More From The Beatles
One other thing struck me reading the Bob Spitz biography of The Beatles. The Beatles were going back to Hamburg, Germany, for a series of shows at their old stomping ground, The Cavern. Their second album to be released in Britain, With The Beatles, came out that morning. They then had a flight to Hamburg.

They were excited- and somewhat nervous. They were going back to the place where they first truly came together as The Beatles. They land, and much to everyone's surprise, there was no one there. Not the Beatlemania they had come to expect. Not even anyone to get them off the plane.

It was November 22, 1963 and John F. Kennedy had been killed. Everything was at a mournful standstill. They were told that probably even The Cavern would be closed. But in the “seedier” part of the city, at those places where

even cataclysmic events took a backseat to debauchery, [things] ran at full tilt, dispensing fantastic quantities of alcohol to the teenagers and chaperones alike, all of whom held on to The Beatles like a life raft against such terrible tides. For three days and nights, they drank themselves silly, putting the real world and its problems out of their minds. Although history may have turned a wicked corner, there were glimmers of “hope and consolation” to be found in the Beatles’ music. Of course it was only the beginning of a generation’s dependence on rock ‘n roll as an escape from the harsh changes that rocked the world at large. For the next six years – and beyond – music and other intoxicants would be liberating forces, the kind of distractions that helped kids avoid the wicked corners.
--from The Beatles, Bob Spitz

I found that last part to be quite an insight. It is one that hasn't stopped being true. In fact, it may even be more so today than it was then. "A generation's dependence on rock 'n roll". It was an escape, but at times it also became a freeing of thoughts and a voice for protest. It never stayed that way, of course. Money and greed and more money got over involved. Drugs and sex and more drugs and sex took away the focus and turned many of these into parodies of themselves.

Today? Well the Dixie Chicks had problems when they protested but Springsteen didn't. Hip-hop and rap became a voice of escape and protest. Youth of newer generations have escaped and liberating forces have worked on them.

More than perhaps even Elvis, the Beatles took this to new levels and spread it to far ranging places. They did more than shake their hips in a sexy way and end up being a sad version of themselves. They fanned the flames of the first revolution of rock and music and the world has never been the same.