Buck 'Em

 

Excerpted from Buck 'Em: The Autobiography of Buck Owens with Randy Poe, ©2013:

Back in February of '64, while "Love's Gonna Live Here" was still sitting at the top of the country charts, the Beatles were having their first number one pop hit in America with "I want to hold your hand." Oh man, I can't tell you how angry some country artists got when the Beatles started having so much success. There were plenty of older country stars going all the way back to the '50s that thought rock & roll was the worst thing that ever happened. They said it was the Devil's music. They didn't just think that it was turning kids into juvenile delinquents-- they thought was turning kids away from country music. Which it was. And when the Beatles came along, you can bet that teenagers wanted to hear the Beatles a lot more than they wanted to hear Eddy Arnold or Ernest Tubb.

If you were a country singer, you weren't supposed to like rock & roll. But I never was one to follow other people's rules, and I never believed that you had to like one kind of music to the exclusion of all other kinds. I like Bill Monroe and Bob Wills and Lefty Frizzell and George Jones, but I like Little Richard and Elvis and Chuck Berry and the Beatles, too.

I like pretty much every genre of music. The key thing for me is that I want an emotional element-- I want to feel the love or the happiness, or the loss or frustration. I want to really connect with the song.

I remember watching American Bandstand all those years ago and the dancers would rate a song they had just danced to: "It has a really good beat, I give it a nine!" Without exception, I hated those songs.

(An aside: it is never terribly difficult to figure out what book I'm reading.)

A Pit In Your Stomach All The Time

"All these sorts of things, these moments in your life, I know you really feel lousy. You've got a pit in your stomach all the time. So to me, the idea sometimes behind songs is to try and reach that person and say, 'Look, how about this thought?' So I'm always trying to do that. I notice. I'm always trying to say, look, it's going to be okay. It will be alright. I'm trying to be the voice of encouragement."  ~Paul McCartney (source)

"I said something wrong…"

Wow.  Seventy years ago Paul McCartney smarted off and embarrassed his mother, and he never really forgave himself.

From The Guardian:

“I know that she said something like ‘Paul, will you ask him if he’s going … ’

“I went ‘Arsk! Arsk! It’s ask mum.’ And she got a little bit embarrassed. I remember later thinking ‘God, I wish I’d never said that’. And it stuck with me. After she died I thought ‘Oh fuck, I really wish … ’”

You can read the full article online HERE.

 

Attains Peace

 Three translations of The Bhagavad Gita 9:30-31:

Ranchor Prime:

Even one whose behavior is deeply harmful, but who serves me with faithful devotion, should be accepted as a worthy person of right intention.  This soul very soon becomes righteous and attains peace.

Sir Edwin Arnold:

If one of evil life turn in his thought
Straightly to Me, count him amidst the good;
He hath the high way chosen; he shall grow
Righteous ere long; he shall attain that peace
Which changes not.

Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada:

Even if one commits the most abominable action, if he is engaged in devotional service he is to be considered saintly because he is properly situated in determination.  He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace.

I was reminded of this line when I saw yet another anti-John Lennon thread making the rounds, criticizing him for writing idealistic songs while living an imperfect life.  John was well aware of his flaws and was doing his best to live a better life, and that moves him ahead of most.

I've read several translations of the Bhagavad Gita.  The first I read was the 19th century translation by Sir Edwin Arnold.  It's in the public domain and can be downloaded or read online for free from Project Gutenberg, HERE.  It's rather flowery and ornamental.  I think he was trying to emulate the King James Bible.

Srila Prabhupada's version is very complete, analyzing the text line by line.  It's for more advanced scholars.

My favorite version is by Ranchor Prime, and it's the one I would recommend to someone reading the Gita for the first time.  It analyzes the text story by story, and that makes it very easy to follow and understand.  It's a great introduction.

Old

John Lennon said once that The Beatles could never regroup because it would just be four old guys who used to be The Beatles.  

And I get what he was saying.  

But Old Beatles would have been glorious.

The Line

"I believe that life goes on. So to me, I can’t get sad. I’m sad by I can’t go and play guitar with John. But then I did that anyway. I did that for a long time. We will all meet again somewhere down the line.”   ~George Harrison (source)

And that made me think of this:

Full lyrics HERE.

Now and Venn

 

 

Interesting side note: Venn diagrams are named after John Venn, who didn't invent them but did popularize their use. (source)

I love Venn diagrams. Thank you, John.

In My Life

I Do This

"I have this incredible dream that one day, one minute, the whole world, at the same time, will decide it's time for peace and love. So I just do my part. And I think that's all you can do. I'm not telling anyone else what to do. I do this, and that's the end of my story."  ~Ringo Starr

To You

Full lyrics HERE.

I discovered this version on SomaFM.

Pa-rump-a-pum-pum

It's not the drums that make the song interesting, as you'd expect; it's the bagpipes.

It Hit A Certain Spot In Me

"I had bought a very cheap sitar in a shop called India Craft in London, and it fitted on to the song ('Norwegian Wood') and it gave it that little extra thing. Even though the sound of the sitar was bad, they were still quite happy with it. At the same time as I played the sitar, very badly, on the Beatles' record, I began to hear Ravi Shankar's name. The third time, I thought, 'This is an odd coincidence.' I went out and bought some of Ravi's records, put them on, listened to them and it hit a certain spot in me that I can't explain, but it seemed familiar to me. The only way that I can describe it was my intellect didn't know what was going on and yet this other part of me identified with it. It just called on me."  ~George Harrisonm in The Beatles Off the Record by Keith Badman, (via)

I Will

 Mona discovered this beautiful cover version of an early Beatles song, and shared it with me.  Now I'm sharing it with you:

Full lyrics HERE.

I can see them laugh at me

 This is a really nice cover version:

Full lyrics HERE.

1966

"The trouble with government as it is is that it doesn't represent the people, it controls them.  All they seem to want to do-- the people who run this country-- is keep themselves in power and stop us knowing what's going on…  I'm not saying politicians are all terrible men.  It's just the system of government that I don't like.  It'll be hard to change."  ~John Lennon to magazine Disc Weekly in 1966, as quoted by Jon Weiner in Come Together: John Lennon In His Time ©1984

Death And

 I saw this posted to Reddit:

And it reminded me of this:

3

 My three favorite John Lennon solo songs:

1. Instant Karma! (YouTube Link)
2. Working Class Hero (YouTube Link)
3. Nobody Told Me (YouTube Link)

I know you're supposed to have Imagine on the list, but it's not. You can put it on your list if you want.

The Things We Said

This is kind of a strange song, because even though the words are hopeful and romantic the melody and vocals are rather ominous. 

The drumming contributes to that effect.  There are several times where you expect to hear a fill, but the beat remains steady, creating an underlying tension.

Full lyrics HERE.

Just For Today

[embed]https://youtu.be/GckXmRkPQqw[/embed]

George's widow Olivia Harrison said that this song is her favorite of his.

Someone on YouTube pointed out that it has two separate guitar solos, which I suppose is the sort of thing that happens when the lead guitarist writes the song.  What I always enjoyed about it is that it seems like something from a 12-Step Program for people struggling with Life.

I was reminded of it recently when I read this poem by blogger Ria.

Full lyrics HERE.

You Are Part of Everything

[embed]https://youtu.be/n8lYGRVNRWY[/embed]

"Dear Prudence" is one of my favorite Beatles' songs, and it turns out to have been a favorite of Jerry Garcia, too.

Full lyrics HERE.