50 YEARS POST FLAT-TOPS

I hope that you 60-somethings as well as the older and younger folks watched the Grammys Salute to the Beatles on CBS TV. There was a second showing last night, so I caught a couple of my most favorite performances. Much has been written about the show and some of the video is now online.  Suffice it to say that for me, the best of the best was Joe Walsh, Dave Grohl and Gary Clark Jr's rendition of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

I clearly remember gathering at the black and white TV to watch the Ed Sullivan show the night the Beatles appeared.  Of course, at that time, we watched the Ed Sullivan show every Sunday evening!  Some of you will recollect that the flat-top was the standard haircut of the day, often cut so short that the middle of the scalp was almost skinned.  So, these rag-topped lads caused quite the stir; in retrospect their hair in 1964 was quite moderate compared to what followed.  However, I and many other fellows decided that it was time to abandon the flat-top for a do like the Fab Four.  After graduation from high school in the spring of 1964, I tagged along with my sister and Dan Lind to Aspen, where Kay and Dan were music camp students.  I got a job in the kitchen of a restaurant and thus the summer was a perfect time to let the hair grow out and be in good shape for college in the fall.  Haven't yet gone back to the flat-top.