Tag: Beatles

Music, January 1971: All Things Must Pass

Atlantic’s Ahmet Ertegun recognized that the future of music was likely to be both album shaped and white in color.

Random music recollections based on the book Never A Dull Moment.

The Beatles had broken up but there was a Fab on the top of the charts. All Things Must Pass spent the first seven weeks of 1971 at #1 in the US, though, as a double album, or triple, if you insist on counting the jam, it was twice the price of a standard LP. The title song was the theme of my high school senior prom. I loved the All Things Must Pass album, but was sad that the box the albums came in was too flimsy, and fairly quickly.

Whereas John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band album was more difficult for me to grasp at first, with the primal screaming, though I did make it a part of my limited playlist at college that fall.

I was disheartened by the sometimes public sniping among the former Beatles, such as John’s towards George’s album, which was doing much better commercially than his. But because of a partnership agreement just before Brian Epstein’s death, they were joined at the hip. Harrison’s success was good for Lennon’s pocket too. So Paul could not leave the label as he wanted to do.

The leader of a Jersey cover band called Steel Mill made a trip to California and heard Van Morrison’s His Band and Street Choir. That album was one of my favorites, with Blue Money and Domino. That singer/guitarist, BTW, was Bruce Springsteen.

“Yes, we’re one of a number of long-haired groups who had been picked up in a sweep conducted by Atlantic’s Ahmet Ertegun when he recognized that the future was likely to be both album shaped and white in color. Ertegun had used his roots music calling card to sign Crosby, Stills & Nash; Iron Butterfly; Cream; and many other groups he really didn’t pretend to understand.” I did note that a lot of my favorite music of the period, from Sam & Dave and Roberta Flack and the (Young) Rascals to Led Zeppelin, was on the label.

The Yes Album did well, especially in head shops of the UK the first quarter of the year. It became another listening staple in my freshman year of college. So was Led Zeppelin III, which actually was #1 for 4 weeks in the last quarter of 1970.

Listen to:

Lord If I Ever Needed Someone – Van Morrison
Every Little Thing – Yes
What Is Life – George Harrison
Give Me Some Truth – John Lennon
I Hear You Knocking – Dave Edmunds
Gallows Pole – Led Zeppelin

A Beatles Christmas, in memory of John Lennon

johnyoko-merryxmasAs Christmas approached in 1980, the year John Lennon died, the song of his that made me most melancholy, other than the suddenly ironic (Just Like) Starting Over, was Merry Xmas (War Is Over). When someone has been advocating for peace, and is shot down by a fan, it just boggled the mind.

And so this is Xmas (war is over)
For weak and for strong (if you want it)
For rich and the poor ones (war is over)
The world is so wrong (if you want it)
And so happy Xmas (war is over)
For black and for white (if you want it)
For yellow and red ones (war is over)
Let’s stop all the fight (now)

A very Merry Xmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear

I was going to post some of those Beatles Christmas 45s, which I have collected on an LP, but, thankfully, someone had already uploaded The Beatles – Complete Christmas Records, which came out every year from 1963 to 1969. Collectively, the cuts reflect the increasingly greater sophistication of the band’s music, as well as the eventually fractured nature of the group.

Even better, I discovered that someone else has made available The History of the Beatles’ Christmas, including everything from Merry Xmas to Wonderful Christmastime by Paul McCartney to Ding Dong by George Harrison to some obscure Ringo song, plus those Beatles Christmas cuts, even the edited version of Christmastime is Here Again that came out at the time of the Beatles Anthology albums.

I’ve also come across a cover band called The Fab Four, which performs Christmas carols in the style of Beatles songs. The whole double CD you can find HERE. My favorite song on the album is the final one, Jingle Bells, performed in the style of the Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows. It shows the versatility of that last song on Revolver.

And for reasons that will become obvious, Come Together, a Christmas video for Swedish multinational clothing retailer, H&M. It was directed by Wes Anderson, and stars Adrien Brody.

Oh, yeah – All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle – Dora Bryan (1963)

The Lydster: her favorite music

Haschak Sisters: Madison, Gracie, Sierra and Olivia

pentatonixWAY back in the JUNE Ask Roger Anything, Tom the Mayor queried:

Who is Lydia’s favorite singer? I broadened it to ask her about her favorite music.

In response to the question, she initially gave me five artists [links to most]

Beatles: I have no idea why she’d even THINK of them. Giving her that #1s CD when she was five paid off.

Help, which we’ve sung together, and which she and a classmate sang together in church
We Can Work It Out, especially the bridge
Strawberry Fields Forever, which she has danced to at church
Good Night, which I used to sing to her pretty much from when she was born until she was about six, and I put on a mixed CD for her even before she was born.

Pentatonix: her first favorite group she discovered on her own. They do mostly a capella covers of popular songs that I had never heard before.

Problem
Can’t Hold Us
Sing
Rather Be

OK Go: I’ll admit I’ve enjoyed their videos

Upside Down & Inside Out
The Writing’s On the Wall
Skyscrapers
Needing/Getting

Haschak Sisters: Madison, Gracie, Sierra, and Olivia. Their parents had a daughter every two years.

I Wanna Dance
Girls Rule The World
Sorry
Wannabe

Jon Cozart: I’ve seen him before, on Mark Evanier’s page. He sings with himself quite often.

Politiclash
Harry Potter in 99 Seconds
Stitches
After Ever After

Then she realized she’d left off another favorite:

Weird Al Yankovic, who she discovered not from me, but from her cousins in the summer of 2015, while they were all at the home of the grandparents

Word Crimes
Handy
First World Problem
I Lost on JEOPARDY! , and she’s never going to let me live that down

Of course, she has individual songs by other artists that she’d identify as her favorite music as well

Music Throwback Saturday: Rubber Soul songs

The lyrics bear a surprising resemblance to Charles Lamb’s 18th century poem ‘The old Familiar Faces’

rubbersoulBack to Steve Turner’s “The Beatles: A Hard Day’s Write,” subtitled “the stories behind every song.” Who inspired the Beatles, who inspired so many others?

This time, we will note songs from the Rubber Soul UK album. It’s difficult to find the Beatles’ recordings, easier to find live versions.

Drive My Car:

The ‘beep beep beep beep yeah’ background vocal may have also have been a nod to ‘Beep Beep‘ by the Playmates (1958) …The bass line was patterned after Donald ‘Duck” Dunn’s playing on Otis Redding’s ‘Respect‘ (1965).

Beep Beep was one of the singles my dad owned. I played it regularly and, for a time, knew all the words.

You Won’t See Me

It was written as a two-note progression and Paul had the Motown sound in mind, particularly the melodic bass line of James Jamerson, the legendary studio musician. Ian MacDonald… suggests that the model… might have been ‘It’s the Same Old Song‘ by The Four Tops.

I was wondering why this is one of my favorite Beatles’ songs. It lives on a Motown bass line.

Michelle:

John suggested the “I love you’ in the middle section, inspired by Nina Simone’s ‘I Put A Spell On You‘, a hit in Britain during August 1965… Instrumentally, Paul was inspired by the finger-picking style of Chet Atkins as exemplified on ‘Trampoline’ (1961).

There were lots of girls named Michelle in this period. The name was in the Top 10 of girls’ names from 1966 to 1980, including four years at #2.

In My Life:

The lyrics bear a surprising resemblance to Charles Lamb’s 18th century poem ‘The old Familiar Faces’… “The tune, if I remember rightly, was inspired by the Miracles.” He was almost certainly referring to ‘You Really Got a Hold On Me‘.

The Beatles, of course, covered You Really Got a Hold On Me, but I never related it to In My Life at all.

If I Needed Someone:

The tune had been inspired by two Byrds tracks, ‘The Bells of Rhymey (August 1965) and ‘She Don’t Care About Time‘ (October 1965).

The Byrds were inspired by watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in February 1964, as were countless musicians.

Run for Your Life:

John developed it from the line ‘I’d rather see you dead little girl than see you with another man’, which occurred towards the end of Elvis Presley’s 1955 Sun single ‘Baby, Let’s Play House‘. Arthur Gunter in turn had based his song on a 1951 hit by Eddy Arnold, ‘I Want To Play House with You‘.

John didn’t much like this song, and it’s among my least favorites as well.

A book about the White Album?

Lots of people speculated what the album would have been like if it were a single LP

beatles-whitealbumSomeone I know has asked me to compile and edit a book about the album The Beatles, generally called the white album. I haven’t said no, but I haven’t said yes yet because, to quote a white album title, “I’m So Tired.”

Still, it’s an interesting proposition. That album is, in its own way, as emblematic as its predecessor, Sgt. Pepper, and I think it ages better. It is the way people describe Tusk by Fleetwood Mac, e.g., an album with individual artists, rather than a band, with the others showing up as each other’s sidemen, or in this case, NOT showing up sometimes.

The first time I heard the white album was in the basement of the Unitarian church in Binghamton, NY in late November or early December of 1968. Our friend Steve was a member of a church group called LRY, Liberal Religious Youth, so he had access to the building.

We listened intently to the four sides. I remember or think I do, being struck by the Beach Boys effect of Back in the U.S.S.R.; the Beatles’ self-reference of Glass Onion; confusion over the meaning of Happiness Is A Warm Gun; the harpsichord on Piggies; the interesting segue between Birthday and Yer Blues; the sheer loudness of Helter Skelter, followed by the nearly inaudible Long Long Long; the familiarity of Revolution 1; and the utter confusion of Revolution 9.

I got the album for Christmas 1968. No doubt I read the lyric foldout sheet to try to figure out the meaning of it all. But when I got to side 3, the record skipped! It was just before the vocals on Birthday, and I later learned that there were thousands of copies with the same defect. I got it replaced a few days later.

Lots of people speculated what the album would have been like if it were a single LP, rather than a double, starting with producer George Martin. But it was The Beatles we’re talking about, who, that year, put out a seven-minute single, Hey Jude. (Now if YOU want to speculate what would be lost, besides Revolution 9, go ahead.)

If there were a book on the White album, what kind of items would you want to see? I know it’d have reference to cover versions of the songs, at least the ones that charted.

Listen to:

Back in the U.S.S.R. – Chubby Checker, #82 in 1969
Dear Prudence -5 Stairsteps, #66 in 1970
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da – Arthur Conley, #51 in 1969

There are a bunch more…

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial