Our Music
Every generation, since Gabriel blew his first horn, has identified with its music. None can compare with Baby Boomers who claim that we grew up when music was REALLY music. Not some nonsense about backing your butt up or jeans with apples in the bottom.
Last night, we attended the Thursday night concert series at Mattie Kelly in Destin. The band was “The Return,” a Beatle tribute band that would make John and George roll over in their graves. Years ago, I watched another band called the “Fab Four” which also had down “everything” Beatles.
The traditional stage set up with John playing guitar on the right, George playing in the middle, sharing a mic with a left-handed Paul playing bass and of course, Ringo, on the elevated platform on the drums. They were tight in everything they sang.
For the older crowd, we closed our eyes and could see John, Paul, George and Ringo on stage. Mop hair-dos and all.
The band with the British accent, asked before many of their songs, if we were familiar with the next song. As soon as it kicked off, old codgers with no hair, grey hair, wrinkles and tie dye shirts that hadn’t seen sunshine since LBJ reassured the nation that we were in good hands, had us singing along. They started with songs the Beatles sang in 1964 and ended with a 10-minute version of Hey Jude from the latter years. Arthritis, replaced hips and knees kept many in their folding chairs however.
I asked our friends a simple question during the concert: “Did we spend every waking hour listening to music on the radio, stereo or record player?” The band went through much of the archives from 1964 through 1970 and we knew them all.
What is meant by “our music?” It’s the songs that played in the background from the early sixties through the mid-seventies. In other words, the Beatles made up the majority of those days. As a reminder, they came across the pond in February of 1964 and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. The Fab Four broke up in 1970.
Putting it bluntly, the Beatles changed our world in about a 6 year period.
To me, these four musicians produced changes in every aspect of our lives. Their music started out as a little bubble-gum and progressed to more political and anti-establishment. As boomers, we were in our formative days.
Their music changed the way we dressed; the way we cut our hair; the way we started to question authority; our political view of Viet Nam and even our approach toward our faith life. In 1966, John Lennon stated that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. That naturally caused an uproar and even the KKK in South Carolina, nailed their albums to a cross and burned it. They basically quit touring after that.
None of this slowed down “our music.” Much of it came from Great Britain as a part of the British Invasion. Led by the Beatles, we tuned into the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks and Herman’s Hermits. We turned from listening to R&B, blues, country and rock and roll. Elvis, though,never left the building.
For those of us in junior high, we would listen to a British band sing “Mary had a little lamb” and proclaim it groundbreaking. Like any phase, to me, it all started to change in the US. Musical pioneers like Rick Hall from Muscle Shoals, adapted to our musical tastes. He embraced and produced singers from every genre. Quinn Ivy did the same with Percy Sledge in 1966 when our friend from Leighton, recorded all-time favorite “When a Man Loves a Woman.”
Our music became more inclusive, The Woodstock Festival in 1969 also created a cultural change for all of us. Protest songs against our war in Viet Nam along with the folk music scene amplified environmental awareness, making music a conduit for change.
During our developmental days, our generation went through cultural changes related to race relations that no other generation will EVER experience. We went from total segregation to partial integration to total integration in a span of 10 years. Our music sang about these changes and made the transition much easier.
Through our music, we slowly became more colorblind as we should be. Soul music singers, rhythm and blues and true blues singers used their voices and platform to get out the message about love and heartbreak.
Before our music taste changed, country music only involved cheating, drinking, fighting, she-did-me-wrong songs. The number of crossover artists made country cool. This was after songs like “She Ran Off With My Best Friend and I Sure Do Miss Him” were popular. The same was true about the country winner “I Was Your Number One Until You Number Twoed On Me.”
Tonight, I will doze off humming one of the songs which defined “Our Music.”
I wonder if there’s room for my C-Pap if We All Live in A Yellow Submarine?
Hey Jude, what do you think?