It was 40 years ago today

Mr Radd,

If David Frum hadn't been listening to Little Wing when working on the State of the Union speech, he'd never have come up with "Axis of Evil" -- at least the "Axis of" part. How history would have been different ... Sgt Osama's Lonely Evil-Doers Club Band, Saddam in the Sand with WMD, or something.

Anyone see that Lucy (of in the Sky with Diamonds) spoke up the other day after all these years, Julian's classmate whom he drew with diamond eyes ... you could dine out on that one.

YHS, etc

 

Actually, the White Album would have been entirely possible without Sgt. Pepper -- White was more a direct stylistic progression from Revolver (save for "Love You To" and "Tomorrow Never Knows," which definitely pointed straight to Pepper), leaving the Sgt. Pepper-MMT combination as an artistic cul-de-sac which basically reached its apotheosis with "I Am The Walrus ('No You're Not,' Said Little Nicola)." After spending pretty much the entire year of 1967 ensconced with Mellotrons, backwards tape machines and orchestras, and a bunch of really good drugs, the Beatles went to India, picked up two guitars, a bass, and a drum kit again, and returned to playing songs that conventional rock bands could realistically play.

"Let It Be" (the original, "naked" version) was a continuation of the back-to-basics, stripped-down "White Album" approach (the logical progression from "Revolver" and "Rubber Soul"), while Abbey Road returned to Pepper/MMT territory with lush orchestration, stitched-together song medleys and synthesizers.

They're all great albums, but Pepper, as culturally powerful as it was, really didn't have that much of a longterm influence on music in and of itself (maybe because few others -- the list probably begins and ends with Pink Floyd, really -- could really do that kind of music well).

You don't hear many songs today sounding like "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" or "Lovely Rita." But you do hear songs that sound like White Album songs.

Lucy Vodden, 43: Lucy In the Sky.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=459145&in_page_id=1773

 

Outing alert: WSKY is deaf, dumb and blind.

 

Hey, I'll give yu everything I've got for a little peace of mind.

And as far as solo McCartney, love the seld titled frst album and Band on the Run. But Tug of War is truly awesome.

Farley: "Remember that when you got busted for pot."
Sir Paul: "Well, I really don't like to talk about that Chris"
Farley: "God! Stupid!"

Or something like that.

 

I'm not the world's hugest Beatle fan, but for those of you who are, pick up Geoff Emerick's "Here, There and Everywhere." He was the engineer for many of the albums and has some good tales to tell.

Of course, if you're a huge Beatle fan, you've probably read it already.