ELVIS vs THE BEATLES

[A rope leash]

Thanks, pop...good reasoning.

I will tell you this, I did a lot of substance. Listening to the Beatles only encouraged it.

But, Frank Zappa said, (words to the effect) -

I play a couple of songs about vegetables, but I don't think kids are eating more vegetables...

Of course, his "vegetable songs" were not popular hits, either.

Very influential, these Beatles. Without them, The Monkees would have never existed!

[Mr. Average]

The comments above by Pophead2K are consistent with my youth, and the youth of my peers as we were maturing through adolescence at the peak of the Beatles popularity (based on record sales, not artistic merit). Born in 1957, I have wonderful early memories of the moptops from England singing "I want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" and the rest squeezing out through the tinny speaker of my AM Transistor radio as I helped my Dad wash the station wagon (I hated that job, as by 1968 I had 6 siblings and the car was always a good place to store stuff when tthe space under our beds became too jammed).

Colleen Kiggins, my next door neighbor who was all grown up and oh so pretty and shapely (18) had a coveted set of Beatles Bobblehead-type dolls, and my best friend and I thought that these four guys looked so strange with the long hair and the black suits that the thought never occured to us to try to emulate them....they were TOO, Too, far out.

I can't account for the influence the Beatles would have on an 18-21 year old in 1968, but if a kid was predisposed to experimenting with drugs I am not so certain that the Beatles would have pushed them over the edge. I recall (later) news stories where a public proclamation was made that the Beatles were more populare than Jesus Christ, and that was about the end of their influence in my neighborhood, because as your pre-pubescent or early adolescent kids, we were under the stern influence of parents who simply did not accept that statement and considered it blatantly blasphemous. So it was out of our control...we stopped listening anyplace that the parents might hear. SO, we shuffled off to Hausers Pharmacy and soda fountain to pump dimes into the juke box and listen away while we scanned the magazine rack (Mad, Cracked, Comic Books) until Mr, Hauser would shoo us away, and tell our parents that we were listening to the Beatles all afternoon.

Paul was busted for carrying pot through a London or New York airport, I can't recall. In my little corner of my little town which 'used' to be smack dab in the center of JesusLand (questionable now...Dayton, OH) the news of Pauls drug arrest was BAD news.

I had a lot of great friends back them. Like Verno, and Eddie Du Chance, and Chris, and the gang of Stephen King/Rob Reiners "Stand By Me" friends. Not a single one was influenced in a anegative way by the Beatles.We never really have friends like those friends. They were the best. Pinky-swear on your Mothers honor.

Led Zeppelin was a different thing. Led Zep 4 hit just a little later, with PF Dark Side of the Moon, Yes, Fragile, and these records ascended to popularity comcommitantly with the availability and easy access to marijuana, the drug du jour of the day. These two records did more to stimulate drug use than any record that I can recall from my youth.

[ReadyToHearTheWorst]

There's a TV interview with Paul McCarney, c. 1968, where he is challenged about his stance on drugs and the effect his words have on the youth of the day.

Paul replies that he was simply answering a direct question by a journalist, who then decided to publish and so 'corrupt' his readership.

The interviewer didn't seem convinced, but then he's a journalist as well!

[martin]

forgive me if im wrong but isnt Pump it up about drugs?Or was it was written under the influence of speed and booze.

[A rope leash]

I thought it was about masturbation.

It applies to anything that needs pumping, I suppose.

I can't think of anything in Elvis's songs that would indicate drug use by HIM. Other people, maybe...

Hey! Over there on the other thread! Yeah! You guys! What's up?!

Brutal Youth always in the top 5ive, baby...

[oily slick]

eh, i don't know. questionable production.