Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I remember my uncle (a banjo player in a polka band--I'm not making this up, I swear!) insisting that they weren't playing their guitars, either.

Stan, I used to live about 5 miles from WLS' studios in the Stone Container Building at 360 N. Michigan Ave. in Chicago--right on the river. My girlfriend and I used to take the bus down there on winter Saturdays to watch the DJs through the studio's double-glass window. My folks still lived in that same block until last month, when--at ages 78 and 79--they finally moved to the 'burbs.

Pretty nifty. Last year when in Chicago I was staying just north, across the river ( about two blocks west of Michigan) and made it by the Trib building and 'GN but didn't think about checking out WLS. I had been to Chicago a couple of other times but had never spent much time just walking around and seeing stuff, so this time I did but missed the one place I should have remembered to see.

WGN's studios moved about 30 years ago to the site of the old Riverview amusement park, which was razed in the late '60s and became industrial real estate. Right near where I used to live as a teen, as a matter of fact.

WLS will still be there for years to come, I hope.

I was born in Aug. of '63 and i have 5 older siblings. I must've gotten a steady diet of The Beatles from Feb. '64 on. This pic of me was developed in Oct. of '65. IWTHYH was probably the first song that I heard.

Neat history, Paul and John. Great place Chicago. It was and is great just walking around downtown. I wish I had done it on my previous visits. Next visit I will locate 'LS, presuming it is all still in tact.

John, is that a 360 or 330 you're playing on the neck? Got a little Johnny Cash action going.

Wow, I am a Chicagoan by origin also, and it's probably WLS that I was listening to when we heard IWTHYH on the radio! The rival station, not as popular, was WCFL (Worlds Largest Store-Sears- vs. Chicago Federation of Labor, in case you are tracking acronyms). Lifelong Sox fan here...long live Disco Demolition Night.

Nice pic, John. 'Plunkety-plunk'....

Ha ha, I wish I still had that little Beatle guitar. What would it be worth now? BTW, my siblings always seemed to sneak a pen in to write on our faces. School pics especially! LOL

For me it was the Ed show. I was 8 years old. I was mezmorized for 3 Sundays in Feb. 1964. Still am. All my loving. The wife bought me the ED shows on video. Watching John messing with the mike that kept dropping was funny. But don't remember that part when it was live.

I was in 5th grade (in NYC) when the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan.

"Ooooo, we all HAVE to watch!" my older sister said.

"The Beatles? What do they do?" said I.

"They sing and play guitars, of course" my sister informed her little know-nothing little brother.

Well, the only people I knew who did that sort of thing were either Ricky Nelson on the Ozzie and Harriet Show or the singing cowboys I'd seen on TV, so I really didn't know what to expect.... (hey, I was just a kid... I was into Mickey Mantle, not Elvis Presley).

So I guess the first song I heard was "All My Loving" on the Ed Sullivan show. (that was the first one they played, right?)

After the show my sister was all a-twitter, but I said I didn't like them.... after all, they were singing about "LOVE" ... and to me that was very yucky indeed. (I was curious however, why one of the guitars appeared to have only 4 strings). But the next day at school, EVERYTHING was DIFFERENT and would stay different forever. This was, naturally, let by the girls and us guys just couldn't help but get caught up in the exitement.

A few months later, since my sister had her Beatles record, I had to have one too. So I did the only honorable thing I knew: I pestered my mother until she finally agreed to get me one. Off we went to the supermarket which had a basement that sold various things and had a record section.

There I found it.... a real life BEATLES record! It was..... SING A SONG WITH THE BEATLES. When I got home to the record player I was SOOOOO disappointed to hear that is wasn't really the Fab Four, but just some instrumental backgrounds. I really felt like a dummy.

But the foldout record cover did have one good thing... the words and chords to the songs and it even had a bunch of chord charts!

Right about that time (spring of '64) my mother got a classical guitar in expectation of teaching herself and singing folk songs on summer vacation. She never got a chance at the guitar as I picked it up and (armed with my trusty record cover) started to teach myself. Right off the bat I could play a single-fingered C and a single-fingered G7. Hey... I was on a roll!

I still have the record.

So Karaoke was alive and well in '64, Brammy? They should have killed it stone dead right then and there!!

Haaaaaaaaaa... yup, you could say that. I just remember how "unhip" I felt, and I NEVER admitted the mistake to any friends at the time.

And here's a similar question... who was your FAVORITE Beatle? This was the question that was asked about a billion times a day back then.

For me, no question..... George

favorite Beatle? Like Mal said depends who I'm with. Seriously though lately I've been in George mode

Ringo..... I didn't have too much trouble convincing people that I was better looking!

For me, toss up between George and John. Pobably John 'cause I liked the way he stood when performing (strange, that!!)

The first real Beatle memory for me was hearing "All My Loving" on a car radio when I was about 5 years old. I remember being on some dirt backroad in Northern Mississippi and leaning forward from the back seat so I could hear better. The other songs I remember from that time are "Ferry Cross The Mersey" and (forgive me) "The Birds and the Bees" by Jewel Akins. I guess two out of three ain't bad.

As for favorite Beatle, I've never been able to choose between them. It depends on which songs I've heard most recently. I like them all, even when they broke up and started the solo stuff.