A U G U S T 1 3 , 1 9 6 6 : T O D A Y I N M U S I C H I S T O R Y
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T H E B E A T L E S performed two sold-out concerts before 28,000-screaming Detroit fans at the Olympia Stadium on this day. With 11 standards slated for their second North American tour, they included several of their latter post-1964 hits for the Detroit ’66 performances, Nowhere Man, Day Tripper, If I Needed Someone and Paperback Writer.
Other acts on the Olympia marquee who performed with the Beatles were The Cyrkle, The Ronettes, The Remains and Bobby Hebb. Immediately after the concert the band took a chartered Greyhound bus to their next scheduled stop in Cleveland.
WKNR deejays emceed both shows. Bob Green took the stage at 7:00 p.m., welcoming the Beatles to the Olympia before the Detroit home crowd. Earlier in the afternoon Scott Regen introduced the Beatles on stage for the 2:00 p.m. performance.
As previously, September 1964, both Beatles’ Olympia Stadium appearances was presented by WKNR. (link: keener13.com)
THIS DAY IN POP MUSIC HISTORY: August 13, 1966
A REFLECTION. SCOTT REGEN RECALLS THE BEATLES, 1966
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SCOTT REGEN emceed the Beatles first performance for WKNR at the Olympia on August 13, 1966. Scott followed the Beatles across cities in the U. S. during their second North American concert tour that year.
Scott Regen later would recall in a recorded interview with Tim Nixon (WHND; 1983) of his experiences with the Beatles in the 1960s, at the age of 23.
“Quite astonishing, I was astonished at all this… it was almost like this was happening, it’s almost as though I were doing all of these things. And all these things were happening to me and I knew they were happening to me and I knew I was involved, and I knew I was interviewing the Beatles and I went on the Beatles’ tour, half the Beatles tour in ’66, and I saw them in L.A., Chicago and Cleveland. Although I knew all these things were happening to me, I was WATCHING all these things happening to me.” — SCOTTIE REGEN, WKNR
MORE WITH . . . SCOTT REGEN on THE BEATLES
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THE BEATLES INFLUENCE IN MUSIC, SOCIETY, and the group’s IMPACT ON EASTERN SPIRITUALITY in WESTERN CULTURE
by Robert Bernstein (Scott Regen)
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A MCRFB Note — Motor City Radio Flashbacks recently spoke with Scott Regen (August 19 and 29), WKNR No. 1 night time DJ, Detroit, in the 1960s, in commemoration of the Beatles’ fiftieth anniversary of their Detroit performance at the Olympia Stadium, August 13, 1966.
His comments below was recorded(with his permission), thereafter transcribed verbatim from his own words —
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“The Beatles were the end of one type of world and the beginning of another. Because they, there were two worlds I guess you can say, they changed, one was the world of music of course. And they did that with all the innovative things they were able to do with monaural recording and two-track and four-track recording, before stereo even came into existence. And I believe on the the Sergeant Pepper album they didn’t do the stereo mix. I think George Martin did that. So they changed music. The sound of it, the recording of it. And of course, Lennon at one point said he wasn’t sure anybody would remember them after they broke up. So it gives you some idea they didn’t understand themselves what was going to be the result of their musical efforts.
“So one thing they did was change music. They created different music that had ever been created. They left the path behind. The war years, the big band era, they left all that behind. They were influenced by people like Chuck Berry and Little Richard and all that, but they moved on past all that. So that was their musical heritage.
“The other area they influenced was in the spiritual area. Because primarily through George Harrison’s efforts and thinking, and Lennon, but Harrison I think was the driving force, they brought Eastern spiritual thinking to the West with their music. You know they had interaction with the Maharishi Yogi, and transcendental meditation. And several years ago McCartney made an appearance at Radio City Music Hall in New York. It was a big event for transcendental meditation, this was within the last, probably ten years.
“So those were the two major things that they did to alter a., music ,and b., the way people looked at life. And all the emphasis now that people put on yoga, and meditation, and all the Eastern spiritual things, nothing like that existed before the Beatles, it virtually didn’t exist in Western society at all. While it was there, in seed form, from their experiences, they brought more open awareness at the time to where Eastern spirituality is presently accepted universally today in our present Western culture.
“The complete meaning of their impact will not be known for some time, perhaps thousands, or perhaps, millions of years, as I will point out.
“While the Beatles clearly did change the sound of music, although they didn’t start out to do that, it was, as they say, born on the stream of time. One could go on and on about the changes the Beatles brought to music and how much we all enjoyed their music, and there are lots of books about it as well. However the best two I have ever read are, 1- “Here There and Everywhere,” by Geoff Emmerick, the Beatles recording engineer. And 2- “Many Years From Now,” by Paul McCartney, with Barry Miles.
“Moreover, the other area of impact, “massive spiritual, psychological impact,” was in bringing Eastern spiritual thinking to the Western world. It began with the Maharishi and continued on with the lyrics to to many songs, to mention, including those of George Harrison after the Beatles breakup. The song “Across The Universe” on the last Beatles LP says it all, along with a Hindu Mantra. Instant Karma is another that comes to mind. Could we imagine a song about karma in the top 10 before the Beatles?
“This spiritual area that they brought to mass awareness, I believe will be their area of longest lasting impact, and the most remembered for years to come, thousands, perhaps millions of years, until that day at last, when each human being is a Realized Being. The end of karma forever!”
—S.R. August 2016
— ACKNOWLEDGEMENT —
A special THANK YOU to Scottie Regen for sharing his recollections, his views on the Beatles and of their significant impact on music and society, both past and present.
Scott Regen is a certified meditation teacher from the Integral Yoga Institute in New York, 2002. Scott Regen in retirement, today teaches meditation and yoga lessons in Florida where he currently resides. MCRFB.COM
THE BEATLES at the OLYMPIA
— 50 YEARS AGO TODAY —
A MCRFB NOTE
A special THANK YOU goes out to RON DOMILICI for providing Motor City Radio Flashbacks a scanned copy of the Olympia Stadium ticket above.
All enlarged Beatles images featured above were purchased (as a set of cards) by the author, as was offered on eBay, 2012.
I attended both concerts..1964 and 1966..and feel that I belong to a site such as this.
My uncle Dick Westerkamp interviewed John Lennon at the airport in 1966. I think he worked for ABC news. Anybody have any thing on this? Would love to anything of it.-Joe
Mr Westerkamp worked in Detroit .