- Here are some details on the Beatles-Wu Tang Clan mash-up called Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers.
- Both Paul and Yoko offered advice and insight to Sam Taylor-Wood as she re-created John's youth in Nowhere Boy.
- Ringo is to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- Ex-Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic approvingly reviewed Ringo's Y Not.
- Study the Beatles at Oxford University this summer.
- Some of John's writings from the late '70s were recently found.
- Soul singer Roberta Flack is currently recording an album of Beatles covers and will release it in April.
- Lastly, Paul's son James is going to be touring in the near future.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
More on Glenn Beck and "Revolution"
Though it's old news by this point, I still want to briefly revisit Glenn Beck's analysis of "Revolution" and show what I find most faulty about it. Specifically, it's that Beck fails to grasp the true purpose and tone of John's lyric. He notes a number of times throughout the segment that, to reach his conclusions, he closely examined what John was saying. For instance, the use of the word "evolution" signaled something quite sly and sinister to him: John was deliberately eschewing the violent rhetoric used by Maoists, the New Left, and other extremist groups in favor of a program more politically palatable - "evolution" replaces "revolution" - but no less destructive in the long run. In Beck's view, it was just a different means to the same undesirable end. Admittedly, there are some slivers of truth in this reading, and yet Beck still ends up significantly in error. The whole point of "Revolution" was so that John could firmly disassociate himself from the various radical groups that wanted his allegiance. He didn't share their approval of violence. He espoused a peaceful approach to social change and asserted as much in the song: "But when you talk about destruction/ Don't you know that you can count me out." And to the Maoists, he said, "But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao/You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow." The rest of the lyric is consistent with these lines: It witnesses John disputing some of the positions taken by extremist factions on the Left.
What Beck can't seem to understand is that, with "Revolution," John was not proposing an explicit plan of action for achieving the goals that he, as a man of the Left, desired. As I alluded to above, the song is almost entirely couched in negative terms (i.e., this is a method and that is a method that I (John) don't condone). Even the word that Beck emphasizes the most - evolution - comes from a line that John attributes to someone else: "You tell me that it's evolution." Thus Beck can't claim that John was trying to use the idea of evolution as a trojan horse for revolution. After all, John had positioned himself in opposition to the person/group that is the "You" in "You tell me that it's evolution." One of the few positive exhortations he actually delivers is, "You better free your mind instead." He's putting the onus on the individual to improve him- or herself. Couldn't conservatives such as Beck find something to like about that? It's also noteworthy that, in lines like "We all want to change the world" or "We all want to change your head" where John seems to be expressing agreement, there is an undercurrent of dismissive sarcasm in his voice. Notice how the preface to each is a qualifying "Well, you know...," i.e., "Yeah, we also want to effect change, but we're not on board with you."
The upshot of this is that Beck incorrectly sees "Revolution" as containing John's vision for how he would bring about social progress. It's actually a vision of how he wouldn't. The bulk of Beck's argument lies with his discourse on the word "evolution," and that analysis crumbles under scrutiny. "Revolution," in fact, communicates oppositional sentiments toward radical left-wing groups and, with the chorus line, "You know it's gonna be alright," it almost seems to suggest that rapid change may not be necessary (or maybe even desirable). These wrongs will be righted in due time, John could be interpreted as saying. Perhaps there's some irony in the song's title.
I realize that John's indecision over whether to say "count me in" or "count me out" on the line about violence makes it difficult to interpret "Revolution" with full confidence. He did end up using "out," though, and he never really strayed again from this belief in non-violence. It should also be pointed out that, on his show, Beck didn't indicate any awareness of this historical detail, so his analysis doesn't have the benefit of the complications it presents to my argument. On a number of levels, Beck simply didn't do his homework.
What Beck can't seem to understand is that, with "Revolution," John was not proposing an explicit plan of action for achieving the goals that he, as a man of the Left, desired. As I alluded to above, the song is almost entirely couched in negative terms (i.e., this is a method and that is a method that I (John) don't condone). Even the word that Beck emphasizes the most - evolution - comes from a line that John attributes to someone else: "You tell me that it's evolution." Thus Beck can't claim that John was trying to use the idea of evolution as a trojan horse for revolution. After all, John had positioned himself in opposition to the person/group that is the "You" in "You tell me that it's evolution." One of the few positive exhortations he actually delivers is, "You better free your mind instead." He's putting the onus on the individual to improve him- or herself. Couldn't conservatives such as Beck find something to like about that? It's also noteworthy that, in lines like "We all want to change the world" or "We all want to change your head" where John seems to be expressing agreement, there is an undercurrent of dismissive sarcasm in his voice. Notice how the preface to each is a qualifying "Well, you know...," i.e., "Yeah, we also want to effect change, but we're not on board with you."
The upshot of this is that Beck incorrectly sees "Revolution" as containing John's vision for how he would bring about social progress. It's actually a vision of how he wouldn't. The bulk of Beck's argument lies with his discourse on the word "evolution," and that analysis crumbles under scrutiny. "Revolution," in fact, communicates oppositional sentiments toward radical left-wing groups and, with the chorus line, "You know it's gonna be alright," it almost seems to suggest that rapid change may not be necessary (or maybe even desirable). These wrongs will be righted in due time, John could be interpreted as saying. Perhaps there's some irony in the song's title.
I realize that John's indecision over whether to say "count me in" or "count me out" on the line about violence makes it difficult to interpret "Revolution" with full confidence. He did end up using "out," though, and he never really strayed again from this belief in non-violence. It should also be pointed out that, on his show, Beck didn't indicate any awareness of this historical detail, so his analysis doesn't have the benefit of the complications it presents to my argument. On a number of levels, Beck simply didn't do his homework.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
"The day the music died"
It was 51 years ago today that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. Richardson, and their pilot all died as the result of a plane crash in Iowa. It's remarkable that Holly was only 22 when he perished, and yet the cultural imprint he left is so significant. His music certainly influenced the Beatles in great measure. It's said that even the name "the Beatles" was in part a tribute to Holly's backing band, the Crickets.
Below are the Beatles' covers of "That'll Be the Day" and "Words of Love."
"That'll Be the Day"
"Words of Love"
(If the embedding is disabled, go here and here).
Below are the Beatles' covers of "That'll Be the Day" and "Words of Love."
"That'll Be the Day"
"Words of Love"
(If the embedding is disabled, go here and here).
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Tuesday potpourri: uber-trivial edition
- Read about the "Yellow Submarine tea infuser."
- John, Paul, George, and Ringo as the "Four Basic Elements of Dining." Here's the sole relevant passage: The four elements are the Beatles: John was the food, the steak and potatoes. Paul was the ambience, the sound. George was the service, the soul of the place. And Ringo, the price point. Would the Beatles have been the Beatles without all four?
- Susan Boyle's brother fears that his wildly famous sister will suffer a fate similar to John Lennon's.
- Paul Shirley, the sometime writer and professional basketball player who penned this asinine evaluation of the Beatles (which I responded to here), recently got canned by ESPN for some, let's say, ill-considered remarks about Haiti.
- Lastly, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, director of the Let It Be documentary and other Beatle videos, is going to take a DNA test to answer the persistent suspicions about Orson Welles being his father
- John, Paul, George, and Ringo as the "Four Basic Elements of Dining." Here's the sole relevant passage: The four elements are the Beatles: John was the food, the steak and potatoes. Paul was the ambience, the sound. George was the service, the soul of the place. And Ringo, the price point. Would the Beatles have been the Beatles without all four?
- Susan Boyle's brother fears that his wildly famous sister will suffer a fate similar to John Lennon's.
- Paul Shirley, the sometime writer and professional basketball player who penned this asinine evaluation of the Beatles (which I responded to here), recently got canned by ESPN for some, let's say, ill-considered remarks about Haiti.
- Lastly, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, director of the Let It Be documentary and other Beatle videos, is going to take a DNA test to answer the persistent suspicions about Orson Welles being his father
Monday, February 1, 2010
Ringo and The Electric Fetus
From my perspective, the most notable news to come out of the 2010 Grammys was that Ringo chose to sport an Electric Fetus t-shirt at the awards ceremony. This might be meaningless to some, but for residents of Minnesota who are in-the-know, it's kind of a treat. The Electric Fetus is a well-respected, much-patronized, and awesomely-named record store that has a number of locations throughout Minnesota. It's basically the only place I buy albums at here in Minneapolis. According to the Star Tribune, Ringo acquired the t-shirt from his nephew, Christian-Philippe Quilici, who lives in the Cities. And then he wore it to the Grammys - outstanding! Ringo Starr: a man of the people.
On the front page of the Electric Fetus website, this message was posted:
As many of you have heard by now, Ringo Starr presented the Album of the Year award at the Grammys Sunday night wearing an Electric Fetus t-shirt. A Beatle wearing a t-shirt makes it cool, so not surprisingly our website and Minneapolis store have temporarily run out of the black style worn by Mr. Starkey. We'll have more back in stock in Wednesday afternoon. Incidentally, they're part of our Minneapolis store's pick for February's featured local artist. Thanks Ringo!
On the front page of the Electric Fetus website, this message was posted:
As many of you have heard by now, Ringo Starr presented the Album of the Year award at the Grammys Sunday night wearing an Electric Fetus t-shirt. A Beatle wearing a t-shirt makes it cool, so not surprisingly our website and Minneapolis store have temporarily run out of the black style worn by Mr. Starkey. We'll have more back in stock in Wednesday afternoon. Incidentally, they're part of our Minneapolis store's pick for February's featured local artist. Thanks Ringo!
The Beatles win at the 2010 Grammys
There were two Beatle-related wins last night: 1) Guitar god Jeff Beck won in the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance for his version of "A Day in the Life" from Performing This Week...Live At Ronnie Scott's (I posted a YouTube vid of Beck playing that song last week). 2) The Beatles Love: All Together Now won for Best Long Form Music Video.
Source: GRAMMY.com
Truth: The Grammys are so lame.
Source: GRAMMY.com
Truth: The Grammys are so lame.
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