Things I Love on the Internet

* A new blog on the Oscars and Instant Runoff Voting -- http://oscarvotes123.blogspot.com/. Here's a post about the new voting system for Best Picture, written by the Chair of FairVote Board of Directors, Krist Novoselic.
* The last new Johnny Cash album, American VI: Ain't No Grave is being released on February 23, during what would have been his birthday week. Am buying, sound unheard, if I don't get for my birthday.
* Brian from Coverville turned me on to Deanne Iovan's mission, inspired by Julie & Julia, as well as the 09/09/09 Beatles' releases, of covering The Beatles’ White Album, track by track, putting out a new song every nine days. She just put out Julia, which is at the end of side two. (Side 2? Hey, I grew up with the vinyl version of this album.)
* 500 cartoons on life in biology research.
* The Business Librarians listserv helped me answer a question this week. Apparently the doohickey on the tops to plastic containers, where the grated cheese comes out, one side being a shaker while the other side you can use a teaspoon to dish it out, is called a spice lid or a dispensing closure.
* Valentine’s Day/Census tie-in campaign with a selection of electronic postcards in Spanish and English.
* New CPR on YouTube: Continuous Chest Compression CPR - Mayo Clinic Presentation, sent to me by a nurse friend of mine, who thinks it's terrific.
* A recent study outlines the health benefits of having more sex. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen has the details.
* My medical reimbursement company, only this week, has FINALLY decided to accept e-mailed PDFs, GIFs, etc. as well as mailing and faxes. This is particularly helpful since our fax at work does not seem to work. (When someone announced "Fax is dead!"", they weren't kidding.)
* Found several places: The Muppets: Beaker's Ballad - the Internet is SO mean.
* Thom Wade points to Hey! It's That Guy!? It's a page "dedicated to the character actors collectively known as 'That Guy'." Simon Oakland was one of the first ones I knerw by name as a kid.
* Betty White for host of SNL. My only problem is the notion that it's a resurgence; she never really left.
* Arthur@AmeriNZ found a video response to the Google Super Bowl ad done from a gay man’s POV.
* An old friend accidentally pushed some button that sent an email to EVERY address in her e-address book, which allowed us to reconnect. I've had a child and she's had two since we last communicated.
*Local school catches Olympic fever. "Events have included ring toss, rock climbing, hockey, boggle, hang man, reading comprehension, and math facts." I'll pick math facts.
* The 9th Annual Underground Railroad History Conference, Friday, February 26 at 8:30am through Sunday, February 28 at 2:00pm at Russell Sage College, Troy, NY, where I'll be one of many presenting on that Saturday. Register now!
ROG

B is for Beatles Butchers

If you grew up in Great Britain or many other countries in the 1960s, your collection of Beatles albums looked one way, but if you were coming of age in the United States during that period, your Fab Four LPs looked very different. And, regardless of country, if you are younger, with your first exposure to Beatles albums the 1987-era CDs or later, which followed the British system, those albums made for the American market might mystify.

Here are some cogent facts:
1. The Beatles first (British) album, Please Please Me, on Parlaphone Records, was rejected by its US affiliate, Capitol Records, in the summer of 1963. It was then released, missing two songs, in the US as Introducing the Beatles, on Vee-Jay Records; it was a dud.
2. When the Beatles finally DID make it big in the US, early in 1964, Capitol put out the album Meet the Beatles, featuring nine songs from the Beatles' SECOND British album, With the Beatles. (The covers are similar, with the lads partially in shadow.)
3. American albums were almost always a) shorter - 11 or 12 songs, rather than usually 14, and b) almost always had to have a single - in the case of Meet the Beatles, I Want to Hold Your Hand plus a couple B-sides - because the American packagers figured the kids wouldn't buy the albums without the hit song. Conversely, in Britain, the single and the album were largely separate entities.
4. As a result, there were more US albums than British ones. The Beatles Second Album on Capitol consisted of the remaining five songs from With the Beatles, plus various singles - notably, She Loves You, plus B-sides and EP cuts. This is why, when you heard live recordings of the Beatles in the United States, they would inevitably refer to a song as from "our last album" or the "album before last." They knew the package they had put together was going to inevitably be rearranged in the States.
5. Even albums with the same NAME didn't always match up. Help! in the UK had 14 songs, seven from the movie (on Side 1, for those of us old enough to remember vinyl) and seven others (on Side 2). Help! in the US included only the seven songs from the movie, interspersed with instrumentals from the movie soundtrack. Some of those other songs landed on an earlier US album called Beatles VI.
Rubber Soul, US and UK, had 10 songs in common. The US version included two songs from Help!
Which brings me to an album that did not exist at all in the UK, Yesterday and Today (or "Yesterday" ...and Today, as it was often rendered. It is the very first album I ever bought in a store; previous albums I got from the Capitol Record Club, by mail. It cost $2.99 at the Rexall drug store/pharmacy.

Here is the song list (with YouTube links that I know all of you unfortunately cannot access); all songs by Lennon-McCartney, except as noted:

Side one
Drive My Car (from Rubber Soul) – 2:30
I'm Only Sleeping – (from Revolver) - 3:01
Nowhere Man (from Rubber Soul; also released as a US single) – 2:45
Doctor Robert (from Revolver) – 2:15
Yesterday (from Help!; also released as a US single) – 2:08
Act Naturally(Morrison-Russell) (from Help!; also released as B-side to "Yesterday") – 2:33

Side two
And Your Bird Can Sing (from Revolver) - 2:01
If I Needed Someone (George Harrison) (from Rubber Soul) - 2:24
We Can Work It Out (released as a single) – 2:15
What Goes On (Lennon-McCartney-Richard Starkey) (from Rubber Soul; also released in the US as B-side to "Nowhere Man) – 2:51
Day Tripper (released as flip side of "We Can Work It Out" single) – 2:50

That's right. The Capitol compilers cynically took three songs from the NOT-YET-RELEASED Revolver album to fill out this package. Worse, they took three Lennon songs of the 14, leaving John only two lead vocals on the 11-song US Revolver album. I had wondered about that at the time.


Which is why, when Yesterday and Today was released with the cover that looked like what was pictured on the left, it was thought that the Beatles were rebelling against the folks at Capitol for butchering their albums. This was NOT the case. As the Wikipedia narrative suggests the Beatles were merely tired of doing another set of conventional pictures and agreed to photographer Robert Whitaker's ideas for more avant garde imagery.

The covers were printed, and at least a few were sold before Capitol pulled the album. They made replacement pictures that went over the controversial image, but they weren't flush with the cover underneath. Thus the "butcher cover" has become very valuable. The album lost money for Capitol because of all the extra work and expense.

I recall reading in some pop music magazine of the time that John Sebastian, then from the American rock group The Lovin' Spoonful, said that his favorite song on Rubber Soul was Drive My Car. Well, I snooted, EVERYBODY knows that Drive My Car was on Yesterday and Today. Yes, I was right, but so was John Sebastian, who must have had access to the UK version.

I liked Y&T well enough, though TWO Ringo leads (Act Naturally AND What Goes On) was one too many. But in retrospect, I wish Capitol Records had put other songs on there instead of the songs from Revolver, such as I'm Down (B-side of the Help! single), and/or the single Paperback Writer/Rain, or even earlier songs that had never shown up on a Capitol album prior to the band's breakup, such as There's A Place, Misery, From Me To You, or A Hard Day's Night.

It should be pointed out that the Beatles were not the only British artists to receive this treatment from their American label. Donovan also had his catalog altered, as did the Rolling Stones. Check out the playlist for the different versions of the Stones' Aftermath album, for instance.

Interestingly, after Revolver, Capitol started putting out the UK albums (Sgt. Pepper, the white album, Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be) as the Beatles had originally imagined them. Perhaps they were finally realized the albums weren't just commodities.

There were two box sets called The Capitol Albums. The 2004 release contained the first four albums, and the 2006 edition the next four. Y&T was the ninth Capitol album. I never knew why they didn't release the first FIVE albums, then the second FIVE.

ROG

Lennon

Sometimes I think about acknowledging the day John Lennon died, but something always draws me in.

This year, it's the fact that he is on the top 10 list of dead celebrities. According to Forbes:

No. 7: John Lennon
$15 million

Musician
Died: Dec. 8, 1980
Age: 40
Cause: Murder

It was a big year for the Beatles, especially for the songwriter behind many of the band's most famous songs. In September, Electronic Arts and MTV Games released The Beatles: Rock Band, allowing fans to jam along with a virtual version of the band and download additional albums for $17. As well, the Fab Four's music was repackaged and remastered in a 16-disc box set that went on sale in September. LOVE, the Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil show featuring the group's music, still reels fans into The Mirage


Add to that John's widow Yoko Ono licensing his song "Real Love" to be used by JC Penney in television ads, and her giving Ben & Jerry's ice cream permission to release a Lennon-inspired flavor called "Imagine Whirled Peace."

Oh, since I know you need to know, the top-earning dead celebrity is French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, who "earned $350 million in the past year. Much of his estate was auctioned off at Christie's in February. Laurent died of brain cancer in June 2008." So his #1 status probably won't be maintained.

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein rank second with combined earnings of $235 million. Why are they considered as one unit, I don't know. Both of them composed with others. Anyway, I imagine the revival of South Pacific did not hurt.

Michael Jackson is third with $90 million; I have to assume it's a reflection of moneys in, since, before his death in June, there were numerous reports about his mounting debt.

Elvis Presley, the perennial leader in this category, is fourth with $55 million, though he made more than in previous years. He's followed by J.R.R. Tolkien ($50 million), Charles Schulz ($35 million), John Lennon ($15 million), Theodor Geisel -Dr. Seuss ($15 million), Albert Einstein ($10 million) and Michael Crichton ($9 million).

The interesting thing about the Beatles 09/09/09 revival is that it has gotten me newly interested in the Beatles, again. Not that they ever fell very far from my heart. But watching all the specials reinvigorated my ears. Seeing the Paul McCartney ABC special on that aired Thanksgiving night reminded me of Lennon playing the organ with his elbow on I'm Down at Shea Stadium in 1965.

I haven't actually GOTTEN any new music - the Beatles in Mono box set is on the Christmas list - but just reading about the differences in the recordings, especially the white album has gotten me excited.

Did I ever mention that, years ago, I received a picture of the Imagine square at Strawberry Fields in NYC? It sits over the entryway from the living room to the hallway.

Ah, the picture above is from LIFE again. It's from 1980, but I didn't need the caption to know that.

ROG

Meme of Solace

I'm sure the title refers to a James Bond film; I'm swiping this from SamauraiFrog.

List 10 musical artists (or bands) you like, in no specific order (do this before reading the questions below). Really, don’t read the questions below until you pick your ten artists!!!

There is something to be said for following the instructions in this case.



1. The Beatles
2. The Beach Boys
3. David Bowie
4. The Rascals
5. The Rolling Stones
6. Linda Ronstadt
7. The Supremes
8. The Temptations
9. Talking Heads
10. The Police

What was the first song you ever heard by 6?

Something early, probably "Different Drum".

What is your favorite song of 8?

"I Can't Get Next To You". From the rowdy opening to the Sly Stone-inspired shared vocals.

What kind of impact has 1 left on your life?

Massive. I have a ton of their albums, both as a group and as solo artists. I know arcane things about their album releases. People say to me, "What album is X song on?" and far more often than not, I'll say "American or British album?" And then peg both of them. There's a picture of Lennon in my office and a photo of the Imagine imagine from NYC in my house.

What is your favorite lyric of 5?

Probably the chorus of "You Can't Always Get What You Want". "But if you try sometime, you just might find you get what you need." From Let It Bleed, probably my favorite Stones album. The organ noodling of this song during the early funeral sequence of The Big Chill cracked me up, while others in the audience wondered why.

How many times have you seen 4 live?

Never, though I've seen them live on TV once or twice.

What is your favorite song by 7?

"Love Is Like An Itchin' In My Heart". What an insistent bass line. there's a version that's about 30 seconds longer than the single I particularly enjoy.

Is there any song by 3 that makes you sad?

Ashes to Ashes
Time and again I tell myself
I'll stay clean tonight
But the little green wheels are following me
Oh no, not again

What is your favorite song by 9?

"Making Flippy Floppy", probably because I saw the Talking Heads during the Speaking in Tongues tour in 1983 or 1984 at SPAC in Saratoga.

When did you first get into 2?

It's really odd, actually. I had a compilation album with I Get Around and Don't Worry Baby in 1965, and the Pet Sounds album in 1966, both of which I liked. But I never considered myself a real Beach Boys fan until I got Surf's Up, which was a mainstay of my freshman year in college, 1971-72. THEN I went back and got into the earlier music, and bought the retrospective albums that came out in the mid-1970s.

How did you get into 3?

I was in my dorm room in my freshman year and somehow won Hunky Dory from my college radio station, WNPC on a radio call-in contest. I liked almost all of it; my roommate Ron only liked Changes.

What is your favorite song by 4?

"It's Love", the last song on the Groovin' album, featuring flute by Hubert Laws, plus a great bass line. When I got a new turntable in 1987, the track ran so close to the label that the album would reject before the song would end; drove me nuts. Actually bought the CD five years ago largely for this one song.

How many times have you seen 9 live?

Once, but it was one of the two greatest shows of my life, along with the Temptations in 1980 or 1981.

What is a good memory concerning 2?

A mixed memory actually. I had this friend named Donna George, and I bought her the Beach Boys box set. Before she died of brain cancer a few years ago, she assigned another friend of hers and me to divvy up her music. I took the Beach Boys box, and I always remember her when I play it.

Is there a song by 8 that makes you sad?

The Temptations with a Lot o' Soul is full of melancholy songs, but I'll pick No More Water in the Well.

What is your favorite song of 1?

A truly impossible question. Seriously. It's dependent on mood, what I've listened to recently. I'll say Got to Get You Into My Life, but reserve the right to change that.

How did you become a fan of 10?

Almost certainly listening to WQBK-FM, Q-104 in Albany, NY, a truly great station that also turned me onto the Talking Heads, the Clash and a lot of other music of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
ROG

Twist and Shout

STILL stuck in my mind: that great dance sequence from the movie 500 Days of Summer which makes more sense in context.
The song namechecks the song "Twist and Shout".


Then there's this new show on Nickelodeon the daughter is watching called The Fresh Beat Band. They were originally called the Jumparounds, plugged so often in the commercials as such that my daughter still refers them that way. (Also, she knows I think that their initial name was goofy, but the new moniker is boring - generic is what I actually said, but boring is a reasonable translation.) Think the Monkees aimed at four-year-olds. The Hispanic guitarist goes by Kiki and the red-haired percussionist is Marina. But it's the guys' names that I should note. The preternaturally tall guy is the beat boxer Twist, while the black keyboardist is named Shout. Twist and Shout? I expect that if this program catches on, the players will be replaced as though they were in Menudo. (None of them go by their real names.)

Which of course brings us to one of the great cover songs of all time, by the Beatles. Just saw this clip again on the Beatles Anthology, which I have on VHS. Don't know why this song doesn't get more respect in those "best covers" polls.
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Speaking of covers, I've really gotten into the new television show Glee, but I must admit there are some 21st century songs I couldn't tell you the original artist without looking it up. One piece I did recognize instantly, was Queen's Somebody to Love. Probably my favorite cover thus far on the show.

But I still prefer the original. I own only Queen album, a greatest hits collection, and that on vinyl. (And unlike my CDs, my LPs are in great disarray.) Any Queen album recommendations?

"If you think you're too small to have an impact,
try going to bed with a mosquito in the room."

-- Johan Bruyneel
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VOTE

ROG

Roger Answers Your Questions, Jaquandor and Rebecca

Jaquandor of Byzantium Shores, the finest blogger in western New York AND a fashionista ahead of the curve, asks these questions:

Does David Paterson know what he's doing?

More often than he's given credit for, I think. On his Day 1, he's all funny and charming. On Day 2, he admits that both he and his wife were unfaithful, a brilliant move designed to make sure the state was not suddenly surprised by another sex scandal after Eliot Spitzer's downfall. It was a calculated risk that worked.

He was right to note the fiscal disaster the state was going to be suffering after the Wall Street collapse, as it affected our state disproportionally; not only was the state heavily invested, but a lot of New Yorkers lost their jobs on Wall Street in the market meltdown. Of course, the state, unlike the federal government, cannot operate in a deficit, so cutbacks and layoffs were inevitable. Part of Paterson's problem is that he was bearer of bad news.

He was also stifled by the second most dysfunctional state legislature in the country - I'm convinced California's is worse - and threw a Hail Mary by picking his own lieutenant governor in order to break the state Senate deadlock. I found and read the state constitution and decided that the lower court was right; that picking his own replacement, essentially, was beyond the scope of the emergency powers he was citing. I thought they would be used in cases where the legislature was wiped out by war or disaster that the state couldn't be allowed to flounder. Apparently, the Court of Appeals (which, for you non-New Yorkers, is the state's highest court) decided that the gridlock that took place for a month beginning June 8 WAS enough of an emergency that picking his own lt gov WAS kosher. So kudos to him.

Now, he royally messed up the appointment of Hillary Clinton's replacement for the US Senate. Don't know what that whole Caroline Kennedy dance was. But while Kirsten Gillibrand was not a popular choice downstate at the time, notice how her primary opposition has melted away.

This is not to say that I've agreed with all of his decisions. His unilateral decision NOT to tax the rich more, lest they leave the state, seemed tone deaf to me.

So his abysmally low poll numbers surprise me a bit. There is a local public radio force named Alan Chartock of WAMC who believes part of his problem is him being characterized as a bumbler on Saturday Night Live a few times, much the same way that Chevy Chase's portrayal of Gerald Ford established the President as clumsy. There was a poll a while back (Siena or Marist College ran it) that said that 7% of the population felt negative towards Paterson because of how SNL portrayed him. Wow, didn't think that SNL still had that much pull, outside of Tina Fey's Sarah Palin last year.

I'll be curious how he does on Meet the Press today, rerun on other NBC networks during the week. You KNOW that David Gregory has to ask him about the report that the Obama people didn't want him running for governor in 2010, which would not come from legitimate channels right before the President visited the Capital District on Monday.

Photo by John Hebert

To what degree is the eBook the way of the future? (I assume we all grant that there will be eBooks, but how much will they take over?)

Actually, I'll ask you this, since you read and watch science fiction: do you EVER see people reading books or newspapers in the futuristic portrayals? I don't recall any.

I think more the question is how much will paper products stick around? There were a couple pieces in Entertainment Weekly recently - pretty sure Stephen King was one of them - that discussed the visceral pleasure of the book - how it feels in the hand, how it smells, how it is laid out, how you can fan the pages to create a breeze (I'm doing this from memory and may have made up that last one) - that the electronic equivalent can NEVER replicate.

There's a private high school in New England that in 2009 got rid of all of its books, replaced by eBooks. The headmistress said that the students were thriving. If experiences like that "take", then the books will become like vinyl records; they'll still be around, but marginalized. Conversely, if there is a pushback from educators who say our kids NEED the actual manipulation of pages - and, IMO, they do - then the flow will be stemmed, though not stopped.

Of course, eBooks might be replaced by something else - remember how ubiquitous the VCR used to be? - are replaced by some sort of computer chip that goes directly into our brains.

There are, by my rough estimation, about fifty thousand books about the Beatles. Can you recommend a couple, to help narrow it all down?

You are a relative newbie to the Fabs, so I'd start with The Beatles by Hunter Davies, one of the first. It's pretty thorough without overwhelming (e.g., the Beatles Anthology), though ends before the end of the group, if I remember correctly. Beyond that, it would depend on what you're really interested in: their songwriting, the recording techniques, their lives, Beatlemania. Many dismiss Philip Norman book Shout! as anti-Paul, but few doubt his thoroughness and it's a good read; he has a newer book I haven't read that seems to be better received. Peter Brown's The Love You Make is "an insider's story", and is interesting at that level. There's a relatively recent book Can't Buy Me Love that has reviewed really well, but I haven't actually read.

My personal favorite, actually, is The Beatles: An Illustrated Record by Roy Carr & Tony Tyler. It was about the recordings, and it was at the point where I (thought I ) knew everything about them, but I was basing my knowledge on the US LPs I bought; this book totally upended my understanding. But now the CDs are out in the "British" order, so it wouldn't have the same effect, I imagine.

I'd love to hear the opinions of sages such as Fred Hembeck and Johnny Bacardi on this topic.


Rebecca from 40 Forever, who is intelligent, attractive and personable - naturally she's a librarian - asks:

How many guitars are in Rochester's famous House of Guitars?

37,326.

Actually, the website says "it's home to an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 guitars and 4 million albums, CDs and tapes."


Meant to get to Scott's questions, but I still feel not great and I may be the healthiest of the three of us. Certainly feeling better than the wife, who took a three-hour nap yesterday. Anyway, Scott, before the end of the month. as the J5 title goes, "Maybe tomorrow."

ROG

The Lydster, Part 66: Dead Rock Stars

(I didn't have a blog in Lydia's first year; so here are photos from the summer of 2004. Today Lydia is five and a HALF, so here she is a little more than five years ago.)





I try really hard not to indoctrinate my daughter with my music. I want her to find her own way, and then pick and chose which of mine she's comfortable with.

But when Michael Jackson died, he was on TV ALL OF THE TIME. She inevitably heard some of his songs. ABC by the Jackson Five is immediately infectious for a child. We went on a car trip during July and I played the first disc from the J5 box set in the car. It's quite danceable, and now she knows who Michael Jackson is - well, usually; sometimes his morphed appearance confused her. She loves to dance in the house and the solo hits such as Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, Rock With You and Beat It will make her want to move her feet.

A fact that will shock you: I'm a big Beatles fan. I was watching lots of Beatles-related items such as some old videos around 09/09/09. Lydia wanted to know all about them. I said, "That's a group that was very popular when Daddy was growing up." Her next question: "Are they still alive?" Well, the drummer is still alive; his name is Ringo. And the guy...THERE...his name is Paul." Since both John (d. 1980) and George (d. 2001) passed away before she was born (2004), it's all ancient history to her. She asked over and over about their state of mortality - "Is that one dead?"

Subsequently, EVERY group she heard me play was the Beatles. Sometimes, it WAS the Beatles, but more often it was not. I was slow on the uptake as to why she was so honed in on the Fab Four. It was because of the animated program The Wonder Pets.

From the Amazon description: "The Wonder Pets! get groovy in the newest release, 'Save the Beetles!' Yes, the Wonder Pets are called up on the ol' telly with a request for help from four members of a famous rock band, the Beetles, whose yellow submarine has gotten tangled up in kelp. As they journey to rescue them, they'll dive straight into Beatlemania pop-culture (and reference numerous Beatles song titles and lyrics along the way!)" She saw this episode at least twice on TV - and I watched it myself at least once. THIS was the real jumping off point.

Mary Travers just died, and on ABC World News, what does the daughter here but "Puff, the Magic Dragon"? I'm singing along, and Lydia asks, "How do YOU know that song? I learned it in day care." Well, dear, long before you heard it at school, I heard it on the radio.

ROG

School, Beatles, and other things

Yesterday was Lydia's first day of kindergarten. To say she did not want to go would be an understatement. She wouldn't get up, she wouldn't eat when asked (then suddenly when it was time to go, was ravenous) and mostly, she lost the ability to talk - all she could do was grunt and it was up to her parents to decipher the guttural sounds. The obligatory pictures all having her looking forlorn when she actually faced the camera. But when I got home last night, she was all smiles. I think she was afraid she wouldn't fit in, despite our best efforts to reassure her.

Not so incidentally, she's not attending the neighborhood school this fall, contrary to plans my wife Carol and I had made, but rather the school where Carol teaches. Carol had called the school a couple weeks ago and had left a message to this effect on the answering machine. She also called the district office but was directed back to the school. We never got a call from the local school until someone who sounded like a truant officer called, noting Lydia's absence.

We are disappointed that Lydia will not be able to attend the neighborhood school. The problem was that the school's relatively late opening time, 8:45 a.m., made it it impossible to drop her off and get to work at anything approaching on time. If a pre-school program had been available, it is quite likely that our school choice for Lydia would have been the neighborhood school.
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I can't believe how sucked into the Beatles stuff I've gotten this week. I've taped every program and watched quite a few, although not yet the movies A Hard Day's Night or Help! or six hours of the Anthology series yet. I did watch this Beatles video collection which I loved. Penny Lane wasn't as good as I remembered it from when I was 13, but the version of Revolution (loud but with the do-be-do-wahs of Revolution 1) was great.

Some of these are being repeated through this weekend, if you want to tape them (times are Eastern, I assume, or maybe it's accurate for multiple time zones) on VH1 Classic.
Beatles Video Retrospective - Th 9/10, 4pm; Su 9/13, 3 pm
A Hard Day's Night - F 9/11, 7 pm; Sa 9/12, 2 pm;
Help! - F 9/11, 9 pm; Sa 9/12, 4 pm; Su 9/13, 1 pm
The Beatles Anthology Part 1 - Su 9/13, 5 pm
The Beatles Anthology Part 2 - Su 9/13, 7 pm
The Beatles Anthology Part 3 - Su 9/13, 9 pm

One segment that's NOT being repeated, as far as I can see, is this 2005 special about the Bangladesh concert, which I watched. It featured the late Billy Preston, who died 6/6/06; my, he did not look well. BTW, his birthday was widely reported as 9/9, but according to Billy's official website and some court papers, his birthday was 9/2, 1946.
***
The Ellie Greenwich Coverville cover story, which another fellow and I had requested.
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Dateline:@#$!: Fred Hembeck Interviews Wonder Woman (Sept 8), featuring gratuitous mentions of the songs of a Motown legend. As Fred put it, "Take a look, should you be so inclined--it's WAY shorter than 'Watchmen' and just as likely to be ignored by Alan Moore!!"
ROG

Number Nine Scheme

I'm always in favor of anything that gets the Beatles on the front cover of Entertainment Weekly, the Collectors' Choice Music catalog and undoubtedly other publications. But today's a mixed bag for me.

Since I'm not a gamer, the Beatles on Rock Band is an interesting sidelight. But what of the remastered box sets? As I've undoubtedly mentioned before, it's tough to pull the trigger on buying the same songs for at least the fourth time (US LP, UK LP, CD). Some of those early US LP as I had to buy twice because they were stolen in 1972. And some songs show up on more than one album (Vee Jay's Introducing the Beatles/Capitol's The Early Beatles; UA's A Hard Day's Night/Capitol's Something New) or on compilations (Rock 'N' Roll).

Yet, I had come to the conclusion that while I don't NEED one (or both) of these box sets, I would WANT to have them, particularly the mono box. Checking out the description of the mono set, it does NOT include the Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be albums, "as they were originally recorded in stereo", according to Amazon. But, if I understand correctly, the "double-CD set of mono singles, EPs and rare tracks... exactly mirrors the stereo 'Past Masters' collection, except it includes 'Only a Northern Song; All Together Now; Hey Bulldog', and 'It's All Too Much' [the four 'new' songs from Yellow Submarine] and excludes 'The Ballad of John and Yoko; Old Brown Shoe', and 'Let It Be'."

Which means if I DID get the mono set, I'd need to keep (or replace) those three albums (YS for the instrumentals) plus Past Masters 2. The calculations are hurting my head.

Ultimately, the reason I MIGHT take the plunge - when it's back in stock, as it's sold out until October - is this lost recollection. I got the first four Beatles CDs for free in 1987. My friend Broome bought them for me shortly after they came out. At the time I was resisting getting caught up in this new-fangled technology called the compact disc player until I was sure it would stick. Hey, I NEVER bought an 8-track!

Having four discs with NOTHING on which to play them he knew would drive me crazy, and it did. Ultimately, I got a CD player, and bought a half dozen other CDs (one couldn't have a CD player with just four CDs, could one?) including greatest hits of Elton John and Billy Joel plus Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms.

So those early discs in particular I can ALMOST justify replacing. Wait a minute...honey, Christmas is coming and the ONLY thing I want is...
***

Being a Beatles fan is a curse as much as a blessing. Someone at work came up to me just last week to ask me on which US and UK albums Doctor Robert appears. It's one of those things someone could easily Google, but it's apparently more fun to Just Ask Roger. Oh, it was Yesterday...and Today, and Revolver, respectively. I remember it so well because I thought it strange when it came out that the US version of Revolver had only two songs sung by Lennon, She Said She Said and Tomorrow Never Knows; Harrison had THREE songs. Doctor Robert, I'm Only Sleeping and And Your Bird Can Sing were stripped from the US Revolver and put on the US-only release, Y&T.

Then I was on Amazon, drooling over the mono box when I came across someone confused by early Beatles chronology. Some helpful bloke replied, "Meet the Beatles was the first Capitol Album in the US. It took some cuts from the Please Please Me album and their single I Want To Hold Your Hand." Unfortunately, that wasn't entirely correct and as a librarian, I just had to reply:
"Meet the Beatles was comprised of 9 songs from With the Beatles, plus the single, US B-side I Saw Her Standing There (from Please Please Me) and the UK B-side, This Boy. With the Beatles and Meet the Beatles both have the classic black and white photo.
"There WAS an album on Vee-Jay Records called Introducing the Beatles, which came out BEFORE the Beatles were big in the US, and the Please Please Me album was the source of THOSE songs, as well as a Capitol album called The Early Beatles, which came out as their fourth or fifth Capitol album."

It's a curse, I tell you.

ROG

And Gordon

One of the very first albums I ever bought from the Capitol Record Club -11 albums for only one cent! (But read the fine print) was BIG HITS FROM ENGLAND AND USA: one side had two songs each from BEATLES, BEACH BOYS, and PETER & GORDON, the other side, 2 songs by NAT KING COLE and CILLA BLACK, plus "Tears and Roses" by AL MARTINO. I probably still have it upstairs in the attic.

The intriguing thing I discovered as I actually looked on the record's label was that Lennon-McCartney were listed as composers not only of the Beatles' songs, Can't Buy Me Love and You Can't Do That, but also of the songs of Peter & Gordon, A World Without Love and Nobody I Know. It took me a while to catch up on the Beatles' trivia that Peter, the one with the glasses, was the brother of Paul's girlfriend Jane Asher. Peter & Gordon recorded a number of Lennon/McCartney (really Macca) tunes such as I Don't Want To See You Again and Women, attributed to Bernard Webb to see if the songs were moving because of the Beatles' connection; based on its chart action, maybe they were.

Peter later became a prolific record producer for James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, among others.

But what of Gordon Waller after the 1968 breakup? According to Gordon's website, he also stayed busy in the music business, with an extensive, if not commercially successful discography.

He also had opportunities to sing with his old mate from time to time. Gordon Waller died of cardiac arrest on July 17 at the age of 64. Peter writes:

Gordon played such a significant role in my life that losing him is hard to comprehend – let alone to tolerate.

He was my best friend at school almost half a century ago. He was not only my musical partner but played a key role in my conversion from only a snooty jazz fan to a true rock and roll believer as well. Without Gordon I would never have begun my career in the music business in the first place. Our professional years together in the sixties constitute a major part of my life and I have always treasured them.

We remained good friends (unusual for a duo!) even while we were pursuing entirely separate professional paths and I was so delighted that after a hiatus of almost forty years we ended up singing and performing together again more recently for the sheer exhilarating fun of it. We had a terrific time doing so.

Gordon remains one of my very favourite singers of all time and I am still so proud of the work that we did together. I am just a harmony guy and Gordon was the heart and soul of our duo.

I shall miss him in so many different ways. The idea that I shall never get to sing those songs with him again, that I shall never again be able to get annoyed when he interrupts me on stage or to laugh at his unpredictable sense of humour or even to admire his newest model train or his latest gardening effort is an unthinkable change in my life with which I have not even begun to come to terms.

I'd read on one of the sites that the duo was originally billed as Gordon & Peter. It's tougher when you're after the ampersand.

World Without Love:

***
There was this old Shake 'N Bake commercial - do they still make that stuff?- and this girl with a STRONG Southern accent says, "And I Haiped!" Which is supposed to be "helped". Brian Ibbott's recent Kinks Koverville, er Coverville was a topic I suggested in honor of Ray Davies' 65th birthday last month. I also pointed out the Tom Jones version of Sunny afternoon, which he played to, so far, positive reaction, I'm surprised to note. ROG

Beatles cover music QUESTION

In my tradition of playing the music that I own, I have divvied up my Beatles music thusly:
In October, in honor of John's birthday, I play the canon. In this case, the British CDs (including Magical Mystery Tour, which became adopted as such), plus the two Past Masters CDs of singles, B-sides, EPs cuts and oddities.
In February, in honor of George's birthday, I play the American albums. George, visiting his sister Louise, was the first of the Beatles to visit the U.S.
In June, in honor of Paul's birthday, I play the more recent items: Live at the BBC, the Anthology series, and Love, e.g.
In July, in honor of Ringo's birthday I play Beatles covers. After all, Ringo's All-Starr bands are known to cover the hits of the contributing musicians.

And I have LOTS of whole albums dedicated to Beatles covers. Some are of whole albums: Big Daddy doing Sgt. Pepper, a MOJO collection replicating Revolver, George Benson taking on Abbey Road. There are whole soundtracks: All This and World War II, I Am Sam, Across the Universe.

So what are your favorite Beatles covers? I am fond of these:

Come Together by Tina Turner; Aerosmith's take is fine, but too close to the original
Eleanor Rigby by Aretha Franklin (she puts it in the first person); though the pure excess of both the Vanilla Fudge and Rare Earth versions always made me chuckle.
Got To Get You Into My Life by Earth, Wind and Fire; one of the only good things to come out of the Sgt. Pepper's movie debacle.
In My Life by Judy Collins; though there are other fine versions, notably Johnny Cash's.
We Can Work It Out by Stevie Wonder; I once bought an LP just for that song.
You Can't Do that by Harry Nillson, which segues in other Beatle tunes in a most delightful way.

Special kudos to Joe Cocker, who made several Beatles' tunes his own. but the one I'm currently most fond of is You've got to Hide your Love Away

And there undoubtedly others. The readers of Rolling Stone magazine pick their favorites.

What's your least favorite Beatles covers?

There's a whole slew of older artists of the Beatles era trying too hard to be hip and relevant but feeling like the lounge singer Bill Murray used to play on Saturday Night Live (or a slightly more current reference, the Sweeney Sisters).

Still my thumbs are down to two pop music legends of the 1960s. The Supremes doing A Hard Day's Night, originally on an album I owned called A Bit of Liverpool. "It's ben a hard (hard) day's (day's) night." Disliked it on first hearing. the other is Elvis Presley doing an off-key and listless version of Hey Jude; just unpleasant to listen to. (Though not eligible for consideration, Mitch Miller's version of Give Peace A Chance is a HOOT.)

ROG

Y is for Yes, Yoko

I've thinking about Yoko Ono a lot lately. Part of it is the fact that last month was the 40th anniversary of John Lennon & Yoko's famous (or infamous, depending on your POV) bed-ins, the first at the Amsterdam Hilton, as people who have heard the Beatles' single The Ballad of John and Yoko can tell you. A second bed-in was in Montreal, where Give Peace A Chance was recorded.

But as an ex pointed out to me a long time ago, before she knew Beatle John, there was Yoko Ono, the avant garde fluxus artist. I recently discovered a retrospective of her work took place between 2000 and 2004, called "Yes Yoko Ono", including at MIT in 2001. Indeed, it was, famously, "yes" that attracted John to Yoko. In the mid-1960s, John went to an art gallery, climbed a ladder leading up to a small printed YES on the ceiling which one looks at through a magnifying glass; it was the positive message that drew him in.

The notion that she "broke up the Beatles" is no more true than Linda Eastman breaking up the Beatles when she married Paul McCartney; perhaps an element of truth amidst many, many other factors.

Yeah, sometimes she screams when she sings. Although the very first time I heard Remember Love, the GPAC B-side, it was more childlike in delivery. (Note: the video has visuals that may offend some.)

The blogger Samurai Frog quoted Any Major Dude with Half a Heart in noting that "Even after 28 years, her husband’s murder must be a horrible pain to bear, but Yoko Ono is marketing — exploiting — her widowhood a little too publicly and cynically, exemplified by that 'John would say...' shtick, as if Lennon was a sage-like Confucius rather than a complex man with some serious limitations. No matter how swell Yoko thought her husband was, it is nauseating. It perpetuates the false notion that Lennon had special insights into the human condition."

And she can make artistic decisions that are disturbing to some. The Lennon items that are part of a new exhibit that launched a couple months ago at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex for John Lennon: The New York Years includes Lennon's famous New York City T-shirt, his upright piano from his Dakota apartment, a posthumous 1981 Grammy Award for the couple's album "Double Fantasy", but also John's bloodied clothes from December 8, 1980.

Not incidentally, her biggest commercial single, Walking on Thin Ice, came out after that tragic event. It and Kiss Kiss Kiss from Double Fantasy were also dance-hall favorites.

Still, the enmity Yoko brings on is quite remarkable in its vitriol. June Chua, writing about Yoko's 70th birthday a few years back, noted: "In a Watch magazine article about her 1996 CD, Rising, the reviewer suggested John's killer 'could have saved us all a lot of grief by just aiming one foot to the right.' The violence in this statement is reprehensible. Yoko watched the person she loved slaughtered in front of her. She had to hold his dying body as life drifted from him...Yoko didn't fit the stereotype of rock star girlfriend/wife."

Yoko and Olivia Harrison, the other Beatle widow, seem to be getting along well, at least in public settings such as the opening of the Cirque du Soleil performance of Love, which featured Beatles' music.

Meanwhile, Yoko is still making music in her own name and offering scholarships in John's.

Music namechecking Yoko:
Oh Yoko by John Lennon from the Imagine allbum
Dear Yoko by John Lennon from the Double Fantasy album
Be My Yoko Ono by Barenaked Ladies
***
Allen Klein, former Beatles manager, died July 4. Link to picture of Allen, Yoko and John.

For ABC Wednesday



ROG

The Lydster, Part 63: The Songs

It's been long been my philosophy that, as much as I love providing information for youse folk, a primary point of this blog is as a resource for myself. Things I think I'll remember "forever" fade into oblivion.

With that in mind, I'm going to note the songs I sing to my daughter. Often, it's the case that I'll take an existing song and put new lyrics to it. If I do that, though, it has to be a song that she does not know. Once, I tried singing something to the "Wonder Pets" theme: "Lydia, Lydia, my favorite girl..." I was scolded, and told "THAT'S not how it goes."

So, I take songs obscure to her. One of the first was this ditty:
"I love Lydia
I love Lydia,
'Cause she is my daughter
Oh yeah
She is my daughter."
This is to the tune of I Eat Cannibals by TOTAL Coelo. I didn't even KNOW what the tune was at first, since I don't even own it, I don't think.

Another song I adapted Turn Down Day by The Cyrkle, a group best known for covering Paul Simon's Red Rubber Ball. The words vary, but I usually start with the chorus, usually trying to prod the child out of bed:
It's a day-care day
And it's time to get some clothes
It's a day-care day
Let's get ready.

These tend to be the morning songs.

There are a slew of tuness to choose from when I sing to her at bedtime. Many are standard children's songs, though she likes a variation on Twinkle, Twinkle about traffic lights which she taught me. "Sing A Song of Sixpence" is altered from "pecked off her nose" to "[kiss sound] kissed her nose", at her instance, NOT me being overprotective.

The Car Song I learned from my father and I sing to her: "Mommy, won't you take me for a ride in the car." Be Kind to Your Parents was from from a record my sister Leslie and I had on red vinyl when we were kids; we sang it at my 50th birthday party.

But always, these are the last two. When she's really tired, these are the ONLY two: A, You're Adorable, which my mother sang to me - indeed the ONLY song I remember my mother ever singing to me, and for which I changed many of the lyrics, starting with J ("you're so jolly") because I couldn't remember the original; and Good Night, the song from the Beatles' white album, during which I turn on her night light, then slowly dim the overhead light.

Tomorrow, my take on yesterday's news.

ROG

M is for Money

Happy U.S. Income Tax Day!

Every year in the United States, the Social Security Administration sends out Your Social Security Statement to help me plan for my "financial future". It provides estimates of your Social Security benefits under current law." But for me, it's a personal history lesson.

The first year I worked, 1969, I made $529 at the Binghamton (NY) Public Library. I worked six months at IBM in 1971 and made the most I would make until 1978. $50 in 1976 - really? I can always tell when I went to college, or when I was unemployed or underemployed.

I also received my 401(k) statement this week. I started putting money in this account because we were all warned that Social Security wouldn't be there. My employer and I each contributed about $1000 each this past quarter. I managed to lose that plus an additional $5800. So much for retiring.

Let's talk about music instead. There are two great songs called Money that I own and that come to mind. The first was written Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, when challenged by someone who complained that all he wrote about was romance. "What else do you care about, Berry?" Well, there was money.

The original version of Money was recorded by future Songwriters' Hall of Famer Barrett Strong, who later teamed with the late Norman Whitfield to write I Heard It Through the Grapevine (a hit for both Gladys Knight & the Pips and Marvin Gaye), War (Edwin Star's hit), and a bunch of late 1960s/early 1970s classics for the Temptations, such as Too Busy Thinking About My Baby, Papa Was a Rolling Stone, Just My Imagination and Ball of Confusion.

Barrett Strong's version of Money went to #2 on the Billboard R&B charts for six weeks, and to #23 on the pop charts early in 1960. It's #288 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of greatest songs, and was covered by a Liverpudlian band of some note, the Beatles.




The other Money song is by the British band Pink Floyd, by that point consisting of David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Rick Wright and Nick Mason. It appeared on the 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon, and though it spent but one week at #1 in the U.S., it spent a total of 741 weeks on the U.S. album charts, selling more than 15 million copies.

For those unfamiliar, it has one potentially 'naughty' word.



I'm still collecting the state quarters. Right now, all I need is a Missouri quarter from the Denver mint; I even have both District of Columbia coins. But I haven't seen the Puerto Rico quarter yet from either the Philadelphia or Denver mints and other territories will be released this year. (And yes, I know DC and Puerto Rico are not states, but their coins are a continuation of the same series.) Meanwhile, I'm still looking for Denver mint coins for two of my co-workers.


Certainly it was the juxtaposition of Marilyn Chambers as wholesome Ivory Snow mom with Marilyn Chambers as, er, an actress that helped fuel whatever commercial success she had. No, though my name is Green, I've never seen Behind the Green Door or any of her other work. She died this week.
***
And speaking of advertising, does Burger King REALLY think it'll make money mixing SpongeBob Squarepants, Sir Mix-A-Lot, and "the TRUE (non-pirate) meaning of the word 'booty'", as my friend Fred put it in his April 13 post? And if the BK King is creepy in 30-second increments, he's REALLY bizarre in the 2:30 segment Fred found.
***
OK, so what other song about money am I thinking of? The clues are in this post.

ROG

April Ramblin'

I briefly attended that vigil for Binghamton yesterday. Would have stayed longer but for the fact that it was cold, occasionally rainy, and I had the child, who has been sick recently, in tow. She may not have understood the point of the gathering, attended by about 45, including Albany's mayor (who, not incidentally is, running for re-election), but I still wanted her to be there. That event, along with the story in question, probably prompted this response from me.

THE best television newsperson to come out of the Capital District of New York State, Ed Dague, is in chronic pain. Touching story. I met him at least twice, which I should write about sometime, I reckon.

Greg finds legislation he just can't get behind.

Gordon touts Robert Johnson, as well he should.

They are remastering the whole Beatles catalog. Given the fact that I've already bought it all about thrice (US LP, UK LP, CD), do I want to buy this AGAIN? No, yet the Past Masters package sounds annoyingly intriguing.

Ken Levine talks about Point of View, one of my favorite episodes of M*A*S*H. Did the TV show House steal it? Didn't see the House ep, but I have my doubts.

15 free downloads to pep up your old PC, which I haven't tried yet, but I figure if I post it, it'll remind me.

I'm getting fairly obsessed with getting the Denver mint state quarters. All I need are Hawaii, Washington state, Missouri and, most problematic, Pennsylvania, the eldest. Oh, and the District of Columbia; just got the Philly mint version this week. Haven't seen the Puerto Rico quarter yet.

My good buddy Steve Bissette discusses, in great deal, including 27 8 by 10 color glossies, Saga of the Swamp Thing #20, the transitional first issue by Alan Moore, John Totleman, and himself that starts off the neat book I just received.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Speaking of Swamp Thing, the co-creator of, and later Steve's editor on, the title, coping as well as one can, given the circumstances, but there's a movement afoot to replace the comics he wrote or edited and, to that end, for people to contribute to a Len Wein comics checklist. I always liked his work during my days of reading Marvel Comics.

So THAT'S what happened at the Albany Comic Show Sunday, before I got there.

ADD's Eisner picks. I'll take his word for it, since the only thing on the list I own is Mark Evanier's Kirby book, though Coraline has been on back order for about a month.

Evanier tells A Story You Won't Believe about Spike Jones.

I'm so pleased: Two weekends ago, we went to the in-laws for their 50th wedding anniversary. Last weekend was Lydia's 5th birthday party at the State Museum. Next weekend is something else again. This coming weekend, Easter, the wife and her mother were trying to come up with a plan to get together. The final resolution - we're all staying in our respective homes and resting; I mean we'll go to church and all, but no travel. I for one am exhausted, and so is my wife, so this is a good thing.

Nik from Spatula Forum celebrates five years of blogging by talking about...

Arthur from AmeriNZ celebrates both his 100th blogpost and two years of podcasting.

ROG

#1- the Beatles. #2 - the Beatles...

On the Billboard charts of April 4, 1964, 45 years ago this week, a phenomenal thing took place. Not only was the #1 single by the Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love, which would stay on the top of the charts for five weeks - but the whole top five was dominated by the Fab Four. The week before, the Beatles had 10 singles on the Top 100 charts, 12 the following week and 14 the week after, crushing Elvis Presley's record of nine on December 19, 1956. and it was facilitated by this one fact: the Beatles were a bust when they were first released in the United States.

For instance, She Loves You was a reissue of a failed September 1963 release on Swan Records. From Me To You managed to get all the way up to #116 in 1963 on VeeJay. My Bonnie, a 1962 Decca release, originally failed to chart at all.

But when the Beatles, now on Capitol Records, hit #1 with I Want To Hold Your Hand the week of February 1, 1964, followed by their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, those records on those other labels began to chart as well. No label would have put out more than a couple songs by an artist at once - Can't Buy Me Love ascended to the top as I Want To Hold Your Hand descended for Capitol, but the other companies wanted to take full advantage of Beatlemania.

I was always a little bothered by the Beatles' #1 as a collection, for it fails to register the quality and quantity of Beatles hits in that first period. Please Please Me (likely) and Twist and Shout (almost definitely) were blocked from getting to #1 only by another Beatles song.
***
MIT DEN BEATLES Whole Category on JEOPARDY!, Show #5644 - Thursday, March 5, 2009

$200 The Beatles honed their chops playing clubs in the Reeperbahn, a red-light district in this German port city
$400 One of 2 official Beatles German-language releases, "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" was the lads' take on this 1964 smash
$600 Astrid Kirchherr & Klaus Voormann are characters in this movie dramatization of the Beatles' time in Germany
$800 To please their rabid German fans, the boys re-recorded this hit as "Sie Liebt Dich" in 1964
$1000 While making "Let It Be", the Beatles recorded "Geh Raus", a German-language spoof of this No. 1 hit
***
The Beatles Complete on Ukulele.

Math Professor Figures Formula for Beatles Success
***
JEOPARDY! Questions
Hamburg
I Want To Hold Your Hand [on Past Masters #1]
BackBeat [which no one on the show got; I saw the movie and own the soundtrack]
She Loves You [on Past Masters #1]
Get Back [which I've never heard! Anyone out there own this? Anyone even HEARD this?]

ROG

Beatlemania

The 45th anniversary of the Beatles' appearance on Ed Sullivan cannot go unmentioned here. Still working on my comprehensive list of songs, but in the meanwhist, as they in "Life of Brian" (George Harrison was a big Monty Python fan):

On episode #5602 of JEOPARDY!, which aired 6 January 2009, there was a whole category of BEATLES LYRICS
$200: "Sont les mots gui vont tres bien ensemble tres bien ensemble"
$400: "Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door, who is it for?"
$600: "You say yes I say no you say stop and I say go go go"
$800: "Beep beep mm, beep beep, yeh!"
$1000: "I once had a girl, or should I say she once had me"
Answers below.
***
One of those music memes that was circulating a few years ago:
Artist/Band: The Beatles
Are you male or female: Rocky Raccoon; Mr. Moonlight
Describe yourself: Fixing a Hole; Fool on a Hill
How do some people feel about you: Come Together; Day Tripper
How do you feel about yourself: Long and Winding Road; Getting Better
Describe what you want to be: Something; Bad Boy
Describe how you live: Twist and Shout; Searchin'
Describe how you love: Ain't She Sweet; A Taste of Honey; All My Loving; All You Need Is Love
Share a few words of wisdom: Tomorrow Never Knows; Wait; Get Back
***
The Beatles (1963-70)

***
Cryptoquip:
Beatles hit about a street on which people congregate and create plays on words: Punny Lane
***
Any Time At All "a unique musical blend of The Beatles and Traditional Irish and American Flatpicking tunes"
***
JEOPARDY responses: "Michelle", "Eleanor Rigby", "Hello Goodbye", "Drive My Car", "Norwegian Wood"; all ultimately answered correctly, though "hello Goodbye" was muffed by two contestants before the third got it right.
ROG

B is for Beatles

In honor of the 45th anniversary of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan next month, where most of America first saw the Fab Four, I thought I'd track down my development as a Beatles fan.

Yes, I watched Sullivan on February 9, 1964, and I thought the group was all right. But I really couldn't hear them or enjoy them over all of that SCREAMING. I went to school the next day and it appeared that my female classmates in the fifth grade had also been riddled by a mild form of what came to be called Beatlemania. This really turned me off from the group.

Beatles at the Indiana State Fair

But as I saw them (twice more on Sullivan) and heard them on the radio (a lot) I began to soften towards them. Don't know exactly when, it was some point after the movie A Hard Day's Night came out, because I had had zero interest seeing it at the time, whereas I eagerly watched 1965's Help! as soon as it was released. Eventually, both my sister Leslie and I clamored for some music by the Beatles, and so my father brought home this:

Apparently, parents all over the country were fooled were fooled by this knockoff. Frankly, I don't recall how, or even if, we expressed our disappointment.

In 1965, I started a paper route, which meant I had my own money. At some point after June, I joined the Capitol Record Club. 12 albums for only a penny! (If you buy 12 more at the club's inflated retail price, plus shipping.) I ordered all the Beatles' albums that were out at the time, and was horrified to discover that my Meet the Beatles was in stereo, rather than mono, since the warning on the stereo albums was that they were incompatible with a mono player; ultimately, I played it anyway.

That year and the next, we would lipsynch Beatles' albums, especially Beatles VI, which was the first of the full-price albums I bought, using brooms and mops as guitars and Quaker Oats boxes as drums. . I was John, the literate, intelligent one; Leslie was Paul, who was left-handed and she thought he was CUTE; our neighbor Mary Jane was Ringo, because she thought he was CUTE; and our baby sister Marcia was George, because he was the only one left.

I started reading all the magazines about the Beatles. One article stood out: John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful indicated that Drive My Car was his favorite album on the album Rubber Soul. EVERYBODY knows that Drive My Car was on Yesterday...and Today, didn't they? It wasn't until a couple years later, possibly until after the breakup, when I discovered that the British albums and the American albums were not the same.

I quit Capitol Record Club when I realized I could buy the albums not only cheaper, but sooner from the stores. I got Rubber Soul and Revolver from the club, but Yesterday...and Today from the Rexall Drug Store ($2.99) and Sgt. Pepper at W.T. Grant's for the outrageous amount of $3.67. I noticed I was at least a little colorblind because it took me forever to find the word Beatles on the Magical Mystery Tour cover. I recently discussed the white album.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, I started reading books about the Beatles and became rather expert at what was on which album in the UK and the US, and even Italy. Recently, a colleague went to a funk concert and asked about a song called Bad Boy. I could tell him, without looking it up, that it was a Larry Williams song from my beloved Beatles VI in America, but that it didn't show up in Britain until the mostly singles collection A Collection of Beatles Oldies But Goldies in late 1966. It's on the Past Masters 1 CD.

I decided, probably foolishly, that in the next couple weeks, at random intervals, I will rank the entire list of Beatles songs, based on how much I would enjoy a piece if I haven't heard it in, say, six months. It is NOT necessarily a list of BEST songs, though quality can enhance enjoyment. The list will punish perfectly good recordings that, from overplaying, I just don't want to hear anymore.

I'm going to limit the list to the canon; that is, the songs released on Beatles singles, albums and EPs through 1970. In other words, the tunes from the British Beatles CDs and from the Past Masters CDs. There will be no songs from the Anthology albums.

If I were a purist, I would have separate listings for the single and album versions of Love Me Do, Let It Be and Get Back or the alternative and album versions of Across the Universe; I don't. While the single version of Get Back is what I had in mind, the coda on the album version has its charm.

NASA beamed a song -- The Beatles' "Across the Universe" -- directly into deep space at 7 p.m. EST on Feb. 4, 2008. The transmission over NASA's Deep Space Network commemorated the 40th anniversary of the day The Beatles recorded the song, as well as the 50th anniversary of NASA's founding and the group's beginnings.
ROG