Wanted to take the time to mention John Lennon as today is the anniversary of his death. I don't even know where to begin with discussions on Lennon and the Beatles. They were a music tour de force, an amazing band and unfortunately people of my generation will never get to experience any band quite like them while in their prime. Lennon and the Beatles are rare pop-culture icons who continue to be popular decades after their rise to fame. Song after song they display a perfect mix of lyrics and music unmatched by any band I've ever listened to. Among the best song writers of all time. I loaded up some Beatles today in my music player to pay tribute.
Last night as I was flipping through the channels I came across A Charlie Brown Christmas on ABC. I don't really ever get into Christmas music or the whole Christmas spirit all that much to be honest, but there are a few of the Christmas shows that I do like and A Charlie Brown Christmas is my favorite of them all. It's funny because I enjoyed the show as a kid but I don't think I ever caught on as to how depressed Charlie Brown is during the episode. It is almost sad to watch. I really enjoy the music in the show and my favorite part of all, probably the one reason I try to tune in every Christmas, is when the Peanuts gang is dancing on stage. It never fails to bring a smile to my face.
It's hard to imagine (no pun intended) a confluence of events that will bring forth a bigger popular culture force than the Beatles.
ReplyDeleteTheir first ever U.S. performance on the Ed Sullivan show drew in an audience with a higher percentage of the national viewership than the most recent Super Bowl, which is today's standard for the biggest single television entertainment day of the year.
Nearly half a century removed from that performance, I can travel to any major shopping center in town and find multiple references and pieces of merchandise directly related to the band. That's incredible staying power.
Just take for instance that if you acknowledge The Apple Store as a snapshot of our modern era of trendy technology, and then consider the fact that as we speak, they have a life size cutout of the "Fab Four" in their storefront window to promote the recent announcement of the availability of the band's music in their online music catalog, that tells you just about all you need to know about the relevance the Beatles still hold so many years later.
Not to mention the fact that the group's popularity is now making what amounts to inroads into a third generation of fans. When you see young kids playing "Beatles Rockband" on PS3 or XBox and speaking of how cool the songs are, you really appreciate the group's ability to transcend generations and different eras.
Perhaps most impressive of all, is that the Beatles achieved this level of lasting acclaim in what amounts to just a decade's worth of time. While the formative phases were in motion prior to, the Beatles essentially only existed between 1960 and 1970.
The lasting popularity of the group has certainly been aided by successful post-Beatles projects from the former band members, including those by Lennon until his assassination in 1980, and certainly Paul McCartney's still A-List level of performance popularity to this day, but nonetheless, that's still an incredible imprint to have made in just a mere 10 years.
If you didn't get a chance to see the 5-10 minute ESPN Outside the Lines piece from this past Sunday looking back on the night of Lennon's murder, it's worth going online to look it up. They chronicle the unlikely chain of events that led to the news of John Lennon's death actually being broken to America by noted sportscaster Howard Cosell during a broadcast of the nationally popular Monday Night Football.
On a personal note, LCB's mom saw the Beatles perform at the Indiana State Fair during the height of "Beatlemania" just months after the so called British Invasion to the U.S. She was pretty young, like no more than 10, if that. If I remember the story correctly, her older sister won tickets from a local radio contest, and mom made older sis take little sis to the show with her.
Shifting gears to Peanuts, we're pretty big fans in our house too...mainly because of the connection with the world's most famous beagle, Snoopy, and the fact that we have two beagles of our own. I think we have at least 4 different Christmas Snoopys decorating our living quarters as we speak. LOL
Well said, BoilerPip. I had actually already published this post without any of the Beatles stuff and just talked about Charlie Brown. Once I read about the anniversary of John Lennon I decided to change the post to feature him as well. I agree with everything you said. What an amazing band and to be such a huge part of our culture as a musical act several decades past their prime is unbelievable.
ReplyDelete