'Lady Madonna'

It's you-know-who.

'Back in the U.S.S.R.'

Heard a few minutes ago on satellite radio, while out running a quick errand.

Always loved the song, though I didn't know it was a parody. Also didn't know that Ringo Starr walked out during recording after getting tired of John Lennon ragging on his drumming --- and this was supposed to be a permanent split, two years before the band actually broke up.

Interesting.

Paul McCartney, in Interview, Compares Global Warming Skeptics to Holocaust Deniers

There's gotta be some law on celebrities that their brains go to jelly over "global warming" at some point in their careers. And I've been cutting Paul McCartney so much slack, heh.

Via Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "THE FOOL ON THE HILL."

'That's why I go for that that rock and roll music...'

From Tuesday morning's drive time, at the Sound L.A.

I'm back to my semester teaching schedule for blogging.

I'll have more tonight.

Rock and Roll Music
The Beatles
6:47 AM

Panama
Van Halen
6:38 AM

The Cisco Kid
War
6:24 AM

Bang a Gong (Get It On)
T. Rex
5:55 AM

BONUS: Drive time flashback, from March 2014, "'He's a real nowhere man...'"

Beatles Streamed 70 Million Times During First Three Days on Spotify

I was at my son's new apartment yesterday, helping him finish his recent move, and we were listening to the Beatles. He mentioned that he'd been using Spotify.

I tweeted, and below is David Joachim, at the New York Times:

Helping my son move in at his Artist's Village apartment. Listening to the Beatles too, heh. pic.twitter.com/fIatXa8Okn

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 28, 2015

In the Beatles’ first three days on Spotify, their songs were streamed 70 million times - https://t.co/SwQWRfdb7Y

— David Joachim, NYT (@davidjoachim) December 28, 2015

'I Am the Walrus'

From last night, while picking up my son from work, at the Sound L.A.

Peace of Mind
Boston
5:55 PM

Hitch a Ride
Boston
5:51 PM

Shake It Up
The Cars
5:41 PM

You're All I've Got Tonight
The Cars
5:37 PM

Dangerous Type
The Cars
5:33 PM

I Am the Walrus
The Beatles
5:21 PM

Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
The Beatles
5:19 PM

Come Together
The Beatles
5:15 PM

Runnin' Down a Dream
Tom Petty
5:10 PM

Free Fallin'
Tom Petty
5:05 PM

REFUGEE
TOM PETTY
5:01 PM

'He's a real nowhere man...'

"Nowhere Man," from last Tuesday morning's drive-time at the Sound L.A.

And from Wikipedia:

Lennon claimed that he wrote the song about himself. He wrote it after racking his brain in desperation for five hours, trying to come up with another song for Rubber Soul. Lennon told Playboy magazine:

"I'd spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then 'Nowhere Man' came, words and music, the whole damn thing as I lay down".

McCartney said of the song:

"That was John after a night out, with dawn coming up. I think at that point, he was a bit...wondering where he was going, and to be truthful so was I. I was starting to worry about him".

Gimme Shelter
The Rolling Stones
6:41

Paint It Black
The Rolling Stones
6:38 AM

Good Times Bad Times
Led Zeppelin
6:28 AM

Ramble On
Led Zeppelin
6:24 AM

Black Dog
Led Zeppelin
6:19 AM

The Ballad of John and Yoko
The Beatles
6:16 AM

Hello, Goodbye
The Beatles
6:13 AM

Nowhere Man
The Beatles
6:10 AM

The Grammys' Tribute to the Beatles: Special Concert Held at Los Angeles Convention Center

This was a really enjoyable program. Check the website at CBS. Also, "The Beatles: The Night That Changed America - A GRAMMY® Salute: Artist Interviews."

Photos at the Los Angeles Times, "'The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute To The Beatles'Music special/concert held at the Los Angeles Convention Center."

I don't see a music review, but John Legend and Alicia Keys' rendition of "Let It Be" was to die for --- watch it and love it here, at the Heavy.

John Legend and Alicia Keys are the freakin' best omg!
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 10, 2014

Damn John Legend and Alicia Keys Ima cry mofos!
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 10, 2014

What Critics Said About the Beatles in '64

At LAT, "What the critics wrote about the Beatles in 1964":

William F. Buckley Jr.
Boston Globe
Sept. 13, 1964
An estimable critic writing for National Review, after seeing Presley writhe his way through one of Ed Sullivan's shows … suggested that future entertainers would have to wrestle with live octopuses in order to entertain a mass American audience. The Beatles don't in fact do this, but how one wishes they did! And how this one wishes the octopus would win….
The Beatles are not merely awful; I would consider it sacrilegious to say anything less than that they are god awful. They are so unbelievably horribly, so appallingly unmusical, so dogmatically insensitive to the magic of the art that they qualify as crowned heads of anti-music, even as the imposter popes went down in history as "anti-popes."
-
Newsweek
Feb. 24, 1964
Visually they are a nightmare, tight, dandified Edwardian-Beatnik suits and great pudding bowls of hair. Musically they are a near disaster, guitars and drums slamming out a merciless beat that does away with secondary rhythms, harmony and melody. Their lyrics (punctuated by nutty shouts of "yeah, yeah, yeah") are a catastrophe, a preposterous farrago of Valentine-card romantic sentiments….
The big question in the music business at the moment is, will the Beatles last? The odds are that, in the words of another era, they're too hot not to cool down, and a cooled-down Beatle is hard to picture. It is also hard to imagine any other field in which they could apply their talents, and so the odds are that they will fade away, as most adults confidently predict. But the odds in show business have a way of being broken, and the Beatles have more showmanship than any group in years; they might just think up a new field for themselves. After all, they have done it already.

Keep reading.

Progs got a kick out of Bill Buckley, apparently thinking that his error affirmed their deranged ideology: "But if you want money for people with minds that hate. All I can tell you is brother you have to wait..."

'Revolution' Not Among the Sound L.A.'s Top 50 Beatles Songs

It'd be among my top ten. Perhaps I'll work on a list.

In any case, if you missed it: "The Top 50 Beatles Songs."

The Top 50 Beatles Songs

As voted by the listeners at the Sound L.A.

The station was having a countdown all day today, and I picked up a little of it when I ran out to CVS.



1 HEY JUDE
2 WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS
3 SGT PEPPERS/DAY IN THE LIFE, A
4 IN MY LIFE
5 GOLDEN SLUMBERS MEDLEY
6 HERE COMES THE SUN
7 COME TOGETHER
8 YESTERDAY
9 ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE.
10 LET IT BE
11 ELEANOR RIGBY
12 SOMETHING
13 I SAW HER STANDING THERE
14 NORWEGIAN WOOD (THIS BIRD HAS FLOWN)
15 ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
16 ALL MY LOVING
17 STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER
18 BLACKBIRD
19 I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND
20 AND I LOVE HER
21 CAN’T BUY ME LOVE
22 DEAR PRUDENCE
23 IF I FELL
24 BACK IN THE U.S.S.R.
25 HELP!
26 YOU’VE GOT TO HIDE YOUR LOVE AWAY
27 GET BACK
28 LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS
29 DON’T LET ME DOWN
30 DAY TRIPPER
31 LONG AND WINDING ROAD
32 TWIST AND SHOUT
33 DO YOU WANT TO KNOW A SECRET
34 FOOL ON THE HILL
35 SGT PEPPERS/WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS
36 I AM THE WALRUS
37 NOWHERE MAN
38 EIGHT DAYS A WEEK
39 I WANT YOU (SHE’S SO HEAVY)
40 BALLAD OF JOHN AND YOKO
41 HELTER SKELTER
42 HERE THERE AND EVERYWHERE
43 A HARD DAY’S NIGHT
44 OH DARLING
45 WHEN I’M SIXTY-FOUR
46 DRIVE MY CAR
47 PENNY LANE
48 GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE
49 PAPERBACK WRITER
50 TICKET TO RIDE

'It Don't Come Easy'

You know it don't come easy, at the Concert for Bangladesh:

(It don't come easy, you know it don't come easy)
(It don't come easy, you know it don't come easy)

Got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues
And you know it don't come easy
You don't have to shout or leap about
You can even play them easy
Forget about the past and all your sorrow
The future won't last
It will soon be your tomorrow

I don't ask for much, I only want your trust
And you know it don't come easy
And this love of mine keeps growing all the time
And you know it don't come easy
Open up your heart, let's come together
Use a little luck, and we will make it work out better

Got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues
And you know it don't come easy
You don't have to shout or leap about
You can even play them easy
Please remember peace is how we make it
Here withing your reach, is your freedom to take it

I don't ask for much, I only want your trust
And you know it don't come easy
(de de de) growing all the time
And you know it don't come easy...