genre of music imaginable.

In the late 60’s Dad built an amplifier/tuner from a Heathkit. Of course he preferred classical recordings like the William Tell Overture and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture to the Beatles, Monkees or even my mom’s collections that included the Broadway musical’s South Pacific, Oklahoma and The Sound of Music. But his extremely high audio standards was a benefit to us because he sampled speakers before he bought them by testing out the sound quality to the cannons in the 1812 Overture. If the stereo sounded great when those cannons boomed, imagine what the Beatles “I Feel Fine” sounded like. Of course some credit must be given to the Beatles genius record producer George Martin.

Back then, all the girls liked Paul so I liked Ringo (of course – he was the drummer). We would listen to Beatle albums endlessly and my sister to this day, has a great collection of the Beatles on vinyl. We grew up alongside all the phases of their music and of course followed the tv coverage of the Paul is deadĀ “hearings.”

I remember crying my eyes out when in 1969 they announced their break up. How could they do that to us? šŸ™‚

Anyway, In the late 70’s I very much enjoyed seeing Beatlemania on Broadway in spite of my expectation that I could never like a fake substitute. Geesh, “Paul” didn’t even play left-handed!

So, this summer when I found out that the Fab Four, a California-based cover band would be playing at the coast here in Oregon, my husband and I decided to buy tickets.

It’s hard to decide which Beatle tunes I want them to play, but here is my set list:

I’ll Follow the Sun

And Your Bird Can Sing

You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away

The Night Before

Rain

Tell Me Why

She Said She Said

Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite

Dear Prudence

I Will

Oh Darling

Here Comes the Sun

Two of Us

Let it Be

Any Beatles fans out there?

26 thoughts on “The Fab Four”

    1. Thank you! Linda is a sweetie as are so many in this blog community. Even though we all bring a slightly different angle into focus, I think at heart there are a lot of people here who are ready to find and make peace in their lives and the lives of others.
      I am enjoying reading your blog with my morning tea as I write…:)

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  4. Does it count that I got kicked out of the Beatles museum in Liverpool once? Although it would be fun to say that it was for attacking a piece of memorabilia in a fit of passion, it was because the fire alarm kept going off. šŸ™‚ -x.M

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  5. David Holmes

    I built a massive website to The Beatles, called Beatles Number 9. I won’t post the URL so as not to spam you, but they sure changed my whole world!! šŸ™‚

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  6. I always find it fascinating, how the Beatles and many other British bands managed to reach such an incredible fame worldwide, especially now that I’m living in the UK and feel it’s an incredibly small country. šŸ˜€

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    1. That is a good point Jane. …and not even London, but Liverpool of all places.
      I find the entire Beatle mania phenomenon fascinating. Love ’em or hate ’em, they, along with very few others (Elvis, Michael Jackson), will always have a very unique place in cultural history, I think.

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  7. There was an argument at my house the night they were on Ed Sullivan. Walt Disney was showing ‘The Scarecrow’ which I wanted to watch and my kid brother wanted to see the Beatles. The Beatles won out (thank god). Disney ended up repeating the scarecrow movie with Patrick McGoohan (of The Prisoner fame) later anyway (which I still have fond memories of )

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    1. Walt Disney was usually on in our house too. I don’t remember much about the Ed Sullivan show the night it was on, but certainly all the talk and hype around that time, mostly from my sister and an older cousin.

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    1. If I Fell, yes good one. My friend Regina had alternate lyrics for that one.
      If I pushed you in the sewer
      Would you promise to be truer
      …and so on. Silly girls šŸ™‚
      I think my list was a bit “B” side, but I’ll be happy with any Beatles tunes they play.
      I thought you might be a Heathkit kind of guy, so vintage. šŸ™‚

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      1. haha.. well, my first computer was a Timex Sinclair with 8k of ram and a sequential cassette drive, so yes, I’m afraid I am rather… errr… rustic. šŸ˜€

        I’m also a B side kinda guy — I hate hearing the same A sides on the radio, so that’s why I use my IPOD so much.

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