It was 38-years ago today...almost

When we are younger it seems like we have all the time in the world, but as we get older, we understand that time flies by.

I was reminded of how fast time moves a few days ago when I realized it was the 38th anniversary of when the Beatles officially disbanded.

Paul McCartney announced on April 10, 1970, that he was done with the group, and it was one of those moments that truly ended an era. Of course, McCartney's announcement was only a formality.

Those familiar with the band's history knows that John Lennon had told McCartney several months earlier that he wanted out of the group. In fact, McCartney worked the hardest to keep the band together.

It was only when he became fed up with the lack of interest of the other three that he shocked the world with his announcement.

Of course, the Beatles are still a bit of a lightning rod to some people. While there can be no denying they were musical revolutionaries, some point their fingers at the band as having been a corruptive influence on youth culture.

Their hairstyles caused countless young men to abandon their crew cuts and begin growing their hair long. While there is nothing wrong with that, their appearance on American shores in February 1964 seemed to snap the nation's youth out of a trance.

Remember, this was only about 10 weeks after President Kennedy's assassination, and the country was still coping with that loss. The country needed something to get excited about and the Beatles were just that for a lot of the youth.

Of course, some who criticized the group did have good points. The Beatles all used drugs and were correctly criticized for it. Because of their status as role models, their use influenced others to give drugs a try.

In fact, society in general got a lot more permissive during that time, and we are still seeing today some of the bitter fruits from that era.

However, I believe some of the criticism given to the band was too extreme.

Could the Beatles have been better role models? Of course. But the same could be said about every one of us. We are all lucky that our mistakes and indiscretions have never been on a world stage for all to see.

I tend to agree with George Harrison's assessment of the criticism the band received. In the documentary The Beatles Anthology, he said the world used the Beatles as an excuse to go crazy and then blamed them when they didn't like the result.

He's right. There is something about our human nature that doesn't like to take responsibility for our actions. We want to blame others for the decisions we make.

In the Beatles' case, they were the most famous representatives of their generation and became the natural targets of blame when the so-called bliss of the Summer of Love began creating a lot of casualties.

Harrison saw these casualties first hand. In 1967, he traveled to San Francisco, which was the self-proclaimed capital of the counterculture.

As he stated in that documentary, he had expected to find an enlightened place. However, he said he found a lot of drop-out kids who were over indulging in drugs.

He said what he found there was like visiting a "bowery."

Those don't sound like the words of somebody who was trying to lead the youth of America astray.

Those words sound like somebody who was trying to be a good role model.