I think of myself as too young to remember something from 40 years
ago, and yet I vividly recall the year of 1968.
What a year. I graduated from high school, signed up for the Draft,
started college...and in late August, from my TV set, I watched cops
beat up kids and protesters on the streets of Chicago.
Meanwhile, The Beatles released their new (and for the first time)
Apple single, "Hey Jude/ Revolution" the same week as the Chicago
Police Riot.
I remember hearing "Revolution" first, and what struck me was "Oh, The
Beatles are going back to their early Rock sound...no psychedelia
here." I enjoyed the noisy guitar riff, and the lyrics.
Less than a week later, the Rolling Stones came out with "Street
Fighting Man". I also liked the lyrics to that song, but found them
the opposite of "Revolution". I recall writing down on piece of
cardboard, "Peace through Revolution"---The Stones, "Revolution
through Peace"---The Beatles. Both groups seemed to be going to
different ends to achieve the same goal.
However, once I heard "Revolution", hearing "Hey Jude", a song that
was over 7 minutes long (the dj's kept telling me after I missed its
airplay) became an obsession for me. I just seemed to be in the wrong
place at the wrong time with my radio.
August is also my birth month. I attained the age of 18 less than a
week before the demonstrations in Chicago, and the release of the new
Beatles single. I thought long and hard about not registering for the
Draft, but I was 18...young and scared...so, I gave into the pressures
of the time, and visited my local Selective Service office a day or
two after the Chicago riots. I was nervous. It was painless.
However, as I drove home, I felt depressed about all that I had seen
and heard during the Democratic Convention. When I witnessed, live on
TV, cops beating up re****ters and protesters with billy clubs, I kept
wondering "Am I still living in America?". Still driving home, I
fiddled with the radio dial, and all of a sudden I heard a song that I
had never heard before...you guessed it....it was "Hey Jude", such a
sweet melody, and an infectious joyous chorus, that it brightened my
spirits immediately.
40 years later, it still does.
http://www.beatlestube.net/video.php?title=Hey%20Jude
http://www.beatlestube.net/video.php?title=Revolution%201
************************************************************************
If you remember the Sixties...you WERE there. ;-)
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/1960s
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