I too have been dining out for more than 40 years on a Beatles story. I was at the first Beatles concert in S.F. However,I hesitate to reveal this information nowadays. Here in California where everyone is pretending to be in their twenties, this information is somewhat on a par with an announcement that you took the first transAtlantic flight with Lindbergh. There will be a pause..and then someone will say, "How OLD are you?" I should probably lie and say my mother went to school with Simon Cowell as this would be well received.

As I now have an audience of like minded people, I will trot out a few memories from the show.

It was my good luck to have an excellent seat and free ticket. (don't be envious it doesn't become you) Our neighbor worked in some administrative capacity at the Cow Palace and offered me a ticket in exchange babysitting. The only hitch was that the babysitting involved taking his two daughters to the concert. No problem. They were old enough to fend for themselves should one of the Beatles ask me to elope.

Of course the concert itself was the BEST SHOW EVER. It does seem quaint in retrospect. The Cow Palace wasn't a stadium, just a venue used for the rodeo or the circus. Nothing slick about it. No pyrotechnics, light show, etc. When the Beatles came out it was more of an Ed Sullivan t.v. moment. Bare little stage, 4 guys belting out songs, mugging, and plowing through their playlist. No sexy outfits, just those prim Beatle suits. No suggestive moves with their guitars, just choreographed shaking of the mop tops at crucial moments.

In some respects the audience itself was like Ed Sullivan. They knew they were part of something big, but their response was at times stiff and self conscious. Remember the olden days when people told you how to behave? When there were rules about behavior? Although we all had training in what to do in case of nuclear attack, or an earthquake, nothing had prepared us for the Beatles. After the initial frenzy when the lads entered, most of the girls began cautiously stealing glimpses at other girls to see what was cool behavior and what was definitely uncool. The general consenus seemed to be that standing on your seat was o.k., so we stood up.

There was non-stop noise from the crowd, but probably only a six dozen hysterical girls who had been screaming since dawn, offering to have Paul's baby, expressing suicidal ideation, and generally causing a nuisance. There were few security personnel but only 4 girls made a run for the stage. (was that cool or uncool?)

As with the Ed Sullivan show, almost every girl was wearing a skirt and stockings. Everyone knew if you went to a concert you dressed up. It was almost as important as taking a plane ride! (token travel reference)

The concert was short. Maybe 20-30 minutes? They tore thru their playlist (I don't think they included Besame Mucho, but don't quote me on that) and at points you could even hear them singing. IMHO John was the cutest Beatle, George knew with that unibrow and teeth he wasn't in the running, Paul got points for enthusiasm but was cloying, and Ringo was Ringo. The biggest shock was that the Beatles were old. Probably in their twenties!

The lads were showing some wear and tear from life on the road. Quite frankly they looked tired. But it was truly THE BEST CONCERT EVER. (These words are followed by 10 exclamation points in my diary so it must be true)

S.F. has always been great spot for music (1963-73 were outstanding, with '67 being THE BEST YEAR EVER.) I took a concert hiatus in the '70s, sorry boys, I'm no fan of The Who, ELP, Metallica. Never was a fan of "festival seating" and, face facts, when you've heard one 45 min. drum solo you've heard 'em all.

Glad you started this post. It's been fun to read.

Referencing a previous posting, Maryanne, sorry Marianne, Faithfull was in S.F. last month. Not quite the wispy girl of the 1960s, but far more interesting. I did not check out the famed bosom. You'll have to buy a ticket, judge for yourself, and post your thoughts.
I have a feeling Marianne totters over to check out Fodors the very first thing when she arises each afternoon. Even before that first cigarette. Any guesses as to her screen name?

Do any of the screen names include things like Marsbargirl?

I had to think a while on that one, but then the penny dropped. The Redlands bust, yes?
Excuse me while I reach for my fan and smelling salts.
Well, my Dad always said "that Mickey Jeggers is up to something" (spelling and pronunciation of both names courtesy of Dad)

I visited friends one summer and their crowd wasn't bummed out because they left. This crowd was involved with Everyman's Theatre. I actually loved Livrpool. I went rollar skating at the rink with the young son and took him to dine at the Needle. It was a wonderful summer I will never forget.

"A Day in a Life" on NPR right now with DJ reminescing about the first time he played it - like being on some incredible journey in a boat on a river...tangerine trees, etc.

many others say how amazingly different Sg Pepper - cediting it with ushering in thoughtful rock as they call it - and UK folks seem to think Beatles peak with Hold Your Hand?

NPR continues of how seminal this album was - and is still #53 on the best selling albums list for all of history.

NPR (aka 'BBC Lite') can drone on - as it always does - as much as it likes.

But the Britons here aren't agreeing about 'Hand'. Farce (but then what do you expect from as Wykhamist?) rates 'Ticket to Ride'

What the Britons ARE agreed on is that, roughly around the time Epstein died, the Beatles took leave of their senses.

An honest pop group got delusions of self importance and turned, IMHO, into a self-indulgent bunch of West Coast hippies.

Forty years ago today.
Western civilisation started to decay.

Then there was 'Magical Mystery Tour' Boxing Night 1967 - the night the nonsense was shown on TV - will be seared on my brain forever.

>>and Winchester Cathedral - what a song! Must raise local pride if not hackles.<<

That blasted song started playing in my head when we went there - took a couple of minutes to get rid of it.

Lee Ann

Yeah, Sgt. Pepper's doesn't hold up at all for me. There's a few good tunes on it, but a lot of dreck.

Magical Mystery Tour was a ridiculously stoopid film but many of the songs are very strong. This is helped in the US version by packing the second side of the LP (it was only an EP in Britain) with some of their greatest singles. "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane" aren't damaged by their hippieishness.

The Beatles were still great pop artists right up to the end. What they lost when they grew their hair out was the ability to form coherent concepts. Sgt. Peppers was bad enough; MMT was a farce, the White Album was a completely unfocused pile of randomness (with, again, good songs mixed in); Let it Be was a disaster, Hey Jude was another compilation of unassociated tracks, and even Abbey Road is properly a masterpiece of the engineering and sequencing arts, not one of album conception.

The Beatles weren't the only ones who went a little mad in the late 60s. Whether it was the drugs, or indulgence, or the isolating effects of extreme stardom, or just the inevitable damage done by constantly being told you're a "genius", I don't know. They did rather fall down in the area of their album concepts, but the songs themselves were always there -- and frankly the concept of the "concept album" is itself a bit of 60s rubbish. Even the great albums that came out before Sgt. Peppers were ultimately about songs, not concepts.

The beards, though, are pretty unforgiveable. And, as time goes on, the later sanctimoniousness coming from John and George seems less attractive. But all revisionism aside they were one hell of a pop group.

Eric Clapton on the other hand I could really live without. The answer to the question of where he ranks on the list of "Greatest Guitarists Ever" is "who cares?". Guitar solos are dumb. Clapton had a few good pop records over the years, but there's a ton of rubbish there too. The best song Cream ever did, "Badge", was written by George Harrison.

I was on 72nd st when Lennon was shot, we didnt know it was him until a few hours later.

IMNVHO Ticket to Ride is their finest moment (well I do like some of the Motown feeling of I Feel Fine).

Ticket to ride invented jangly pop. What more could you want?

There isn't a single song on Sgt Pepper that I would really miss if I never heard it again.

What the Britons ARE agreed on is that, roughly around the time Epstein died, the Beatles took leave of their senses.>>>>>

A terrible shame and all that but it did give us Hide Your Love Away - probably their last great tune.

p.s Isn't Epstein the "Aintree Iron" in "Thank You Very Much"?

When 'Thank U Very Much' was released there was a lot of debate in the Echo about what 'Aintree Iron' referred to. There wasn't a convincing, definitive answer.

We can almost certainly rule out Epstein. The usual claim is that 'Iron Hoof' is rhyming slang - but if it was, it's just about the only bit of Scouse rhyming slang, and one that never found its way to the school playground a few hundred yards along the road from the Epstein family house.

I can't claim to be an expert on Epstein's perambulations, but as far as I'm aware he never set up house independently in Liverpool, and was based at his father's Childwall place throughout the Merseybeat era - miles away from Aintree, which I don't think (though how would I know?) was a cottaging area either.

The two most quoted explanations are that urinals along the Dock Road had "Aintree Iron Company" inscribed on them (can't remember ever peeing in one saying that, though my reading wasn't too hot back then) or a reference to an iron-shaped bit of land that was a well known bus stop a mile or so from Aintree racecourse. Trouble with that one is, I used to get the bus from there every week, and never heard the term used. And most people who give this explanation get two quite different Black Bull pubs in Aintree confused.

Mind you, I never heard anyone talk about fish and finger pies either. Just assumed both terms were in-jokes among the singers.

Ozzie Osbourne, the quintessential English rocker of the 70s era it seems, was in a flap here in the Colonies with the Idol final.

Seems Simon Cowell has Sharon Osbourne as a judge on his English Idol - at least when i saw one live two years ago she was a judge and so must be tight.

anyway Ozzie was supposed to sell out and be on the Idol final, like several other out-of-the-limelight rockers were, but when he heard he was to do a duet with Sansjay (sp?) the 17 yr old of Indian (India) ethnicity and known for his wild sartorial statements and whacko hair styles and noticeably lacking an ability to sing well, apparently Ozzie pulled the plug and even then said he would not work with this 'hair-styling challenged idiot'

wow - someone being called an idiot by Ozzie

rumors continue that Simon and Whacko Michael Jackson will team up on the next Idol to pick up sagging ratings (though still #1 rated show of year)

I wonder what UK folks thing about Ozzie, who of course did a reality show for a few years with Sharon and his two completely obnoxious spoitled brat kids so that Americans know him but as an in-the-fog helplessly brain dead type. (Watching that show, which i loved, i thought i'm sure glad this bunch is English, not American)

And of course all the songs for the Idol final were from Beatles albums and all were St Pepper and post - these are the Beatles song that Americans relate mostly to - such greats as Lucy in Skies in Diamonds (LSD?) - sgt Pepper it self - magical mys tour and several more - not the bubble gum Hand or farce's favorite.

" these are the Beatles song that Americans relate mostly to - such greats as Lucy in Skies in Diamonds"

Would you care to remind us of the sales the Beatles achieved in the US when they were making music compared to the sales of their hippy balderdash?

And this LSD nonsense: see

>>and Winchester Cathedral - what a song! Must raise local pride if not hackles.<<

That blasted song started playing in my head when we went there - took a couple of minutes to get rid of it.

Lee Ann>>>>

Now you now how I feel about Hot Dog! Jumping frog! Albequeque!

Here's an article from yesterday's Guardian by a yank (well he's Canadian - but it's the same thing) on the Beatles and why they are still popular. Some of the muso-guff takes me right back to school and my A levels:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/st...093594,00.html

I think that in part this sets a new level of up-itselfness even for a paper that emplots Polly Toynbee.

As far as I know, Eric Clapton was NEVER in the Wilburys. I do agree he is over-rated. He did some nice work early on but he sold out with "I Shot the Sheriff" and I haven't listened since.

Nice to see someone he even heard of Richard Thompson -love him. And I'm also a big fan of Brian May. Queen, the Who, Beatles, Stones, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, the Clash, Renaissance, Humble Pie - what diversity! And I listened and bought it all.

Let's face it, pretty much everything great in rock came out of England and this is a Yank saying it.