Thursday, February 6, 2014

I've just seen a face

As I continue to dig through the files to figure out who was there and what happened during the Beatles 1st U.S. visit, I found issue #415 of Rolling Stone magazine (February 16, 1984) which celebrated the Beatles 20th anniversary.   Inside of it there are many, many stories of folks who were "there."   I am going to reproduce a few of them for your enjoyment.   The first is a girl named Caroline Marsh who was able to have a brief conversation with George shortly after he arrived in America.

Caroline is the girl holding the George photo


I've just seen a Face
From Rolling Stone issue 415

I came down ahead of time and was staying with a friend of mine.  It was Saturday (sic) morning.  They were giving a blow-by-blow account of the Beatles arrival on the radio.  I thought to myself, "Gee, I think I'll go out to the airport and see them." 

I got to the airport, took one look at the crowd and said, "Oh dear.  I can't deal with this."  I got into a taxi and said "Take me into town."  The driver said, "Are you coming from seeing the Beatles?"  I said, "there are too many people out there."  He said, "Look around -the Beatles are right next to you." 

And there they were.  four big, black limousines with a Beatle in each.  At the stoplight, the driver said, "I'll start from the back, and you tell me which one to stop at."  I saw the one with George Harrison and told him, "Stop here!"

Our conversation was published in the New York Herald Tribune because their reporter, Tom Wolfe was in the limo with Harrison.

Caroline:  How does one go about meeting a Beatle?
George:  One says 'Hello.'
Caroline:  Hello.  Eight more will be down from Wellesley.

The Beatles were very important to me.  I was a nice, ordinary girl.  They changed my life.  I had considered going to law school, but it seemed awfully uninteresting compared to rock and roll. 

The Beatles made me realize anything in life was possible. They were just so far out of my realm of experience.  It was as though they were from another planet.  It was as though there is life somewhere else.

(Marsh got a job at Mercury Records instead of going to law school.  Then she worked as a publicist for Traffic, The Spencer Davis Group and Cream.  She is now (1984) an editorial assistant at Pantheon Books in New York.)

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