"Well, It Was 40 Years Ago Today..."

...the Beatles came to the USA...

Yes indeed, fourty years ago today, the Beatles arrived in America, on the Ed Sullivan Show, and turned music upside down.

Don't argue with me about this, I'm right.

No, they did not invent rock and roll. No, they didn't have as many #1s as Elvis, perhaps. But they achieved heights in music that have still not been reached by any other band. Fourty years after Beatlemania began, after four lads from the working class industrial town of Liverpool crossed the big pond, they are still one of the most well-known and easily-recognized bands in the world. A collection of their number one songs--songs which most everyone already had--still went multi-platinum a few years ago. More than half the nation witnessed their first appearance on Ed Sullivan.

The Beatles are, arguably, the biggest band in rock and roll history. No other band is surrounded in such myth as they. They inspired Dylan (and were in turn inspired by him), they opened the way for bands like the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and countless others, and changed the way rock and roll worked. They wrote their own material, and ignored the plastic pop-rock of few years preceeding their explosion. Every one of their albums--with the exception of the Yellow Submarine Soundtrack, which really wasn't even a full-fledged album--is a classic. Most of them are downright essential to any rock and roll fan's music collection.

I really can't say anything about them that hasn't been said before. I cannot do the body of their musical work any justice by reciting an endless litany of their biggest hits. But I still want to say that they have been and will continue to be my favorite band ever. No other will ever compare, not even the Yeti. There's just no way any group of mortals could ever compare with these gods of music.

I'm sad that George and John are dead. It leaves this empty spot in music that shouldn't be there. But their memory lives on in their music, and the legacy they built holds true. It's cliche, but I still think the Beatles themselves summed it up best:

"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."

No truer words have ever been committed to music. No truer sentiment exists. The Beatles are our social consciousness, expressing the emotion and sheer joy of life that we all look for. They are our bards, even so long after they're gone.

Go on, listen to a Beatles song today. Do it for yourself, and for them.

~chaos cricket

Song of the Moment: The Beatles, "Yesterday"