Flashback II

Growing up and listening to this as a 12-year-old, is it any wonder that I turned out to be a strange little kid?

RIP John Lennon (1940-1980)

Thirty-four years ago today, also a Monday night. . . I was teaching high school (Earth and Physical Science) in Salem, Massachusetts, site of the famous witch trials of 1692 and 1693.  Relaxing that night, watching Monday Night Football - the Patriots (naturally) versus Miami - when sportscaster Howard Cosell delivered the one bit of news that I would have preferred to have heard anybody but Cosell deliver. 

The next day, I had to try and explain the impact of the event to a bunch of 9th and 10th graders. Words failed.

50 Years Ago Today

To be absolutely honest here, it really did kind of change my life.

I was in the Fourth Grade, and my parents let me stay up and watch The Ed Sullivan Show the night The Beatles first appeared on American t.v.

We had never seen anything quite like this before, and it electrified my family.  "They look like girls!," my father declared, and my mother complained that it wan't music - all they did was scream.  Watching the video now, it's really hard to imagine how they came to those conclusions.

The next Monday morning, the kids on the school bus were so wired the driver threatened us with disciplinary action.  Someone on the bus produced a Beatles wig (from where?) and we took turns trying it on and miming the band (my first air guitar performance).  The whole day at school was about like that.  We were incorrigible.  The rumor was that when the subtitle at the 3:50 mark was aired, hundreds of teenage girls across the country committed suicide, but I've never been able to verify that.

Fifty years later, I'm still going to concerts, still listening to bands, and generally living my life to a rock 'n' roll soundtrack.  And it all started on this one night. . . .

Beatle Paul

In 1966, when he was 24 years old, Paul McCartney wrote and recorded a song called When I'm Sixty-Four with three other Britannics of whom you may have heard, eventually releasing the song in an album called Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. 

Sir Paul passed the age of 64 himself a while ago and is now 71 years old, yet still is able to write and record new songs, like the aptly named New, above.  While you can say it sounds like something straight out of the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band sessions, you can also say it sounds like something straight out of the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band sessions.