The fifth Beatle
We had ourselves a little storm the other day with a strong enough wind to steal your breath and fell trees. Some people are still without power. We were lucky to only lose ours briefly. I don't mind a little loss of power, but it becomes a burden when everything in your fridge begins to sour, when you have to sit in a living room that is only five degrees warmer than the thirty degrees it is outside. So, for all of you who went through the wringer with this one: I hope it's all getting restored now and that you have resources to get you through!
Wrapping presents for the three people we think we're exchanging gifts with was fun. I'm not sure if we're actually exchanging gifts, but it's too late if we're not.
I've been trying to come up with a masculine version of our gift wrap. This is it. Minus the tag, the tag you can buy, of course, but it doesn't come with the free gift wrap service.So it turns out that a couple of people have tried to order from our website but experienced some difficulty. I hope others didn't try and give up on us! We will iron this out today. No confirmations were sent and one of the orders didn't even go through. Luckily they both contacted me and we're on it.
I recently bought a Beatles compilation album (I guess it's called "1"). I had forgotten how much I loved the early Beatles albums. This one has songs from the later ones too, but plenty of those early happy non-psychedelic tunes. I've been listening to it pretty much non-stop since I got it and I think I'm developing that condition where you have a ringing in your ears that never goes away, except that instead of a ringing it's the Beatles singing "Help!" over and over and over. As much as I love the Beatles, I'm not sure I can live with that song in my head for the rest of my life.
So I've been thinking a lot about Ringo (how the hell did he get that name anyway?), George, Paul, and John. I was thinking how if I could go back in time I would want to be the fifth Beatle. Because I can't think of a better way to get their music out of my head and mainlined into my blood where I really wish it was. Like a second heartbeat. This is how I feel about all the music that I really love. The stuff that hits home and speaks for me, or at least part of me. It's how I feel about accordion music, Pachabel's Cannon, David Bowie, some of the Pogues tunes, and one side of Laibach's "Let it be" cover album. I want the music to breath for me. (Oh, so NOW you think I'm crazy?)
However, there are some things I feel I have to comment on. First of all, I HATE that song "Get Back" because I don't like the singing voice in it (and I want find out which one of them it was) and because it creeps me out that the song is about a person named "Jo-Jo". Only chimpanzees should have names like Jo-Jo. Every time I hear it in that song it makes me recoil as though someone was squeaking cotton balls against my teeth. Yes, I feel that strongly, I skip that song every time now. Another song that brings up questions is "Come Together". I don't actually hate this song but it's compelling in an uncomfortable way. So, what the bejeezus are "juju" eyes? Are they talking about Manson? This guy they're singing about sounds like a menace to society, probably someone I've met in Berkeley when I was a kid.
It annoys me in "I feel fine" that John calls his girlfriend his "little girl". Yuck. Do any women out there actually like that kind of talk? Like, women who call their boyfriends "daddy", for instance? I would smack Philip if he talked to me like that. I'm not even an angry feminist.
If I went back in time and tried to be the fifth Beatle they would have discovered immediately that I'm much too prudish to be in a boy band, that I am much too conservative to go to India with them, find drugs, gurus, and silly outfits. They would have spotted a musical dud in me right away. Because they are geniuses, and I'm so patently not. Oh well. I can play one song on the accordion. That's my musical legacy. I'd be happy if I could write poems that are as good as their lyrics.
I was thinking about how there's only two of them left. Isn't Ringo married to a playgirl teenager? And then there's Paul, embroiled in a bitter ugly divorce from his bride who was only a couple years older than his daughter, with whom he's had a child. Who will probably be messed up by all this public dust up and custody battle. So it just seems that the genius of the Beatles has devolved into a petty predictable jumble of old rock stars, dead ones, and their messed up children. They told so many stories, but who's going to tell theirs with the same punch, the same lyricism, and the same power?
I'm pretty glad I'm not the fifth Beatle.
I recently bought a Beatles compilation album (I guess it's called "1"). I had forgotten how much I loved the early Beatles albums. This one has songs from the later ones too, but plenty of those early happy non-psychedelic tunes. I've been listening to it pretty much non-stop since I got it and I think I'm developing that condition where you have a ringing in your ears that never goes away, except that instead of a ringing it's the Beatles singing "Help!" over and over and over. As much as I love the Beatles, I'm not sure I can live with that song in my head for the rest of my life.
So I've been thinking a lot about Ringo (how the hell did he get that name anyway?), George, Paul, and John. I was thinking how if I could go back in time I would want to be the fifth Beatle. Because I can't think of a better way to get their music out of my head and mainlined into my blood where I really wish it was. Like a second heartbeat. This is how I feel about all the music that I really love. The stuff that hits home and speaks for me, or at least part of me. It's how I feel about accordion music, Pachabel's Cannon, David Bowie, some of the Pogues tunes, and one side of Laibach's "Let it be" cover album. I want the music to breath for me. (Oh, so NOW you think I'm crazy?)
However, there are some things I feel I have to comment on. First of all, I HATE that song "Get Back" because I don't like the singing voice in it (and I want find out which one of them it was) and because it creeps me out that the song is about a person named "Jo-Jo". Only chimpanzees should have names like Jo-Jo. Every time I hear it in that song it makes me recoil as though someone was squeaking cotton balls against my teeth. Yes, I feel that strongly, I skip that song every time now. Another song that brings up questions is "Come Together". I don't actually hate this song but it's compelling in an uncomfortable way. So, what the bejeezus are "juju" eyes? Are they talking about Manson? This guy they're singing about sounds like a menace to society, probably someone I've met in Berkeley when I was a kid.
It annoys me in "I feel fine" that John calls his girlfriend his "little girl". Yuck. Do any women out there actually like that kind of talk? Like, women who call their boyfriends "daddy", for instance? I would smack Philip if he talked to me like that. I'm not even an angry feminist.
If I went back in time and tried to be the fifth Beatle they would have discovered immediately that I'm much too prudish to be in a boy band, that I am much too conservative to go to India with them, find drugs, gurus, and silly outfits. They would have spotted a musical dud in me right away. Because they are geniuses, and I'm so patently not. Oh well. I can play one song on the accordion. That's my musical legacy. I'd be happy if I could write poems that are as good as their lyrics.
I was thinking about how there's only two of them left. Isn't Ringo married to a playgirl teenager? And then there's Paul, embroiled in a bitter ugly divorce from his bride who was only a couple years older than his daughter, with whom he's had a child. Who will probably be messed up by all this public dust up and custody battle. So it just seems that the genius of the Beatles has devolved into a petty predictable jumble of old rock stars, dead ones, and their messed up children. They told so many stories, but who's going to tell theirs with the same punch, the same lyricism, and the same power?
I'm pretty glad I'm not the fifth Beatle.