An Anniversary of Sorts (Part Two)

Paul McCartney wanted to change the image of the Beatles to allow them more freedom of expression.  I guess he felt that The Beatles last two releases were not worthy of the kind of expression McCartney dreamed of — even though “Rubber Soul” and “Revolver” had broken new ground in the recording industry and outdistanced in sales, chart time and radio airplay any of the five LP’s they had previously released. 

As I pointed out in Part One of this two part series, the true body of music released in Long Play Album form were all recorded and released originally in Britain and are the true representations of their work  – 12 LP’s in all — were released..  The US and various other country’s LP’s are mostly a collection of eight or nine tracks from the UK recordings plus whatever 45RPM singles happened to be popular at the time; as an example there was no “Beatles VI” in England; or “Beatle’s 65” or “Yesterday and Today”.  However, this practice ended with the release of their eighth LP.

As young people were let loose from school or college for the summer vacation period in 1967 Parlaphone Records released a new Beatles LP entitled “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”.  It had been ten months since the group had issued a new album and their fans were getting desperate.  What they heard on the new LP could not be absorbed in one or even two spins: a dozen was more suitable to capture the essence of this collection of 13 songs. 

Sales went through the roof, the LP stayed atop the charts for 15 weeks and a further six at #2. The cover alone — a collage of famous faces — was studied intensely by people who cared about such things. I think almost everyone who was around at that time saw the group in weird get-up staring down at a newly filled grave which bore the words “The Beatles”.  It appeared McCartney had his wish: alive stood the new Beatles while buried laid the old.

Ringo Starr, who previously had done little to gain critical respect came close to having the top cut on the LP “With a Little Help From My Friends”  – however a case can be made that the Joe Cocker version released on the ”Woodstock” LP blew Ringo out of the water. But that was later.  Sgt Pepper had cohesion, evidenced in the way the title song melded in to Help from my friends and the title song’s reprise — second to last — encapsulating what DJ’s calling a “concept” album.  Whatever, Sgt Pepper was, more than any other description: fun. 

To use an old phrase: psychedelic, (“Lucy In the Sky”), funny (“Lovely Rita”), plaintive (“She’s Leaving Home”) and serious (“A Day In The Life”)the latter bringing the LP to a fustian climax with the use of a 40-piece orchestra playing an ending crunch that trailed off forever even to the point of a note only dogs could hear.  The album was to be the Beatles crown in the 12 diamond tiara of LP’s.  What came next was good but Sgt Pepper has been termed the greatest Rock record ever produced and sales, plus the utter enthusiasm at the time proved it.

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And so we come to “An Anniversary of Sorts”.  The newspaper article that moved me to write this description mentioned that it has been forty years since the release of the follow up to Sgt Pepper. Beatle fans had to wait almost a year and a half — until Late November of 1968 to hear what would follow.  To most it was worth the wait.  And when the hugely anticipated LP finally arrived there were several changes or maybe I should say departures from normalcy.

For one thing the new LP didn’t have a name; secondly it was a double album with a total of 30 songs and three, it was on a different label.  Apple.  EMI the company which owned Parlophone continued to have the rights and distributorship over the new label but this piece is devoted to the LP’s and the music, not the business end of the … business.  The LP, in its earliest configuration was ivory white with “The Beatles” embossed slightly off kilter on the front cover and a serial number below that.  Later releases just printed the band’s name in the same small letters as the embossing.  Inside were stuffed four portraits and a piece of artwork to which all four band members contributed. 

So what was it called?  At first DJ’s called it “The Beatles” but that was so demure it soon became known as “The White Album”.   For several weeks after the release my wife and I and two people with whom we always spent Saturday night playing bridge, listened to the album in its entirety before dealing the cards.  By then we’d had enough of it, delightful as it was.

There were similarities to “Sgt Pepper” but the album lacked that cohesiveness.  And it was perhaps a bit too long.  Side Two contains only one, at the most two, memorable songs “Julia” a song Lennon wrote for his mother.  Most of the rest is McCartney frolic tunes with the exception of “Blackbirds” while side four is pretty much a wipe-out which doesn’t withstand the test of time. I say pretty much because the slower version of “Revolution” – Lennon’s huge hit deserves mention. 

Basically the album starts well with McCartney’s “Back In the USSR” fading into Lennon’s “Dear Prudence” a simple song, yet delightful, written for a friend in India who stayed inside all the time meditating.   Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was his strongest composition to date.  Everybody knows the story of “Helter Skelter”, the song painting an image for a deranged mind – that of Charles Manson.  It’s just heavy metal about kids on a playground slide.

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Two remaining LP’s followed but the Beatles were no longer a together group.  The constant image of Yoko Ono, Ringo’s snit, McCartney playing God, all managed to redistribute the group as single performers after 1970.

1969’s “Abbey Road” was a pretty fair album in which George Harrison’s “Something” will live long and was critically acclaimed.  Side two is almost entirely made up of two long medleys’ of which “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window” was brought to life, again by Joe Cocker, later in the year.  “Here Comes the Sun” (Harrison again) and “Because” are stand-outs But compared to what they had produced in the past, the medleys’ –the first vibrant, the second ‘pretty’ – don’t approach fare found on several of their earlier efforts.  Still “Abby Road” was certainly worth more than one listen.

There endeth the story.  “Abbey Road” was the last album produced by the band.  There was a later release but it was mostly a hodgepodge of rooftop garble and McCartney slop.  “Let It Be” had two great songs: John Lennon’s “Across the Universe” and Paul McCartney’s “Get Back”. These two former hit singles were not written for the LP, (George Martin had wanted to include them in “Sgt Pepper”), they were already post operative. The album was mostly produced by Phil Spector known for girl groups in the 60’s and his “wall of sound” which just plain didn’t work with this band. 

Later the Brits released “Magical Mystery Tour” as a full length LP — it had been a four side extended play 45RPM package earlier on Apple — and the US released “Yellow Submarine”. Both had been largely unsuccessful film material.  They do not count as being among the 12 LP’s I spoke of earlier. 

The Beatles were like a sports team that begins on a high and climbs to even greater heights then tapers off and quits when the time is obvious.  Amazingly The Beatle’s history in the spotlight lasted but seven years and yet Lennon McCartney was the greatest song writing team of the 20^th century; their body of work was among the best of the century.  How long their ever-fainter glow will last this century remains to be seen.

 

 

An Anniversary of Sorts (Part One)

A friend sent me an article from his Home Town paper the other day.  It’s been forty years this season since The Beatles released their first LP for Apple Records; their previous releases were all on Parlophone.   The LP was not really called anything other than the name of the group embossed and slightly off kilter in the lower right of the front cover and in some cases a serial number. So it was referred to as either “The Beatles” or more commonly “The White Album” because there was no artwork on the sleeve – just a plain white jacket.

This brought to mind the fact that The Beatles actually only released 12 Long Playing LP’s.  In England.  In the US there were a half dozen others because of things like copy-write and the American eye for quantity over quality.  In the US and Canada the albums all included the current 7” single – both sides – and usually eight or nine of the British LP’s 14 songs.  That was the case until “Sgt. Pepper” when the Beatles put a stop to the practice.  What it had amounted to was, for every three albums released in Britain, five were released in North America. 

These 12 LP’s are still a treasure although they are now available on CD and most have been upgraded to a form of stereo.  The White Album was the last mono LP released in England but stereo in the US.  Anyone who wishes to talk about the LP’s released by this group should be talking about the British Parlophone & later Apple recordings which were the true master copies of the group’s body of work.

After the split in 1970, a dreadful hodgepodge of scrapings off the studio floor were thrown together and combinations were assembled, the CD “1”  with all their #1 hits on it plus a bunch of anthologies, something called “Love” and assorted tripe which made the Beatles sick and were nothing but repackaging for the sake of money.  So anything I mention from here on in deals with the original twelve LP’s as recorded in the UK.  The songs are all the same anyway, just split up differently across the Atlantic.

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Of the first four LP’s “Please Please Me”, “With The Beatles”, “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Beatles for Sale”, all but “A Hard Day’s Night” (the sound track songs from the movie of the same name) were not pure Beatle compositions.  The songwriting team of Lennon McCartney (and one song by George Harrison) wrote only 24 of the 42 songs – 17 were written by other people and most were covers of hits from an earlier period in US Rock ‘n’ Roll history. The group had not begun to experiment; they were a Rock band (with funny hair) which had grabbed the world, at a low period such as the JFK assassination; labor and economic woes in the UK and elsewhere.

There was some notable stuff in those first four LP’s.  “I Saw Her Standing There”, “Eight Days A Week” “All My Loving”, and “I’m a Loser” plus George Harrison’s pure rock treatment of “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Rock and Roll Music”, two Chuck Berry classics, received heavy airplay or I should say heavier airplay than the rest because DJ’s played every cut on every album everywhere.  The first two I mentioned were singles.  Keep in mind that music is subjective and what I like may not agree with your taste.  But I know what the audience thought; I was in the US playing the records on the radio and I got lots of feedback.

“Help” the fifth release was all Beatle compositions except “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” a tune written by Larry Williams and Ringo singing Buck Owens “Act Naturally”.  After that it was all the Fab Four doing their own compositions.  The LP was also a soundtrack album but only seven songs appeared in the movie.  Harrison wrote a couple of tunes, less than grabbers, but there were two gems on the album.  By this time The Beatles had met Bob Dylan and his influence can be heard in John Lennon’s composition “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”.  Also Paul McCartney’s solo production of “Yesterday”, one of the most covered songs in history.  Both the title song and “Ticket To Ride” as well as “Hide” and “Yesterday” were all US singles.  By this time critics were taking notice of Lennon McCartney.  A lot of notice. 

Why? “Yesterday” was not Rock, it was a ballad that sounded like something penned by Cole Porter or Johnny Mercer.  It drew in the adults, who had actually embraced The Beatles far more quickly than they had the band’s Superstar forerunner, Elvis Presley.  One reason was management and the other was that they wrote good music.  Elvis didn’t write anything really and his manager, Col. Tom Parker was Presley’s ultimate downfall.  Brian Epstein had his quirks but he sincerely concerned himself with the band.  He made mistakes such as allowing paraphernalia to get out of hand, a boo-boo that cost money, but he was no Parker, rushing to Vegas to feed his gambling habit.

Also the music benefitted from the ability and understanding of George Martin (now knighted) who ended up shepherding the group through a musical extravaganza like no other before or since. Martin arranged songs, produced LP’s and with few exceptions, he was bang on. 

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“Help” was the last record of “the early” Beatles.  What followed was sheer genius in the realm of songwriting.  “Rubber Soul” was the change.  It featured departures from anything heard in 1965.  The songs all received airplay — up to that date more than any other LP or old fashioned 78RPM album.  Those who purchased it played it as a single, all 14 songs had people singing along.  Martin introduced a sitar (Harrison) on “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”; a harpsichord effect on “In My Life” a Grecian guitar on “Michelle”, the LP’s signature tune.  “Rubber Soul” also saw the emergence of Ringo Starr as something other than a so-so drummer as he mastered various percussion instruments.  Ringo also improved his previously ultra-weak singing additions with “What Goes on” which he co-wrote with Lennon and McCartney. 

If “Rubber Soul” was their greatest effort to date, and it surely was, “Revolver” was a masterpiece. In a time when double tracking — (ADT or automatic double tracking) – were not common place, the group used it.  Again every track was like a single.  But where as its predecessor had no especially strong 45RPM release, “Revolver” launched “Eleanor Rigby” another McCartney classic with baroque overtones reminiscent of Bach and a theme aimed at “all the lonely people” — lyrics that epitomized the mood of the song.  Not to be outdone, John Lennon’s “Tomorrow Never Knows” ended the LP with what had to be one of his finest compositions.

“Good Day Sunshine”, “She said, She Said”, the jazz influenced “Got To Get You Into My Life” as well as  George Harrison’s “I Want To Tell You” were radio listener favorites; unfortunately so was “Yellow Submarine” a nonsense song written for Ringo, but nevertheless had clout in the coming years.  

By now The Beatles were heralded as the group that made an adult out of Rock ‘n’ Roll.  There were others like them but with the possible exception of The Rolling Stones, none ever attained the fame or fortune the Beatles enjoyed.  “Revolver” was, as was “Rubber Soul” innovative.  What came next was judged by many to be the greatest Rock LP ever produced.  If the Beatles had changed Music, “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” changed the Beatles. (End of Part One)

Filipino Drivers on the Roads of Hell (Part One)

When a Filipino gets behind the wheel of a vehicle he assumes he is suddenly transformed into the country’s Boxing hero, Manny Pacquiao … he does not drive to his destination he fights his way there.  Ninety percent of Filipino drivers are male and driving is a sure way to raise testosterone levels in all of them.

Let’s call our driver Pedro and set him at the wheel of a 2001 Toyota four-door sedan stick shift.  It’s important that the car is a stick rather than automatic because there’s a lot of shifting involved.  Pedro is on his way from a small city about 50 kilometers outside of Manila and his destination is Makati, the center of the Manila Business District.  He is going to encounter any number of “objects” on the road before he reaches Makati because his route will pass through an industrial area, another small town, some farmland and a stretch of open highway.

These “objects” will be, roughly in order from the smallest to the largest: a tiny child, quite possible naked and urinating at the side of the road; people walking; bicycles – if there is one it will hug the side of the road, if there are two or more they will be ridden parallel stretched across the road, side by side, their riders engaged in conversation; tricycles, not the little child’s kind but the Philippine version — a foot powered unit with a two-meter square metal box welded to the right side in which to carry everything from people to pigs.  And finally a water buffalo, either laden, ridden or just walking behind its owner.  Water buffalo’s are not fast moving creatures.

Pedro also encounters the occasional flock of goats and on rare occasions, sheep and on less rare occasions a herd of … say, 20 cows.  None of these animals are in a hurry. The word stroll will serve to describe their progress.

That about does it for biologically powered obstacles.  Pedro will have used his horn and shifted literally dozens of times but these “objects” are all intelligent enough to get out of the way of his Toyota.

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What Pedro must also contend with are other Filipinos who are at the controls of a multitude of vehicles.  These people are not really concerned whether or not Pedro even exists, regardless of whether or not he is honking his horn, flashing his lights or tailgating dangerously close to the rear end of whatever vehicle they are driving.

The worst are the tricycles.  A 125 Yamaha or Suzuki motor-bike with a covered side car and a third wheel (the powered version of the above mentioned tricycle) used for transporting shoppers or school children or ordinary travelers.  This vehicle is the first choice for Filipinos who have need of getting from A to B faster than common foot travel.

 They are in effect very cheap but efficient taxis.  The problem lies in the fact that there is no control placed on the number of owners’ granted operating licenses.  When one is surrounded by a crowd of trikes it seems as if there are perhaps 100 million running around the streets and highways of the country but I’ve been told there are less than 20 million.  Still, that equates to at least five times more than are necessary.

Although there are a few spots on Pedro’s route to Manila where the side of the road is paved, the tricycle drivers pay no mind and stick to the center of the highway.  This would be fine if they travelled faster than but a fraction of the posted speed limit.  They do not.  They travel at best  one-third the speed limit and often have several vehicles forming a train behind them as they cruise along oblivious of others perhaps in a bit more of a hurry than themselves.

I should point out here that of all the highways in the Philippines only a tiny portion has more than two lanes, one in each direction.  And most but not all shoulders is made of gravel.

Tricycles are the single biggest area of concern to Pedro and his fellow motorists.  Second are the Jeepneys.  These things are exactly what they sound like: Jeeps.  However they are perhaps five times the size of a jeep, usually unpainted: either gleaming silver or rusted and extended into a bus-like contraption with two rows of boards facing each other and able to seat comfortably maybe 14-16 people.  At busy hours they carry upwards of double that number. 

Jeepneys travel only about half the speed limit so they are not as prone to holding up traffic to the extent of tricycles but they have a habit of stopping in the middle of the road, to load or unload passengers. They don’t signal, they just slow down and stop.  To accurately describe a Filipino Jeepney would take pages, suffice to say they are covered with emblems and metal objects attached to their bodies, none of which serves any purpose other than to junk up the vehicle with added clutter.

Filipinos travel in busses by the hundreds of thousands – from old rickety, balled-tire, falling apart vehicles to air-conditioned behemoths whose drivers consider themselves the Kings of the Road.  The latter travel the speed limit only when locked in a chain behind slow moving vehicles.  When allowed an open stretch they literally take off.  The former just hold up traffic.  Both kinds of busses embrace the same habit of Jeepneys — stopping in the middle of the road to load and unload passengers.  As for Pedro he waits.  Impatiently.

Finally there are the big trucks.  Well, for that matter all manner of trucks, large or small.  Depending on what they are hauling has a direct impact on their speed.  Huge 16-wheelers laden with rice are no faster than the Jeepneys.  Dead-headers can outrun Pedro nearly blowing him off the road as they whistle by at speeds bringing to mind, not Manny the Pacman but Lewis Hamilton. 

And Pedro must be on the lookout for vehicles dashing out of side roads blithely unaware that he is approaching at 80 kilometers an hour.  This last is one of the main cause of accidents in the Philippines.  Because people tend, once they get behind the steering mechanism of a vehicle to think only of themselves and ignore normal rules of the road or courteous driving standards.

Please keep in mind that Pedro has travelled only a relatively short distance and has encountered if not all, then 90% of the obstacles I have placed in his path.  And the journey he undertook was during daytime hours.  In another episode of “Driving in the Philippines” I will explain the horrors of night travel and the physical condition of the roads in this country. 

In short, Pedro has had an easy time of it.  It only took him two hours to travel the 50 kilometers.  Had he made the passage in dark, his chances of even reaching his destination would plummet like a boulder off a cliff.  There may be a slight lessening of obstacles but there are abominable demons waiting to make their presence felt to our pal Pedro let alone some poor sap unfamiliar with the Filipino system of travel — one who ventures into a truly unknown realm of terror.