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• January 14, 1966: A brand new year! The Christmas holidays just got over and
When the British Invasion first hit U.S. shores a while ago, it seemed like everyone was immediately split into three camps: either you were a Beatles fan, a Dave Clark Five fan, or a Rolling Stones fan. My sister dug DC 5. My mother watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and actually made the comment that Paul McCartney was "cute" . . . but when she later saw Mick Jagger on that same show lewdly caressing a microphone as he sang, Mom was horrified and proclaimed the Rolling Stones to be "disgusting!" Naturally, I became a Stones fan. According to my dad, however, none of these bands will still be around in five years and nobody will even remember the Rolling Stones or the Beatles. "None of them can hold a candle to Dino Martin or Frank Sinatra," he says, often adding, "this generation of long haired freaks play in groups of four because they just don't have the talent or the courage to make it as solo performers." Grown ups can put down our music all they want, it only makes me want to turn the volume up louder! Sometimes I just need to get away from adults, to a place where I can pretty much do whatever I want. So I retreat down to my favorite part of the house - we have a finished basement with soundproofing and I can crank up the Hi-Fi as loud as I want. This is one of my favorite places to go to be alone - an isolated oasis, one of the few places that offers some degree of privacy from peering parental eyes. In fact, that's where I am right now, listing to music: Beatles, Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Dylan and Beach Boys records mostly. Sometimes I like to just sit down here alone in the semi-darkness and ponder life. Where is my life headed and what does it all mean? Like the Beach Boys song that asks the musical questions: When I grow up . . . will I dig the same things that turned me on as a kid? Will I look back and laugh at the crazy things that I did? Will I look for the same things in a woman that I dig in a girl? Will I settle down fast or first want to travel the world? Will I still jump around and still dig those sounds . . . When I grow up to be a man? |
we're all back in school. What a pain! I got some cool stuff for Christmas
though, a transistor radio (The tiniest little radio I could ever imagine it
fits in my shirt pocket, how the heck are they able to make it so small?) and
a bunch of other stuff . . . including the new album by the Rolling Stones.
The Stones are my absolute favorite group.