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Music Memories + Songs

Friday, April 15, 2005

post-Beatles politicking

The post-Beatles lives of The Beatles also seems
to argue that, on the whole, they just were not
very political -- not uncommon among great
artists, who are focussed on their art rather
than politics.

George Harrison did organize the concert for
Bangla Desh, which Pakistan may have taken in
a political way but which was billed and
carried out as a charity. And so far as I know,
the money raised was spent just to help the
victims in Bangladesh.

Paul McCartney is well known to be involved with
animal rights, but he not known as any
dogmatic fanatic.

I don't recall hearing about any political
activity from Ringo, though maybe I missed it.

The exception of course is John, though even his
political activity was sporadic and peetered out
as he attempted to keep his single career going
and was more into drugs, until his death.

Following the breakup of The Beatles, he became
more openly identified with the peace movement.
There's the recording of "Give Peace a Chance,"
the Bed-In for peace with he and Yoko. Performing
at Peace concert in Toronto in 1973 -- who among
us who actually listened to the second side
of that album ever forget it?

The first side was John and the stage band playing
old rock and roll songs. It's fun but nothing
spectacular. But the second side -- all 20 minutes of
Yoko screaming . . . well, that's an artistic
triumph of the ages.

Yet when they did their Christmas song with the
children's choir celebrating the end of the war,
they kept it fuzzy, pro-peace in a way that
not even us rightwing military fanatics could
object to.

I heard a local dj comment that he wished he could
give the song to Phil Spector to edit out Yoko's
singing, but of course Yoko owns the rights and
will never allow that.

Actually, it doesn't bother me. I listened and
couldn't even hear her -- but maybe that's
because I was listening through standard car
radio speakers instead of professional
earphones.

Still, I enjoy hearing the song every Christmas.
It's probably my favorite post-Beatles songs.
It still chokes up me.

I've never heard his album "Woman is the Nigger
of the World" -- and have no motivation to ever
hear it. Politically correct 1970s feminism
by a rich man who dumped his first wife for
Yoko Ono. Please.

And that brings me to the one political act
that will outlive John for many more years.

One I wish I could get hold of the master
for -- I'd keep the music but erase almost
all the words.

History travel

Peace & Love

The next major development in the cultural influence
of The Beatles can be summed up in the 60s phrase,
"Peace and Love."

Again, they didn't invent the ideas of peace and love,
even within the 60s context, but they certainly
pushed it into mass popularity with my generation.

There were Ban the Bomb type demonstrations in favor
of nuclear disarmament in the early 1960s, but these
came mostly from fringe left-wing and pacifist
groups, far from the mainstream and far from the
consciousness of the young people of the time.

The passage of the Resolution in 1964 after
the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the introduction
of American combat troops to Vietnam in the summer
of 1965 did initially mobilize some opposition,
but mostly from New Left type groups.

There were a number of New Lefties looking for a
cause, since the white ones had just been kicked
out of the New Left Civil Rights organization,
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee -- and
told by the blacks involved to organize in their
own communities.

So Vietnam came just in time for them, but they
were still on the fringe.

And by 1966 the anti-war cause was beginning to
attract a little more broad-based support, at least
among previously inactive students. That was the
year Jerry Rubin held some kind of student
demonstration against troop trains.

The Beatles did keep their peace and love stuff
pretty non-political. They came from a place lit
by LSD, full of bright colors. They wanted everybody
to love each other and all of us to live in
peace, and nobody could quarell with that.

It's hard to believe they supported US involvement
in Vietnam but, perhaps because they were British
and not directly involved, or because they decided
as a group to stay away from the politics, or
because they were too much focussed on their own
music and drug experiences . . . I don't know.

Maybe they simply wanted to avoid another spate of
bad publicity such as that which followed John's
remark about them being more popular than Jesus --
the only time during the Beatlemania period when
their careers were in any serious jeopardy.

The songs Revolution -- which does show they
were paying attention to current political
events but did not approve of a dogmatic
approach to changing the world -- and All You Need
is Love seem to argue for the approach of changing
the world by changing your head and loving people
rather than demonstrating and making violent
revolutions.

It is true that large number of their fans in
the U.S. DID support the war in Vietnam. This
gradually changed from 1967 to 1969, but due
largely to other factors such as the Tet
Offensive in January 1968.

Although it's also true that their pushing of
the peace and love platform probably somewhat
bolstered the movement against the war in
Vietnam.

Hard to say -- many people at the time were
against it, who were NOT hardcore lefty
activists and who did not go to demonstrations
unless they were convenient.

And of course we were all in favor of love,
especially free love -- because we didn't want
to pay for anything.

More Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

The Beatles in India and the New Age

During the filming of their second movie, HELP!,
there was a scene in a restaurant in London.
The director Richard Lester kept those customers
who wanted to stick around to continue to sit
in the restaurant as background extras.

Among those customers/extra were a couple of
Indian musicians. George Harrison struck up a
conversation with them, and wound up
studying with one of the great contemporary
Indian sitar players -- Ravi Shankar.

This led not only to a great widening of the
musical sounds The Beatles produced, but to
a highly publicized trip they made to India
to meet and study Transcendal Meditation with
the Maharishi Mahesh Yoga.

Apparently none of them except George took
Hindu religion seriously for very long, but
it all did push my generation into what is
now called the New Age.

Of course, they did not create the New Age
by itself. There was already a growing but
little known movement in this direction.
The book YOGA, YOUTH AND REINCARNATION by
Jess Stearn was already a bestseller.

But I am sure that, for the kids my age,
this trip by the Beatles was a strong
influence on many of us to go in that
direction. Up until then, there was
very little interest in mysticism,
etc.

Oh, many of us enjoyed reading FATE magazine,
books by Frank Edwards and Charles Fort,
stuff like that, but not on the serious
level.

And of course, most of my generation still do
not much care for this. But those who were
inclined toward New Age and mysticism were
introduced to it early thanks to The Beatles.

Archeology Travel

Dr. Robert

And The Beatles role in those 5 years were larger
than anyone else except political leaders such as
President Lyndon B Johnson and Soviet dictator
Krushev.

And actually, in terms of actually leading people,
The Beatles were more powerful than either of
these two. Perhaps only Chairman Mao tse Tung in
China mobilized more youth energy -- through the
Cultural Revolution (which convulsed China in
1964-1969, and which the Chinese are still
reacting against today, so my 5 year theory
applies to China as well although for different
reasons than most of the rest of the world).

And for not having any political or military power
at their disposal and for worldwide reach and
influence, The Beatles were the undisputed leaders
of those 5 years, certainly of the youth of the world --
almost everyone outside China, where Mao and the
Communists could pretty much limit their exposure
to "decadent capitalistic" music.

As The Beatles kept growing their hair, we
accepted longer and longer hair. We were just
about 1 year of hair growth behind them. By the
late 1960s, it was hard to be a cool guy without
long hair.

It was not nearly so obvious in the early years,
but The Beatles in private were also ahead of us
in another important way -- drugs.

I've read that even then Paul and John did speed
together to write all their songs. And probably
just to keep themselves going in those
Beatlemania years when they got maybe one hour
of sleep a night.

I don't know when they started smoking weed,
but it probably did take long after they became
rich and famous and were partying with the
hippest in London etc.

I'm not sure of the date they first took LSD.
As I recall the story, it was Paul, George and
John club hopping together.

At one club, they met a friend with a dentist --
Dr. Robert -- who gave the three Beatles their
first hits of acid.

For those who don't know -- it takes about 30
minutes or so after you drop a hit of acid
before you start feeling the effects. More, if
you have a full stomach.

So, about 20 minutes after taking the LSD, the
Beatles were bored and decided to leave the club.
Their friend and Dr. Robert were horrified.
They knew that in about 10 minutes, the Beatles
were going to start having strong, vivid
hallucations -- NOT a good shape to be driving
in, especially the first time you are under the
influence of LSD-25.

So they begged The Beatles to stay at the club,
but when you're rock stars at the top of the world,
you don't have to listen to anybody else and
so you don't.

The Beatles left in their expensive sports cars
to drive to another club.

Their friend and Dr. Robert followed right behind
them -- mortally afraid that Paul, George and
John would have an accident, maybe die, it'd be
discovered that they took LSD just before driving
away -- and the friend and Dr. Robert would
become known as the villains who killed off 3 of
the Beatles with LSD.

So they followed, hoping to help following any
accident.

Fortunately, John, Paul and George could handle
their acid even the first time. Nobody was hurt
and Dr. Robert is immortalized in one of their
songs.

Innocents Abroad

Rest in Peace, Johnnie Johnson

I was saddened yesterday to see the news that Johnnie Johnson
died April 13, 2005.

Never well known, Johnnie Clyde Johnson was Chuck Berry's piano
player on his landmark Chess recordings during the 1955 to 1956
period when he was shaping rock and roll.

Several years ago, Johnnie Johnson filed a lawsuit against
Chuck Berry alleging that he deserved a share of the money
Chuck was getting for those recordings. Basically he said
that he was as responsible as Chuck for the basic sound
and beat of the records and their success and their
historical importance.

On his website, he's billed as the "Father of Rock and
Roll." See:

Father of Rock and
Roll -- Johnnie Johnson



I wasn't there during those recordings sessions -- and
wouldn't have understood anything if I had been, since I was
a preschooler at the time -- so I cannot make any
judgment.

I have no trouble believing that the records were a
combination of both talents, a synthesis of what they
could do. Piano man and the guitar playing singer.
I credit them both.

Johnnie Johnson was known by subsequent rock and
rollers -- I've heard that Keith Richards often flew him
to England for recording sessions, for example.

He was 80 years old, and played his last gig late last
month. He also played on some specialty recordings
made locally for local sports teams to cheer them on.

I heard him on the radio several times with a local
DJ known as Smash, and Johnny Johnson sounded
like a real nice guy.

Several years ago, he was belatedly inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So it's good that he got
that professional recognition in time to enjoy a few
years of it.

As a resident of St Louis and a native of the St Louis
Metro Area, I find it worth noting that both Chuck
Berry and Johnnie Johnson are from St Louis and
continued to reside here.

On the Great Highway