"He meant that psychologically they had the same effect on us. The Pauls sidelined us. I think George felt suppressed by Paul and I think that�s what he saw with me and my Paul. Here�s the truth: McCartney was a helluva music man who gave the band its energy, but he also ran away with a lot of the glory."
Said Art Garfunkel, in a long interview, in which I also learned that he's got a website where he lists every book he's ever read and it's � in his words � "heavy shit... not fluff." He lists the books in the order he reads them and includes the number of pages in each book.
Showing posts with label Beatles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beatles. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Allen Ginsberg "greeted them wearing nothing but boxer shorts on his head and a do not disturb sign hung on his penis."
Them = George Harrison and Pattie Boyd and John and Cynthia Lennon.
The Beatles winced at this and left shortly afterwards, Lennon hissing at Allen, �You don�t do that in front of the birds.� It was their loss....
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Kurt Cobain, who said "I like the Beatles, but I hate Paul McCartney"...
Saturday, April 11, 2015
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates a blogger who quotes a lyric from the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour."
The blogger � a Democratic activist named Daniel Tilson � made fun of an on-line "tax cut calculator" as "Gov. Scott�s Magical Mystery Tax Cut Calculator" and used the line from the song "Coming to take you away, take you away..."
1. "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!," the 1966 novelty single by Napoleon XIV. The "they" who were coming were the "men in white coats" � which is an expression you don't hear anymore � who would take him to "the funny farm" � you don't hear that either.
2. Calgon "Take me away" advertising. For some, it took drugs. For others, a simple bath:
Some person at FDLE (an �analyst,� the agency said) eyeballed those words on Tilson�s blog and perceived a potential threat to the governor. Could somebody be plotting to take him away, take him away...?I thought no one took song lyrics seriously anymore. Anyway, "coming to take you away" meant that whatever it is that is coming � the mystery tour or the tax cut calculator � is going to transport you on a journey into ecstasy or madness. The song "Magical Mystery Tour" is quite obviously about going on a psychedelic drug trip. It's hard even to try to project a threat of violence into "coming to take you away" in that very 1960s songs. Other coming to take you away material from those simpler times:
Not since Charlie Manson got mesmerized by �Helter Skelter� has anyone twisted the words of a Beatles song so ludicrously � and Manson, let�s remember, is crazier than an outhouse rat.
Yet the FDLE, the top crime-busting force in Florida, detected possible ominous undertones in the lyrics of �Magical Mystery Tour.� An agent was promptly sent to interview Tilson....
1. "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!," the 1966 novelty single by Napoleon XIV. The "they" who were coming were the "men in white coats" � which is an expression you don't hear anymore � who would take him to "the funny farm" � you don't hear that either.
2. Calgon "Take me away" advertising. For some, it took drugs. For others, a simple bath:
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Finally, some cake other than same-sex wedding cake is in the news...
... in this NYT interview with Senator Tom Cotton:
I think the best answer to that is that Tom Cotton and his wife like to eat a kind of cake that they think of as "birthday cake." Either they like the idea of calling it "birthday cake" or they go stores where it is labeled birthday cake or has "Happy Birthday" written in the icing. What kind of people are they that they enjoy that kind of cake � light, spongy cake with thick, sugary white icing� or they get a kick out of a birthday feeling when it's not anyone's birthday?
I think of 2 things:
1. The Beatles "You say it's your birthday/It's my birthday too." When that song came out, it was generally understood � as I remember it � to refer to something other than one's actual birthday. Both Paul McCartney and John Lennon said later that they just set out to write a birthday song. Paul said it wasn't anyone's birthday, but birthday songs get played. And John said "It was a piece of garbage." If I remember correctly, we hippies of the time thought The Beatles were offering the theory that every day is your birthday or every day that you achieve heightened awareness of your existence is a birthday.
2. The idea of an "un-birthday" in the Humpty Dumpty chapter of Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking-Glass," which is combined with Carroll's Mad Hatter's Tea Party (from "Alice In Wonderland") in the Disney movie "Alice in Wonderland." In the movie, Alice arrives at the party as the Hatter and others are singing "A Very Merry Unbirthday to You." In the book, Humpty Dumpty explains that "there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents... And only one for birthday presents, you know. There's glory for you!" Alice doesn't understand his use of the word "glory," which leads Humpty Dumpty to utter his most famous line (beloved of lawyers): "When I use a word... it means just what I choose it to mean � neither more nor less." (In this view, "glory" means "a nice knock-down argument.") I'm thinking that when Tom Cotton eats cake, it's birthday cake if he chooses to think of it as birthday cake.
Do you have any guilty pleasures? I run a lot every morning.IN THE COMMENTS: Ignorance is Bliss asks: "Is a cake a birthday cake if it wasn't bought for someone's birthday?"
That sounds neither guilty nor pleasurable. But I do it so I can indulge in the guilty pleasure of eating birthday cake.
Every day? Most days, with ice cream. Early on, when my wife and I were dating, we went to the grocery store, and I told her that sometimes I just buy birthday cakes, and I eat them. And she said: �Really? I do, too.�
I think the best answer to that is that Tom Cotton and his wife like to eat a kind of cake that they think of as "birthday cake." Either they like the idea of calling it "birthday cake" or they go stores where it is labeled birthday cake or has "Happy Birthday" written in the icing. What kind of people are they that they enjoy that kind of cake � light, spongy cake with thick, sugary white icing� or they get a kick out of a birthday feeling when it's not anyone's birthday?
I think of 2 things:
1. The Beatles "You say it's your birthday/It's my birthday too." When that song came out, it was generally understood � as I remember it � to refer to something other than one's actual birthday. Both Paul McCartney and John Lennon said later that they just set out to write a birthday song. Paul said it wasn't anyone's birthday, but birthday songs get played. And John said "It was a piece of garbage." If I remember correctly, we hippies of the time thought The Beatles were offering the theory that every day is your birthday or every day that you achieve heightened awareness of your existence is a birthday.
2. The idea of an "un-birthday" in the Humpty Dumpty chapter of Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking-Glass," which is combined with Carroll's Mad Hatter's Tea Party (from "Alice In Wonderland") in the Disney movie "Alice in Wonderland." In the movie, Alice arrives at the party as the Hatter and others are singing "A Very Merry Unbirthday to You." In the book, Humpty Dumpty explains that "there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents... And only one for birthday presents, you know. There's glory for you!" Alice doesn't understand his use of the word "glory," which leads Humpty Dumpty to utter his most famous line (beloved of lawyers): "When I use a word... it means just what I choose it to mean � neither more nor less." (In this view, "glory" means "a nice knock-down argument.") I'm thinking that when Tom Cotton eats cake, it's birthday cake if he chooses to think of it as birthday cake.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
"I put my hand over the phone and talked to my brother and said 'Who are The Beatles? Are they any good?'"
"Fortunately, he was the one that knew about that kind of music... He said, 'Yeah, they're great," so we both got on the phone and made a deal and rushed out to the airport," said Albert Maysles.
"These guys, The Beatles, they were almost like from another planet."
"Albert Maysles, the pioneering documentary filmmaker who frequently collaborated with his brother, David, died Thursday at 88. His influential career spanned nearly 60 years."
Clips at that link. Full obituary here.
For more than 10 years, my blogger profile has had the same 12 movies list as my favorites. The Maysles brothers' "Grey Gardens" is one of them.
"These guys, The Beatles, they were almost like from another planet."
"Albert Maysles, the pioneering documentary filmmaker who frequently collaborated with his brother, David, died Thursday at 88. His influential career spanned nearly 60 years."
Clips at that link. Full obituary here.
For more than 10 years, my blogger profile has had the same 12 movies list as my favorites. The Maysles brothers' "Grey Gardens" is one of them.
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