50 Years of The Beatles

By United Press International, photographer unknown
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Is there a certain song that instantly transports you back in time? The melody accompanying a road trip where you watched the familiar melt away, and the new surround you. The song that filled a room full of spinning lights and laughter at a school dance. The tune a family member used to hum while they completed a mundane task. The entire album of the first band you fell in love with that you sang at the top of your lungs, windows rolled down. Memories that can not be separated from their soundtrack.

The Beatles are who I remember playing in the background while we sang and danced along. They were playing while we cleaned the house, while we had a lazy morning, and while we drove down the road to new adventures. Sure, there were plenty of other bands and songs playing in the background, but The Beatles have stuck with me my whole life. Their songs still make me smile, make me tap my fingers on the steering wheel, and make me want to dance. They were one of the few bands that as technology changed, I replaced their albums with the latest format, from vinyl, to tape, to CD, to MP3. The movies they made also represent an evolution in technology, from black and white, to color, to cartoon!

Beatlemania hit the United States in 1964, the same year the Albertsons Library opened. The Beatles performance on the Ed Sullivan Show was undoubtedly the turning point for many of their fans. According to this documentary, not only did the crime rate drop that day, but 40% of the TOTAL U.S. population watched their performance. Go back and read that again, let it sink in. Forty percent! 

One thing about Beatlemania I’ll never understand is, why did all those people buy tickets to hear a band play, but spend the whole time screaming so loud they probably didn’t hear a single song? 

Dig the Beatles? Check ‘em out from the Albertsons Library!

Yellow submarine record, http://boisestate.worldcat.org/oclc/42531861
Help! record, http://boisestate.worldcat.org/oclc/4331454
We're Going to See the Beatles!" ebook  http://boisestate.worldcat.org/oclc/870597460
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band CD http://boisestate.worldcat.org/oclc/15860942
The Beatles Anthology DVD, http://boisestate.worldcat.org/oclc/51961909

Deana Brown,
Reference Librarian

 


















This blog post is the fifth in a series, produced in coordination with the celebration of Albertsons Library’s 50th Anniversary. #BoiseStLibraryat50

In Memory of an Idaho Rock and Roll Star

Photo from Flicker, C Thomas
Paul Revere: January 7, 1938 - October 4, 2014

Paul Revere was a unique, charismatic entertainer who started his music career in Caldwell and Boise, Idaho, and went on to become an icon of rock and roll. He passed away at his home in Garden Valley, Idaho, on October 4th.

Paul Revere and the Raiders always put on a show that was energetic and fun, ensuring that the audience had a memorable time. Paul Revere and the Raiders were Idaho’s answer to the ‘British invasion’ of rock bands at the time, such as the Beatles and Rolling Stones. The revolutionary costumes they wore were their trademark throughout their career.

Paul Revere worked closely with the likes of Dick Clark and appeared regularly on Where the Action Is. The band were guests on shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show. Paul Revere supported Ride to the Wall, a group in support of veterans, with two CD’s. Hits from his time with Paul Revere and the Raiders include Kicks, Indian Reservation. Louie Louie, Hungry. Check out some of the band’s music through Alexander Street Press.

You can also watch videos of the band’s performances and find more details about them on the Paul Revere & the Raiders website http://www.paulrevereandtheraiders.com/index.html

Audrey Williams & Shelly Doty

Long Live the King!

Some rights reserved by pagedooley through Flickr CC

Elvis Week is an annual 10-day celebration of the “King of Rock-n-Roll” in Memphis, TN. According to the official Elvis page, Elvis Presley went from a two room shack in Tupelo, MS to become a cultural phenomenon, starring in 33 films, selling a billion records(?!), and breaking records with his sold out live performances regularly. Although he died August 16, 1977, Elvis has remained a global pop icon to this day.

How about checking out a DVD to see the King in action: 
Elvis ‘56  http://boisestate.worldcat.org/oclc/45761422

Or some CDs to hear his music:
Elvis Up Close  (includes booklet with some awesome Elvis photos) http://boisestate.worldcat.org/oclc/52607109

Albertsons Library also has Elvis’ music in streaming format:
http://muco.alexanderstreet.com/search/elvis

Here’s one of several Elvis books available in the library.
Elvis Presley: The man. The life. The legend. Photos too. http://boisestate.worldcat.org/oclc/55044675

And you can take a virtual tour of Elvis’ home with the app, Hidden Mysteries: Gates of Graceland. Go through Graceland room by room and discover trivia about Elvis while looking for parts of an unrecorded song by him. Enjoy Elvis music and film clips along the way.  

Finally, in a little piece of Boise State University history related to Elvis; Dr. Sandra Schackel, who taught History at Boise State University, dressed up as Elvis for her classes. You can see Dr. Schackel with the King and learn more about her in the story Women Making Herstory in a publication from the Women’s History Center available through ScholarWorks: http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/wmh/5/

Audrey Williams, Elizabeth Ramsey

Special Collections and Archives receives grant from the GRAMMY Foundation

In 2008, a set of about a dozen recordings made around 1950 by Ione Love Thielke was found by the Idaho Songs Project in a private collection in Blackfoot, Idaho. 

The recordings were homemade using a portable acetate disk recorder of the type that became available after World War II. The Project arranged for the Blackfoot Collection to be donated to Special Collections at the Albertsons Library, Boise State University, where the materials could be archived professionally in a carefully controlled environment.

Research showed that Ione Love Thielke was a colorful, talented rural musician who took regional poetry and set it to music, singing and accompanying herself with a tiple. She was the wife of an Idaho/Oregon logger who performed her music throughout Idaho, Oregon and Washington and occasionally beyond. Thielke was well connected with the Idaho literary community of the time.

Subsequently, the Idaho Songs Project located the descendants of Ione Love Thielke and facilitated the donation of several more boxes of her recordings to the Albertsons Library. A preliminary physical inventory indicates the collection contains dozens more homemade acetate recordings that Thielke made of herself and other Idaho musicians and poets, as well as many reel to reel tapes made from about 1948 to 1951 in Boise, Cascade and Pocatello Idaho and Salem, Oregon. 

The titles also indicate the collection includes numerous radio broadcast of programs hosted by Thielke from 1947-1951 in Boise and Pocatello, with interviews of and performances by numerous Idaho musicians and poets.

Special Collections and Archives received an $11,747 grant from The GRAMMY Foundation to digitize the Thielke recordings and make them available online.

The project will be completed by December 2014.

Ione Thielke collection: http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv47659/

GRAMMY Foundation: http://www.grammy.org/grammy-foundation

Cheryl Oestreicher, PhD
Head, Special Collections and Archives/Assistant Professor