Unorthodox Young Men
By Don Iannone

1958.
Before America knew them.
They appeared,
out of thin air.
Longish combed down hair,
conveying a new attitude--
one ready to project itself on a universe
tired of working too hard
and finding not enough meaning.
First in church festivals and school gigs.
Later, the world was their stage.
Known then
as the Beat Brothers,
for it was still the Beat Generation,
though about to end,
and give birth to something new,
something unnamed,
but felt as a new heart beat.
A new beat,
carried like a soaring kite on the wind,
in songs like My Bonnie,
and Love Me Do,
and of all things
Please Please Me before the Queen Mother herself.
1964.
Sunday night television was the rage.
Families gathered around the tube,
gawking like anxious macaques,
at four unorthodox,
riveting young men from Liverpool,
who sang A Hard Day's Night
for Ed Sullivan
and millions of mesmerized faces
schmooched against their TV screens.
Young girls screamed,
and their mothers knew deep down
their daughters would not for long be virgins.
Nor would the world be the same,
as it turned inward
for meaning and love,
snatched away by the constant drone of factories
and stuffy suburban sameness
that gave us Leave It to Beaver,
but stole away what matters most--
our sense of who we are.
All because four unorthodox young men
decided to let their hair down,
and because we were ready
for the 50s to end,
and rebel against factory-made mediocrity.