"It was [forty] years ago today..."
Mood:  happy
Isn't that something? The Beatles first arrived in America 40 years ago today. I was just getting started in this world at the time that the lads from Liverpool were breaking up, but I have loved their music for as long as I can remember. They're the alpha and omega of pop/rock music and, although they had plenty of antecedents, they had no precedent. Sinatra and Presley fans might quibble with that, but no rock n' roll band, let's say, ever had ---or ever will again have--- the impact and influence of The Beatles.

But, really, The Beatles' accomplishment stands alone. Consider their style and sound as we Americans first saw them in 1964. Only six years later ---six!--- they had reinvented the wheel. Their music had progressed so far and exerted such influence that each album was practically a matter of ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny in procession. I am fond of saying that there are certain songs on the White Album which were the geneses of whole sub-genres of pop-rock. I don't know if that's true, but I think it is and it's sounds cool anyway.

So, here's to The Beatles!