Moonrise behind the Kosciuszko Bridge

And now let's talk about Sgt. Pepper

Revolver was innovative and amazing, with, as I've noted, three songs that are masterpieces. So the Beatles were going to have to pull out all the stops to top it - and, somehow, they did.

There's a reason that Pepper was a huge musical-social phenomenon and Revolver, although much admired, was not.

I prefer the cover of Revolver, but Pepper not only had an amazing front cover - and a back cover with the lyrics all printed out - another innovation - but a gatefold with a photo of the Fabs looking like actors in a 1960s psychedelic concept production of "The Music Man"  stoned on orange sunshine.

GATEFOLD!

"Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were recorded during the Pepper sessions and should have been on Pepper, but the record company wanted them on a single. If they had been on Pepper there would be absolutely no debate about whether Revolver was better than Pepper - Pepper would be the indisputable champion.

More about those songs soon.

Pepper was the second album I ever bought - McCartney's greatest solo career effort ,"Band on the Run," was the first. 

I listened to Pepper so much that every note and word is engraved in my soul. I could easily sing the entire album in order - even "Within You Without You" - and reproduce all the pauses and vocal inflections and pronunciations perfectly. You'd think the Beatles were there in the room.  Just try me: I sawr a film today, oh booooy. 

Even though, like with Revolver, there are some definite duds in Pepper. Let us review:

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - this track must have blown people's minds with the combo of audience sounds at the beginning, then the Beatles claiming to be another band, with blazing guitars. Hendrix played it on stage not long after the album was released. A

With A Little Help From My Friends - Ringo Starr's personal motto and a classic. A

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - Lennon went to his grave swearing he didn't consciously choose to name the song after LSD. Nevertheless it is a trippy song and and I love Lennon shouting "LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS!" especially when McCartney joins in. Plus the animated sequence for the song in the film "Yellow Submarine" (available on the Internet Archive) is one of my favorite parts of the movie.  A. (Take 5 on the Internet Archive.) 

Getting Better - the first dud. One of their "slog songs" as Ian Leslie discusses in his book. A lot of people, including Leslie really like it. I think it's musically uninteresting and the most interesting lyrical aspect is Lennon's confession: "I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved." D

Fixing a Hole - another dud. The music is slightly better than Getting Better, and it has a nice trippy feel, and I like the harpsichordy keyboard and nice rolling bass. But still... C+.

She's Leaving Home - ugh! The worst! So maudlin. And a boring tune and instrumentation, in spite of the harp. This song shows you how badly McCartney could have screwed up Eleanor Rigby if he had chosen to make it, too, sappy and pathetic. Then it tries to get philosophical with this lyric: "fun is the one thing that money can't buy." When I was a teenager I thought "Within You Without You" was the worst song on the album, but now I think it's this one. I can't stand listening to it. Emphatic F.

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite - surprisingly decent considering Lennon and McCartney took the lyrics from a circus poster. The music is a rollicking good time - and it sounds especially good coming right after the soap opera of She's Leaving Home.  And you can imagine how extra cool this would sound if someone was tripping on acid while listening, which they definitely were in 1967. B.

Within You, Without You - the droning dreariness of the song is topped only by Harrison's idiotic idea to put a sit-com laugh track at the end: "The laughter at the end of the track was Harrison’s idea. While some listeners initially thought it was the sound of the other Beatles mocking his songwriting effort, it was in fact meant to lighten the mood after five minutes of sad, almost mournful, music." Five minutes of snooze music, you mean. Even so, the Indian instruments make it almost interesting. But lyrically it's another example of Harrison's tendency to express disapproval in his songs: "We were talking about the love that's gone so cold - and the people who gain the world and lose their soul - they don't know, they can't see, are you one of them?" Fuck you, religious fanatic. D-

When I'm Sixty Four - the best of Paul's rooty-toot songs. And as Ian Leslie notes, lyrically it was probably the most radical song the Beatles wrote - a song about getting old with someone. And McCartney wrote the original version as a teen-ager. Doing the garden, digging the weeds - who could ask for more? B+

Lovely Rita - so much fun - and very innovative subject-wise - about a meter maid - a term Paul picked up in the US. The piano solo in the middle is a banger and it's fun to sing: "sit-ting-on-a-so-fa-with-a-sis-ter-or-two."  A-

Good Morning, Good Morning - I didn't care for this very much, when I was a teenager, but it's grown on me. The brass is fun and of course it leads in to the Sgt. Pepper reprise in a very cool way with the chicken squawk that turns into a guitar. B+

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) - fun fun fun. A

A Day in the Life - what can you say about this one? It might be their supreme masterpiece. Even contemporary critics who didn't like the album liked the song. The interplay between the accoustic guitar, the piano and Lennon's vocals - solemn, tender and slightly sardonic all at the same time - are what push this into the stratosphere. The orchestral climax is just gravy. I will have more to say about this song when discussing Ian Leslie's commentary.  A+

So there we go - Revolver has three supreme masterpieces, Sgt. Pepper only one. But although Pepper has some duds - and even one song I rated an F - it has fewer duds and overall higher-rated duds than Revolver.

So what about "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane"? Coming soon!

Let's talk about Revolver

I was recently discussing Ian Leslie's interesting commentary about two Beatles songs: "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Eleanor Rigby." 

Before I move onto his commentary about songs from "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Magical Mystery Tour" I want to discuss the rest of "Revolver."

I've mentioned Revolver on this blog before - how great the Klaus Voormann cover is - and it's nice to have another reason to post it on this blog - and I've written about Eleanor Rigby several times. 

These days many consider Revolver a greater album than Sgt. Pepper's, which was long considered their crowning achievement. 

I don't know though, while the cover of "Revolver" is absolutely unbeatable, it's a tough call. I mean, Revolver has three Harrison songs, and I detest all three. At least Pepper only has one, "Within You, Without You." When I had the vinyl album, when I was a teenager, Within You was the first track on side two and I almost always put the record player needle down right after that song. 

But back to Revolver.

Taxman - rich guy and not-great songwriter complains about paying taxes. And Harrison doesn't even play the blazing guitar solo, that was McCartney. D-

Eleanor Rigby - amazing song. See above. A+

I'm Only Sleeping - meh, the music is OK but nothing really exciting. Funny description of the song by Peter Doggett: "Half acid dream, half latent Lennon laziness personified." It's a weaker version of "She Said, She Said." B-

Love You Too - a Harrison song, so forgettable that I was surprised to see it listed in the lineup because I had completely forgotten it ever existed, and looking at the lyrics now, I was surprised to see that one of the lines is "Love me while you can - Before I'm a dead old man." I guess the line always sounded garbled, and I never cared enough to track down the lyrics to find out what he's saying. D-

Here, There and Everywhere - I know people love this song but I think it's boring. Slow and musically tiresome. The backing vocals remind me of "Michelle" one of my least-favorite Beatles songs not written by Harrison. I give it a C-

Yellow Submarine - sui generis and one of their masterpieces. A+ (Ooh - Yellow Submarine demo tape at the Internet Archive.)

She Said, She Said - pretty cool, although the music isn't as interesting as the backstory, in that it was inspired by Jane Fonda's brother Peter. B+

Good Day Sunshine - I loved this one as a teenager, and asked my piano teacher to help me learn it, but I could never master the solo after "burns my feet as they touch the ground." But for all I know, George Martin, who played the solo, recorded it in half-time and then sped it up for the record (UPDATE - yes that is exactly what he did - no wonder I couldn't nail it at normal speed!) I don't like it as much now - and it's a portent of other songs by McCartney that expresses the rooty-toot side of his personality, which reached its nadir with "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time." B

And Your Bird Can Sing - one of their most underrated songs. I think it's a masterpiece. More about the song here. A+

For No One - Ian Leslie loves this one, and I guess I can appreciated the lyrics, intellectually, but I think  the music is boring and dreary. C-

Dr. Robert - a very 1960s commentary song, the music is just OK, but at least a nice brisk change of pace from For No One. B

I Want to Tell You - the third Harrison song. So boring. Completely forgettable. D-

Got to Get You Into My Life - McCartney's ode to marijuana, which I find more interesting than the music which is brassy to the point of cacophony. C-

Tomorrow Never Knows - I didn't like this as a teenager. Now I find it more interesting than enjoyable. But very interesting, so B+

So there you go. Five songs that I consider duds, but three masterpieces. Sgt. Pepper is going to have to work hard to beat that. I will write about Pepper next.

Murderbot - Platform Decay and Preservation

I admit I did not love the latest in the Murderbot Diaries series, Platform Decay for one very specific reason. See the spoilers section below.

But I am very excited to read, in a recent interview with author Martha Wells that the next Murderbot book will feature the Preservation system:

I had an idea for a long time of wanting to do a big story centered around Preservation, the planet, or in the Preservation system, with something happening there. I would like to be able to do that. Usually, I come up with ideas and think, ‘Oh, I’ll do this book,’ and then it barely touches on that or there’s just not enough room in the book to get everything done. But that’s really something I’m hoping to do in the next book, if I can come up with a good idea.

"Fugitive Telemetry" has come to be my favorite book in the whole series, largely because it is set on the Preservation planet and is about the problems Murderbot experiences with fitting into that society. Which causes Murderbot's friends from the Preservation Aux team to come in conflict with their own society, as in the excellent scene where the head of security on Preservation, Senior Indah, has a meeting with Murderbot, Mensah and Pin Lee, who is acting as Murderbot's lawyer. During the meeting Murderbot discovers that Pin Lee is building a legal case against Indah because Pin-Lee doesn't like Indah's attitude towards Murderbot.

This was also the last time we saw Pin-Lee, one of my favorite characters in the series. Which is now three books ago in the Murderbot Universe timeline. But that's one of my gripes with the series - Wells creates these great characters and then leaves them behind to write about new characters. I mean, what happened with Ratthi and Tarik? 

THE REST OF THIS BLOG POST CONTAINS SPOILERS ABOUT PLATFORM DECAY

Tomorrow Never Knows

I mentioned a few months ago that Ian Leslie does a bang-up job in his book "John and Paul a Love Story in Songs" in analyzing not only the Lennon/McCartney relationship but also their music. I wrote that Leslie "has quite a few excellent essays on lots of their songs. I will be discussing those later."

Now it's later. 

Although Leslie has lots of interesting things to say about the Lennon/McCartney oeuvre, he really hits his stride with the album Revolver, particularly in his discussions of "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Eleanor Rigby." He points out that the two songs have a lot in common:

…both John and Paul came back from their break with songs about death written from a detached omniscient perspective. In “Tomorrow Never Knows,” John dispenses instruction from the mountain top. In two minutes, "Eleanor Rigby" captures the entire lives of two individuals in a series of stark images. Musically, both songs are stripped down to a few parts in order to distill and intensify some essence. 

 

"Eleanor Rigby" confines itself to a narrow melodic range and the song has minimal harmonic development. Like “Tomorrow Never Knows” it alternates between just two chords set in a minor key.  

 

Still it's hard to explain "Eleanor Rigby." Nobody had created a pop song like this before. Its cultural ubiquity has stopped us from noticing how strange it is, at least as radical in its way as "Tomorrow Never Knows,” which John came up with after hearing Paul play "Eleanor Rigby."

That last part resonates with me. I blogged about Eleanor Rigby almost ten years ago now, and I also commented on how surprising it is, especially since it was written by a 24-year-old pop star.

Leslie continues:

…Paul ends each line of "Eleanor Rigby" with a little commentary or question on what has preceded it: lives in a dream; who is it for; no one comes near. Similar to the gods-eye mode of Tomorrow Never Knows. 

 

The two songs speak to one another. In "Tomorrow Never Knows," however distant Lennon's voice sounds, the message is ultimately soothing. "Eleanor Rigby" offers no comfort. It turns an unflinching, even acerbic gaze on its characters: a woman picks up rice in a church tidying up after a wedding, oblivious to joy. She lives in a dream and wears a face that nobody sees. In the second verse we meet Father McKenzie writing his sermon for nobody. In the third and final verse, they are brought together without coming together: he buries her in a perfunctory ritual. Everything is concise. economical and devastating: no one was saved.

 

Around this time both John and Paul were dwelling on the decline of Christianity. In Cleave's interview, John contrasted it with the rise in popularity of The Beatles a relatively mild observation that came back to haunt him. But in "Eleanor Rigby," Paul slid a knife into the bone...

And I also liked this description of "Tomorrow Never Knows."

...The finished track feels like standing in a full-force gale as the rubble of history blows by us. Lennon's voice surfs serenely above an unearthly concatenation of noises and Ringo's stuttering,  pulverising drum beat. John commands the chaos and subdues its terrors, inviting us to consider the meaning of within and to play the game to the end of the beginning, a phrase that John Winston Lennon borrowed not from (Timothy) Leary, but from Churchill, who had died the year before. What they were now calling "The Void" was by far the strangest sounding track that The Beatles or any pop group had ever recorded. There was no girl or boy, no verse or chorus, just a continuous flow that loops around toggling between two chords and fades out on the word beginning. It brought together McCartney's experiments in sound with Lennon's desire to communicate truths about the meaning of life. It blended Indian music with Stockhausen;  psychedelic philosophy with English poetry and comedy...

Leslie has a similar commentary for "Strawberry Fields Forever" which I will talk about soon.

He also talks about the origin of the title "Tomrrow Never Knows:"

Lennon decided that "The Void" as a title was too heavy. During a televised press conference in 1964, Ringo had expressed the unpredictability of the group's career by saying "tomorrow never knows." In the footage you can see Lennon cracking up behind him...

The Beatles, like Shakespeare, preferred to avoid portentousness. 

And thanks to YouTube, we can see exactly what Leslie is talking about: