Monday Music: She Loves You (The Chad Mitchell Trio)

Before he was John Denver the singer/songwriter sensation of the seventies, he was getting his start in folk music with the Chad Mitchell Trio (he replaced Chad Mitchell but the group kept the name). I happened upon the Trio's rendition of "She Loves You," by The Beatles. I must say, I gained a new appreciation for the song when I heard this folk version. Denver does guitar and vocal on this live version.

 

-

Monday Music: Blackbird (Jon Batiste)

 

 

-

Monday Music: The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

Since it was 54 years ago this month when The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released, I was reading about all the people pictured on the album cover. The article at udiscovermusic told about each person, and the list included both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. It mentioned that "A recording by the duo (“The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine”) reached No.2 in the UK singles chart in December 1975." 

Well, I found that fascinating, so I searched for it on YouTube. The clip is from the Laurel and Hardy movie, Way Out West (1937), and it is apparently a classic in film history. Actor Chill Wills provided the deep bass voice that you hear coming from Stan Laurel.

 

-

Monday Music: Here Comes the Sun

I had this urge, or more like a nudge, to hear The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun." Found this nice mix on YouTube (Thankful for George)

-

Monday Music: The Long and Winding Road (Ray Charles)

Ray Charles with the Count Basie Orchestra takes a Lennon/McCartney song to new heights!

-

Monday Music: We Can Work it Out

"We Can Work It Out" was one of the Beatles hits 50 years ago in 1966 (hitting the charts in January). In August of that year a controversy erupted in the U.S. over a comment by John Lennon about how popular The Beatles were. You can read about that here. In the meantime, "Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend."

-

Burning The Beatles

    Birmingham disc jockeys Tommy Charles and Doug Layton 
started a "Ban The Beatles" campaign
(AP photo)

In late July, five months after its original publication, a U.S. teen mag called Datebook republished the interview with Lennon. Turning to the tried and true method of generating scandal to gin up sales, Datebook put the "We're more popular than Jesus" part of the quote on the cover. Woo-boy. Two Birmingham DJs picked up on the quote, vowing to never play the Beatles and on August 8th, started a "Ban the Beatles" campaign. (From "Burn your Beatles Records!" Mother Jones magazine)

   

Tim Lennox reminded us this week that August 8th marks the 50th Anniversary of a controversy about The Beatles in Birmingham, Alabama. “Radio DJ's Tommy Charles and Doug Layton banned the group's records,” Lennox wrote, “and urged teens to burn theirs. They scheduled a mass record burning for August 8, 1966. It all started because of Lennon's comment to a reporter that The Beatles were ‘more popular than Jesus.’ “

Although the “mass burning” did not actually occur in Birmingham, a clip from Tommy Charles’ radio broadcast calling for the record burning made its way into the documentary  film about John Lennon’s life, Imagine: John Lennon.  

Turbulent Times

I well remember the controversial statement and the uproar it caused. I was eleven years old and about to enter the sixth grade. Looking back, it was almost like an inaugural moment into the tumultuous times that marked the coming of age of many of us boomers.

The Vietnam War was escalating and would soon lead to demonstrations across the country. Racial unrest would continue to arise as the country resisted civil rights reforms. We would see the Watts riots with neighborhoods burning in Los Angeles, protests on college campuses over the war with draft cards being burned. In 1968 we would see the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Ironically, in the years following the hyped record burning, The Beatles would morph from a boy band singing “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” and “Love Me Do” into musicians who would be experimenting musically. They would chronicle the times along with other musicians of the day. Johnny Cash would become known as the Man in Black, wearing black in mourning for the young soldiers dying in war. In 1970, he would sing, “And the lonely voice of youth cries, What is truth?” That same year, Crosby, Stills & Nash would record “Ohio” in protest of the Kent State shooting; Simon & Garfunkel would bring us the anthem, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” while The Beatles would add their voice with “Let It Be.”

Fifty years ago, some adults told some teenagers to burn Beatles records. As it turned out, we would see a lot of burning and that burning would define an era. When we saw the draft end, the war sputter to a halt, and Richard Nixon resign in disgrace, we took a deep breath and were finally able to exhale. We hoped for some solid ground to walk upon. 

Some of us thought that the war was behind us, but unfortunately war has become far too commonplace. We no longer have the draft, but we instead have a “warrior class” of citizens and a leaner, professional volunteer fighting force. Instead of peace, we are a nation too quick to go to war, but that is another story.

New Uncertainties

Now our children are facing their own uncertainties. I could try to quote our songs for the youth of today, but the truth is, they will tell it for their own day better than we boomers can. I will say to the young folks though, don’t burn your records – oh, that's right – you don't have records, do you? In that case, do not diss your music! Listen to the poets and artists of your day. Just keep singing your songs and holding our leaders' feet to the fire.

In the meantime, sit back and listen to one of The Beatles' hits from 50 years ago: “We Can Work It Out.”

-

Monday Music: A Day in the Life

"I read the news today, oh boy..."

It was in the news last week: we lost another music legend when George Martin died. Without Sir George Martin, The Beatles would not have become The Beatles as we knew them. Perhaps they would have been just another boy band writing songs that appealed to 12 to 14 year-old girls. Then again, George Martin might not have become the producer her was without the Fab Four. When Martin signed The Beatles on in 1962, the creative combination rocked the world. Enjoy the video below of "a Day in the Life" from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, followed by a brief news feature from the Wall Street Journal on the life of George Martin.

Monday Music: Penny Lane

Here's an old favorite from The Beatles. The video is the original Beatles promotional film for "Penny Lane" but the audio is from a 1993 live concert by Paul McCartney. To hear the original Beatles recording, scroll on down to see how it was presented on the Beatles cartoon show back in the day.

-

Monday Music: Roll Over Beethoven

"Roll Over Beethoven," by Chuck Berry, was a favorite of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison even before they had chosen "The Beatles" as their name, and they continued to play it live right into their American tours of 1964. Their version of "Roll Over Beethoven" was recorded on July 30, 1963 for their second British LP, With The Beatles, and features George Harrison on vocals and guitar. It was February, 1964 before they came on to the music scene in the U.S. with their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. In this televised version, Jimmy Nicol is sitting in for Ringo on the drums (Ringo was sick that night).

Monday Music: Because (The Beatles)

The video for this Monday is another one from SWP Life Illuminated, a You Tube channel by photographer Scott Wright. I had forgotten about this amazing a cappella number by the Beatles. Scott Wright uses his own photography to accompany the music in what he calls "a testament to the beauty of our world and its reason for being."

Monday Music: While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Here's a great performance of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from the Concert for George (held on November 29, 2002, "a year from the day" that George Harrison died). And what a great concert it was! You should get the DVD and watch the whole thing. Doing a little research, I learned that Eric Clapton did the guitar solo for the original recording on the Beatles eponymous double album ("The White Album"). According to biographer Mark Lewisohn, George Harrison later said of that recording session that in addition to providing them with an excellent guitar solo, Clapton also had a positive effect on the band. His presence "made them all try a bit harder, they were all on their best behaviour." (The Beatles Recording Sessions, Harmony Books, 1988).

In addition to Ringo Star and Paul McCartney, watch for George's son, Dhani, playing with the band.

Ash Wednesday/Blackbird

Excerpts from Ash Wednesday, by T.S. Eliot:

Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?

                        
                      *****

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
But merely vans to beat the air
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
Smaller and dryer than the will
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.

Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.




Blackbirdby Paul McCartney

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.


*