Tis Better To Have Loved and Lost Than To Never Loved At All. Alfred Lord Tennyson – Part 11

All right, time to move ahead to the next album in search of unrequited love songs vs. mutual love, centered within the melodic phrasing stanzas. Next up, the imaginative animated film soundtrack.

I remember like it was yesterday, January 1969, home listening to my latest Fab-Four LP when the moment I walked over and removed the record needle off the fresh, out of the package, spinning, Yellow Submarine album, side two, I felt cheated. Disappointment surrounded me, all alone inside my enclosed private space bedroom, as I wondered, what were they thinking, releasing rubbish like this. Side one left me puzzled almost as resentful. Four new songs even the Liverpool composers classified as throw-away pieces and I concurred. Never had a Beatles album shaken my confidence in their genius creativity, until then. To this day, the band’s eleventh album remains my least favorite, however, I must confess, around 1977, while recording a can’t get to the phone message to my land line answering machine, I inserted the orchestrated chorus arrangement of Yellow Submarine by George Martin as a sort of feel-good background music approach to my away from home memo. So, that being said, let’s search our way through for love songs.

11^th LP – Yellow Submarine (Mutual Love Songs / 0 vs One-Sided  / 0 )

Both previous songs already found on earlier LP’s will not have input here today, therefore, I begin with Mr. Harrison.

Track 2 – Only A Northern Song fails as promoting a theme on love, in fact, let me quote George as to defining this tune, “I realized Dick James had conned me out of the copyrights for my own songs by offering to become my publisher. As an 18 or 19-year-old kid, I thought, 'Great, somebody's gonna publish my songs!' But he never said, 'And incidentally, when you sign this document here, you're assigning me the ownership of the songs,' which is what it is. It was just a blatant theft. By the time I realized what had happened, when they were going public and making all this money out of this catalogue, I wrote Only A Northern Song as what we call a 'piss-take,' just to have a joke about it.”

George Harrison
Billboard magazine, 1999

Track 3 ­– All Together Now follows a formula fitting for a children’s nursing rhyme, granted the words, “I love you,” enter the verses, mainly imply love of friendship that held a visual bond with the film’s animation.

Track 4 –  Hey Bulldog, originaly titled, Hey Bullfrog, has nothing within the foundation of a love song, just a well performed hard rocker for the film. John gives his take on the facts, and I quote, “That's me, 'cause of the Yellow Submarine people, who were gross animals apart from the guy who drew the paintings for the movie. They lifted all the ideas for the movie out of our heads and didn't give us any credit. We had nothing to do with that movie, and we sort of resented them. It was the third movie that we owed United Artists. Brian had set it up and we had nothing to do with it. But I liked the movie, the artwork. They wanted another song, so I knocked off Hey Bulldog. It's a good-sounding record that means nothing.”  CLICK HERE to enjoy this number: https://binged.it/2m24whV

Track 5 – It’s All Too Much ranks as my favorite bit from this weak production. George explains how the tune evolved, and I quote, “It's All Too Much was written in a childlike manner from realizations that appeared during and after some LSD experiences and which were later confirmed in meditation. I just wanted to write a rock 'n' roll song about the whole psychedelic thing of the time. Because you'd trip out, you see, on all this stuff, and then whoops! you'd just be back having your evening cup of tea! 'Your long blond hair and your eyes of blue' - that was all just this big ending we had, going out. And as it was in those days, we had the horn players just play a bit of trumpet voluntarily, and so that's how that Prince of Denmark bit was played. And Paul and John just came up with and sang that lyric of 'your eyes of blue'.”

If you listen close, the chanting over and over consuming the words, “too much” near the end evolve into “tu-ba”, and then “Cu-ba.”  Just a bit of fun for John and Paul.

Next week takes us through the brilliant final swan song LP where I’ll unveil the tracks about love found listed on the Abbey Road LP.

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Tis Better To Have Loved and Lost Than To Never Loved At All. Alfred Lord Tennyson – Part 10b

Welcome, and thank you for returning to the second half of the double LP known as the White Album and all the many styles and topics this recording brought to our ears.

10^th LP – The White Album, Disc 2 (Mutual Love Songs / 1 vs. One-Sided / 1)

Track 1 – Birthday, a jovial song by Paul of celebration among friends.

Track 2 – Yer Blues, a down and out misery song by John crying for more help.

Track 3 – Mother Nature’s Son, written at Senior McCartney’s home by Paul reminiscing about his childhood trips into the local woods.

Track 4 – Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except For Me and My Monkey is a mutual Love song about John and Yoko, putting their relationship out in the open while others suffered from paranoia. Background Fun Facts: Track four holds the longest label of all titled Beatles songs. Written in May 1968 and the phrase, “Come on is such a joy,” turned out as a favorite saying from the Maharishi.

Recorded on June 26, 1968, with various takes but couldn’t decide which one was best, so, they started over the next day. Six takes occurred to find a winning rhythm track, and the guitars had blasted so loud that Paul gave up his bass and rang a huge fireman’s bell near Ringo that didn’t need a mic because it pierced right through the other instruments. Early next evening, Paul added two overdub bass parts, and John added his lead vocal thinking the song was complete. However, close to four weeks later, John decided he wanted to change his lead vocal, so, on July 23, he told the engineers he wanted to sound like somebody from the moon. Control knobs and compressors went through readjusted trials and John laid a new lead vocal plus double-tracked vocal, and Paul added various bits of vocal plus hand claps to finish the chore.

Track 5 – Sexy Sadie is a song about the Maharishi and lust, not love. He made a fool of everyone by breaking the rules trying to seduce Mia Farrow. John exploded and told the guru they all were leaving. It was the last song Lennon wrote in India. George came up with the title, Sexy Sadie. Years later revealed sexual advances never happened; John just wanted an excuse to return to Yoko and George personally apologized to the Maharishi convalescing in Holland. 

Track 6 – Helter Skelter developed in answer to the rip-roaring reviews Pete Townsend and the Who had compiled from their latest release, ‘I Can See For Miles.’ Adjectives like, mystery and menace dangled onto swearing cymbals and cursing guitars prompted Paul to go all out for rock ‘N’ roll and freak the fans. By the way, just about everyone born and raised in the UK can vouch helter skelter is a spiral slide usually included as attractions for fairground events.

Track 7 –  Long Long Long is my second favorite White Album tune, and came courtesy by George Harrison. Although the lyrics speak of a beautiful relationship, it’s main focus, according to George specifies a true desire about love for God. Inspired by the same chords Dylan used on his progression for “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.” Take a listen to Dylan’s strumming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUqST2mQuko

Track 8 ­–  Revolution 1 has zero intentions of romance, but, we all want to change the world.

Track 9 – Honey Pie materialized from the old songs father Jim McCartney used to play around the home and with the band he had formed while Paul was a young child. The tune is a one-sided love song soul written by Paul, based on the lyric portrayal the singer has gone ape over a silver screen starlet from his hometown and just the thought of meeting her makes him weak in the knees. He confesses he’s in love with her, but he’s lazy, so he pleads she come back to England rather than he goes treading off to join her in Hollywood. Background Fun Facts: John cringed whenever Paul brought to the table these types of granny song ideas, as he referred to them. Tunes like ‘When I’m Sixty-Four,' ‘You’re Mother Should Know,' ‘Ob-La-De-Ob-La-Da,’ ‘Martha My Dear’ and especially ‘Honey Pie’, which got its influence from Fred Astaire’s ‘Cheek to Cheek. Listen now to that piece of inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QYdcHQXwdM

Paul’s new song took shape immediately upon his return from India in March and finalized on October 1, 1968, at Trident Studios that began with a long rehearsal to polish the number suitable for the album. The rhythm track captured Paul on piano, John on guitar, Ringo on drums, and George on bass. The instrumental solo section leads first with a guitar riff, played by John and greatly impressed George with the jazzy flair Lennon tackled. The next day, Paul showed up alone and added lead vocal plus the intro guitar piece. On October 4, seven session musicians entered the studio and recorded the brass and woodwinds arrangements George Martin had composed to fit the melody and era. When finished, another fourteen different musicians arrived to fill in more brass and strings to the Twenties sounding ditty.          

Track 10 – Savoy Truffle developed through the aching teeth long friend Eric Clapton agonized over from his addiction to Mackintosh’s Good News box candy assortment.

Track 11 – Cry Baby Cry came from an English area advertisement that read,”Cry baby cry, make your mother buy.” The relationship theme builds between parent and child, however, Lennon deemed this number pure rubbish.

Track 12 – Revolution 9 is a first attempt avant-garde experimental track composed by John and Yoko of electronic sounds with tons of inspiration from Karl-Heinz Stockhausen original art music, titled Hymnen. Take a listen to Stockhausen’s work if curiosity holds you captive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0aeagbZBRs

Surprisingly, John wasn't the first. Way back in 1966 Paul also grew interested in Stockhausen and through trial and error composed a piece he called, ‘Carnival of Light’ that has yet paved a spot on the official released Beatles material, nevertheless, available by clicking here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5p6z8QAVYU

Track 13 – Good Night is a John Lennon song written especially for his first son Julian, in the same way, the famous composer wrote ‘Beautiful Boy for his second son, Sean. A father loving his child. Sadly, Julian never knew this fact until the 1990’s.

Sit back and enjoy this beautiful song that closes out the White Album and I dare you to hold back your emotional tears, just ignore the first 14 seconds of the link: https://binged.it/2krNpJ7

Next week takes us through a short route where I’ll unveil the love songs found listed on the Yellow Submarine LP.

Tis Better To Have Loved and Lost Than To Never Loved At All. Alfred Lord Tennyson – Part 10a

While recording the White Album, the band suffered bouts with tremendous turmoil. John bringing Yoko to the studio had a lot to do with the bickering. Near the end of March they had a bit of success with ‘Lady Madonna,’ peaking at #4, but climbing back from the deep void that Paul’s Magical Mystery Tour film fiasco dumped our heroes in, caused many fans to wonder if the Beatles might surrender the throne. The four mates had pressure up the ying-yang finalizing the tight-rope holding together a new business announcement called Apple, and riffs between them entered the recording studio practically forcing Abbey Road to utilize separate sound rooms for each individual. Ringo actually quite the band during those days, but returned after two weeks to piles of flowers and signs draped over his drum set saying, Welcome home, you’re the best rock ‘n’ drummer in the world, we love you.

The White Album delivered close to every style of music, rock, blues, country, tin pan alley, surf music, ballads, honky-tonk, and Revolution 9, an experimental exercise. Of course, not all tunes rely on themes of love, but today we shall uncover those that do.

10^th LP – The White Album, Disc 1 (Mutual Love Songs / 1 vs. One-Sided / 3)

Track 1 – Back In The USSR. The basic theme is closer to a love of country and sexual conquests with the region ladies.

Track 2 – Dear Prudence. Identified as friends, not lovers.

Track 3 – Glass Onion. A song written by John for John down memory lane.

Track 4 – Ob-La-Dee, Ob-La-Da. A mutual love song between Desmond and Molly Jones. Courting, marriage, and a couple of kids. Background Fun Facts: Written between March and May 1968 while in India. When brought into the studio, it took the longest amount of time spent recording one song for their current project. Both John and George hated the song and refused to issue it as a single in the UK or America, however, 'Ob-La-Da, Ob-La-Da’ was released as a single in many countries, topping the charts in Japan, Austria, Switzerland, and Australia. Marmalade, another band from Scotland, offered it as their single in the UK and quite pleased the cover rendition also sailed up to #1. The phrase originated from an acquaintance of Paul, a Nigerian man known as Jimmy Scott, who wasn’t at all thrilled the Beatle wanted to write a song based on Scott’s expression of greeting. After an agreement that included taking care of Mr. Scott’s unpaid alimony balance, which also would release the Nigerian from London’s hometown district locked cell, Paul had approval. On a personal note in closing, I was sixteen- years-old when I purchased my copy of the White Album and played it often when home from school or work. The only time I turned the volume down occurred during Ob-La-De, Ob-La-Da by the mere word “bra,” I didn’t want to offer an opinion why my favorite band sang about a bra to my parents.  

Track 5 – Wild Honey Pie. Just a spontaneous sing-a-long around the campfire in Rishikesh and Pattie Harrison always requested that Paul play the tune, so he squeezed it into the LP playlist.

Track 6 – The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill. A tiger hunt!

Track 7– While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Philosophical thoughts toward life.

Track 8 – Happiness Is a Warm Gun. John sought added lyrics from Pete Shotton and Derek Taylor as Neil Aspinall hurriedly jotted them down while these four men tripped on acid. Mother Superior was Yoko. Not a love song.

Track 9 – Martha My Dear. About Paul’s sweet sheepdog.

Track 10 – I’m So Tired. Just a song according to John’s experienced emotions trying to meditate for three weeks leaving him wide awake at night and missing the taste of alcohol.    

Track 11 – Blackbird. Not a love song.

Track 12 – Piggies. A song referring to the upper-middle-class snobs. Harrison’s mother suggested the line, “what they need’s a damn good whacking,”

Track 13 –Rocky Racoon. A one-sided love song by Paul, based on the lyric portrayal Rocky lost his girl, Nancy, to Dan. Background Fun Facts: Written in1968,     

alongside John and Donovan Leitch on one of the roofs inside the Maharishi’s compound. Paul claims the inspired plot unraveled from an old Mack Sennett silent comedy film, but further credit should not overlook a famous poem published in 1907 by Robert W. Service titled, The Shooting of Dam McGrew. If curious, here is a link to the piece, plan on five to seven minutes reading time: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45082

Click here for an early incomplete demo Paul laid down inside the studio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P0XjWwJy_Q   

Recorded August 15, 1968, with nine takes for the rhythm track. The instrumentation on the basic track was Paul on acoustic guitar and lead vocal, John on bass and Ringo on drums. “It was a difficult song to record,” Paul relates, “because it had to be all in one take, it would have been very hard to edit because of the quirkiness of the vocal. Paul overdubbed an additional bass part, and Ringo overdubbed another drum part. This filled up the four-track tape so a tape reduction was made to free up more tracks for overdubbing, the result being called “take ten.” Onto this, John added harmonica throughout most of the first verse and a harmonium in the first half of the second verse.  George Martin added another keyboard, a honky-tonk piano in the refrains of the song. George Harrison then found his way out of the control room to help John and Paul record backing vocals, which completed the recording of “Rocky Raccoon.”

Track 14 – Don’t Pass Me By. A one-sided love song and the first by Ringo, based on the lyric portrayal the singer keeps asking his girl,” does it mean you don’t love me anymore?” Background Fun Facts: Written at home in 1962 while the composer lived at 10 Admiral Grove in Dingle. Inspiration came to Ringo from a country star album released by Ernest Tubb called Midnight Jamboree. One of the tracks featured a guest star singer named Linda Flanagan who presented a song called, “Pass Me By.” Click here and take a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiRieAWuxcM

Press reports and interviews that date back to 1963 mention the song as Ringo's first composition. For instance, sometime during The Beatles seven-day visit to New Zealand between June 22nd and 28th of 1964, the group did a radio interview which included mention of the song, Ringo urging his bandmates to “sing the song I've written, just for a plug.”  (Paul): "Ringo has written a song called 'Don't Pass Me By.'  A beautiful melody.  This is Ringo's first venture into songwriting."  (John and Paul sing a verse)  (Ringo): "It was written as a country and western, but Paul and John singing it with that blues feeling has knocked me out.  Are The Beatles going to record it?  I don't know.  I don't think so actually, I keep trying to push it on them every time we make a record."  (Paul):  Unfortunately there's never enough time to fit Ringo's song on an album.  He never finishes it."

Recorded June 5, 1968. Ringo and Paul worked at laying down a rhythm track, this consisting of Paul on piano and Ringo on drums and finished on three takes. Overdubs include Ringo double-tracking his vocals plus some piano and sleigh bells. Paul added more piano and bass, then a gentleman named Jack Fallon provided violin using a music score written by George Martin.  

Track 15 – Why Don’t We Do It In The Road. In my opinion, misses the mark toward love, pointing more at lust.

Track 16 – I Will. A one-sided love song by Paul based on the singer confesses if the girl of his dreams wants him to wait a lonely lifetime, he will. Background Fun Facts: To this day, one of Paul’s favorite melodies, and my favorite song on the White Album from the first time I played the two record package in 1968. The music portion was written in 1966, and the final lyrics written by September 16, 1968. Recorded the same day as the lyrics concluded, however, the tune rolled a total of 67 takes, with take 65 prized as best, all without George Harrison. The line-up consisted of Paul on acoustic guitar and vocal while John and Ringo contributed percussion sounds. Overdubs the next evening included a harmony vocal by Paul plus another acoustic guitar bit he sweetened the song with intricate riffs, and Ringo completed the ambiance with a soft touch on the maracas. Take 1 found a spot on the Anthology 3 CD, heard with disc one, track 25.

Track 17 – Julia. Written by John as a remembrance for his mother.

And so, the results today favor heartache over bliss when it comes to writing love songs. Next week, we will see if the trend changes on disc 2.  

In Closing, you might enjoy listening to a flock of demos that constructed the White Album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imTSPdKu07E

Tis Better To Have Loved and Lost Than To Never Loved At All. Alfred Lord Tennyson – Part 9

Ever notice when watching the Beatles motion pictures, (A Hard Day’s Night, Help! and Magical Mystery Tour), Ringo always loses out singing a solo number, but he obtains the biggest role? Why wouldn’t the major character sing a lead vocal in a musical? Before I try to answer a suitable reason, take a few moments and listen to Ringo’s three songs he wrote about himself in Liverpool and see for yourself he has no hard feelings.

Liverpool 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAi2gS9BpcQ&app=desktop

The Other Side of Liverpool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE5ltqM7tWg&app=desktop

In Liverpool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DApoBZnBk6o&app=desktop

My guess is Ringo would be the first to admit he had a limited and below average singing voice, therefore, to showcase his poor quality onto the giant screen only added to his self-doubt, and that’s why the film’s plots centered around him as a consolation. Good Lord, Mr. Starr never even tantalizes his empty tonsils cavern in the Let It Be movie, and that footage captured the other Beatles with some rather appalling renditions while rehearsing. However, Ringo wasn’t the lead character in Let It Be, so, let’s back-up to their third feature film, and dive into Magical Mystery Tour’s two love songs. The other tracks branch out from our chosen theme and drift off target, in fact, ‘All You Need Is Love’ is not about romance, but universal love, love for all brothers and sisters who share our world regardless of any differences. Therefore, that leaves just one song from the Beatles 9^th album, and here it is. . .

9^th LP – Magical Mystery Tour (Mutual Love /  0 vs. One-Sided love / 1 )

Track 7 – Hello Goodbye. An unreciprocated love song by Paul, based on the lyric portrayal the singer constantly gets feed the opposite of what he seeks from his girlfriend lover. Background Fun Facts: Written August 1967 inside Paul’s home on Cavendish Avenue after a bitter night with Jane Asher.

How many times have you heard from friends, casual acquaintances, and even complete strangers, “The book is way better than the movie.” Well, to put it bluntly, in the case of Magical Mystery Tour, the album is way better than the movie. Please don’t take offense, I love the Beatles and shall forever claim them as my all-time favorite band, but I have a very hard time sitting through their third movie written and directed by the Fab Four, but mostly, Paul McCartney. Did you know that almost ten hours of running time could fill all the scenes filmed during the two-week span set aside to provide a third movie supposedly for United Artists, and only fifty-two minutes ended up in the final release? That, my friends, is a lot of editing, or perhaps a lot of junk, yet, the music excels each time I hear it played.

Recorded on October 2, 1967, with the working title, Hello Hello. The rhythm track took fourteen attempts to get it right using Paul on piano, John on organ, Ringo on drums, and George kept time with a tambourine. On October 19, the fellows returned and began overdubbing additional arrangements to include two new guitar parts played by George. Paul sang his lead vocals and then double tracked another vocal bit while John and George added their vocals plus hand claps. Ringo included the maracas as Paul pounded on a Conga drum, and John slipped in another piano piece during the “Hala, Hey, hey, hey aloha tempo change. The next day two viola players performed Mr. Martin’s handwritten sheet music notes the producer copied from Paul’s piano guidance. Paul’s bass came into the mix on October 25.

On November 1, the song was renamed to, ‘Hello Goodbye’ and the tune received one more added bass guitar part from Paul, recorded on November 2, to complete the finished product. Click here to enjoy a piece of the process from the beginning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMMhLNGwGdQ 

Next week join me for part 10a, as the White Album disc one uncovers unrequited love songs they composed while studying transcendental meditation in Rishikesh India.