Ahhhhhh, the magic time of music, my friends. I was a 16 year old lad when it all began and it was the greatest time of music in my life. There is was, American Rock, Motown and the British Invasion all on the same radio stations, the variety was overwhelming, most different and all of it was good.
It was a fascinating time because just when you thought you'd heard your favorite, a new one emerges and you have a new favorite. But you know the coolest thing about it from the perspective of a 16 year old boy? Ugly.
Up until then, we had to endure the dreamboats like Elvis, Fabian, Ricky Nelson, Paul Anka, Tommy Sands and Pat Boone and the girls would all just stare at them and drool. Then the Beatles with cute Paul and the Dave Clark Five show up. What the hell is this, the only guys in England with good teeth? Thankfully, Peter Noone showed up. But little did we know, it was coming, help was on the way. The Mods were in the very first wave but the Rockers were coming, the Rockers were coming!
The Rolling Stones and Animals show up and these guys are uglier than any of us, we have a chance. The only Stone that was decent looking was Brian Jones and they drowned him for being pretty. "Eh love, yer not so pretty now, all bloated like that, are ye mate?"
Still today, my favorite music and the influence that it brought on our music and our culture was something to behold living through it. I was the first to stop combing my hair back and got sent home from school on day one, first to have Beatles' boots and dressed like them. It was as if I was adrift, had no self image, didn't know that I belonged to anything but then it happened. They came. And the fact that the Beatles and the others scared the parents more than Elvis made it so much better.