"She's leaving home"

Hey folks.

Today's post will not be filled with the usual fun and wacky humor you usually find here. Check back here Monday for that.

Today I actually wanted to devoted this post to one very special lady that I'm going to miss like crazy. Heather, this is for you.

Through the course of human musical history, there have been hundreds upon hundreds of songs written about a special person leaving the lives of the song's writers. It's hard to pick out which one suits the sad occasion, as any really good heart-felt song will do.

I thought about John Denver's "I'm leaving on a jet plane" but she's not. She's simply moving away to another  town by car.

Then there's another good song choice, Jeff Buckley's "Last Goodbye". Now that is an appropriate one, but lacks the sentimentality that does what we had justice. No, only one song will do that. And it's from our mutually favorite group: The Beatles.

From one of  my favorite albums of theirs(The White Album is my favorite), is of my favorite tracks off their album: Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, She's leaving home.

"Wednesday morning at five o'clock 
As the day begins 
Silently closing her bedroom door 
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more 

She goes downstairs to the kitchen 
Clutching her handkerchief 
Quietly turning the backdoor key 
Stepping outside, she is free 

She...(we gave her most of our lives) 
Is leaving (sacrified most of our lives) 
Home (we gave her everything money could buy) 
She's leaving home, after living alone, for so many years (bye bye) 

Father snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown 
Picks up the letter that's lying there 
Standing alone at the top of the stairs 
She breaks down and cries to her husband 
"Daddy, our baby's gone. 
"Why would she treat us so thoughtlessly? 
How could she do this to me?" 

She...(we never thought of ourselves) 
Is leaving (never a thought for ourselves) 
Home (we struggled hard all our lives to get by) 
She's leaving home, after living alone, for so many years 

Friday morning, at nine o'clock 
She is far away 
Waiting to keep the appointment she made 
Meeting a man from the Motortrade 

She (what did we do that was wrong) 
Is Having (we didn't know it was wrong) 
Fun (fun is the one thing that money can't buy) 

Something inside, that was always denied, for so many years... 
She's leaving home...bye, bye."

Yes I know, the song's about a daughter leaving her family to go out on her own, but it's still a beautiful song.

I love you, and will  miss you like crazy Pook.

Reviewing a Dark Horse

A couple of weeks ago I watched the documentary on George Harrison's life, George Harrison: Living in the material world, by famous director Martin Scorsese, and damn what a really nice one it is!

Here's the link to the trailer in case you guys haven't already seen it:

I readily admit that my favorite member of the Beatles is Paul Mccartney. I love and enjoy his music, both his contributions to the Beatles, his Wings', and solo stuff. After that I guess is John, then George, then poor Ringo's last. Sorry Ringo.

That being said, after watching this well put together documentary on Harrison's life, made me appreciate him even more that I'd thought possible.

Watching the over 2 hour movie, Scorsese beautifully illustrates the type of life Harrison lived, and what he encountered as a rockstar and celebrity. He does that through various interviews with friends and family members and film footage of concerts and events he was part of. These interviews and film footage make you feel as though you're there right alongside Harrison, going through these things right along with him, as if you're really there.

You learn how spiritual he became, starting in 1966, when he first became aware of Indian music and Hindusim. He threw himself into that so heavily, that he even convinced the rest of the Beatles to join him on a trip to India to meditate and better themselves mentally after feeling burned out enough to stop touring altogether. There they met with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who taught them all about Transcendental Meditation, and the like. Of course, in the end, certain things happened that caused the whole trip to be seen as a disaster.

This didn't dissuade George from his spiritual path, but only served to strengthen his resolve. Over the years he would continue his spiritual and musical growth outside the Beatles after they officially broke up in 1970, and that became evident with the continuous flow of material he put out one after another. This occurred because while in the Beatles he only contributed a small amount of songs for their albums, while John and Paul wrote the majority of the hits. Over time he stockpiled many classic songs, such as "All things must pass", "I dig love", "Awaiting you all, and "Wah Wah."

Then there's his historic first of it's kind, concert for Bangladesh in 1970.

This was all due to George Harrison's good friend and mentor Ravi Shankar, coming to him to tell him about the plight in Bangladesh at the time. Harrison and record produce Phil Spector(yeah that crazy guy)set it up, and he along with a bunch of other friends and musicians performed 2 two-hour concerts live to be recorded on film. This film contains footage from the concert, and what a performance it was! Even ever faithful Ringo was here, although John and Paul were not.

The concert raised millions, and was regarded as the standard with which future celebrity benefits were modeled after.

Other things touched on in the documentary that stood out to me was his relationship with friend and fellow Musician Eric Clapton. These two shared a life-long friendship, and even shared girlfriends!

You see Harrison used to be married to Patti Boyd, who became over time romantically interested in Eric Clapton. Soon things came to a head, and Eric was upfront with his friend, and told him how much he had fallen in live his friends' wife. Clapton claims Harrison told him to "take her", and so Clapton did just that. The interviews with Boyd and Clapton on this topic are very interesting to watch. I knew Clapton had fallen in love with Boyd, because as the world knows, that's where his famous hit song "Layla" comes from, but to hear the progression of how that all came about, and Harrison's nonchalant attitude about the whole thing kind of had me going "huh?"

Of course their friendship survived all that, and they continued on as friends until Harrison's death.

That's another topic that is very interesting to hear about. Harrison became diagnosed with throat cancer in 1999. Following that was an attack on his and his wife's lives by a deranged man who felt he was "on a mission from God" to kill him. Both Harrison and his wife Olivia survived the attack, but Olivia felt the brutal attack seemed to cause a remission of the cancer.

He ultimately succumbed to a brain tumor, and passed away in 2001.

What struck me was how Olivia was explaining that Harrison was preparing himself for death. He was preparing his spirit throughout his life to leave his body on his own terms. Very fascinating. Would that we could all do that.

And of course there's little bits in-between all that, like how he personally financed Monty Python's first movie, "The Life and Times of Brian, by putting up his own house as collateral. So yeah, you can blame/thank Harrison for that depending on how you feel about them.

And of course there's a little group called The Travelling Wilburys......

If you haven't ever checked this movie out, or have have heard about it, but been on the fence about it, I strongly urge you to see it, beg, borrow, or steal it. It's just that damn good!

Scorsese demonstrates here why he's so good when it comes to movies and documentaries, that you'll find yourself instantly becoming both a fan of his, and Harrison's. So go check it, and you won't regret that you did.

"Love, love me do"

Welcome one and all, or should I say the 3-4 people that I know of that read this blog, to the 75th edition of my...well blog.

I figured today I'd talk about my favorite rock n' roll band ever: The Beatles. Why the Beatles? Why not the Beatles.
I'm not going to attempt to persuade you one way or the other to like them, but I'm going to briefly discuss why I love them.

There's been I'm sure, countless upon countless articles written about the Beatles, each one probably better at discussing how great they were according to their technical writing skills, musical influences, and other things of that nature, and they probably did it with fancier terms and $10 words/phrases. I'm not going to do that. I'm simply going to tell you what they mean to me and how there music makes me feel, how it touches my very soul.

The Beatles are my favorite rock band ever because of so many things they did, and did well. They were truly the sum of the whole, rather than the sum of their parts. Meaning, while each member went off and had their own successful solo careers, made hit albums and tons of money, I feel on their own that they didn't make the type of  impact they did when they were together as the Beatles. Some may scoff at that, but I think history's already shown that to be true. I'm not trying to say they weren't  influential or didn't have anything worth talking about in their solo albums. Just that on their own, they didn't make the same impact they achieved as a group.

To put it in the proper perspective, or my perspective, in the 6 years they were together as a successful recording group(not counting their years together in the club circuit) they literally influenced millions. They list of bands, past and present that were influenced by the Beatles is very, very long.
For example, Heather and I used to be friends with this couple that were into heavy, goth, and industrial metal. They were huge fans of Type 0-Negative, and in turn, made Heather a huge fan of theirs to this very day. Well, one night, this guy(from the said couple) got really drunk. This wasn't too unusual because he was always getting drunk and usually would turn into an angry drunk. Well on this night, while we're all sitting outside on a cold winter or fall night beside a roaring fire, Type 0-Negative or some other industrial band was playing in the background. I don't know how, but the Beatles were suddenly brought up during our discussion on something or other. This guy, for some strange reason, goes into a drunken tirade on the Beatles were "fags", and they were a stupid boy band that no one listened to anymore. Now, I usually don't speak up during drunken tirades, but because this idiot had the audacity to call my beloved band "fags" really pissed me off! I then started to pick on his musical choices, saying that the industrial music he was listening to was nothing more than noise, and that it wasn't even music; just a bunch of screaming and shouting without any depth or meaning. He got further pissed off by that comment, and then tried to ask me if I was a musician,and what did I know about music or even making music.I replied that while I wasn't a musician and didn't play musical instruments, that I'll still knew enough about music to judge that what he was listening to wasn't music at all. True, I shouldn't have said all of that, even if I believe that to be true, but he was way of base in dismissing the Beatles as simply a gay boy band. Suffice to say, the friendship ended after that night. He did call and apologize the next day, explaining that he "really did like the Beatles too", he was just being a drunken idiot, or something to that effect. So yes, I've ended friendships over the Beatles. It sounds silly I'm sure, but I just felt he was way off base. I was too heated about it all, and didn't make the points I'd later want to make after I had time to think about the whole thing. Isn't that funny how that sometimes happens? You get so flustered during the heat of the moment, that you only realize what you want/should say, but only after you've had time to think about it for awhile.

Anyway, when Heather and I both got home then  the things I'd wished I'd said came to mind. I wanted and wished I had pointed out the fact that the very bands he liked, including Type 0-Negative, were very influenced by the Beatles. I wish the lead singer of Type 0-Negative, Peter Steele(RIP) had been there and set the idiot straight. His band's covered a few of the Beatles' songs. I guess that makes him a fag too.
For that matter, artists like Ozzy Osbourne, Tom Petty, Alice Copper, Sting, Peter Collins, and countless others were also influence by the Beatles. Does that mean Ozzy's a fag too for liking the Beatles? I guess so then huh?

Back to the main thing I was talking about, the Beatles were undoubtedly very influential.  Look at Sgt.Pepper, Yellow Submarine,The Magical Mystery Tour and all of there other concept albums they made. Look at how they're still cited as valuable works of art that are still relevant today. If you don't believe me, head on down to Las Vegas where the The Beatles' Cirque du soleil Love show is still running after 5 years. I'm surprised there aren't any amusement park rides with Beatles' themes around.

I guess the main thing I want to express, is how their music truly and honestly touches my very soul; Music does that to me you know. It probably does the same to you when you listen to your favorite artist on the radio or on your iTunes. We can't explain it in words, the feeling that we get when a song does something to our soul, or insides. To paraphrase a quote from Paul Heyman, It's akin to experiencing a spiritual orgasm.
That's what the Beatles' music does to me, as well as other favorite rock bands of mine. Whenever I hear "Because", or "Help!", "Lucy in the sky with diamonds",or "The Sun King", it gets my imagination going, and fills my soul with joy. Good music does that to you.

Now I'm going to give my two cents about the long-standing debate about who's the better band: The Beatles or the Rolling Stones.
This is a debate that's raged on for years, and will still continue on until either both bands are forgotten or the world ends.

In my opinion, and this is just my opinion, it breaks down like this for me:
Sure the 'Stones outlasted the Beatles in terms of still operating today as a band. I don't know how fate or history or things would have worked out if the Beatles would have been allowed to continue on to today; excluding John Lennon's assasination and George's death from cancer, what would it be like if the Beatles were still around?
I don't know, but I think even they would've fallen victim to becoming living parodies of themselves, much like the Rolling Stones have become. You don't believe me? Look at the 'Stones now. When was the last time they put out not just a hit album, but an influential one at that has survived the test of time? For me, that's probably their 1981 album Tattoo You. Other than that, what else have they really contributed to the rock and roll landscape lately?Sure they're almost as famous for the drugs they took as they the music they made, especially Keith Richards(how is that man still alive?). But what else?
I'm not trying to say that didn't influence anybody, because they did, but would the 'Stones still be viewed as successful as a band if they only lasted 6 years vs. what, 40,50?

I'm not going to say that in 6 years' time that the 'Stones didn't have a huge catalog of hit albums and singles by then, but I don't think they'd be as famous and revered as they are now if they'd only being around for 6 years. But the Beatles are, and they still continue to be. What does that tell you?  Also here's this little factoid to chew on: you know who had the most hits between the two? The Beatles. Don't believe me? Look it up, and you'll see I'm right.

I don't want you guys to think I'm hating on the 'Stones or anything; for me they come in 3rd as my favorite rock band ever. They have a bunch of songs I love like: "Playing with fire", "Moonlight Mile", "Monkey Man", "Can't you hear me knocking", and my all-time favorite song of theirs; "Give me shelter". Damn do I love that song! That's one of those songs for me, that I could literally listen to over and over again everyday and not get sick of hearing it. And trust me, with the limited selection of classic rock hits on my two rock radio stations, that's pretty much what happens.

So to wrap to things up; the Beatles are my favorite rock group, IMHO the 'Stones wouldn't have been nearly as successful and famous as they are now if they only had been together for 6 years, and listening to good, soul-moving music is like achieving a spiritual orgasm. Yeah, I think that just about hits all the point I wanted to make.

In future blogs, I think I'll list my top 10 favorite rock groups. I could easily talk about the top 5 right off the top of my head.

Here they are in case you were wondering:

1. The Beatles
2. Led Zepplin
3. The Rolling Stones
4. The Doors
5. Pink Floyd

Just please don't try to get me to nail down the other choices; It's too painful, and there's way too many groups to choice from. But they do include the following:

• Cream
• The Allman Brothers
• The Who
• Aerosmith
• Jimi Hendrix Experience

and many, many more in the running.

Okay that's it, until next time.......