Better Slate than never

Majestic Ballroom, Birkenhead - Saturday, December 15, 1962
Majestic Ballroom, Birkenhead, Merseyside – Saturday, December 15, 1962

The online magazine Slate.com has a Beatles blog. They’re late getting to the party, and I don’t how long they’ll keep it going, but it’s always good to see general media outlets showing interest in the boys, now that we’re fifty years into Beatlemania.

A few posts ago I mentioned Ringo’s Premier brand drum kit — the one that predated his famous Ludwig drums. The kick drum had a squeaky pedal, as can be heard quite clearly on the Please Please Me album, especially in the twin-track stereo recording.

In the picture above is Ringo’s original drum kit, with his name on it, from his days playing with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. A couple of months later, as seen below, the first official Beatles logo, as originally designed by Paul, was introduced. It didn’t last long, however, because a few months later it was replaced with the classic Beatles logo that was designed by Ivor Arbiter, and delivered with Ringo’s Ludwig drum kit.

The Beatles on 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' - Sunday, February 17, 1963
‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’ – Sunday, February 17, 1963

Twilight of the greaser zone

Written by Earl Hamner, Jr. of The Waltons, this episode of The Twilight Zone is a favorite of mine. It has a totally wacky premise, about aliens disguised as 50’s greaser bikers moving into a 60’s residential neighborhood, like a sci-fi version of The Wild One. Harvey Lembeck as Eric Von Zipper would have fit right in with these guys.

But it’s Shelley Fabares who makes this episode worth watching. By then, Shelley’s hit Johnny Angel was in the distant past — two years before — and she was making only guest appearances on The Donna Reed Show. Nine days after Black Leather Jackets aired on January 31, 1964, the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.