February 9, 1964. Forty-five years ago today The Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show and... pick one.
(1) The "Sixties" officially started.
(2) The decline and fall of Western Civilization got underway.
(3) Two months and eighteen days after we buried a President it was OK to smile again.
The first wave of rock & roll had been repelled. By February 9, 1964 Elvis was in the Army, Chuck Berry was in prison, Jerry Lee Lewis was in exile, and Little Richard had gone to church. Put in their place were the teen idols: Bobby Rydell, Paul Anka, Fabian, Dion. In a government laboratory scientists were able to successfully remove every molecule of soul and humanity from the songs of Fats Domino and Little Richard and grow Pat Boone in a test tube.
But the first battle had been fought with conventional weapons. On February 9, 1964, The Ed Sullivan Theater was added, just below Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Bikini Atoll, to the list of sites where nuclear weapons had been detonated.
Watch it today, and the energy is still there.
14 comments:
You mean the 60s started in America....
Of course! Think; how else could it be possible for a sports team from Ohio to play a sports team from New Jersey for the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP!?
A map of the world in 2009 would depict an enormous UNITED STATES surrounded by a bunch of other, smaller places filled with people who (1) don't understand us, (2) hate freedom [which we invented], (3) both, or (4) Canadians.
An alternative answer might be that the Sixties were started by the English. Where they did it hardly matters.
But you are one of the 3% with a passport...right?
Actually, one of the positive aspects of the overall "war on terror" paranoia has been that US citizens are now required to get passports for things they didn't use to have them for - cruises, trips to Mexico and Canada. There was an article in The Economist that gave a figure of 34% of Americans over the age of 18 owning passports. hen you travel you learn relatively little about the places you go compared to the amount of things you learn about that place you left.
Well I reckon my trips to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Washington and Oregon in recent years taught me more about them than I learned about Sheffield England.
You skilfully avoided the passport question.
I didn't think I avoided the question; yes, of course I have a passport. Your "3% of Americans" figure is way too low however.
As far as travel.... Since you've traveled extensively you have, I'm sure, encountered someone who, after 8 days in London or Paris starts to speak with authority about the place, and you have no doubt recognized that as very silly.
The general point I was trying to make was that the travel affords a person a different perspective from which to view their own country. A perspective that is impossible to find if one never ventures across the border. Of course your repeated trips to the US have taught you a good deal about the US (especially how "un-American" NY and San Francisco - two common first trip destinations - are), but I think you would agree that your own understanding of and appreciation for the UK is different for having left it on occasion.
I'm, willing to consider that this more "American" an experience because of our geographical isolation.
Yeah I do know what you mean. I find SF quite "European" in that you can walk round it for a start..it does have Amoeba Records too. I was very taken with the North West especially Oregon and Portland as a city (Powells bookshops). Driving through the deserts of the South West was as spectacular as I had hoped.
I find myself defending your great country and its citizens frequently over here. Maybe Obama can achieve a gradual redress. (Still unregistered blogger we have met over at ER (sealy)- I get here most days too)
I figured we met at ER; I've wondered about the impression of the US someone would get from just spending a week in NY or SF. The NY city population now is 40% non-US born. SF represents, for me, what Obama referred to as our "better history" except, of course, for the housing prices which rival London. Geographically it reminds me a bit of Bath, probably because of how my legs feel after a day or two of walking the hills.
If you come to the US again try and come to the Midwest. You are welcome to stay with us in Indianapolis. It's the American "heartland."
Obama has about 18 months to undo 96 months of horror Even as an atheist I feel compelled to say "God help him."
I would really like to drive across the northern states from Chicago and the H61 north-south too (among other itineraries-next time or two). That's a very kind offer, sir.
As for the hills we can provide you with much better in the North of the UK.
Chicago is, of course, worth a look ("City of the broad shoulders" and all). 3 Hours from us. Also well worth a look are Cincinnati, Lexington (gorgeous horse country), Pittsburgh (one of the great American cities) and various small towns that show a side of the US that is worth a look. Punxsutawney, PA (home to Groundhog Day), Clarion, PA (home of the Autumn Leaf Festival), Athens, OH (home of Ohio University, earliest of the Land Grant Universities), Lucinda , PA (home of Helen Furnace, an ancient (by US standards) iron ore furnace built in 1840.... the list of course has no end.
Well I'm from Sheffield, the home of steel production so Pittsburgh is always the "analogy" I give to folks your side of the Atlantic. I still teach here so am not yet at liberty to plan my next visit just yet. Thanks for all the suggestions, I will get some advice from you when I start to collect my thoughts on an itinerary.
You will know Sheffield hosted the early Beatle and Dylan tours...sadly for me just before I was old enough to attend such things.
Excellent. What do you teach?
English. Lost count of the times I've taught "Of Mice and Men" a staple of the examinations at 16 over here; I know chunks of it by heart. Children's classics like "Tuck Everlasting" - Natalie Babbitt and many more American writers have been at the heart of the department's work over the last 25 years.
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