Segarini – I (Still Kinda) Like the Beatles and MacMillan Loves the Rolling Stones Part Two

Rock and Roll, that most American hybrid of Country and Blues had come along and dethroned the OTHER American music, Jazz, and looked to be numero uno for many years. The burgeoning generation that became known as Baby Boomers were reaching puberty and beyond, and they were the largest segment of the population. Rock and Roll DID have a good run…but it wasn’t the Americans who took it to prominence the world over…it was those fucking kids who looked like girls and could barely play. – From Part One

When It Comes to Music Why is It Always About Your Youth….

Cruising the AM dial was extremely rewarding in the early ‘60’s, there was so much music to be had. Not only the songs you tuned in to hear, but radio stations added a dozen or so new tracks every week, and told you about them and the artists, plus most had a record race or voice your choice program that aired around 5 pm weekdays, after school was finished and American Bandstand was over. Just about everybody listened, discussing which new songs you liked, or what you voted for.

Great Britain had fallen. The Beatles were everywhere. Even the radio in England played every release, and their reputation began to grow in the rest of Europe. By mid 1963, even Canada had succumbed to the magic, but America, its teenagers wound up with all that radio had to offer, had yet to embrace the Fab Four. A lot of radio people were in the know and saw the writing on the wall, but the public just wasn’t ready. That the Beatles hadn’t impacted on American radio was not for lack of trying.

I remember the frustration of Tom Donahue and Bobby Mitchell at KYA in San Francisco. Every time a new Beatle single was released, From Me to You, Please Please Me, She Loves You, they would be featured on the Record Race Bobby Mitchell (who also spent time at KHJ) hosted on weekdays, where he would extol the greatness of the Beatles and their latest track.

They always lost.

Badly.

Finally, Mitchell got so frustrated, he screamed at his audience for not hearing what he heard, not getting the importance…the magic, of these four young men from Liverpool. Such Passion…such was radio in 1963.

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I remember taking my copy of “Introducing the Beatles” to a party in  January of 1964. Every time I put it on the turntable, someone took it off. The girls thought they were cute, the boys thought they looked like girls, and nobody liked the music.

The music heard and talked about that winter in Stockton California was Dylan and Peter Paul and Mary, the R&B records of the day, and oldies from Elvis, Buddy, Chuck, and Little Richard, but the 4 Mop Tops of the Apopalypse were only mentioned as the butt of a joke, or not at all…and if I put She Loves You or From Me to You or Please Please Me on the turntable, someone would replace it with Jesse Hill or Ray Charles before the chorus.

Yet here we are, almost 60 years later, and they are revered to the point that I oft times wonder if the British Government somehow slipped something into the world’s water supply to insure  their immortality and a cash flow lasting through eternity.

Seriously, how many re-masters, remixes, re-releases, and formats are we going to buy? So far, my guess…is ALL of them.

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After Sullivan, and America had succumbed to the Orwellian hold the Beatles were generating  at the time, the music that had held sway up until them was swept away by a Tsunami of what could only be described as temporary insanity fueled by hormones, disposable income, and the desire to belong to The Cult of Teenage Obsession.

When adults started wearing Beatle Wigs at their cocktail parties and tried to dance to I Wanna Hold Your Hand, a lot of kids were so embarrassed and angry that Mom and Dad were attempting to join the club, I was surprised most of the parents were allowed to live.

How dare they love what we love, how can my stupid parents join the party and ruin our fun? Why are OUR Beatles sooo lovable that even OUR PARENTS approve of them?

…and in response, a benevolent and caring God created the Rolling Stones.

Editor’s Note – Portions of this column have appeared in these pages before.

Next Week – Part Three

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Segarini’s regular columns appear here every time someone buys yet another alternate take of Strawberry Fields 

Contact us at dbawis@rogers.com

Bob “The Iceman” Segarini was in the bands The Family Tree, Roxy, The Wackers, The Dudes, and The Segarini Band and nominated for a Juno for production in 1978. He also hosted “Late Great Movies” on CITY TV, was a producer of Much Music, and an on-air personality on CHUM FM, Q107, SIRIUS Sat/Rad’s Iceberg 95, (now 85), and now publishes, edits, and writes for DBAWIS, continues to write music, make music, and record.