Category Archives: Music

Stones/Beatles — Which side were you on?

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Today, in 1964, the first album of the Rolling Stones was released in the US. Eponymously titled, it carried the subtitle “England’s newest hit makers.”

RollingStones1Sure, there were groups like the Dave Clark Five, Freddie and the Dreamers, and Gerry and the Pacemakers, and more, but didn’t it come down pretty quickly to Beatles vs. Rolling Stones? Their management certainly fostered the idea that the Stones were the “bad boys” compared to the well-mannered and well-dressed Beatles.

Which did you prefer back then? Hard to imagine someone would have predicted in 1964 that the Beatles would pack it in by the end of the decade and that 50 years later the Rolling Stones would be still performing. Can’t get no satisfaction, indeed.

Here are the Stones, October 1964, on the Ed Sullivan Show.

I never saw the Beatles live, but had the pleasure of seeing the Rolling Stones live twice, most recently in fall 1965 (!), while visiting Jim Montanari for Cornell’s Homecoming. They were a secondary, afternoon act. Main attraction the same night on campus was Bob Dylan.

The Sixties on CNN
A 10-part television series on people and events of the Sixties has begun on CNN. One suspects there is a significant portion of people who consider the level of attention to this specific decade somewhat narcissistic and overdone. Let’s see how they feel about their time when they get 50 years out. Being part of a huge demographic bulge has its rewards.

‘Ladies and gentlemen — the Beatles!’

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For four weeks up until February 1, 50 years ago, the #1 song in the U.S. was “There! I’ve Said It Again” by Bobby Vinton. Then things changed. For the next 14 weeks, the #1 song was a Beatles song. First, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” then “She Loves You” and “Can’t Buy Me Love.”

Beatles_Ed1964Sunday, February 9, 50 years ago, attention riveted on the Ed Sullivan Show and the Beatles’ first appearance on American TV. Did you watch? The February 28, 1964, edition of Cathedral Chronicle had no mention of the Beatles. How big a deal were they at school? Among your friends?

Sandra_BruschiRingo_autographThe March 25, 1964, issue of the Chronicle, however, contained an article (click image of article to enlarge) about classmate Sandra Bruschi getting an autograph of Ringo, through the auspices of a family friend, while Sandy and her family were vacationing in Miami Beach. The Beatles were in Miami Beach at the time as well.

She brought a photo of the “Fab Four,” with the inscription “To Sandy and Helene [her sister], with love, The Beatles, Ringo Starr,” to school where it was on display for a day in Fr. Bourque’s classroom.

The Minstrel Revue senior year, in April, did not ignore the Beatles, certainly. In a segment entitled “The English Cross the Channel for a Visit,” there was a “Typically English” group, the song “Charade,” and “The Four Chaps” doing “Something Sophisticated.” Bill Danoff, Larry Dempsey, and Brendan Montano often performed for us. But the Beatles were not a trio. On this one occasion, they added Mike Reavey.  Mike recalls they wore wigs and probably performed a Beatles song, though, as he says, “I did not sing a note.” Early lip synch.

This is a picture of The Four Chaps (l-r): Larry Dempsey, Bill Danoff, Mike Reavey, and Brendan Montano, culled from the Minstrel Revue program and slightly edited.

4chaps_BeatlesAnyone remember more about their performance? Oh, for video cameras back then. Did anyone ever take “movies”?

 

Back then

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By mid-November 1963, early in our senior year at Cathedral, the world was setting us up for a very “interesting” time. Looking back, it may have been near the “end” of something and the beginning of something very different.

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan perform at August 1963 civil rights rally in Washington, DC.

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan perform at August 1963 civil rights rally in Washington, DC.

Martin Luther King had given his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, DC, that August. The Second Vatican Council was underway. President Kennedy received the final report of his “Commission on the Status of Women.” And, at the beginning of November, in South Vietnam, a place still pretty obscure for most of us, its president, Ngo Dinh Diem, was arrested and assassinated in a coup tacitly accepted by the US.

In more popular arenas, the LA Dodgers swept the Yankees in the World Series, with Sandy Koufax winning two games. New shows on TV that fall included The Outer Limits, The Fugitive, The Patty Duke Show, and Petticoat Junction. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World had debuted in theaters on November 7. Louie, Louie by the Kingsmen was very popular at the time, as was the Ronettes’ Be My Baby. The Beatles were still in England.

Check out the page “Back Then” for more on what was going on in our world in 1963-64. What about at Cathedral? In Springfield? Western Mass.? That’s harder to find, and remember perhaps. What was big at school in fall 1963? Anybody have old copies of the Cathedral Chronicle?