“To commemorate the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ American debut, Apple today has expanded the lineup for its Apple TV set-top box by adding a channel dedicated to the legendary rock group,” Richard Padilla reports for MacRumors.
“The channel allows users to view The Beatles’ groundbreaking performance on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ for a limited time,” Padilla reports, “and also offers download links to The Beatles’ U.S. releases, which are available digitally for the first time on iTunes.”
Read more here.
I was seven when the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan. I can still recall my Uncle asking me if I really thought they were good. I said something like, yea, they’re great, don’t you? Though I didn’t realize it then, it was the beginning of a new era. Music changed forever after the Beatles. They defined the end of the 50’s and a new age of enlightenment. Though by today’s standards, there hair wasn’t even that long, the WW II, generation thought they were freaks. It was a wonderful time to be alive and a kid. The rest is history.
It’s such a shame that you guys in the USA missed out on the similar late 80s wave that hit the UK, referred to as Rave Culture. Like the 60s it ended up with everyone of a certain generation enjoying a great big love-in (mostly Ecstasy-fuelled and located either in a field or Ibiza). So much of our culture and our attitudes changed then just as it did in the early 60s. I know some of it rubbed off on some Americans, but it never had the impact over there that the mid-60s changes had.
I think I am happy to miss out on any Ecstasy fueled movement thank you. Just as I skipped the acid one of the 60’s. And lived to remember the tragic stories of others who decided not to miss it.
Please yourself. That scene is long dead now anyway.
BTW, you know the Beatles did copious amounts of drugs and lived to tell the tale don’t you? Some of their best stuff was the result of acid trips.
And so are some of the participants.
NO! really!?. Sorry, had to add sarcasm. 🙂 You honestly think I could live through the whole Beatles era and not know they took acid, etc.? I didn’t live in a cave in my teenage years. I agree they did drugs but they were lucky. Many of their era who attempted to enhance creativity did not live to create past their drug testing phases. And that goes for a lot of creative comedians and movie stars as well.
Obviously you never experienced a Dead show during those years. Their influence is alive and well to this day and still going strong. The key difference was the fact that the Dead played real instruments & told life experience stories through their songs. Raves were a fad that came & went like to wind.
A very valid point. Maybe the Rave Culture thing just coincided with the right point in my life. I certainly don’t mean to talk down the experiences others have had. It’s great that we all enjoy ourselves whilst we have the time and energy to do it. How that’s done and who sets the backdrop to it is less important.
Actually Daveh we enjoyed Raves from the late 80s until the late 90s. Many great DJs from the UK spent quite a bit of time in Los Angeles and New York, and vice versa and yeah the vibe was amazing. MDMA played a big part. Everyone in a rave was typically very warm, loving, and sensual.
Oh no doubt that the two cities you mention there were huge in the scene. A lot of the USA seemed to completely miss it though, whereas with us having a much smaller country it seemed to be everywhere for a while.
It was one hell of a good time wasn’t it? Wandering around loved-up with a permagrin on your face and hugging everyone like a koala whilst the beat went right through you.
Getting all nostalgic now 🙂
On the persistent urging of my girlfriend attended one rave party in a downtown D.C. art studio during the height of heyday.
People all over stoned out of their gourds, fighting, grouping people for sex and many passing out on the dance floor. Not to mention a few people scoring free ambulance rides complete with blinking lights.
Unfortunately, we could not stick around for the third glass of wine. But yeah, what a great time it was … /s
Please don’t hate me, but I just never really got into the Beatles.
Yes they have influenced many – but there were also other greats.
Funny too I am a musician.
As with many greats you only have to appreciate them for how they influenced change.
Yes, of course there were other ‘greats’, but the Beatles did something nobody else did, and nobody else will be able to do; changed society. And not just in Britain, in America, and according to many, many people, in the Soviet Union. It’s believed by those who live there that The Beatles brought about the fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall, by giving hope to the inhabitants that there was something better to be had.
On BBC 6Music this afternoon they were talking about the Ed Sullivan Show, and the viewing figures; apparently 45 million people were watching! That can never happen again.
Sadly, they’re one band I never got to see. (Too young).
Seen many, many others over the last forty-plus years, though.
Exactly. Many underestimate how much of a contribution their music made around the world. They went beyond the music in ways no artists had before or after at just the right inflection point in history. Their like will never come again.
They, and the other creative artists who followed their lead, demolished business models, disrupted industries, and altered culture and politics in ways that the Plutarchs of our time will be writing about for generations yet to come. They were a crowbar to the head in a world of resigned conformism, crass commercialism, and political repression. I learnt this from the playwright Tom Stoppard, a Shakespeare for our time.
Comrade X, I was seven at the time, as well. Watched it live and now enjoying the great memories. A musical movement like no other. 🙂
I was 9 and the whole revolution in music that they created was amazing. Now the sound seems normal, but back then it was like nothing we’d heard, you can’t explain that to someone who did not live the before and after of it all. I remember my grandfather calling it “Pots and Pans!” when I gave him a listen to my first Beatle album. The Beatles sound is the core influence of todays evolution of music, which is exactly why younger people think The Beatles don’t sound that different nor understand the big deal they are to us older people.
I would rather watch Paint Dry
If that’s what makes your bird sing, then all right. Make certain it isn’t lead based paint, though, unless it’s too late for that, in which case, happy happy!