Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) turns 64 today.
For those of you too young to remember, and those of you whose memory is clouded by age, the common rallying cry of the 1960s was, “Never trust anyone over 30.” Of course, all the current “radicals” in academia were the very ones who coined that phrase. Now they are. And they expect the youth of today to trust them.
Young people in the ’60s were strong and influential. 1950s music (which carried over until around 1963) was almost as processed as rock and country music today. Something sold, and everyone copied. Music “manufacturing centers” sprung up, and labels had teams of writers and studio musicians in house to create a specific sound for every singer they had on contract. The Beatles were a big factor in changing that. With George Martin, “the fifth Beatle,” they created new sounds and rhythms. When the Beatles released Abbey Road they were sitting on top of the world. They were the strongest influence in music at the time. When they did something musically, others attempted to imitate. Youth was on a roll.
They were all under 30 at the time. That same year, I think it was 1969, Rolling Stone did a cover story on rockers about to turn 30. “Never trust anyone over 30.”
Who are the under-30s today?
Actually the new rallying cry is: “Never trust anyone UNDER 30”. At least the under 30 crowd then was INFORMED, by a COMPETENT media apparatus, these days you never know whether the spin your reading comes from Gillespie (sp?) or McAuliffe, and the media have grown complacent and greedy. Complacent and greedy does not lead to true “journalism”.
Comment by Bubba Bo Bob Brain — July 7, 2004 @ 3:51 pm
64, eh? Will we still need him, will we still feed him?
Sorry, it had to be said.
Comment by Bogey — July 10, 2004 @ 11:49 am