Why Did My Parents Hate the Beatles?

                        ”Cry Baby Cry” Was a “White Album” Classic in 1968 

I’d like to say my parents played “Cry Baby Cry” when I was in the crib, but it’s highly unlikely. My parents, after all, were never Beatles fans.

And, frankly, that kind of annoys me. Even though my dad was just 29 when the “White Album” came out, his musical interests never evolved past the Everly Brothers – his favorite.

I’ve often wondered why he didn’t care for the Fab Four. Was he too old for the Beatles at 29? Did he not like them because they were British? I don’t remember ever hearing my dad listening to anything by a British band. Was he jealous of their lifestyle?

On the other side, my mom wouldn’t even get into music until disco and the new-look Fleetwood Mac surfaced a few years later. Unlike my dad, she did like British music – especially if it was by Rod Stewart.

I was born two days after the “White Album” came out. It was November 24, 1968, in some hospital in Chicago.

Frankly, I don’t remember much about it.

Years later, I asked my mom if I had been a mistake. And, of course, she said no because mothers don’t say things like, “Yeah – you were a mistake.” But I was 61/2 and 71/2 years younger than my sister and brother, and my dad never seemed to wild about the idea of kids, so I still have my suspicions.

I was born into curious times, though. Both Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated just months before, and the war in Vietnam was in full force. No one had ever walked on the moon at that point. And while Woodstock hadn’t happened yet, it was still a great time for live music. On my birthday, you could have seen Jimi Hendrix perform in Miami Beach, Janis Joplin in Dallas or the Grateful Dead in Cincinnati. But best of all, the Beatles were still together.

That’s right — the Beatles were still alive when I was born. (In fact, they still had “Abbey Road” and “Let it Be” coming.) And while that may signal that I’m fast becoming a geezer, at least I can cling to that part of musical history.

“Cry Baby Cry” was a sweet song with nursery rhyme-like lyrics that Lennon wrote after the band returned from India. While I don’t remember growing up with this song, I’d “discover” the Beatles years later, after hearing “Twist and Shout” in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Not long after that movie, I bought the re-released 45 of “Twist and Shout” — my first Beatles purchase.

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