At 08:06 PM 8/22/2003 -0600, Ron wrote:


>If it hadn't been for the Beatles rock might never have come back from the
>dreck of the early 60's. What good music there would have been would have been
>just a small blip on the radar of my generation.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!  For years and years the early 60's 
have been portrayed as this god awful period.  Well it just isn't so.  Sure 
the Beatles changed everything, but they didn't save the world from a 
dearth of good popular music.  Great rock and soul was being made a plenty 
in the early 60's and it was popular.  You had the beginnings of Motwon, 
Stax and Chicago Soul.  You had surf and wonderful girl groups and Phil 
Spector at the peek of his powers.  You had great Brill Building 
records.  The Doo-wop revival and the return of Elvis and Chuck Berry.  Roy 
Orbinson was coming into his own.  Dion was making great singles.  The Four 
Seasons, the Impressions, James Brown, Smokey, Marvin Gaye, Del Shannon, 
the Drifters, the Ventures, Lesley Gore, the Everlys, the start of the 
Beach Boys, Gene Pitney, Ricky Nelson, Sam Cooke, Jan & Dean, Booker T. 
etc. etc. etc.  The early 60's were not dreck.  The early 60's are not 
Fabian and Frankie Avalon, but the movement of R&B to soul.  The world was 
forever changed by the Beatles, but what came before was not worthless and 
the good music from that period was much, much more than a blip.

Bill