Some things we have to learn as we go.
And some things we can only know after we've been around a while.
Ironically, one of those things is how much of a part what was played in what is.
When I was younger, I was, like many of my generation, inclined to simply accept as fact that The Beatles were the only thing that really mattered in pop music.
And while I did, precocious lad I always was, have, at least, a polite amount of respect for the words and music that previous generations had considered seminal, I still simply assumed that all of their contributions were nothing more than preamble to the inevitability of the infallibility of the musical gospel according to John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Like most of us are wont to do when we are young, I wasn't seeing the bigger part of the big picture.
Music and, more to the point, popular songs are not a random occurrence in our cultural universe. It is (they are), in fact, at any given time in the timeline, the result of adding contemporary influences, attitudes, et al to the existing paradigm.
You say you want an evolution?
Simply put, without a Big Mama Thornton, there would have very possibly have been no Elvis...without an Elvis, there might not have been an Everly Brothers, without Phil and Don, we might never have heard of the Fab Four and....well, point made.
Fifty years, give or take, have passed since the Liverpool lads first started making a joyful noise and, given the average attention span of the culture in general, it comes as no surprise that, at this point in the time line, their contribution has, to the larger, and younger, demographic the faintest whiff of ancient history.
Not unlike the way my generation thought of the Lincoln assassination while experiencing the reality of the Kennedy assassination which, today, evokes that same piquant aromatic montage of old textbooks and/or the grandparent's house.
And while it's tempting (and probably not more than just a little expected from the youngsters in the gallery) to head down the path of "in my day" here, let me ease your concerns and only offer you whose youthful vision is still evolving to that place where the big picture becomes more overt and less obscure that one of the tradeoff joys of getting older is having the best of both worlds...being able to re-discover that which enthralled, excited and engaged in the first place while, at the same time, continuing on down the road of new discovery, new sounds, new influences, the new kids, or kids, in town.
This "old guy" thinks Gaga is a gas...Bruno Mars is marvelous...Train and Maroon 5 totally get it and share it with eloquence and brilliance....all the while The Beatles are re-discovered each day by my peers...and discovered by yours.
Rock on, George, one time for Ringo...
