Preston Love got up in front o' the classroom and yelled,
"The Beatles ... DID NOTHING!"
... and then, "The Beatles did NOTHING NEW!"
I'd never heard such a thing. It completely shocked me. Here was this (so-called) angry black man yelling at an all-white teen audience about how the Beatles were bullshit. I couldn't believe it ... it tore me away from my illusions.
"WE were changing forms, changing patterns, doing musical experiments. Jazz was the new frontier. The Beatles had good songs, but they didn't do anything new, stylistically ..." Wow.
Thank you, Preston - for making me use my musical mind!
-Todd