"Meeting" The Beatles

When I was young, the Beatles came to America. This I know, because I saw them on The Ed Sullivan Show (unless The Ed Sullivan Show and other media were simply brilliant, elaborate hoaxing).

I saw the news clips of John, Paul, George and Ringo getting off their plane. I saw swarms of hysterical young women flocking around the Fab Four - some wearing long, straight, blonde hair with bangs, winged eyeliner, white lipstick, miniskirts and boots - in the fashion zeitgeist.

I’ll always remember the brouhaha over the Beatles' hair length. Some thought their hair was too long and could not have possibly been real. "Ah. They must be wearing wigs. Yeah. That's the ticket."

Ignoring history, society was apparently threatened by the thought of men with long hair. At my high school, there was a campaign to prevent young men from growing their hair. As explained by alleged hair authorities in assembly, the growing of male hair had different consequences than the growing of female hair. Lice and all manner of afflictions would manifest in male hair, said They. Too bad they weren’t concerned about bad haircuts instead, and focused only upon hair length (meanwhile, female students fought for the right to wear pants - only to be cursed with ugly pantsuits).

I digress.

I can’t remember the name of our first Beatles' 45 record. I think it was either She Loves You, or I Want To Hold Your Hand. I remember putting it onto our tiny surrealistic record player. Was that a real record player, or was it Barbie and Ken's? My grandfather tinkered with the volume and speed on the machine. As our record was comically played on the wrong speed, he began to mock our favorite musical group. "This is terrible! . . . how can you listen to this?”

My favorite Beatle was John Lennon. John's depth and wit appealed to me. Little did we know that he'd later be murdered by John Hinckley’s idol. Fans. Fanatics. Travis Bickle lives.

I’ll always remember when the Beatles came to America. It was an interesting evolution: four boys from Liverpool into a musical and social force; the growth of sixties children into . . . who knew?