Beatles Archives - Page 14 of 36 - Ramblin' with Roger

Music throwback Saturday: Those Were The Days

Back in 2010, the year it came out, I purchased Come and Get It: The Best of Apple Records. The CD was “the first commercially issued multi-artist compilation in the label’s history.” It didn’t cost the nearly $40 it’s now going for presently on Amazon, though you can get the MP3 for $9.50.

It’s a fun 21-track compilation of singles from 1968 to 1972, though not truly the “best of Apple.” For one thing, there are no Beatles songs, nor any of their solo material. Still, the Fab Four are well represented, often as songwriters and/or producers.

Those Were The Days / Mary Hopkin (1968, produced by Paul), or HERE. The debut 45 by Mary Hopkin was a huge hit, UK No. 1 for six weeks, #2 for 3 weeks in the US. I remember I purchased this 45 because, subsequently, I realized that I had THREE songs called Those Were the Days in my record collection, by Hopkin, Cream (the B-side of White Room), and the theme to the television show All in the Family.

Carolina In My Mind / James Taylor (1968, Paul on bass; George on backing vocals), from this eponymous debut album, a US single which hit #115 in 1969, then #67 in its 1970 re-release. This sounds quite different to me than his re-recording for Warner Brothers, which I have on his first greatest hits album.

Maybe Tomorrow / The Iveys (1968)
Brought to Apple by then-Beatles roadie Mal Evans. #67 in the US, but a hit in Holland; the band soon changed its name to Badfinger.

Thingumybob / The Black Dyke Mills Band (1968, credited to Lennon/McCartney, written and produced by Paul)
Paul’s theme tune for a 1968 British TV comedy-drama series.

King Of Fuh / Brute Force (1969)
This single by New York songwriter was championed by John and George, but “the Fuh king” was therefore banned back in 1969, as one would expect.

Sour Milk Sea / Jackie Lomax (1968, written and produced by George; Paul and Ringo provide rhythm )
Eric Clapton plays lead guitar. I have the LP with this song.

Goodbye / Mary Hopkin (1969, credited to Lennon/McCartney, written and produced by Paul)
Paul on thigh-slapping percussion. On some CD, I have Paul’s demo

That’s The Way God Planned It / Billy Preston (1969, produced by George, also guitar)
Reaching No. 11 in the UK, but only #62 in the US. Keith Richards on bass, Ginger Baker on drums, and Eric Clapton on lead guitar. I remember first hearing the album – this is the title song – in the room of my friend Steve in Poughkeepsie in 1971. I went home and bought it on vinyl, where it got well worn. When I purchased The Best of Apple, I also bought the That’s The Way God Planned It CD.

New Day / Jackie Lomax (1969)
An original non-album Lomax single co-produced with Mal Evans.

Golden Slumbers-Carry That Weight / Trash (1969, written by Lennon-McCartney)
Two songs from The Beatles’ Abbey Road, recorded by this Scottish group

Give Peace A Chance / Hot Chocolate Band (1969, written by John; originally credited to Lennon/McCartney, but since changed)
This completely re-worded British reggae version of John Lennon’s peace anthem

More in the near future.

Music Throwback Saturday: songs from Help!

There were both musical and lyric similarities between ‘Yesterday’ and a Nat King Cole song.

Here is my continuing look at how the Beatles were influenced by other musicians, including themselves. This is based on Steve Turner’s “The Beatles: A Hard Day’s Write,” subtitled “the stories behind every song.” Fairly often, the members of the group are quoted as having been inspired by a piece for their own creations. So I thought I’d put some of their songs up against the source material, with links to all, though some are live or otherwise non-standard versions.

Yes, It Is, the B-side to the single Ticket to Ride:

John claimed it was nothing more than an attempt to rewrite ‘This Boy‘ as it had the same chords, harmonies and “double-Dutch words.”

I’m Down, the B-side to the single Help:

An unashamed attempt by Paul to write a Little Richard song with which to replace ‘Long Tall Sally‘ in the Beatles’ set

Paul found it was not so easy.

Yesterday: The story that Paul woke up from a dream, worried that the tune had been unconsciously plagiarized is well known. He asked people for a month whether they were familiar with it.

In July 2003 the Liverpool writer Spencer Leigh made the discovery that there were both musical and lyric similarities between ‘Yesterday’ and the Nat King Cole song ‘Answer Me‘ (1953). The Cole song even has the lines “yesterday I believed that love was here to stay/Won’t you tell me that I’ve gone astray?’ The response from Paul’s office when the news broke was that the two songs were as alike as ‘Get Back’ and ‘God Save the Queen’.

This sounds, at worst, like subconscious plagiarism.

And

Their goal: Meet the Beatles on tour in 1966; Their solution: Impersonate the opening act

‘She’s with me’ – Paul McCartney endorses Hillary Clinton after half an hour meeting together with wife Nancy

Watch the video here, especially after the 1:30 mark.

August rambling #1: Dystopian Reader

Tony Bennett is 90!

Alan David Doane’s new blog The Dystopian Reader; see, in particular, the lead story here

Arthur@AmeriNZ’s political notebook #1 and #2 because otherwise this post would be filled with these links.

The Latest Beaverkill Sinkhole, On South Lake Avenue in Albany

Please read this before you post another RIP on social media

Why George W. Bush stood there and took the wrath of a soldier’s mom

Donald Trump: stop calling him crazy, even as his Assassination Dog Whistle Was Even Scarier Than You Think; NBC’s Katy Tur: My crazy year with Trump

DJT Parody: Trump tore into the media for what he called their “extremely unfair practice” of reporting the things he says and he would only use nuclear weapons in a sarcastic way and Robert Crumb and friends flush him down the toilet (1989)

No, the Pope did NOT endorse Hillary Clinton

Survey Reveals a Startling Truth About White Christians

ESPN’s John Saunders, RIP at age 61

1968 Olympics: The White Man in That Photo

Goodbye to ‘Honeys’ in Court, by Vote of American Bar Association

If Walls Could Talk: Albany’s Historic Architecture: Myers Residence

Western New York Love Letter: Adventures in the 716

The Jedi religion of Australia

Kliph Nesteroff interviews writer Merrill Markoe about the ’70s Laugh-In revival, which introduced Robin Williams to American TV

A great Stan Freberg story

Buck O’Neil for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020

Godfather of Gore H.G. Lewis to host a marathon of his splatter classics – I met him once, nice guy

Obits: Kenny Baker, 81; played R2-D2 in ‘Star Wars’ and David Huddleston, 85, ‘Big Lebowski’ actor and Emmy-Winning Stage and Screen Star Fyvush Finkel Dies at 93

What is Bulldada? What is NOT?

Air Canada to start charging for emotional baggage in 2017

They Have A Word for It

Now I Know: The Man Who Bounced Around A Bit and The Thin Red Deer Line and A Moist Upsetting Word

Derrick Boudwin and retinitis pigmentosa: Ever Dimming Room

Tony Bennett is 90!

Chuck Miller: The Monks’ “Black Monk Time” is an Album I Want to Be Buried With

Playing for Change: Fumaza | Live Outside

Coverville 1136: The 50th Anniversary Tribute to The Beatles’ Revolver

The Beatles: A New Video For While My Guitar Gently Weeps (LOVE version)

Several versions of Up The Ladder To The Roof

Glenn Yarbrough, Folk Singer With the Limeliters, Dies at 86 Glenn Yarbrough, Folk Singer With the Limeliters, Dies at 86

Obscure Winnipeg band reverberates on eBay a half-century later

The Atlantic: The Electric Surge of Miles Davis

Google alert (me)

My buddy Eddie Mitchell, the Renaissance Geek wrote nice things about me, and Smilin’ Ed. Not incidentally, the Smilin’ Ed book of collected stories and additional stuff is available from Amazon. I do believe it is the first book for which I have a credit.

Google Alert (not me)

The Lubbock ISD Ag Farm has received a donation of over 15 goats after the dog attacks that killed 10 more of their goats Monday morning.

“This is the agriculture community coming together,” Ag farm manager Roger Green said. “They will all jump in to help you out.”

Music Throwback Saturday: Beatles for Sale songs

The two-timed character in the Beatles’ song was more tame than the earlier character.

To American album collectors of the 1960s, Beatles for Sale was an odd duck. Unlike other albums, it neither shares the name of an American collection or primarily matches up with any US release. It became the basis of both Beatles ’65 and Beatles VI, as usual by adding a non-album single, such as I Feel Fine/She’s A Woman.

And note the weariness on their faces, a function, it is believed, of constantly touring, making records or appearing in films.

This continues my reflection of Steve Turner’s “The Beatles: A Hard Day’s Write,” subtitled “the stories behind every song.” Sometimes, the Beatles were as much influenced as influencers. Links to all songs.
I Feel Fine:

It was obviously inspired by Bobby Parker’s riff on his 1961 track ‘Watch Your Step‘.

I’m A Loser:

[Early in 1964] After hearing Freewheeling, which was Dylan’s second album, they went out and bought his debut album Bob Dylan, and according to John…we all when potty on Dylan.

Here’s Bob Dylan’s Dream from Freewheelin’.
Dylan also inspired the thoughtful lyric on You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, from Help!

No Reply:

It was based, John said, on ‘Silhouettes‘, a big hit in 1957 for the Rays…His repetition of the line “I saw the light’…could possibly be an illusion to Hank Williams’ song of personal salvation ‘I Saw the Light‘ (1948).

Interesting that the two-timed character in the Beatles’ song was tamer than the earlier character in Silhouettes, who threatens to smash her door down.

I received for Christmas, Reading the Beatles: Cultural Studies, Literary Criticism and the Fab Four, edited by Kenneth Womack and Todd F. Davis. The first article, by Ian Marshall, talks about the Beatles archetypes Ringo the goofball, George the quiet spiritual one, John the intellectual activist, and Paul the cute, melodious one. Marshall posits that those distinct personality types” account for some of the enduring appeal of Beatlesmusic.”

ALSO

Paul McCartney weaves in new bits amidst familiar tunes at Fenway Park July 17

Pure McCartney: Early Days – which should segue into other videos

George Harrison estate slams Trump: Don’t use ‘Here Comes The Sun’— try ‘Beware of Darkness’

The First Trailer for Ron Howard’s Beatles Doc Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years

15 Rare, Behind-the-Scenes Photos of the Beatles

Guitarist Randy Bachman: Demystifying the opening chord of “A Hard Day’s Night”

How I (fictionally) met someone: “I was attending a meeting of the I Hate The Beatles Club, and you walked in and dragged me out by the collar without saying a word. Seemed odd at the time…”

Drinks at the Gadang Sports Bar

Google Eight Days A Week

Music and communication

I do have affection for Chester A. Arthur.

More Ask Roger Anything questions from Chris:

How do you explain to your daughter how to vet sources?

It must be from an example. Just recently, my daughter said, of a tabloid cover in the supermarket, “Cher isn’t really dying, is she?” We watch a couple of news networks, plus Comedy Central, not every day, but often enough, so she can clearly see that shows often offer different emphases.

In your opinion, is Wikipedia a reliable source?

Depends on the topic, and the compiler. There’s an old cliche about a newspaper providing perfect information for topics I know nothing about, but less so for things with which I am familiar. I recently linked to the Wikipedia for the band Blotto, and I noticed that it NEVER mentioned the band members’ actual names. This was a failing.

Some posts are frozen in amber, perfectly accurate as of November 2013, e.g., but not so much today. Whereas other posts are updated regularly to reflect new music released or films made. Deaths are often, but not always, caught.

I specifically remember that back in 2004 or 2005, I corrected a mention that the next Presidential election would be in 2007, when, of course, it was 2008.

Still, when I’m doing research for a topic about which I know nothing, Wikipedia can be very useful, ESPECIALLY the links to the various footnotes.

What’s one area of scientific research that you think we should be funding more (other than medicine and climate change)?

Well, climate change is huge and would include the potential for everything from island nations flooding to the future loss of the maple syrup industry from the continental United States. Once you’ve eliminated climate change and medicine, what I think you have left is space exploration. It has very often answered many questions for answers here on earth, including those two topics.

What’s been the most surprising world change in your lifetime?

Communication, for good and for ill. You make friends on Facebook with people around the world, you have fights with total strangers on Facebook, often about really stupid stuff. You text your friends, while you ignore those physically around you.

I’ve been the guy reading the newspaper, maybe only a dozen years ago, and someone, as often as not, would comment on a story, or maybe just quietly read over my shoulder. Or I’d read over someone else’s shoulder. Those electronic devices don’t seem to open one up to one’s immediate environment, even as one can learn about the most recent terrorism in Turkey.

The Internet allows for more information, but also misinformation, disinformation, satire, lies. We can see Arab Spring or police misconduct, but also LOL cats and Stare-down Sammy, which got 34 million views on Facebook, and was shown on the CBS morning news; I thought it was a waste of air time.

There have been conspiracy theories for a long time, but they can propagate far more freely these days. Even objective facts will be disputed, and as a person dealing with, ideally, objective information, this can be both frustrating and exhausting. (See also my answer about Google.)

I’ve actually had this conversation about an article someone read. (I’m a librarian; a variation of this happens a LOT.)

Her: Is it true?
Me: Where did the information come from?
Her: Facebook!
Me: But what was the ORIGINAL SOURCE of the information?
Her: I TOLD you, Facebook!

Who is your favorite president and why?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was rich and rather pompous and arrogant. His ailment thought to be polio at the time, but now believed to be Guillain-Barre syndrome, humbled him, and made him a champion for those less well off. And he had a great partner in Eleanor, with whom he seemed to have achieved an understanding regarding his infidelity.

He was imperfect, the Japanese internment being chief among his failures. But he initiated a lot of useful programs, some of which are around today, such as Social Security and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

I do, though, have affection for Chester A. Arthur, a product of the spoils system who became a reformer for civil service.

Tom the Mayor queried:

What is your Favorite Beatles song?

The last time I made a list, it was 3. Help 2 Got To Get You Into My Life 1 Tomorrow Never Knows. Re: TNK, I recently saw Paul, Ringo, and Georges Harrison and Martin discuss its intricacies. But Help! is something I can sing with my daughter.

What is your Favorite Aretha Franklin Song?

The last time I made a list, it was 4. (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone 3. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman 2. Sweet Bitter Love (1966). 1. Respect
Of course, Respect is a great cover. Since You’ve Been Gone has always been a favorite because it stifled deejays. But Sweet Bitter Love was in a quartet (or more) of songs that I played when romance went south.

What is your Favorite Joni Mitchell song?

The last time I made a list, it was 2. A Case of You 1. River. River reminds me of my late friend Donna George. But the poetry of A Case of You touches me too.