music Archives - Page 250 of 264 - Ramblin' with Roger

Beatles Island Songs, 13-4

I’ve long been of the opinion that this song, consciously or otherwise, evokes the Gospel of John 1:1.

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?

My new cellphone

I’ll admit it; I’d had real difficulty figuring out how all the fancy doodads on my previous cellphone worked.

But I just got my new cellphone – and it’s one I understand how to operate, compatible with my generally technophobic nature.

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The Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes of All Time

“Fool”ish songs of the 1970s:
Everybody Plays The Fool – The Main Ingredient (1972 – #3 pop, #2 soul on the Billboard charts)
Joe Jackson – Fools in Love (1979)
The Doobie Brothers – What A Fool Believes (1979 – #1 pop, #72 soul)

March Ramblin’

For my birthday this year, I had come across this Facebook thing whereby people could contribute $10 in my name to the American Red Cross. I picked them specifically, not only because they do good things, but because they helped me possibly save a life. Back in May of 1995, I successfully performed the Heimlich maneuver on an older woman in my church at the time who was choking on some meat, without breaking her ribs. I learned that at a Red Cross training that I took in high school.

Anyway, some people did this, some people were confused by how to do it electronically and instead gave me checks. Hey, it’s all good.

And that was before the Japan earthquake, and aid organizations such as the Red Cross in whatever country you are in can use your help even more.

Still, I got a couple of gift cards, one from Amazon, one from Borders. So I got my fix of new music for a while. From Borders, I got the greatest hits albums of the Guess Who (my previous copy had disappeared), and Peter, Paul, and Mary (I saw Peter and Paul at Proctors in the fall of 2010). And I was really pleased with myself with my Amazon purchase. I looked at my wish list and noted that a Sheryl Crow album had gone down from whatever to under $5. A Madeleine Peyroux album was down at least $3 to around $10. And Judy Collins’ cover album of Leonard Cohen songs, used to be $16+ but was down to under $11. The grand total was $25.15, plus 84 cents tax, for a total of $25.99, minus the GC for a massive charge of 99 cents to the credit card. ($25 was the minimum to get free shipping.) Oh, I may have purchased newish albums by Robert Plant, Mavis Staples, and R.E.M. as well.

Carol and I got to see an amazing percussionist, Dame Evelyn Glennie, with the Albany Symphony Orchestra at the Troy Music Hall, performing a piece written by Academy Award-winning composer, John Corigliano (“The Red Violin”). Thanks to our friends Philip and Marilyn who couldn’t use the tickets. In the same week, we also saw The Lion King at Proctors in Schenectady, which was great.

My wife was confounded as to what to get me for my birthday. She thought about getting a bicycle. But, using the $100 from the CSN stores I got from Lily Hydrangea, I bought a Mongoose myself for $59 additional. She thought to buy me a TV, to replace the one we have with only two volumes, inaudible and LOUD; but then my friend Uthaclena and his wife offered their spare set when they showed up with their daughter as a surprise on my birthday weekend; the following weekend, he brought up the set.

And the wife did buy me a book, the autobiography of Ed Dague, the local newsman I admire, but a friend from work had already given it to me.

So she let me have a card party, specifically a HEARTS party, on March 19. There was a period in the 1980s where a group of us would play hearts once, twice, even thrice a week, always at the home of our charismatic and maddening friend Broome and his “this woman is a saint” wife, Penny.

At the card party, I got to see my old friends such as Orchid, who I goaded by e-mail – “You HAVE an A game?”; Jeff and Sandy, Jendy, and of course Broome. As they say, a splendid time was had by all.

So it’s been a pretty good birthday month, thanks to many of you. Well, except for some major computer problems at work, but that’s finally fixed.

Second place in this crossword contest, by my boss, is not bad, especially when the winner was a ringer.

The Cheap Flights song, complete with dancing. And subtitles?

Lots of Elizabeth (“I hate being called Liz”) Taylor tributes out there; here’s the one from Arthur.

In answering my questions, Jaquandor says something shocking about Richard Nixon. Worse, I’m inclined to agree with him.
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My buddy Steve Bissette writes about D.W. Griffith’s two Biograph caveman movies, Man’s Genesis (1912) and Brute Force (1914), with a link to the latter.
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Diagram For Delinquents Kickstarter project:

“This is a documentary film about the most hated man in comics history: psychiatrist Fredric Wertham.

“Beginning in the late 1940s, Wertham began publishing articles linking comic books to juvenile delinquency. This work culminated in his now-infamous 1954 book, Seduction of the Innocent. Burnings of comics were reported across the United States, and Congress held hearings into the matter, which helped spur the creation of the self-censoring body the Comics Code Authority…”
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Google Alert finds – other people named Roger Green:

Roger Green Pt 1/5 ‘Feng Shui & Building Biology’ ‘Conversations with Robyn’
Roger has a background in Chinese Medicine and was a pioneer in introducing the ancient knowledge of Feng Shui to the western world.
This clip also shares some info on the harmful effects of wireless broadband on our health and sleeping patterns.

Custom Knives Created By Roger Green

Patients who walk through the doors of Dr. Roger Green’s clinic are eagerly greeted by Izzy, Green’s 5-year-old Basset hound.

One of those passengers at Narita Airport in Tokyo, on flight No. 276, next in line on the runway when the earthquake hit, was the Rev. Roger Green, longtime pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Middletown.

Beatles Island Songs, 23-14

“I’ll Be Back” was originally in 3/4, as the Anthology recordings reveal – and I’ve heard cover versions done that way – but was ultimately recorded in 4/4.

(Confidential to Uthaclena: “Macca”!)

JEOPARDY! answers (Questions at the end)

BEATLES LYRICS $100: “He got o-no sideboard, he one spinal cracker”
BEATLES LYRICS $200: “It always leads me here, leads me to your door”
BEATLES LYRICS $300: “Closer, let me whisper in your ear, say the words I love to hear”
BEATLES LYRICS $400: “Close your eyes and I’ll kiss you, tomorrow I’ll miss you” BEATLES LYRICS $500: “Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love”
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Beatles Release Debut Album 48 Years Ago

Macca solo albums expanded editions coming in June

In pictures: Abbey Road Studio Two
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The rules of engagement

23 Lady Madonna, from A-side of a single (UK), Hey Jude album (US). Initially, I wasn’t positive this last Capitol single even was the Beatles. That McCartney vocal was so affected, in a good way. I liked being surprised.
22 Rain, B-side of Paperback Writer single (UK), Hey Jude album (US). Not sure that I liked this song at all initially – it was kind of out there – but now love it. Backward tape loops make this the progenitor of all that Lennon weirdness. And it lives on the bass line to boot. Another video.
21 Glass Onion from the white album. One could make the case that, for an island selection, it ought to be #1; after all, the Lennon song namechecks several other Beatles songs. I did consider it, actually. I’m also particularly fond of the Anthology version of the song. “It’s a goal!”
20 I’ll Be Back from A Hard Day’s Night (UK), Beatles ’65. In dealing with affairs of the heart, always found this Lennon song very moving. And I love the guitar strumming and the specific harmony. This was originally in 3/4, as the Anthology recordings reveal – and I’ve heard cover versions done that way – but was ultimately recorded in 4/4.
19 Think for Yourself from Rubber Soul. There are probably no three Beatle songs in a row on an album that I love more than You Won’t See Me, Harrison’s Think For Yourself, and The Word. Yeah, I know Nowhere Man’s in there on the UK album, but it’s not what I grew up with. Love the instrumentation – more bottom – and the message.
18 I Want to Hold Your Hand A-side of a single (UK), Meet the Beatles (US). Only the Lennon- McCartney song that first went to #1 in the US, which, as George Martin mentioned, Capitol Records was essentially forced to release, which led directly to their appearance on Ed Sullivan. Oh, and a great song, to boot.
17 Ticket to Ride from Help! This has been described as a perfect single. I agree, and stretching past the three-minute boundary that singles were “supposed” to be Plaintive. The very first line is among my favorites. Lennon, the primary writer, “claimed that it was the first heavy metal song given the droning bassline, repeating drums, and loaded guitar lines.”
16 Eleanor Rigby from Revolver. A moving McCartney story song. But even without the lyrics, it’s a beautiful song, as the Anthology version shows. It was covered way too often, with an annoying sense of the song’s IMPORTANCE, and it’s STILL ranked this high.
15 Golden Slumbers from Abbey Road. At some level, this pick and the next honor the whole second-side suite. But I DO love McCartney’s vocal on this.
14 Carry That Weight from Abbey Road. Whereas the vocal here, by the whole band, sounds a little like drunken sailors. But I love the You Never Give Me your Money reprise.

JEOPARDY! questions
What is Come Together?
What is The Long And Winding Road?
What is Do You Want To Know A Secret?
What is All My Loving?
What is All You Need is Love? (on the show, NO ONE got this correct!)

K is for Keys

Music touches on a few aspects of the word key.

I have become fascinated with the word key. It’s a short word, worth 10 points in Scrabble, but it has so many meanings. Reference.com shows some four dozen definitions. And while some are interlocking, most of them address some sort of structure.

There is that metal thing that moves a bolt that I tend to hate because I tend to misplace it. I have a couple of duplicates of my house keys, one outside the structure – no, it’s not under the mat – just in case. Someone told me a long time ago that the number of keys one has related to how important they were. The most important person I ever knew, by that definition, was my elementary school janitor.

Then there’s “something that affords a means of access”, such as the key to happiness. The word shows up at least a half dozen times in the Bible in this context, including Luke 11:52 (New International Version)- “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” Lawyer bashing has a rich tradition.

“Something that affords a means of clarifying a problem,” I would contend, would include the pronunciation key in the dictionary, the answer key to an exam, and like entities.

Things that look like keys, such as the islands known as the Florida Keys, or a part of the floor in basketball. Or something that is the center of things, something that’s important, such as the key to figuring out a mystery; Pennsylvania is the Keystone State.

Music touches on a few aspects of the word key. The keys on the piano or other instruments, like the keys to a calculator or computer keyboard, are the items that are touched; singer Alicia Augello Cook changed her last name to Keys in honor of piano keys. But the key is also “the principal tonality of a composition: a symphony in the key of C# major.”

Stevie Wonder recorded the 1976 Grammy album of the year, Songs in the Key of Life. It featured the big hits I Wish and Sir Duke, but also this minor hit As.

I came across this list of songs containing the word key. Thought I’d pick a few:
Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key-Billy Bragg & Wilco, featuring Natalie Merchant; a Woody Guthrie lyric completed by Bragg.
Key To The Highway-B.B. King and Eric Clapton.
Brand New Key-Melanie (live). “Don’t go too fast, but I go pretty far.”

ABC Wednesday – Round 8