Influence Part 4................

My sister had a pen pal in England that use to send her these cool records by a group called the Beatles. She was probably one of the first teens in the US to have a copy of She Loves You, or I Wanna Hold Your Hand. I was incredibly impressed by this Idea of a "Band" with Long Hair, making such a presence. And although I was still a die hard Elvis fan, I was being drawn more and more into this "Band" Idea. You didn't have to be John Lennon to be cool. You could be George or Ringo. In those days, The Beatles were Rocking. Covering lil Richard songs like long tall sally, Lucille, even twist and shout was an old rhythm and blues number. I must have seen a hard days night 5 times and HELP, even more. Then somewhere around 67 they started getting wierd. True their musical maturation was intense. But what happened to the Rock and Roll? I think the drug use caused the Beatles to spawn the "counter culture" revolution. I never really cared for Sgt. Pepper's. It wasn't rock. The Beatles never really "Rocked" again until The White Album. And only then just a few bones. I actually got stolen away from the Beatles by certain American Artists like Tommy James and the Shondells and another certain English invasion band that I'll talk about tomorrow that actually influenced me 10 times more than the fab four.