Friday, December 25, 2009

And so this is Christmas!

1963 - Working as a part-time janitor at a Capitol Records subsidiary studio at the time, I was asked to do a "dummy sit in" for George Harrison during a photo session of the Beatles first U.S. album cover, "Meet the Beatles." It was shortly before Christmas and everyone was still reeling with the shock of the assassination of President Kennedy, but I'll never forget when John Lennon turned to me and said, "If everyone demanded peace instead of another HDTV, then there'd be peace." (Okay, so I forgot what he said exactly. There was no such thing as High Definition television then. Maybe I've paraphrased -- so shoot me. But before you do, first have a nice Christmas day. ~from Dada and editor Sam.)

5 comments:

Dada said...

BTW: Fortunately Harrison showed up before the final shoot. Could you imagine how different the history of rock and roll might have been had The Fab Four (er, Three in this case) discovered I could play keyboards?!

D.K. Raed said...

Wishing the whole Famille Dada
a Fab Christmas Day!

A "dummy sit in", HAHAH! Are you implying George was a dummy? BTW, Paul played fine keyboard (maybe not at first, but he got better, as they all did, incl George's gently weeping guitar). Interesting you chose their first album released in the US. Later their real first two albums, already avail to the rest of the world, appeared here, thus proving america isn't always first or even best ... we just have better advertising (to ourselves)!

Dada said...

Deke: No, I was implying the "dummy" was me! While I knew it wasn't actually the Beatles first album, I decided to omit two letters from this blog, i.e., "U.S." That's because most Americans would never have caught it. WTG! (grin)

OK, I'll correct it.

D.K. Raed said...

aah, I was just raggin' on ya, Dada!

I was kind of a BeatleNut at the time ... it's amazing what factoids still clog my brain after so many decades. Wish I could clear the mind clutter, like I'm currently clearing our house, packing for the big move. Either that, or get a bigger brain for 2010. Maybe string together some of the useless old electronic junk we can't seem to throw away ... now that would be string theory I could understand.

Fran said...

Hey there! Stopping by to wish you & yours all the best from me & mine.

Bringing up some vintage Beatles... just luvley as the old chaps might say.