I think we can all agree that one of the most annoying things that teachers/professors can say (besides "no, my powerpoint slides will NOT be available on OnCourse" or the words "attendance" and "policy" strung together) is "first we have to do some housekeeping" because a.) "housekeeping" makes me think of wives from the 50's who were so frail and irresponsible and incapable that all they could be trusted with was keeping a house in one place when it was really in no danger of moving and 2.) regardless of the hours I spend there, crying and sleeping, the School of Journalism is not my house.
(Oh man, you see the Ringo pictures, you know what's coming!!)
But "housekeeping" is just what we have to take care of today in this entry, and it is all Beatles-related things that I would like to write about but failed to do previously for whatever reason. And please, give me some credit here; the number of "ohmigod George Harrison is so CUTE" posts have decreased vastly in the past month, so just DEAL. And look, I try to give you the interesting Beatles facts and knowledge-well, not really interesting so much as seedy and sordid. Because I know my audience, and I know their level of sophistication (except for Erica-the fact that she reads this is basically a fluke of nature and certainly not indicative of everyone else who peruses this page). Also, don't despair; we move on to the Stones on Tuesday in my rock history class, so sordid/scandalous tales will not be hard to come by.
Here we go, random Beatles facts that you should know:
1. Well, I am psychic. I will go into this further in another post, but this IS still Beatles related. During winter break I was driving around with my brother and that poor kid was listening to me recount facts for the 329322989 hour (I broke him down-he is now the only kid in the 6th grade who LOVES the White Album or who can tell you who sings "All Together Now" or who knows about the Maharishi so my job is done) when "Norwegian Wood" came on. I told him how this was the first use of a sitar in pop music, and how yeah, that sounds kind of random and not that important but you seriously can't have psychedelia in the 60's without the Indian influence that George Harrison pretty much single-handedly started by deciding to play the sitar on that song. And, plus, I told him, some other famous songs used the sitar because of it. And then, because I am PSYCHIC, out of the 1135 songs that are stored on my iPod which was on SHUFFLE....the Rolling Stones "Paint it Black" came on and as you can see in this clip which I have provided as evidence, Brian Jones ain't playing a banjo, ya'll. Is that weird?!?! God was telling me to continue to teach the world my Beatle knowledge. I am a prophet now. Moses had a burning bush...I have a blue iPod mini.
2. Maybe no one will care, but this BLEW MY MIND when my professor talked about this in class (I think I put this stuff in an away message, maybe, but LUCKILY FOR YOU I am writing it here so you can cut it out and paste it on your fridge. You're welcome!). Everyone my age remembers Oasis- I totally had "What's The Story (Morning Glory)?" and DJ's played "Champagne Supernova" at bar-mitzvah's. I thought they were cool until they kind of self-imploded by the sheer amount of ego (at least in the US, they still talk about them and their ass-ish behavior in Britain, but then again, the UK is awfully close to Germany, where they worship David Hasselhoff, so let's not let them dictate the canon of pop culture, ok?). ANYWAY (where would I be without that word? Count how many times I use it, it's SHOCKING) two of their biggest songs are about the Beatles!
The Gallagher brothers had kind of a love/hate relationship with The Beatles; everyone compared them to them, which is kind of blasphemous but whatever, and they thought they were better or more relevant (see: previous reference to ego and ass-ishness). They still had respect for them as a band, even though they were reluctant to admit it.
I can NOT believe that I never knew "Don't Look Back In Anger" was about John Lennon; you don't need to be a music scholar to hear that the song starts with the same piano intro that "Imagine" does (but perhaps I was too busy at the time trying to figure out how to dance with 12 year old boys who were a foot shorter than me to "Champagne Supernova", but that's a whole different issue). Here are some lyrics:
So I'll start the revolution from my bed ("Revolution" was the first Beatles protest song, and the bed refers to John and Yoko's famous bed-ins for peace)
Cos you said the brains I had went to my head
Step outside the summertime's in bloom
Stand up beside the fireplace
Take that look from off your face
You ain't ever gonna burn my heart out
So Sally (disputed, but a lot of people think it's a reference to "Long Tall Sally", one of the Beatles most successful cover songs) can wait, she knows its too late as we're walking on by
Her soul slides away, but don't look back in anger
I hear you say
Take me to the place where you go
Where nobody knows if it's night or day
Please don't put your life in the hands
Of a Rock n Roll band (John talked out a lot about how people shouldn't interpret his lyrics as speaking to them, or put him as a singer on a pedestal, and how the Beatles shouldn't have been blamed for their influence on the drug culture)
Who'll throw it all away
The song "Wonderwall" is a reference to George, who the members of Oasis infamously threatened to fight along with Paul to prove that they were a better band..or something, I'm kind of lost on that logic (ok, I'm not defending them anymore, they were kind of jackasses). This one is more obscure, but it's basically talking about how maybe George had the "answers" ("maybe/you're gonna be the one that saves me") instead of John, because of his spirituality and everything. When they wrote this song in the mid 90's, George was thought of to be this grumpy, old recluse who was still really desperate to lose the whole "Beatles" title and everything that went with it. So it's not the nicest song, but you can kind of see that they still had respect for him:
Today is gonna be the day
That they're gonna throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you gotta do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do about you now
Backbeat (movie about The Beatles about their days playing in Hamburg, Germany) the word was on the street
That the fire in your heart is out
I'm sure you've heard it all before
But you never really had a doubt
I don't believe that anybody feels
The way I do about you now
And all the roads we have to walk along are winding ("The Long And Winding Road" was one of the last Beatles songs recorded)
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would
Like to say to you
I don't know how
Because maybe
You're gonna be the one who saves me ?
And after all
You're my wonderwall ("Wonderwall of Sound" was an album that George made right after the "Sgt. Pepper" period, the first non-Beatles record made by a member of the Beatles)
And now to make things even CRAZIER Ringo's son is their new drummer. So I'm fairly certain they won't be trying to beat up Sir Paul in the near future.
3. I keep mentioning to people that I am now really into George's solo music and everyone says the same thing: "Oh, I don't know any of his songs". And then I say "yes you do" and they say "no, no I don't" and I sigh and say YES you do. And then I have to sing "I've Got My Mind Set On You" and then I have to remind them of the music video where he is sitting in the living room and all of the objects around him (you can see a different version of the video and hear the song here) come to life and everyone says "that was HIM!?" and I say "yes, that was one of his last big commercial hits and it's from the eary 90's" and now all of you at home can consider yourselves educated.
And another George related fact; his 27-ish year old son, Dhani, is basically his twin and it is freeeeeeaky.
See, George:
Dhani:
George and Dhani:
There's a distinct possibility that I will have to find and marry him. When that happens, I will have to delete this blog, so enjoy it while you can. I could not risk him finding out that I married him simply to justify posting pictures of his cute dad on a blog. Lord knows how many relationships get ruined that way....
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