It was 61 years ago today...

I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan on the recommendation of Mr. Foster the school band teacher who in November had entered the practice room to inform us that President Kennedy had been assassinated a few miles from our school.

Watching Get Back last year was a reminder of how creative the Beatles were and of course they could afford to have a film crew follow them for a month. 

My dad had just purchased a stereo with flip-down turntable and foldout speakers for us kids so my brother and I could play music in our bedroom. (Probably had nothing to do with the fact that we were playing OUR music on HIS Admiral console stereo). We were in hifi heaven.

My Mom was a huge Beatles fan and also a surfer. I remember when The Beatles played Ed. My mom invited a bunch of her friends over. I was only 5 but I remember it was a big deal. Lots of smiles in our living room that Sunday night.

I was 10 in 1964. The Beatles' Ed Sullivan show appearances were such a huge hit, first because they were good, and second because that kind of performance on "family" TV was almost unprecedented. The Sullivan show  was warmed-over 1920s-era vaudeville.  Remember Topo Gigio the mouse puppet or the corny spinning plates act?   Before we knew it, nearly every week was another break-out rock band pushing the envelope of what was allowed in living rooms, pissing off parents all over America, and we (the kids) loved it.  Along with some of the younger "with it"  parents for that matter.

I was 14 months old that day. I guess I was there, in spirit anyway. Weird that now, at 59 years old, I am just now starting to peruse the Beatles catalog?  

Have seen the clips of Ed's Beatles presentations many times. Always amuses me.