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no politics scheduled...oh well
Nightline Daily E-Mail
February 6, 2004
TONIGHT'S FOCUS: It was forty years ago. Four young men appeared on a television show... and the world was never the same. It was the day America met The Beatles...
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I have been thinking about this all morning, and I can't remember if I watched The Beatles on Ed Sullivan or not. I have seen the tape so many times since then that I know it, but I can't remember watching it on T.V. that Sunday night. Part of the reason may be that for much of my childhood, our television was broken. It sat in the living room, a black-and-white monster, mute, silent, taunting me. I knew even then that it was the gateway to a much larger world. Was it broken that night? I'm hoping that my sisters will remember. One of the advantages of having older sisters at that time was that they brought home the music. Growing up in Southern California, the Beach Boys were making their mark. Surf music, the screaming guitar of Dick Dale and his imitators, was dominant. But then The Beatles came to visit.
They were, in a big way, the soundtrack for my childhood. A year or so later, I went to a birthday party, both boys and girls. Now we were nine or ten by then, and as I think back, a mixed birthday party seems a little unique, by that age boys and girls were already separating for a while. We went to see "A Hard Day's Night." The girls in our party, the girls in the theater, were screaming. We boys smirked with that worldly maturity that young boys try to project. But I think behind that was a little fear too. Girls were already being revealed as creatures of mystery, who were beyond our understanding. Here they were screaming over four guys on a movie screen. This was clearly a big deal. We just didn't quite know why. The hair? I had just graduated from having my father cut my hair, a crewcut of course, to actually having a little hair. Not much, but a little. The Beatles changed that too.
A year or two later, I began to take drum lessons. My teacher made me listen to Beatles records and transcribe the drum lines. And yes, I'm a Ringo defender, a much better drummer that he was ever given credit for. So I knew their songs. Stereo blasting so I could hear it over my drums, I played along. I was in The Beatles. I felt I had somehow gotten inside the band. I too was cool. But of course I was wrong. No one was as cool as The Beatles.
And it all goes back to that one night on the Ed Sullivan show. So tonight we'll take a look at that one broadcast, talking to the people who were there, who were outside, who were, in their own way, changed by the experience. The producer who is putting together tonight's show is 27. She was born after The Beatles broke up. We were talking about what an impact they had, even on an eight-year-old boy. Is there anything now that could be as powerful? Will people be talking about seeing Janet Jackson years from now? Of course not, that was over days ago. Will any cultural event have the same impact? Who knows? But I do know this. That night, forty years ago, changed everything. I hope you'll join Chris Bury tonight.
Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff
ABCNEWS Washington bureau
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