Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

I had cool aunts and uncles, growing up, especially on my mom's side.

You've heard me say how Mom's sister, Aunt Ona, and her husband Uncle John got me back into playing music.

One of Mother's other sisters lived in Whitehaven, MS. Every summer, my sisters and I would visit for a week with Aunt Norma and Uncle Billy and their daughters, the two oldest of whom were about the same age as Brenda and Deb.

You have heard tell of the fabulous adventures of Jack and Susan, so you know that I was OK hanging out with the females, you know, pretending to be a monster and such like.

But guys, being guys, need to hang out with guys sometimes and this is where my Uncle Billy was so cool. He would sit and just talk sometimes or we would play chess (which he would nearly always win, but that was cool too).

I think my favorite thing was that he would let me sit up late and watch the Carson show with him, something I was not allowed to do at home.

Which brings me to my favorite Uncle Billy story, the one where we saw the Beatles before they came to America.

The summer before I turned 14, we were sitting in the Shelton's living room in Whitehaven, MS (a suburb of Memphis) watching The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

John's first guest that night was Jack Paar, former host of the Tonight Show. After the usual pleasantries ("how ya doin?" "watcha been up to?"), Jack shared that he had been in jolly old England where he had seen a most unusual sight.

He then showed a Super 8 (the VHS of the 60's) film of this rock group playing in a large theater or something in London. He remarked on how the girls (or young women, if you prefer) would go absolutely insane at theses concerts, screaming their heads off, weeping, fainting, and other such hysterical carryings-on. Quite amazing really.

And so it was. You could barely hear the band over the noise, though the lads, a quartet of long-haired (for back in the day) young men neatly dressed were giving it their all. "She Loves You" I think was the song and if I had been on Bandstand, I would have scored it an 85, "cuz you can dance to it."

John cracked a few jokes about the whole scene and went to a commercial.

Uncle Bill turned to me and asked, "What did you think of them?"

"They're okay I guess but I like the Four Seasons better."

Thus music criticism in the early 60's.