Tag: Beatles

Sean Lennon’s birthday; and it would have been his father’s

We were JUST THERE, yet we missed seeing John & Yoko in person.

One of those signs that you are getting older is when you start saying things such as “I remember [him or her] when [he or she] was X years old [some age the person hasn’t been for a VERY long time].” And that’s how it was with Sean Lennon. I didn’t know him personally, but, to me, he was frozen in time at five years old, his age when his father was killed.

Here’s an audio of John and Sean talking about birthdays.

Of course, Sean continued to grow up, in spite of my myopia. I think that’s why, when he performed in Albany in the spring of 2007, when he was 31, I just had to go see him. That and, I suppose, that second-hand connection to his late father who I could never see live.

There was an antiwar rally I attended in New York City – must have been 1972, give or take a year – and on our way back to New Paltz on the bus, but still within the city limits, we could hear on the live radio (I’m thinking WBAI) that John and Yoko had shown up at the event! It was thrilling, but also frustrating; we were JUST THERE, yet we missed seeing them in person.

Anyway, here’s a link to bios of the Beatles kids. You’ll note that many of them became musicians as well.

Sean Lennon turns 36 today; John would have been 71.

Put Billy Preston in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

on what would have been Billy Preston’s 65th birthday, I’m making a pitch for him to make it into the rock hall as a session musician.

Billy Preston, George Harrison, President Gerald Ford, all deceased.

While I’m less and less caring about who gets selected for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Performer category, I’ve become more and more interested in categories such as early influences and non-performers. I’m especially intrigued by the sideman category since Leon Russell was inducted in 2011. After all, he was a performer of some commercial success, but not enough to make it as a performer. But he played on a lot of albums for other artists and was inducted based on that.

The late Billy Preston is similarly situated. He had greater singles success than Russell, with songs such as Outa-Space, Will It Go Round in Circles, Space Race, and Nothing from Nothing, though less so with his albums. But he was well known as a session musician. “Preston collaborated with some of the greatest names in the music industry, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Band, Nat King Cole, Little Richard, Eric Burdon, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, George Harrison, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Sam Cooke, King Curtis, Sammy Davis Jr., Aretha Franklin, the Jackson 5, Quincy Jones, Mick Jagger, Peter Frampton, Phyllis Hyman, Richie Sambora, Sly Stone, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Norah Jones, and Ringo Starr.” Not to mention gospel great Mahalia Jackson. Both Russell and Preston played on the legendary Concert for Bangladesh.

The label on the “Get Back” single credits “The Beatles with Billy Preston”. Here’s the famed Beatles doing Get Back, live on the rooftop.

More Preston appearances:

Ray Charles & Norah Jones-Here We Go Again. Billy on organ.

John Lennon-God. Billy on piano.

Johnny Cash-Personal Jesus. Billy on piano.

Ringo Starr-I’m the Greatest. Billy on organ.

But probably my favorite piece is Billy at the organ on The Rolling Stones-I Got The Blues from the album Sticky Fingers.

So, on what would have been Billy Preston’s 65th birthday, I’m making a pitch for him to make it into the rock hall as a session musician.

Oh, and here’s the first song from Billy’s first Apple album, That’s The Way God Planned It, a song called Do What You Want To.

 

The Lydster, Part 89: Beatles 1

I’m afraid she already knew Hello Goodbye from one of those Glee soundtracks her mother owns.

You might think that, since I have so many Beatles albums, that when my daughter expressed interest in the band, I might have given her some of mine; you would be mistaken. Instead, I ordered for her the most popular album in the first decade of the 21st Century, Beatles 1. I figured she ought to have something of her own, and if she lost it, it wouldn’t bug me as much. In fact, she has misplaced the CD case, but not the disc.

I never owned #1 myself; I have all the albums. Some purists think it’s a terrible intro to the band, merely picking the songs that made it to #1 on the US and/or UK charts. But it includes many songs she was previously familiar with.

Love Me Do she knew vaguely before. It is a simple song and she now knows all the words.
A Hard Day’s Night she knows so well, she now intentionally muffs the lyrics, switching ‘dog’ and ‘log’ in the first two lines as she’s singing along.
Help is probably her favorite song, as she knows all the lyrics and asks me to sing with her, even when the recording isn’t playing.
Unbidden, she will sing Eight Days A Week, Penny Lane, and more interestingly, parts of Come Together.
She is particularly fond of the “Life is very short” bridge of We Can Work It Out.
Yesterday she knows well. At some level, I think she gravitates mostly to the more melancholy songs.
Yellow Submarine allows her to imitate the nautical noises. She loves the ‘sea of GREEN’, as well she should.
Eleanor Rigby she calls ‘Lonely People’; I attempt to correct her, and she replies, “Whatever.” She knows most of the lyrics to this song.
She is specifically fascinated by the reprise of She Loves You within All You Need Is Love.
I’m afraid she already knew Hello Goodbye from one of those Glee soundtracks her mother owns.
When she hears Hey Jude, she’ll substitute, “Hey, Jules” ever since I explained that the song was written by Paul McCartney to John Lennon’s elder son Julian, after John’s breakup with John’s wife and Julian’s mom, Cynthia.

The only songs not on the album that she had previously expressed interest in are Tell Me Why and, again to my surprise, I Am the Walrus.

So yes, I’m indoctrinating my daughter with music from my favorite band.

B is for Big Daddy

I found a link that goes to some Big Daddy songs, including all of Sgt. Pepper.

There was a music group called Big Daddy. Perhaps more than one group. The one I’m talking about had this particular shtick, which you can read about here and here, which was that, basically, the group allegedly toured Southeast Asia in 1959, got stuck there, and were finally rescued in 1983. They heard the modern music and hated it, and so decided to “fix” it by recording the newer songs in the ways familiar to them.

Charles Hill put together a nice discography. Pop culture writer Mark Evanier has been a booster of the group.

The first album, which I own on vinyl, was BIG DADDY, aka What Really Happened To The Band Of ’59 (1983), which featured:

I Write The Songs, the Barry Manilow song actually written by Bruce Johnston, “Evoking Danny and the Juniors”
Star Wars. “Duane Eddy sits in with the Ventures”
Whip It. The Devo song is “Truly a standing-on-the-corner song for once”
Hotel California. “The stranger in town [in this Eagles’ tune] seems to be Del Shannon.”
Eye Of The Tiger

Album #2 was MEANWHILE…BACK IN THE STATES (1985) and featured:

Dancing In The Dark (Springsteen).
I Just Called To Say I Love You (Wonder)
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – “The Duchess of Earl gets her say”

CUTTING THEIR OWN GROOVE (1991 CD), which is actually available for MP3 download on Amazon for $10; preview the 15 songs.

But my favorite is SGT. PEPPER’S, a 1992 CD that I own:

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – Chaz thinks it’s rooted in the Coasters’ Poison Ivy. It’s DEFINITELY the Coasters.
With A Little Help From My Friends – “Billy Shears unmasked as Johnny Mathis,” specifically Chances Are.
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds – “Goodness, gracious, great tangerine dreams;” Jerry Lee Lewis’ Great Balls of Fire.
Getting Better – “At least as good as cherry pie”.
Fixing A Hole – Dion’s “The Wanderer, updated”.
She’s Leaving Home – “She’s so young, and we’re so old”.
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite – “Last seen stopped at the top of a Ferris wheel” at Palisades Park.
Within You Without You – “On the whole, word jazz is preferable to sitars”; I can practically see the beatnik with his goatee and shades
When I’m Sixty-Four – “And playing dominoes for sixty minutes at a stretch”
Lovely Rita – “The name of his latest flame” (Elvis)
Good Morning, Good Morning – “Instruments? What instruments?”
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
A Day In The Life – “That’ll be the day” – or more specifically the Buddy Holly songs Rave On and, on the bridge, Every Day.

Big Daddy – With A Little Help From My Friends
Found at abmp3 search engine

I found the link HERE that goes to some Big Daddy songs, including all of Sgt. Pepper. It’s from that source I was able to create the doohickey above.

ABC Wednesday – Round 9

Ringo Starr is 71

What do I do for Ringo’s birthday? I play Beatles cover albums.

I decided, for reasons not entirely known even to me, to mark the birthdays of both of the surviving Beatles each year.

In the case of Ringo Starr, he took a bit of heat for apparently dissing his hometown of Liverpool, England, a comment he said was just a joke. “I love Liverpool,” said the drummer on a recent UK TV interview. He and Liverpool have kissed and made up.

Ringo, who Paul McCartney believes should be knighted, is my daughter’s favorite Beatle, and the one Beatle she constantly identifies correctly in photos.

Did I ever mention how I play my Beatles music through the year?

In October, around John Lennon’s birthday, I play the canon, the British albums, as the group intended them, plus the Past Masters (mostly singles). For George’s birthday in February, I listen to my American albums; George was the first Beatle to come to the US, visiting his sister. June is Paul McCartney’s birthday, and I play that post-canon stuff, such as the BBC, the Anthologies, LOVE, and the like.

So what do I do for Ringo’s birthday? I play Beatles cover albums. There are a lot of them, and I have more than my share. Some are your standard compilations, but some have a single artist doing all Beatles tunes. Several take a particular album and recreate it, using several artists; usually put together by a magazine such as MOJO.

But sometimes, it’s just one artist covering an album. I have both Big Daddy and Cheap Trick doing Sgt. Pepper, and The Smithereens doing the first Capitol album, Meet the Beatles. I also have George Benson doing songs from Abbey Road, but he doesn’t cover the whole album.
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Listen to some Beatles covers.

One of my favorite Beatles covers, ever: You’ve got to hide your love away – Joe Cocker

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