Ladies and Gentleman...The Beatles!

Nothing else so effected my life growing up as The Beatles did. They helped shape my voracious love of music as well as lead me to a social standard which I still adhere to today.

I so clearly remember the first time I heard "Please Please Me". That 45 starting to spin on the old Silvertone Stereo Phonograph. The arm swinging over and slowly lowering. Those first crackles and pops that emanated from the little speakers. Then...those first two guitar notes followed by the harmonica. Amazing! And here we are, forty-six years later and this wondrous catalog of music has been re-mastered and re-released to yet another generation.

But this next generation. Do they have what it takes? Do they have the will and fortitude to carry our legacy another forty-six years? Will this music enable a shy, introverted nine year old to get up in front of his whole elementary school with three other shy, introverted friends with homemade instruments and lip-sync four consecutive Beatles songs? Uh, huh! I think not!! (Really...it was a "friend" of mine...)

Can this music touch a shy, introverted thirteen year old boy enough to put his speakers up in the open window of his second floor bedroom to blair "Helter Skelter" for all the neighborhood to hear? Uh, huh! I think not!! (Again, really...it was a "friend" of mine...)

Will some shy, introverted fifteen year old boy be so deeply moved as to struggle to learn to play "Here Comes The Sun" on his new Epiphone electric guitar for that sweet little fourteen year old girl he's sure he will marry some day? Uh, huh! I think not!! (Again, really...it was a "friend" of mine...)

Our children of today plug their headphones into their iPods and head blankly down that heavy metal, hard rock, hip-hop primrose path. The noise in their ears a mere soundtrack for their life. Our love's being lost. Our values torn asunder. It leaves us, the boomer generation to question, where did it all go?

Then. Oh, yes, then. Number one has the nerve, the unmitigated gall, to ask me...that old guy...Paul McCartney...he was really in a band before Wings?