Tag Archives: the beatles

My iPod #109: The Beatles – Blackbird

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When I look at my iPod and see that I have to write a post about a song by The Beatles, a feeling of ambivalence arises. I like doing the blog, I wouldn’t have started it if I thought it was a silly idea. However, in regards to songs by The Beatles… I can’t really tell you anything new about them. Probably everything that can be said about them has been written by people, who know much more about music than me, on other sites. Wikipedia’s full of information too. I can only repeat what I already know and what I think of it. That is what I shall do.

“Blackbird” is a pretty song. It’s one of the few where it’s just Paul playing by himself. It’s him, his guitar, his foot tapping on the floor and a short break with a bird singing.

The music makes it seem very light, but McCartney was inspired to write it after racial tensions in the USA in 1968. For you Americans out there, the word ‘bird’ in the UK is slang for ‘lady’ and so the song is about a black girl, which makes lyrics such as ‘waiting for this moment to arise’ and ‘waiting for this moment to be free’ very thought-provoking. Once you find that the song isn’t actually about a bird, it changes everything.

I enjoy it. I hope you do too.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #100: The Beatles – Birthday

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HEY EVERYONE. IT’S JUST GONE PAST FIVE O’CLOCK, AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS.

YES. IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE THE 100th POST OF “MY IPOD”. YES.

I’ve really accomplished in life now.

And what a great way to commemorate it too, with one of the loudest songs on “The Beatles” where Paul celebrates your birthday… as well as his own. I never knew about “Birthday” until it appeared in a trailer for “The Beatles: Rock Band” in 2009. The ‘dreamscape’ for the song in the game is the video above. Although it was written at a time when relations between the band members were starting to deteriorate – It is the only song on “The Beatles” where Paul and John share lead vocals. John sings lower harmony. Paul still managed to come up with this hard rocker, belting out high notes at the top of his chest voice.

Along with “Helter Skelter”, it’s a song where Paul can’t seem to control himself and goes all out on his performance. He takes charge of guitar while George plays bass and if you listen carefully during the drum break, you can here him screaming the measures in the background and he sings quietly during the instrumental break. But seeing as it is his song, one that he and John made up on the spot apparently, he should be allowed to do what he wants. The song also features Yoko Ono and George’s first wife, Pattie Boyd on background vocals.

Enjoy the song, enjoy this momentous occassion. 100 posts, get in.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #88: The Beatles – Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!

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John Lennon bought a poster one day in 1967, from an antiques shop whilst filming the video for “Strawberry Fields Forever” with the other three guys. This is a picture of the poster. This is a picture of John standing next to the poster which is the real deal and not edited by Photoshop at all. It actually isn’t.

To put it simply, everything in the song is from the poster. The horse’s name wasn’t Henry though. It was actually “Zanthus”. I don’t think “Zanthus the horse dances the waltz” would have been as good of a lyric though. Mind you, if they had used that lyric it wouldn’t have been banned on the BBC for supposed “drug references”. Silly BBC.

If you own the vinyl version of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, this song closes the first side of the album. To emphasise the circus theme of the song, their renowned producer George Martin asked the engineer to chop up recordings of various faiground organs and calliope music, throw them in the air and reassemble them at random. These are the noises used for the instrumental break, and also during the outro of the song. It took five days for the band to make this, and is regarded to be one of the more complex songs on the album.

It’s used in this epic mix on the LOVE album from 2006 too.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

Kings of Leon – “Supersoaker”

Alright! So Kings of Leon are back, and this is their new single “Supersoaker”. There’s the audio-video right up there.

It premiered yesterday on Zane Lowe’s radio show on BBC Radio 1. I missed the first time it played.

But then it played again later….. and I was quite pleased! Only a few posts ago was I talking about how I didn’t like the new sound that they were going for now and how I was dissappointed that they had sold out or whatever. But this song is like a mix of that sound and their “Aha Shake Heartbreak” material. Reminds me of “Taper Jean Girl” in particular. This is what I wanted. They’ve gone back to where they once belonged. You can hear their roots in the song. The only recent song I can think of when they have done this is “Back Down South”, and that’s not even a bad song. I find myself singing that from time to time. Stick to your roots, KOL.

It’s a thumping four-on-the-floor western rocker with Caleb’s crooning vocals over the relentless guitars and jumpy bassline in the verses and everything. Yeah… I can dig this. This is a good first single.

Their new album “Mechanical Bull” is released in September.

Bye!

My iPod #61: The Beatles – Back in the U.S.S.R.

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You don’t know how lucky you are.

Today’s song is another one by those four guys from Liverpool. I don’t have access to my computer at the moment so I hastily type this up using my iPod Touch.

“Back in the U.S.S.R” is the opening track to the band’s double album “The Beatles” – also known as “The White Album” due to the album’s front cover. I prefer to call it “The Beatles” though because… that’s the name of the album.

1968 is known as the year when the members of the band started to get a bit annoyed with one another. You probably wouldn’t think that listening to this classic though. Upon first listen you might think, “Yeah, I can dig this! Paul sounds like he’s having a good time, they are all whooping and stuff in the middle. Ah, those guys.”

IT’S ALL LIES. Tension was building amongst the group, and for a number of different reasons. George felt under appreciated, as did Ringo and John had brought along a force that would totally break the harmony between the four for the rest of their years together.

For anyone who didn’t know, Ringo doesn’t play on this track. It is actually Paul on the drums. I’m sorry to break it to you if he’s your favourite or whatever.

In regards to “The Beatles”, it was a matter of ‘back to basics’ for the band. Their last full release was “Sgt. Pepper” which is known for its wide variety instrumentation and the colourful front cover and whatnot, and so after travelling to India for ‘spiritual enlightenment’ the band were ready to keep things simple.

“Back in the U.S.S.R.” is a great opener, I can’t imagine it anywhere else on an album. It’s got that sense of urgency and pace and gets you hyped up for what is to come.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #60: The Beatles – Baby, You’re a Rich Man

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“How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?”

“Baby, You’re a Rich Man” was originally released a b-side to “All You Need Is Love” in the summer of 1967.

Everything was still fine with the group; Brian Epstein was alive and they had been revelling from the success of their then new album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. Yep, things were going strong. Probably better than ever before.

The band then decided to start work on “Magical Mystery Tour”, in those sessions this song was recorded. The actual thing started out as two separate ideas that Lennon and McCartney had, the former with the aforementioned quote at the top and the latter with the “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” chorus. With a few tweaks and shape ups, they ended up with the song that you and I enjoy today.

Apparently at the very end of the song when everyone is singing the chorus, John sings ‘baby, you’re a rich fag jew’ in reference to their manager Brian Epstein who was a homosexual… and Jewish. I can’t hear it, it’s probably just a rumour. Thinking on the lyrics now, it may be that the song is about him – but that’s for discussion.

It’s very groovy, with smooth bass playing by Paul and a clavioline by John which makes those random noises in the intro and during the verses. The highlight for me is at the end when the song picks up pace, everyone’s shouting the title at the top of their voices and the song fades out. Everyone sounds so happy and we all know that they wouldn’t be that way for much longer, but that particular part makes me want to be in the studio with them.

You know the video for “Hello, Goodbye” when everyone starts dancing? This is the audio version is that.

It’s also something that makes me want to have more songs on The Beatles Rock Band. Can we have more songs on that game? Probably not.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.