Show Notes: In My Life

Dr. Kitty Oliver cites seeing The Beatles in concert as the singular transformative event in her life

Click on the photo to see some of the sights and sounds Kitty and her fellow Beatles fans saw and heard on September 11, 1964 in Jacksonville, FL

This is the season two finale of the Everything is a Primary Source podcast, the show where we get to know history through analyzing pop culture. We’ve covered a lot this season; everything from TV game shows to museums, neo western movies to trading cards, and so much else in between. Lives and careers have also been analyzed this season, which makes this episode a perfect bookend as my guest’s path in life was inspired by a significant moment in pop music history.

Dr. Kitty Oliver cites her experience seeing The Beatles at the Gator Bowl in the 1960s as the event that changed everything for her. The Fab Four from Liverpool’s arrival to the Sunshine State during their famous 1964 US tour marked a momentous change not only for her, but for the state of Florida as well. The Beatles standing by their convictions and refusing to play to a segregated audience, made all the difference to my guest as that night’s events propelled her into a new world and its possibilities.

Kitty Oliver had such a unique experience in the 1960s because she grew up in segregation, saw and participated in the changes to society as they were happening, and embraced how things would be different as time went on. The music of the era is a reflection of the way her and so many of her peers’ lives were altered as rock n roll itself graduated and fragmented into a kaleidoscope of sounds from the start of the decade to the end. This could be true just for the Beatles themselves.

Even if the baby boomer generation was not actively thinking that they were going to change the way the country would look and operate, so much of the popular culture that came from that era proves that such changes were underway. And, as Dr. Oliver indicates, pop music acted as not only the soundtrack for the baby boomer’s youth, but inspiration for the rest of their lives as well.

Imagine being able to tell someone like Ringo Starr how much they mean to your life

As she indicated in the interview, Kitty’s story could be about the power of radio just as much as it is about the music the stations played. Without the wide reach of such stations as WAPE, “The Ape,” who boasted to be “As powerful as any station in the nation,” new sounds would not have been relayed from across the country, or in the case of the Beatles, across the world. The musically-inclined listeners drew ideas on what they too could create themselves from the radio, which then progressed rock n roll and other forms of pop music even further.

And in the tradition of arts reflecting reality and reality reflecting art, these same radio stations became the literal beacon for social change as well. The music may not have always come out and encouraged action, but the rawness of rock n roll, folk, and soul music spoke to the youth of America and motivated them. Dr. Kitty Oliver would not have had the life she has lived without the Beatles playing to Jacksonville in September of 1964.

There’s so much more on the second half of the program and you can hear it by becoming a paid subscriber below. Follow the EPS Podcast on Instagram to get off-season updates. If you’d like to learn more about Kitty and her life’s work, go to kittyoliveronline.com.