The Beatles: All the time

Today, SiriusXM debuted an all Beatles channel at 6:09 PDT. I don't subscribe to Sirius; however, the company is allowing free listening until May 30.

Upon learning about the freebie, I immediately downloaded the Sirius app on my smartphone. For the next two hours, I listened to the channel. Nice treat! They intersperse Beatles music with anecdotal blurbs from The Beatles themselves and various celebrities. They will be playing covers as well. During the two hours I listened, they only played one, that being You've Got To Hide Your Love Away by Oasis.

In 1964, I was living in El Paso, Texas, and I still vividly remember seeing The Beatles' debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. I was 13 at the time, and I really wasn't into that particular pop music scene. My father had raised me on the classics in addition to forties and fifties Sinatra-type pop music.

First off, I sneered at the name. I distinctly recall saying, "Next there will be a group called The Trashmen." Turns out I was right, though they had been around since 1962.

I was particularly astounded by the screaming girls in the audience. I had never seen anything like that before. It hadn't occurred to me yet that people can have such extremely emotional responses to a celebrity.

Of course, not being into rock music at that moment, I didn't really have a positive response to the debut. Thought it was an oddity. The music was rather grating to that 13-year-old.

My conversion to rock and roll occurred later that year after I had moved to Los Angeles, California. The San Fernando Valley, specifically. I was with my best friend motoring our way to the beach when suddenly, on the radio, the song that converted me started playing. You won't believe this, but it was The Swim by Bobby Freeman.

"Come on, everybody...come on in...Bobby's gonna to show you how to do the swim!"



I was thunderstruck! That was a GREAT song in my mind. From that point on, I was a convert.

And that led me to the appreciation of The Beatles. I've been a Beatles fan ever since. What I appreciated about them was that whenever a new song came out, I was ok with it at that time, but a few months would go by, I would hear it again and suddenly realize how great the song actually was. They were constantly ahead of me. Amazing.

So, for now, I'll listen to Sirius' Beatles channel until the end of the month, then decide whether to subscribe.

A postscript: My love for rock/pop music died with the advent of Disco. Oh, I've kept my eye on the pop music scene for the last forty years, but never to the extent and passion I had during the late 60s and early 70s.