Yesterday - Lousy Player Cover, be forewarned!

[Cypress Knee]

I am just getting started on the Beatles. When I was young my father controlled the radio and TV stations, and listened to Johnny Horton, Hank Williams, Billy Vaughn and so forth. In the summer of 1966 he was sent to Southeast Asia and we moved to a small town in Louisiana that summer. I was going into Fourth Grade, whoop-dee-doo. When we arrived the local church welcomed us to the neighborhood and invited us to a community bonfire that weekend, which we gleefully accepted. They were burning records that night - Beatles records - and by the time I could buy my own records it was the Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Zeppelin and Bob Dylan, which then transitioned into the James Taylor/John Denver era. Does anybody else here remember Seals and Crofts? So here I am some fifty plus years late getting started on the music of the most dominant band of the 20th century.

I have heard many other guitarists on this forum, and trust me on this - I am not in their league!

Taken in my garage as my wife confiscated my guitar room as her home office and my son confiscated the guest space for his personal and business uses.

[Silly Moustache]

Hi Jim, nice version. good melodic line. Obviously the lousy player didn't tur up!

Sorry to hear about your bullying wife and son, forcing you into the garage but it looks well equipped!

You wrote "When we arrived the local church welcomed us to the neighborhood and invited us to a community bonfire that weekend, which we gleefully accepted. They were burning records that night - Beatles records .... "

Burning records? do you mean cutting/ pressing them? I can burn playlists to CDs now and used to copy albums to cassette tapes but didn't know any way to record records in '66 tape recorder?

everyone knows about the Beatles etc., but somehow they seem more important in the US than in the UK.

looking forward to more garage videos!


Fourth grade - 9-10 years old? I was already playing (drums) in a band in 1966 pretty much influenced by the Stones, Yardbirds, etc, right place, right time, in west London.

Stones played regularly in a nearby club, and against my will I was dragged to a Beatles concert once - saw them, couldn't hear them - too much screaming.

Also saw James Taylor live at the London Palladium - centre front row. Iain Matthews and Southern comfort as the opening act!

[tbeltrans]

As I recall, John Lennon made a passing comment that the Beatles were "more popular than Christ". A lot of folks in the US took serious offense at the comment and suddenly there were groups of people burning Beatles records.

I always interpreted the comment simply as a comment on the popularity of the Beatles at the time. They were front and center seemingly everywhere (i.e. from my 10 year old perspective at the time). In a sense, for a while they WERE more popular than Christ among the kids of a certain age. I saw the comment as an observation on what was going on at the time, rather than a slam on religion or Christ. But, then, I was 10 years old, so what did I know? That whole record burning thing seemed ridiculous to me at the time, and it still does now. It does seem to me that John Lennon had a track record of commenting on the culture at various points, so his comment seemed in line with that to, looking back on that whole era.

Of course, it may also be that the OP was referencing some other situation going on at the time. I just remember burning Beatles records being associated with a reaction to Lennon's comment.

There seemed to be an age difference in who got into the Beatles, at least early on. My older brother (about 14 at the time of the onset of Beatlemania) was into the Stones and other stuff, while at 10, I was definitely into the Beatles (though I didn't get all that screaming and crying the girls seemed to be into about them). His friends had similar tastes to his and other people I have since met who are around his age also didn't seem to be avid Beatles fans either.

As for the OP performance, "ya done good!".

Tony

[hubcapsc]

I took the bait, figured it would be good... it was, and the
story too!

-Mike

[difalkner]

Nice playing, Jim! I enjoyed that.

I'm in my wood shop all day every day and listen to K-LOVE Christian music but on Saturday I treat myself to my custom Pandora PP&M channel and hear Seals and Crofts, JD, JT, Jim Croce, Harry Chapin, Dan Fogelberg, Simon & Garfunkel, the Beatles, Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, and many more.

So yes, I not only remember Seals and Crofts but still listen to them!

David

[raysachs]

Nothing to apologize for in that playing, Jim. I've been playing guitar for a long time, there are things I can do kind of instinctually at this point. But I'm only a year and a half or so into fingerpicking and I feel like my brain is being rewired on a nearly daily basis, so I have nothing but respect for what you're doing in the video. I'm much more blues than Beatles oriented (I was always a Stones guy), but that's a very pretty song nicely played.

The Beatles were far from the only band that had their records burned as some kind of strange religious ritual in the US, mostly, but not exclusively in the south. I'm sure it started with Elvis if not sooner - rock 'n roll was considered "the Devil's music" with all those gyrations which, of course, can only lead to one thing, which most of us rather like (and has helped keeping the earth populated) but some consider evil. And I guess the burning of records (and books too, some of these folks just seemed to like to burn stuff, even crosses!) was gonna make 'em go away.

They eventually did mostly go away (although I guess they're on the comeback lately) and y'all can argue about whether it was the burning of 'em 25 years earlier or the development of digital technology that did 'em in. I'm sure there's a group of folks up in arms and legs who have their zippo lighters at the ready. But even if the records are mostly gone, there are those who proclaim that rock 'n roll will never die, so I guess you can set all the fires you want but some stuff is just gonna be with us. I once tried to burn some Lawrence Welk albums as kind of a joke and, hey, you NEVER hear those anymore. So maybe you just have to pick your targets carefully...

-Ray

[Glennwillow]

Nice job Jim!

That was fun! Nice sounding guitar! I've always loved that song!

- Glenn

[reeve21]

Really enjoyed that, Jim!

I too was a little bit too young to catch the Beatles in their prime, and really didn’t get fully immersed in their genius until much later. I have a feeling that folks will be playing and listening to that song as long as people are picking and singing

[TBman]

Good job Jim!