Well folks, the highers-up at b5 media have decided to discontinue this blog. I’m looking at the possibility of continuing it elsewhere, though I’ll probably take a month off to focus on my upcoming wedding. If you would like to be contacted when and if the blog starts up again, drop me an email. gslisrael at g mail dot com.
Thank you all for being a part of an adventure.
And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love
You make
finis
Last week’s Beatles Blog Quiz Question Eighteen was a tough one. I received two answers, both going with Come Together. It’s a good idea. Hillary Clinton was trying to get Americans, or at least Democrats, to come together. But that wasn’t the Beatles song I was looking for. It doesn’t match up with a subtle lyric reference that I hid in the post. Does anyone care to guess again before I reveal the answer? Another hint: If there’s nothing for me here, maybe I’ll just disappear.
As for a new challenge, how about this?
With all the mistakes we must surely be learning. If you know what Beatles song I’m thinking of, drop me a comment. And be sure to indicate the connections you found in the text and photo.
Tags: Beatles, blog, Clapton, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, name, photo, quiz, songHere’s a brief video clip of The Beatles bassist Paul McCartney talking about drug use in The Beatles. He claims that John Lennon was excited by LSD, but that he himself was frightened.
The interview is followed by a promotional video of The Beatles playing Day Tripper - a song that Paul admits was written about LSD.
Enjoy. (The video, not the drugs. Because drugs are bad, mkay?)
Day Tripper (the reverse of double-A side single We Can Work It Out) has perhaps the most catchy riff of the entire Beatles catalogue. It is one of my favourite songs to play on guitar. John Lennon wrote the riff and most of the lyrics, with Paul McCartney contributing in the verses.
“Day trippers are people who go on a day trip, right? Usually on a ferryboat or something. But [the song] was kind of… you’re just a weekend hippie. Get it?” - John Lennon
While the lyrics speak of a woman who leads the singer on, Paul McCartney later claimed that the song was about drugs and LSD in particular.
Musically, the song switches back and forth between major and minor 12-bar blues, which is rather unusual. Paul later referred to the gimmick as a “song with a joke in it”. Rarely, Paul sings lead on a song primarily written by John.
Tags: Beatles, Day Tripper, double-A, drugs, John-Lennon, LSD, Paul-McCartney, single 
On 3 December 1965, The Beatles released their (and the world’s) first “double A-sided” single. We Can Work It Out and Day Tripper were given equal billing and indeed both of them were #1 songs in the UK.
We Can Work It Out was another collaboration between Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Paul wrote the verses, while John wrote the chorus. The contrast in styles is quite stark, and stereotypical of the composers’ tendancies. Paul’s parts of the song are bright and optimistic, probably written about Jane Asher. John’s part is darker, in a minor key, and speaks of mortality.
Musically, the track is notable for John’s use of a harmonium (reed organ). George Harrison contributed to the song’s style by suggesting a waltz beat for John’s section. Unusually, George is only heard on the track playing tambourine, not guitar. Recording the track took a total of 11 studio hours - by far the most for any Beatles song so far.
Stay tuned for the other A-side, Day Tripper, coming soon to this space.
Tags: Beatles, double-A, harmonium, John-Lennon, Paul-McCartney, single, tambourine, We Can Work It Out
Paul McCartney is best known for his singing, songwriting, and for playing bass guitar. But he wasn’t always a bass player. In 1956, Paul’s father bought him a trumpet for his 14th birthday.
“I used to play [the trumpet] a little bit because that was the hero instrument then, The Man with the Golden Arm and everything, but it became clear to me fairly quickly that you couldn’t sing with a trumpet stuck in your mouth.” - Paul McCartney
What Paul really wanted to do was play skiffle. With his father’s permission, Paul traded in his trumpet for a £15 German-made Framus Zenith guitar. It didn’t even occur to him that left-handed players need left-handed guitars. Once he figured out that he couldn’t play it as is, Paul restrung the Zenith left and used a safety match to keep the thinner first string from rattling in the wider notch of the sixth string.
Paul later modified the guitar, adding a pickup near the bridge to allow for amplification and removing the pick-guard.
This was Paul’s main guitar up until The Beatles‘ first trip to Hamburg. He used it while writing many of his early songs, including When I’m 64. He keeps the Zenith hanging in his studio, and can be seen playing it in the Anthology documentary video.
History source: thecanteen.com
Tags: acoustic, Beatles, Framus, guitars, Paul-McCartney, Zenith 
Starting this year, Liverpool will celebrate July 10 as Beatles Day. The day marks the 44th anniversary of the band’s triumphant return home after their first American tour.
Event promoter Chas Cole explains:
“Liverpool has always been proud of The Beatles and it’s a wonderful idea to combine an annual celebration of their music with a fund-raising drive for charity.
“Beatles Day will really be about the ordinary people of this city, and hopefully in the future, cities in the UK and beyond because we want this idea to catch on, from Liverpool to London to Los Angeles.” - Chas Cole
Celebrations include (surprise surprise) lots of tribute concerts. Beatles-style mop-top wigs are on sale everywhere, with proceeds going to charities including Alder Hey Imagine Appeal and Liverpool Unites.
Happy Beatles Day to you.
Tags: Beatles, Beatles Day, Liverpool, tributeMorecambe and Wise were a hugely successful British comedy duo from 1941 through to Morecambe’s death in 1984. In December 1963 The Beatles appeared on their ATV television programme Two Of A Kind.
Here is the entire 10 minute clip of The Beatles from that show. It includes fairly standard performances of three songs, This Boy, All My Loving, and I Want to Hold Your Hand. The best part of the clip though is at the end, where Morcambe and Wise banter with The Beatles, and then sing Moonlight Bay with them. This can be heard on The Beatles Anthology 1, but watching this video today was the first time I actually saw it.
Priceless.
Tags: Anthology, Beatles, comedy, film, funny, live, Moonlight Bay, Morecambe and Wise, video 
My first entry of the This Week in Beatles History variety was published on 6 July 2007. Since then, (almost) every week I’ve added to the series. As today is 4 July, the series has come to an end. Over the course of the year I’ve mislabeled a couple of entries, lost count, wrote about 6 days instead of 7, and missed an entire week. Eventually I intend to get that all sorted out, but meanwhile, here’s the entry for those last few days of June, plus a missing week in October/November.
June 29 - 1964. Small riot in Brisbane, Australia after the last concert of The Beatles tour.
June 30 - 1964. The Beatles return to London.
October 28 - 1962. The Beatles open for Little Richard at Liverpool Empire Theatre.
October 29 - 1963. A concert in Eskilstun, Sweden closes out the first European tour of The Beatles.
October 30 - 1963. The Beatles are filmed for Swedish television.
October 31 - 1968. Linda Eastman and her daughter Heather move to England to live with Paul McCartney.
November 1 - 1968. George Harrison’s Wonderwall Music solo album released.
November 2 - 1963. British newspaper The Daily Express derides The Beatles and the “mass hysteria” of their “empty headed” fans.
November 3 - 1968. A clip from Yellow Submarine is shown on The Ed Sullivan Show.
In the previous entry, I listed the blog entry that was most popular each month. Here I list the top ten most popular Beatles Invasion entries of all time.
Which are your favourite posts?
Tags: all time, Beatles, blog, entry, favourite, most popular, reflections
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