The Beatles
Take Center Stage.
force this world has ever seen or
heard.
The words “pandemonium” and
“bedlam” were used in newspaper
articles the next day. I imagine
most of the older reporters were
thinking of these words in a negative sense. To thousands of tumultuous teens, it was indeed “a noisy
place or gathering.” However, it
was not lunacy, or disorderly. If
there was a way to demonstrate
controlled pandemonium, a Beatles
concert was it. Yes, there seemed
to be plenty of delirium among the
crowd, but coinciding with that Fab
Four-induced euphoria, one could
sense the respect and real love
their fans felt for the world’s coolest combo. They just made you feel
something so joyous inside that the
feeling couldn’t be contained. That
joy came out in tears, laughter,
shouts of praise and involuntary
body movement to this infectious
new music.
One of the ice cream vendors
near the front of the stage reportedly had tears streaming down
his face. When asked why he was
crying, he simply responded, “Their
music makes me so happy.” Swimming in a sea of uncontrollable
screams from a multitude of girls
(and some boys) that ice cream
vendor wasn’t alone in experiencing
the emotions this British band was
evoking – all over the world.
My legs shook uncontrollably,
as I felt as if I were part of a tidal
wave of exuberance and energy
that thousands of teenagers could
produce as they related to something new and unique that only
they could possibly understand. I
wasn’t a teen yet, but I understood
indeed. This was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, and I knew it at
the time. I felt privileged to know I
was allowed to be a part of it. I still
get gooseflesh thinking and reliving that unrepeatable, unbelievable thirty minutes of my life. This
memory will always sit upon the
highest shelf in my mind, reserved
for “one and onlys”…I was in the
middle of Beatlemania live loving
all 1800 seconds of rejoicing in the
presence of John, Paul, George and
Ringo.
Ringo at the Indianapolis press conference,
3 September 1964. Photo by Curt Gunther.
A
s they began to play a shortened version of Twist and
Shout, the already deafening
roar from the audience of mostly
enraptured teens increased to
decibel levels that I don’t believe
could have been measured with any
device back then. Sinc H H]ۈق