"A Day In a Life"
9.February, 1964
Where were you on this date?...
Sundays were the one night we got to eat in the living room and usually it was the only time my family ordered "take-out" pizza (nobody delivered it, you had to go pick it up) . And we usually watched the same TV line-up that included BONANZA and maybe My Favorite Martian but definitely The Ed Sullivan Show. This sunday was not that different than any other except for one thing. My mom informed me earlier this weekend that she read in her TIME magazine that The Beatles -- "some rock and roll band from England" -- were to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show this night. I don't really know if I had any clue other than her telling me so. Being a parochial school 9 year old, my "hip" factor was pretty low.
And I don't really know quite how I felt about seeing John, Paul, George and Ringo that first time. The screaming girls were weird, that was for sure. I joked about that. And I also joked about their hair cuz this short haired 4th grader who got the annual "summer buzz-cut" just had never seen such a thing.... especially with all the shakin' of their heads...
But there was a part me that just kept silent cuz the music was "different".... this whole band thing ...the guitars and drums.... not like Perry Como or Harry Belafonte music my mom would occasionaly play on her hi-fi or Hank Williams and Jim Reeves music like my grandmother always played on my weekend visits.
But I don't think it really sunk in til the week that followed. Less in the schoolyard but more in my neighborhood, the girls! were all talkin' about The Beatles... the girls being a year or two older, one of them had bought their album -- not Meet The Beatles but the Vee-Jay release -- and so I got to hear "that music" again!... And it was like a virus spreading, cuz soon EVERYONE -- schoolmates and neighborhood friends -- was talking about them! And it was a virus of sorts, it was beatlemania and we ALL got it!
One week later we all were glued to the TV when The Beatles again appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show...and by this time John, Paul, George and Ringo were "IT!" The Beatles had landed! and beatlemania had taken root!
We bought the music -- the 45's and vinyl LP's.... collected the bubble cards... The Beatle dolls... the fanzines..... it was an epidemic!
Three girls in my neighborhood "chose" their favorite BEATLE and would lip-synch to the albums. I got to be "RINGO" in that band! (I eventually made cardboard copies of "the guitars" but our first ones were croquet mallets). It was "PLAY" but it soon lead to me pursuing some "kinda beat" first on a toy drum from W.T. Grants then on to a SEARS plastic snare drum on a real metal stand (Xmas present 1965) to finally a $200. Yamaha kit I bought with my paper route savings.
I never really "cut it" as a drummer (great time-keeper). When the whole "band thing" came to my town somewhere in 1967-68, a friend convince me to buy a Japanese copy of a Hofner bass -- looked just like Paul's! -- and join this band that already had a drummer and plenty of six-stringers.... and well, the story goes on....
That's what "started" for me on 9.February, 1964
If you'd like to read more about my adventures in "bandoholism" as a result of this "beatlemania" thing, CLICK HERE
If you got a story to tell about what happened on 9.February, 1964 or just a "Beatle story". I'd like to hear it!
Here's one story....
She was born seven years later on Feb.9,1971. She played in my band, the elements, 2001-2002. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Sonia!