As Clark said at the beginning of the week:
"Ringo Starr is a man who has dedicated his life to promoting the concepts of Peace and Love, just like us."
And, with all the peace and love and goodwill going around, it's an interesting side note to clue you in on yet another heretofore unknown item about The Unbelievables:
Now, it's common knowledge we've invented quite a few things. Unbelieva-Fu, Unbelieva-Tips, Unbelieva-Zen, the oh-so-useful Unbelievinars ... the list goes on and on and on.
But ... did you know we invented the peace sign?
Yup. Back in the very late 50s we began using it, the three of us, as an indicator everything was "a-okay" as we staked out suspects or when we wanted to let one another know from a distance, without yelling or otherwise making noise, things were proceeding as planned.
(Additionally, it was one of our go-to gestures letting us know we'd be imbibing at least TWO beers when we got off the clock ... but that's another story entirely.)
So ... we may have "borrowed" the gesture from Churchill.
But we were the ones who made it really popular ...
Well, sir ... shooting the index and middle finger in the air and giving the slight wave of the hand caught on with just about everyone ... and especially with the kids. Of course, the Flower Children movements came along, burning bras, government sit-ins, peaceful war protests and all that stuff where the sign just flourished from the west coast right on through to the Atlantic shore. Everybody and his brother flashed the sign. It even caught on in Jeff's neck of the woods in the UK. Kind of cool that something so simple could cross a big, wide ocean and become universally recognized.
And recognized it was, by the small and the tall, by John Q. Public up the block right on through to well-to-do Hollywood types. One would think that guy up top popularized it himself. But he didn't - it's been a common gesture since the dawn of rock and roll, popular with bands, solo artists and all musicality in between, simply for the coolness of it.
See for yourself ...
Hendrix was into it at Woodstock ...
So was Ringo's buddy John ...
... and Neil Young ...
Bono ...
The Great Ray Charles ...
The King Of Pop ...
That Johnny Cash. He always was a rebel, doing his own thing.
Plus, many others not necessarily related to music
but rock stars in their own right easily flashed the sign like:
Steve McQueen ... though doing so in a mug shot.
but rock stars in their own right easily flashed the sign like:
Steve McQueen ... though doing so in a mug shot.
The great activist and humanitarian Martin Luther King, Jr.
Remember this little guy? He was an ultra-popular as a curio back in the day.
And then there was Dubya ... who never could quite get it right.
You can't win'em all ...
I think you get the picture.
The point of all this: Go out today, tomorrow, sometime later in the week and flash that peace sign at someone as a gesture of harmony and good will. And do it knowing full well The Unbelievables have, yet again, contributed general well being to the populace at large ... through your benevolence to your fellow man and woman.
World? You're welcome.
