Beatles, Schmeatles. . .

. . . maybe it didn't really last that long, my career as a Beatle, but it was a potent experience. And thanks to my Mothers' Day debut, I got a taste of public performance, the energy shared between performer and audience, and I certainly did like it. Although the Beatles' influence upon me had subsided by this time, they were undoubtedly a profound influence; a lingering presence in or on our culture and myself as well and though I was not by any means an obsessive fan, I was always an appreciator of the music of the Beatles. Little did I realize at the time, their music-like all the music that I absorbed over the years, influences and informs the music that I make today in some form or fashion.

Around this time my record collecting appetite grew as did my curiosity about and pleasure in the music all around me. Soon added to my collection (and some borrowed from my sister) were records by Herman's Hermits, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, The Dave Clark Five, The Turtles, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Animals, Tommy James and the Shondells and more. And added to that, one Christmas I was to receive one of the most treasured gifts of my childhood, that technological miracle that could connect a young boy to the great big world outside, that marvel of marvels. . . the transistor radio.

My little musical world was instantly widened and the musical menu available to me embellished beyond belief. In those days, there were many 'Top 40' radio stations which in truth (much like pop stations today) played a surprisingly small selection of songs over and over and over and over and. . . well, you get the idea. But to me, to possess this little box of my very own, that travelled easily with me, over which no one else could exert their control (broadcasting had not become concerned with 'parental contol/guidance' concepts yet) which provided me with endless (as long as I provided battery power) music, was nearly nirvana.



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ANOTHER SHOT
by Ray Jozwiak