Recovering from the rush of "addiction" apologists -- falling over themselves, as they have been this month, to try and justify the high profile heroin overdose of Philip Seymour Hoffman -- it was refreshing to be distracted this past weekend by the The Beatles' arrival in America and appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show fifty years ago.
While I tended to prefer the Sex Clark Five growing up, to "ageing musician" Dave's bunch and the rest of the early British Invasion . . . like millions of people before me and after, I did grow up in a Beatles household. Introduced to their music on old Scotch cassette tapes, which my dad had recorded for my mom back in the day, I was intrigued at first by the musical whimsy ("All Together Now", "I Am the Walrus") ... the overall happiness of their early sounds ... then the melodies and singability became apparent ...
I remember cruising around our backyard on a riding lawnmower once, singing "I Should Have Known Better", and our neighbor complaining about the noise. "The lawnmower is fine," I remember him shouting. "Just lower your voice!"
Later, the bash and steady beat of The Beatles' 'college music', as I used to call it -- "Helter Skelter", "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and "Day Tripper"; those three, in particular -- would keep me hooked ... and ultimately, there were the lyrics. John, the poet, as the cliche goes ... but there was George, waxing wise about "the space between us all", and deadpan singing, "Love me while you can / Before I'm a dead old man" ...
There you go: whimsy and poetry!
For that matter, the Ringo line, "You were in a car crash, and you lost your hair", I always found to be hilarious (regardless of whether or not it meant Paul was dead).
So suddenly last weekend, it was 'fifty years ago today' ... and sadly, John and George could not make the party. There was George's son, Dhani Harrison, on-stage, representing. There was Yoko, instructed to dance, representing. There was Sean Lennon, looking disturbingly like his father ... There was the new and latest Lady McCartney ...
But how cool would it have been to see Sir Paul's son, James, and Ringo's son, Zak, a part of things too? If not to perform something together there, with Sean and Dhani -- because let's face it, "Sean, James, Zak and Dhani" (in fact, the Post-Fab Four roll call would need to be "Sean, James, Dhani and Zak" to align with "John, Paul, George and Ringo" in the 21st century) just sounds weird - and that's without them even playing a note together! It certainly would have been unfulfilling musically, for everyone --
If not to perform, then at least to speak together, reminisce a little ... and let the evening, not to mention the legacy, embrace them.
If not to perform, then at least to speak together, reminisce a little ... and let the evening, not to mention the legacy, embrace them.
Perhaps they didn't want to be embraced. The legacy already instilled within them, what need do James McCartney and Zak Starkey have to show up anywhere - let alone to what amounts, for them, to be just another family reunion with, quite probably, annoying relatives?
That said, the biggest omission of Sunday night's Grammy Salute to The Beatles -- an omission too often made in the grand Beatles' scheme of things, I think -- was Julian Lennon. John's first son, and, arguably, the most creatively gifted Beatle offspring ... deserving, if anyone, to be included; invited, to carry a legacy.
Where was he last Sunday night when they were all together? He was a no show man (goo goo g'joob) ... Hey, Jude deserves the torch passed down! Not to keep getting burned, kept at bay, from The Beatles' ongoing and present flame!
... But what do I know? I'm not in the Beatles' realm, and certainly don't claim to know any internecine goings on there. I just think it would've been cool, and a richer golden anniversary -- not the golden slumbers that we saw and heard, and which came and went with seemingly too little forethought -- if all of the relatives could've been in the same room.
