Oh, believe me, t, I do appreciate it! Beatlemania invaded our house with a vengence. My dad was a musician. In late 1963, his younger brother, (my uncle, then 17) came over to our house with the Swan She Loves You/I'll Get You 45. We played it over and over for an hour or more. It was amazing. I was only 7, but this beat the hell out of all the kiddy songs I was learning in school.
When the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan those two weeks in February 1964, I was right in front of the television with all the other millions of people. Right away, my dad went out and bought Meet The Beatles and whatever singles he could get his hands on. He was 33, my mom was 26...and my mom had the hots for John. >From then on, my dad bought all the singles and albums as they came out. He bought all the 16 and Tiger Beat magazines they were in. I also had both sets of the Topp (bubble gum) Beatle cards. It was awesome. We had Beatle pictures in our livingroom! In our house, the British Invasion also included The Dave Clark 5 and The Searchers. When the A Hard Day's Night movie came out, we went. You couldn't hear the movie for all the screaming, which pissed my dad off. It was incredible. I remember going over to the neighbors house in early 1967 to watch the Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields videos, which were being shown on American Bandstand. The videos were in color, and my neighbors had a color television. Ah, the wonderful world of color! The last Beatles album my dad bought was the White Album, which I got for Christmas in 1968 (I was 12). After that I had to buy my own singles, and the Abbey Road and Let It Be albums, with my own lawnmowing money. Funny that my dad went for the Beatle thing because he was a jazz man. My folks met at a Dave Brubeck concert. But I think it was because he was a musician that the Beatles really caught his eye. They certainly weren't bush league players. In December 1965, he also took my brothers and I to see the Dave Clark 5 at the Minneapolis Armory. Again, it was pandemonium...and exciting as all hell. Oddly enough, he didn't take us to see the Beach Boys when they played at Big Reggie's Danceland at the Excelsior Amusement Park on May 3, 1963. The amusement park was less than 10 miles from our house (I've been there many times), but this was before the Beatles, so he probably wasn't paying attention or even interested. Even so, on June 12, 1964 (after the arrival of the Beatles), the Rolling Stones played at Danceland, and we didn't go to that either. Evidently, the Stones were booed off the stage. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Diamond Headz" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/michaellenz?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
