JEOPARDY! answers (questions at the end)
BEATLES LYRICS $100: “Na na na na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na…”
BEATLES LYRICS $200: “All the lonely people, where do they all belong?”
BEATLES LYRICS $400: “Children at your feet, wonder how you manage to make ends meet”
BEATLES LYRICS $500: “There beneath the blue suburban skies”
BEATLES LYRICS $1,000 (Daily Double): “Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book”
SONGS BY THE NUMBER $200: This Beatles song begins “When I get older, losing my hair Many years from now…”
BEFORE & AFTER $600: Beatles song about a “Talented Mr. Ripley” co-star
JEOPARDY! BOOBY TRAPS $600: This “Beatles drummer” was born in India in 1941
NEW AGE STUFF $800: In the ’60s your parents might have imitated the Beatles & visited one of these Hindu religious retreats
NO. 3 SONGS $100: The Beatles sang that he “doesn’t have a point of view, knows not where he’s going to”
FOR RICHARD $200: The Beatles we are all familiar with were John, Paul, George & the man born with this name
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Beatles named #1 top artist of the last fifty years, as though there was a question about it. And in another poll, Paul McCartney is named ‘the best bass guitar player of all time’. What group had the #1, the #2, the #3, the #4 AND the #5 song on the U.S. Billboard chart, this week in 1964?
The Making of the Most Famous Album Cover – take a wild guess.
George Harrison’s Favorite Gibson Guitars
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The rules of engagement
13 For No One from Revolver. I find this McCartney absolutely beautiful. Simple yet devastating. Vocal, then horn solo, then vocal and horn. Stunningly effective.
12 The Word from Rubber Soul. I’ve long been of the opinion that this song, consciously or otherwise, evokes the Gospel of John 1:1. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” And in the song, the Word is Love. Ironic since it came out around the point when some people were burning Beatles albums because of a comment by primary composer Lennon about the Beatles being more popular than Jesus. Oh, and I LOVE the three-part harmony.
11 Day Tripper from a Double A-side single (UK), Yesterday and Today (US). You can tell that the intro is a solid hook by the number of times bands playing live will often finish it off with this familiar set of chords. Lennon, with McCartney.
10 Twist and Shout from Please Please Me (K), Introducing the Beatles/the Early Beatles (US). The song is the last song recorded for the album, done in one take, pretty much shredding Lennon’s voice. The harmony intro of ascending thirds is classic. Among the greatest cover songs EVER.
9 Good Morning Good Morning from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The rooster at the beginning was supposed to suggest the Kellogg’s corn flakes cereal rooster. Somehow, I “got” Lennon’s joke. My affection for this song stems from the Britishisms, the changing time signature, and the blistering, yet controlled guitar solos.
8 While My Guitar Gently Weeps from the white album. And speaking of guitars, Harrison and Eric Clapton trade riffs on this cut. Jaquandor describes it, so I don’t have to.
7 A Hard Day’s Night from A Hard Day’s Night (UK). A made-to-order song made for the movie intro, based on a Starr malaprop Lennon overheard. That jangly first chord. The whole soundtrack was quite an achievement.
6 You Won’t See Me from Rubber Soul. I always saw this as paired with I’m Looking Through You. I only recently realized that it is the Mal Evans sustained chord on the Hammond organ throughout the last verse, last chorus, and outro that gives this McCartney song a special buzz. At the same time, I have definitely related to the notion of feeling invisible.
5 Drive My Car from Rubber Soul (UK), Yesterday and Today (US). McCartney played this song first in his NYC concert in 2009. Extraordinary chord structure. I’ve noted before that it was John Sebastian of the Lovin’ Spoonful, saying in a magazine that this was on Rubber Soul, which eventually led me to the realization that the UK and US albums were not alike, even when they had the same name.
4 I Want You (She’s So Heavy) from Abbey Road. Lennon seems to steal its first line from the song I Want You, the first Bob Dylan song I ever owned. I’ve probably told this story before, but bears repeating: I was at a very low point in 1975. I was listening to the first side of the album with headphones at the Binghamton Public Library, cranking up the volume over time. Suddenly, the music, as it was designed, stopped. And I thought, for a brief moment, that I had died. But of course, I didn’t. So hearing it makes me remember that I’ve gotten through worse things.
JEOPARDY! questions:
What is “Hey Jude”?
What is “Eleanor Rigby”?
What is “Lady Madonna”?
What is “Penny Lane”?
What is “Paperback Writer”?
What is “When I’m Sixty-Four”?
What is “Hey Jude Law”?
Who was Pete Best?
What is an Ashram?
What is “Nowhere Man”?
Who was Richard Starkey?