I read the news today Oh Boy!

4.28.2007

Plugs
Sunshine 33 is up with a questions and a bit of advice for the buckos.

You are listening too . . .
Perhaps the best song every created by The Beatles, or anyone else for that matter, and a song that defintely had a huge influence on all music to follow, A Day in the Life, off Sgt. Pepper . . . .

Before I get into this song, a little bit about Malach and this song. Malach has always been a Beatles fan, even though I was born in 1972. Mom and Pop both listened to The Beatles, though neither were really a fan of their stuff after Rubber Soul. I find this strange, Mom and Pop have very good taste in music and introduced me to things like Janis Joplin; Jimmy Hedrix, Johnny Guitar Watson; Simon and Garfunkel; The Beach Boys; Jan and Dean; Otis Redding; and a host of 70's soft rock classics. As The Beatles became more rock oriented and experimental, my parents lost interest in The Beatles stuff, along with stuff that came after in similar genre (The Who, Led Zepplin, The Doors etc). It wasn't until High School and College that I really started getting into The Beatles on my own, especially their post-Rubber Soul stuff. While I was familiar with many of their radio friendly later hits, I never really listened extensively to any later albums . . . then one day I heard (or for that matter really listened to) A Day in the Life. I got so excited about that song, I dove into much of their later stuff and was hooked. A Day . . really opened my eyes to how great a band The Beatles actually were.

As for the song. One thing that is immiediately notice in this song is a 50-50 Lennon/McCartney split in it's creation, their last real collaboration and one of the only ones in recent Beatles memory. The song is a merging of 2 partial but complimentary compositions began seperately by the two. McCartney's fragment was plastered right in the middle of this Lennon song. Featuring impressionistic surreal lyrics, innovative production techniques and a complex arrangement including a cacophonous, partially-improvised almost otherworldy orchestral crescendo, the song is considered to be one of the most ambitious, influential, and groundbreaking works in music history.

The story of the song and it's creation is also pretty much agreed upon by all The Beatles. Lennon began kind of free from writing of a song based upon the days version of the Daily Mail. The lead story was about the fatal car accident of Tara Browne a socialite and friend to the band. In addition another story that caught his eye was a plan to fill over 4,000 potholes in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire. Lennon took us on a trip form those point of inspiration. McCartney then added the piano of his part of the song, and began singing a song about a morning commuter, almost as fill in lyrics, until they all agreed that is some strange way, it fit really well with the song. McCartney had tried the song on it's own, but hated it, and he too felt this was the perfect vehicle for the song. McCartney explains the song as a wistful recollection of his younger years. McCartney is also given credit for the line "I'd love to turn you on" which transitions into the crescendo. Lennon loved the phrase, and immediately added it. Lennon added a wordless vocal part to transition back out of the McCartney section of the song back to Lennon's.

The biggest problem was how to fill the transition between the two parts of the song. The song sections were seperated by 24 bars and basically only consisted of a repeated piano riff and an assitant, Mal Evans, counting the bars. The assitant's vocal was treated by copious amounts of echo, creating a early sort of crescendo. The transition ended with an accidental recording of an alarm clock. It was to be edited out, but fit so well with McCartney's section it was left in.

McCartney was the one who suggested that an "orchestral freak out" might be what the transition ordered. So, they brought in a 41 piece job, and ordered them to freak out. George Martin was concerned that traditionally trained muscian wouldn't know how to freak out, so he wrote an extended atonal crescendo to follow and also encouraged imporvisation within that guideline of the written piece. Martin basically created a crescendo for each instrument to start at it's lowest note, and in 24 bars reach it's highest note within E major. Of course the orchestra though he was mad.

As the orchestra practiced McCartney tried to lend a hand. They spent most of the day recording, took the best 4 recordings and mixed and overdubbed it, with brilliant results, probably even better than they imagined they could get.

The last crescendo ends in perhaps the most famous final chords and piano chords of all time. A loud crashing end to a amazing song. Lennon, McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Martin, and Mal Evans, simultaneously playing an E-major chord on three different pianos. The final chord was manipulated to last nearly a minute by increasing the sound level of the tape as the chord faded out. Recording levels were turned so high that the sound of papers rustling, a chair squeaking, and someone saying "Shhh!" can all be heard. Some claim you can even hear the Abbey Road Studio air conditioning. Immediately following the chord is a sound too high for most humans to hear, though many animals can. It was added for the bemusment of Lennon to irritate owners dogs. Immediatley after that comes one of the most famous pranks in music history. The Beatles added a ending groove (remember we are dealing with vinyl here), that would not allow most needles to return to their begining point. The groove consisted basically of laughing, gibberish, noise, and a highly sped up voice saying "never could see any other way". What would occur is the needle would hit that groove and settle into it, repeating what you hear at the end of this track, over and over into infinity, unless the needle was manually reset. People have tried to interpret this loop, but no one really has come close, and The Beatles themselves claim it was just random pieces of recording thrown together.

The song was actually banned by the BBC as they felt the song promoted drug use. Both McCartney and Lennon have denied this, staing it is based on a newpaper and some dream like elements, though they have never said drug use did not influence the song. Officially the song was never unbanned by the BBC but like a lot of stuff that has been banned, it has been forgotten and has been played extensively over British airwaves in the past 25 years. The song (and this album) also become a intregal part of the "Paul is Dead legend", but that is later for this history (1969).

Controversy also followed this song in the wake of the September 11th attacks. This was one of the songs Clear Channel banned from it's airwaves as to "not upset Americans" after the attacks. Yeah Clear Channel is weird.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation.
Well, I knew they had to lose one to the Yankees sooner of later. Mood: Still great.

So.
What kind of second mortgage do you think this guy has?

Damn!
You can buy absolutely anything at Wal-Mart!

OK.
I always though you could not bring you Ipod, Cell Phone and such to class. This may surprise you but Malach is also for school dress codes.

Malach's Quote/Video of the Day.

I am Malach and I don't know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.