Ramblin' with Roger

I will allow the conceit that the American repackagers of Beatle tunes on albums were permitted to do what they did. But did they have to leave so many songs off?

First off, I’m specifically talking the Capitol albums, because they were the primary purveyor of their music in the U.S.

So, I’ll OK the choices on Meet The Beatles! (’64), (although why the only non-Lennon/McCartney or Harrison song was Till There Was You, when there were five great R&B songs on the source album With The Beatles (’63) always troubled me.)

The Beatles Second Album (’64) with the remaining With The Beatles cuts, features she Loves You. For contractual reasons, there may not yet have been additional product, but since they put out “Long Tall Sally” and “I Call Your Name” from the LTS EP, why not “Slow Down” or “Matchbox”, putting 12 cuts on the album? Oh, yeah, right, money.

Speaking of contractual agreements, look at the deal that allowed for A Hard Day’s Night (’64) and Something New (’64) to come out pretty much at the same time with several common songs. Capitol COULD have chosen to put fewer of the HDN songs. In any case, since they picked Kom, Gib Der Meine Hand, why not its German-language mate, Sie Liebt Dich?

The Beatles’ Story (’64) is an odd conversation-laden piece, off the topic.

Would it have killed them to put a 12th song, probably from Beatles For Sale (’64) to put on Beatles ’65 (’64)?

The Early Beatles (’65): Obviously, by this point, the Vee-Jay licensing expired and Capitol reasonably put out their own version of Introducing. But with 11 songs, it leaves off “Misery” and “There’s a Place”.
Never owned either Misery or There’s a Place until I FINALLY bought Introducing the Beatles shortly before the group broke up. They always sounded out of tune when I’d hear them on the Beatles cartoon.

Beatles VI (’65) was a mix of the Beatles For Sale and the second side of the British Help! album. Two songs, Yesterday and Act Naturally, were held back, but could have shown up here, especially the latter, since most albums have a Ringo song. (Holding it back meant that “Yesterday”… and Today had TWO Ringo songs.

I’ll concede the nature of Help! (’65) as a soundtrack album.

Rubber Soul (’65) actually had 12 songs, and showed that Capitol may be thinking about trying to keep semblance of the album the Beatles intended.

Which brings me to “Yesterday”… And Today (’66), a peculiar package derived from the British Help! (2 songs), Rubber Soul (4 songs), and the required single (Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out). But why did they have to pillage the not-yet released Revolver for three Lennon songs, when they had three other perfectly good choices: I’m Down (b-side of the Help single), Paperback Writer and Rain? Revolver (’66), as released in the US, had only two Lennon songs, and always seemed unbalanced.

Finally, Capitol leaves an album alone with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (’67). Except for the two seconds on the inner groove.

Magical Mystery Tour (’67) actually became the standard for the Beatles in Britain. The six songs on the double EP, plus the singles. A peculiar good choice by Capitol.

The Beatles [White Album] (’68) is unchanged, as is Yellow Submarine (’69) and Abbey Road (’69).

Hey Jude (’70) is a peculiar album that FINALLY put out two of the three songs from a Hard Day’s Night (but not the title track). The other songs mentioned but not on albums would have been welcomed here. Of course, Get Back was held for Let It Be (’70).

Assuming the albums from Meet to Revolver came out as they did, my preference would have been, in that period between Revolver and Sgt. Pepper, for Capitol to have put out an album like A Collection Of Beatles’ Oldies (’66), where they collected the singles and disparate other cuts.

It could have contained
1. Love Me Do (single version)
2. There’s a Place
3. Misery
4. From Me To You
5. Sie Liebt Dich
6. Can’t Buy Me Love
7. Hard Day’s Night
8. I Should Have Known Better
9. I’m Down
10. Paperback Writer
11. Rain
Or, instead of the last two songs, they could have added a song or two to the oldies with the variations, such as the extra verse on “I’ll Cry Insead” that appears on the UA Hard Day’s Night soundtrack.
Song 4 showed up on the Red album (1973), as did 7, though the latter had been on the UA album.
Song 9 appeared first on the Rock ‘N’ Roll album (1976)
Songs 1, 2, 3, and 5 above ended up in the curious Rarities album in 1980.

Of course, the album described above would have wrecked what would become the Hey Jude album, which should have had The Inner Light, and perhaps one of those songs kicking around but not released, such as “What’s the New Mary Jane”. Also a possibility, “Penny Lane” with the trumpet ending, available in Canada at the time. (They had Yellow Submarine and All You Need Is Love on two albums, after all.)

Myron Waldman, 97 — Animator who drew Betty Boop, Casper, Popeye and the original Superman cartoon series.

And I almost missed it.

I have one batch of those original Superman cartoons on DVD, Popeye was my first hero, and I’m sure I’ve seen some of Waldman’s other work as well.

For those unfamiliar with the story, in brief: Superman helps Lois Lane turn black, so she can “see how the other half live.” It has a “Black Like Me” quality to it. It reminds me of my single favorite piece EVER on Saturday Night Live, a filmed segment in which Eddie Murphy, in whiteface, gets on a city bus. When there are black and white people present, everything is as expected. But when there are ONLY white people, then the party starts and no one has to pay the fare.

Googling about, I found a lot of conversation about whether Beyonce Knowles might be cast as Lois Lane in some Superman movie. There was an interesting range of responses, from “Why not?” to “Why are they trying to be political correct? Lois Lane is WHITE!” One declared: “Lois Lane should not be played by a negress.”

A negress?

Seldom have I heard that term, but the jury seems to be out on whether the term is offensive or not. The American Heritage Dictionary lists it s offensive, in the same league as Jewess. It IS arcane, that’s for sure.

I’ve been thinking about when does/how can one recast a part that had been traditionally played by a white person. Certainly, with the historical discrimination in the movie business, one can make the case for more color-blind casting. But is Lois Lane so iconic that a black actress simply will not do?

I read that there were complaints in some circles about Jessica Alba being cast as Sue Storm in last summer’s Fantastic Four movie, not over her acting ability, or lack thereof, but over her skin color, darker than the comic book character.

Daredevil fans know that the Kingpin is white in the comic book, but played by a black actor, Michael Clark Duncan, in the movie. I noted little resistance, but then I don’t read all of the comic blogs, so if there was controversy, I’m sure someone will let me know.

Occasionally, one of my blogging colleagues suggests a movie recast, usually of an older movie for which all the major players were white. Almost invariably, I’m the one who’s most likely to suggest “non-traditional” casting.

L is the 12th letter (15th from the end)
O is the 15th letter (12th from the end)
V is the 22nd letter (5th from the end)
E is the 5th letter (22nd from the end)
There are 10 spots forward from one consonant (L) to the other (V)
There are 10 spots backwards from one vowel (O) to the other (E)

What is the significance of all of this? Is there some sort of numerological synchronicity to the very word LOVE?

I dunno.

And why do I even KNOW this stuff? Well, I was going to put together a compilation album for some blogger exchange last year and thought I’d disguise the subject matter by putting in the same rank letter from the other direction, but what I ended up with was OLEV, pretty obvious what it was supposed to be.

(Whereas ROGER, e.g., becomes ILTVI, not quite so obvious, but actually pronounceable.)

To paraphrase Holland, Dozier, and Holland, love makes me write foolish things.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Oh, the title: LOVE BY THE NUMBERS.