Showing posts with label Beatles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beatles. Show all posts

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Non Stop Striptease With The Beatles

This is a picture from a video on YouTube.


I think I've seen most Beatles pictures, but I don't remember seeing this one.

It's interesting that there's a sign for "Non Stop Striptease" in the background.

As to the Beatles, they look great in the photo.

The video is for the song "Lovely Rita," and has a series of various Beatles pictures.

Friday, October 09, 2009

John Lennon's Birthday

I think today is John Lennon's birthday. I'm not looking it up to be sure. But I'm pretty sure it is.

So happy birthday, John Lennon! I also believe he was born in 1940. Going out on a limb on that one.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

The Beatles Are Coming

I'm looking forward to getting the Beatles boxed sets. They're on their way.

The reviews I've read say some very good things about the remastering work. So I believe it's all going to be great.

Now if I can just clear some time in my schedule to actually sit and listen to CDs.

I would guess this is the last time in my life I'm going to be buying the Beatles music. Have 'em on records, then the first bunch of CDs, now this. I'm not saying there aren't other sound inventions out there coming -- but what could it be?

Friday, September 04, 2009

The Beatles -- You Could Argue They're Well Known

I was reading some things about the Beatles' albums coming out on 09-09-09 and whether they'll be on iTunes or not.

One comment struck me as sublime, from a guy named Bob:

The Beatles are arguably one of the best selling musical groups of all time, so having their catalog available on the store of the largest seller of downloadable music is the kind of synergy that makes business people say “ca-ching!”
Yes, I suppose you could argue that The Beatles were one of the best selling musical groups of all time. If you could find someone to argue with. Because it's an objective fact beyond dispute. "The Pope is arguably a well-known Catholic."

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Phil Spector

What a drag that Phil Spector had to go and kill someone. Now he's been found guilty of murder, and it sounds like he'll be in prison for a long time.

This is the end of a sad and tragic tale, said Mick Brown in the Telegraph. “In his heyday in the early ’60s, Spector produced some of the most exuberant and uplifting recordings ever heard in pop music.” But the “teenage genius” who briefly became “the most successful producer in rock and roll” was ultimately “overtaken by hubris and his own demons.”
So this is what we're supposed to think of now every time we hear something Phil Spector did? That's the big drag. I remember hearing that one of the guys from Motown, who I believe was on the song "Shotgun" among others, killed someone. So that's what I think of when I hear that song. But Phil Spector is a legend in every way, and had so many records.

Big ones too, the '60s groups, with great songs like "Be My Baby," a bunch of them. And John Lennon's "Plastic Ono Band" album and George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" album.

Well, I guess the only way to look at it is that he did great work back then but went on to be somewhat crazed in later years. And really anybody could do the same thing, depending on how crazed we get.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

The Beatles Remastered

How does this happen without someone periodically peeking his or her head out and saying how it's going? Like, "We're up to the 'Help' album and work is proceeding very nicely, thank you.'

Instead, there's complaints that the Beatles' albums aren't remastered and no one says, "Hold your horses."

Then we're going along, innocently minding our own business, and -- bam -- the news comes out that all the albums have been remastered, over a period of four years, and that they'll be for sale on one day in September 2009.

Wow. It's something like 12 normal albums, then the "Past Masters" CDs, that will be released that day. Plus they'll have all the albums that had mono releases released in mono at the same time.

These will no doubt be expensive packages. So ... start saving now.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Ringo

There was a report that Ringo Starr won't be answering any more fan mail or signing pictures to send them out. Good for him. What's a guy like him doing worrying about answering mail and signing pictures? He's surely got more important things to do, like living his life.

Let everyone get a life. Sending letters to celebrities, expecting them to answer. That's ridiculous. Ringo's a legend and he deserves his privacy, whatever he wants to do.

Go Ringo!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night in Yiddish


I got this link off the blog I was just mentioning, illusory tenant.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Other Groups' Walruses

Maybe you've heard The Guess Who's "Friends of Mine" at some time in your life. It was mildly popular at one time, at least where I lived. It was on the radio once in a while, fairly often, and it was kind of an event to listen to it. I remember really paying attention closely.

But it's a song that, to my knowledge, doesn't get played on the radio much anymore. And whenever I see a collection of Guess Who tracks, I look to see if it's there, and I never see it.

It was on the Wheatfield Soul album. And of course it was on the CD of Wheatfield Soul. I don't know if there was a shortened version put out as a single or not. It seems to me I used to hear a shortened version once in a while, but that could be my imagination, or a radio edit.

This is a song -- once an event, as I said -- that was a lot better at the time. Listening to it now, and this was true even a little over 20 years ago, it doesn't pack quite the same punch. The lyrics sound to me almost embarrassing. (I also loved the movie Billy Jack at the time, but last time I tried to watch it...my attempt was unsuccessful.) There are plenty of songs that have stood the test of time, or were sufficiently poetic to have transcended the bounds of their time. This one didn't quite make it.

Just to review the song, then I want to make another point about the Walrus ... and who the Walrus is ... and who cares.

This is a song that chugs along for just over 10 minutes. It starts off, "Friends of mine, don't have the time for food or wine, just money is on their mind." The lyrics are fairly cryptic. It's also a sing-along for those who've heard it a lot, except for the recitations. But the lyrics aren't the greatest throughout, such as, "Gotta do it to a duck on a two-ton truck." It has some nice treble guitar things going on.

Then there are the references to Magical Mystery Tour, with this lyric, "And Kurt is the walrus, (repeated), and the walrus does funny things to the veins in his left arm, all right." I want to get back to that line.

We go on to hear that Michael is a proud father, and that that means Michael's wife is a mother, stated in a very matter of fact way. The instruments are smoking. Then we come to a pause, a breakdown of sorts. This introduces the condemned man's walking the 13 steps to the gallows, and a recitation about death being near. We are marching up the steps and the soul of the condemned man is about to leave his body. This is cryptic. Then the man was dead. He went down, down, down, "to a place we laughingly refer to as hell." But none of us will go there because we're all "far too groovy." There's kind of a howling in here, and we're out in a wasteland somewhere. Until we ultimately question God, in a very overstated, overly dramatic way, "And where was God??" Echoed with weird effect.

That takes us back into the chugga chugga, an instrumental break. A time for us to drift away and consider it all. Then a moaning section, with a plaintive lyric about "Flanders Field," where the hippies go to smoke the poppies and feed their heads. "And they're all friends of mine." Then we get back into the main, original theme, "bu-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-baby!" It's all over and it's all right!

Toward the end we're all drifting about, doing our own noodling thing with the guitars and drums, a major breakdown, drifting vibes. But right at the end, the discipline returns and we get the organ, the essential tune we started with, bringing it to a nice conclusion, fading out.

OK, who is the Walrus, and who cares?

We know from The Beatles' song that, "I am the walrus," with John singing. And we know as well, from "Glass Onion," that, "The walrus was Paul." All quite significant, right? The Beatles actually have a walrus mask and other masks from your basic walrus collection. It is a thing of pop lore, the Walrus, yes!

But when we get to The Guess Who, and this line, "Kurt is the walrus," we're like "Kurt?" Sounds like an inside line, and because we don't really know anything about them or their friends, it's hard to care. Then we hear that the Walrus does funny things to the veins on his left arm, and for me, I have to pull back and ask for some respectful discretion. Funny things? Not funny, ha ha, I'm assuming. But funny as in strange, odd, self-destructive, while the rest of us are busy keeping our left arms looking good.

As far as I can discern, that's the end of Kurt's story. You've got the Magical Mystery Tour. That's clear enough, The Guess Who are propounding mysteries a la The Beatles. The announcement of Kurt's status as the Walrus means exactly what? Don't know. But what he's doing, some kind of drug thing, like the hippies later smoking poppies, is what we remember him for.

The conclusion to this fine blog post is this: The only Walrus we really care about is The Beatles'. Other groups -- if they have a Walrus -- need to either call it something else, or give us more of a reason to tune in and find out what their Walrus is up to. I'm respectful of The Guess Who on several levels, and mean no disrespect. But no one really cares about other groups' Walruses.

End of post, print it!

Sunday, March 11, 2007

The Beatles - The White Album on My Gigabeat with Earbuds


Here we go, live-blogging the White Album:

1) Back in the U.S.S.R. - The sound of a plane tells us we're on a trip. And the song tells the story of a guy on a dreadful flight, but now back in his homeland, the hated Soviet Union. This was really something to sing in 1968. It'd be about like doing a Chuck Berry "Back in the U.S.A." take-off today about going to Tora Bora. Evil empire? That wasn't the half of it. "Moscow girls make me sing and shout." I don't hear any new revelations in this well-worn track. It's still very delightful. The airplane effects are extensive on earbuds. Some extra little talk in the background you don't usually notice except on earbuds.

2) Dear Prudence - My absolute favorite White Album song. As every website tells us, it has a connection to Mia Farrow's sister, there in India during the whole meditation time with the Maharishi. It's a delightful song of playing, daisy chains, clouds, and frolic, and smiling children. "Open up your eyes, Dear Prudence, see the sunny skies!" This is a picture perfect song. I've heard a varying version or two along the way, but it's just right here. This is definitely a song about living today and fully. Then here comes that marching Ahhhh stuff with the music chugging under and floating/flying over the whole thing, building to a very cool, diminishing bit with the single guitar. And that's the end!

3) Glass Onion - Self-referential song, Strawberry Fields, Fool on the Hill, another place you can go. The lyrics are nicely obscure. The walrus and me, man. And another clue for you all, the walrus is Paul! So what's that tell you? I always thought it meant the walrus on the Magical Mystery Tour cover was Paul, even with the John glasses. There's a pipe sustained in there a little more than I've heard before with speakers. Then the bass and violins overlay at the end.

4) Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - I heard they did this song repeatedly and hated it (except for Paul). Listening for the body parts thrown into the mix. Desmond = Desmond Dekker? Didn't he just die recently and I was reading that? Interesting clapping noises there, and sounds like voice percussion a bit. Ha ha ha ha ha. "Happy ever after." Hand, Arm, Leg! I do hear some good noises and background asides in here, laughing, what-not. I remember hearing an alternate version of this on one of the Lost Lennon shows (the only one I heard) several years ago, which could be on one of the Anthology discs. And it ends with Thank You.

5) Wild Honey Pie - Kind of a weird track, some of the instruments sound like an 8-track cartridge going bad, very wavvery. "I love you, honey pie."

6) The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill - That's Yoko on this track, right? I've heard that. "Bill and his elephants were taken by surprise." "Us instead of him" has an interesting deeper voiced bit on the harmony. The song sounds like a toss-off track, one that would've never made the single LP master, but would've been an Anthology track in the '90s.

7) While My Guitar Gently Weeps - George's very beautiful, serious song. Emotion, examination, "How to unfold your love," with Eric Clapton uncredited on weeping guitar. As Vivian Stanshall would say, "Thanks Eric!" I can sure hear George's layered vocals clearer on the earbuds, so nice. "You were perverted, too....No one alerted you." That's goosebump stuff. There's some Ohhs in the background you can't hear so easily on the speakers, right before the more overt Ohhs. Neat stuff buried in there.

8) Happiness is a Warm Gun - I always think of John being shot, same thing for "Come Together," Shoot me. Otherwise a great song. Supposed to have come from a poster or advertisement saying, "Happiness is a warm gun," based on expressions common at the time, Peanuts ("Happiness is a warm puppy") and Johnny Carson's book "Happiness is a Dry Martini" [maybe not the exact title, something like that, itself a take-off of Peanuts.] I love the doo-wop section of the song, and the kind of "Little Darlin'" talking part. "Mother Superior jumped the gun," you know. Good, subtle, deep voiced Uuuu's in here.

That would be the end of side one if we were going by the LP.

9) Martha My Dear - Paul's dog, get that bit of cliche trivia out of the way. Very romantic fellow. I don't hear too many other Beatles in the mix, unless that's J-G-R on tuba. Oh, now we have guitars and drums! Then the violins and tubas back in, and trumpets, sounds like. A very happy, challenging song, like Georgy Girl, "Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you, silly girl!" Live up to your potential, get out there and live! Pretty song.

10) I'm So Tired - "Walter Raleigh, git." Nasty kind of word in English English, like "Randy Scouse Git" by Micky Dolenz. The song is intense but a sing-along favorite. "I'm feeling so upset ... and curse Sir Walter Raleigh, he was such a stupid git!" Ha ha ha. The drums are strong. He definitely wants a little piece of mind! Drifting off with some gibberish.

11) Blackbird - Paul on guitar and someone doing improv percussion on the left earbud. Bird effects, I know you can hear those well on speakers. The song is one of encouragement. Very lovely.

12) Piggies - They have the animal songs together, by intention. This is George's view on policemen at the time, I heard, because he had some trouble. But he gets into the bigger piggies with an uncaring eye to society around. "They need a damn good whacking." Kind of a minuet thing going on with cello counterpoint, pardon while I get my white powdered Beatle wig out and hand-held glasses and do a little dance around my room here. Thank God for this lap-top strap, as I keep typing. "One more time," and the pig noises come in after the orchestra. That's humorous.

13) Rocky Raccoon - I hate this song. It's such toss-off crap it probably would not have even made the Anthology album. But we will suffer it for the sake of this immortal blog. The bass notes are made how? Sound a little extended, loose. The hoe-down harmonica is over on the right. Nice drum asserting itself, with ragtime piano on the right only. "Doctor comes in, stinking of gin." Other voices come in toward the end, right only, then the ragtime reappears. It's just like it was recorded in Dodge City.

14) Don't Pass Me By - Ringo's turn to shine, which he immediately foregos. Wow, what a bad song, lyrically a meaningless mess, the hackish country vibe is an embarrassment, there's nothing good about it. The violin over on the right isn't so bad, if I may backtrack on my previous statement. I don't play bass but I think I could probably manage this song, like Johnny Cash's guy on guitar. "You were in a car crash and lost your hair." Oh boy, I think I'll play that next time I'm in the therapy you need before they give you hairplugs. Hey, I hear some counting over on the right I never heard before, One, Two, Three, Four, Five, and some noises on the left I never heard before. Toward the end, right when the music gets a little lower. OK, it's over!

15) Why Don't We Do It In The Road? - Paul's solo effort. Not exactly a desert island track, unless we can strand it somewhere. I don't remember this song inspiring a lot of doing it in the road, and I've never liked it.

16) I Will - Beautiful bass notes sung, doo, doo, doo. Lovely song, sort of like "I'll Follow The Sun" in tone but not tune. It has a kind of tropical bongo over on the left. Pretty Paul keeper. Although it's interesting if you go by titles to have "I Will" follow "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?"

17) Julia - John's sweet Mom song, a little different from "Mother" on Plastic Ono Band. "A song of love, Julia." "Seashell eyes, windy smile." I like stuff like that, especially with Spring about here. It's time to go out and fall in love! If you can find that girl on the "It's A Beautiful Day" album, somewhere out there in the wind and breeze, she'll be the keeper. "Sleeping sand, silent cloud, touch me." Why can't songs like this save the world?

And that's the end of side two on the LP.

18) Birthday - Side 3 rages out of the gate with what was actually, I heard, a toss-off song, "Birthday," still played everyday on the radio somewhere in honor of people's birthdays. Strong drum, and extra counting in the background, hard to hear on speakers. Lots of party clapping. I think I heard they brought people in off the street to make noises to this song when they were recording it. It's fun fun fun, and lots of noises in the background, calls, shouts, asides. I definitely hear a female voice in there, which I thought Paul said they never had before Phil Spector got done with "A Long and Winding Road." Maybe he meant on an ongoing basis. Fun song to listen to, Birthday!

19) Yer Blues - Intense John song about dying and killing himself, lonely, not just tired this time. It has a very stark sound, tough edge to his voice. It does sound kind of like a bar combo playing live. Maybe this was more of an ensemble piece, I don't know. There's an echo on him, or maybe it's just pflanging at work. Is that Paul back there, singing a bit, on "Girl, you know the reason why?" "Feel so suicidal," with some of extra background talk, noises on left, before the guitars go uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh. Then a raw guitar solo, with a left counterpoint, less raw. Very abrupt end to the guitar, with drums and the verse sung in the background, which we've all heard on the speakers, but not well. Then it fades out without John ever coming again to the fore. Off to commit hari kari.

20) Mother Nature's Son - Paul with his "Martha" and "I Will" guitar. "Sitting, singing songs for everyone," Which I appreciate. Pretty sounds of music, flying, etc., similar to what I was saying about "Dear Prudence," but not with the same punch for me. The horns are all on the right, and a different guitar after the horn section. That's nice on the right.

21) Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me & My Monkey - I heard this was about John and Yoko, who I've actually come to really like BTW. Her album, "Yes, I'm A Witch," is great. This is going to have some background noises and voices, over on the left, hoots, hollers, voices bubbling just under the surface. Listen to it. It's like they flashed a "Recording - Please Make Noise" sign or something. "Make it easy" HOOT HOOT! He was right out there, I guess, with nothing to hide. A bunch of confused "Come on"'s. John cuts loose looooooose on this.

22) Sexy Sadie - Absolutely a great song, they say about the Maharishi, same number of syllables, and a good way to say he made a fool of them (from John's point of view, not mine) without saying his name/title. "You laid it down for all to see." This is such a spitting bitter song, I love it. Especially the "You'll get yours yet!" lines. That is wicked! Here comes a wicked bit, "However big you think you are, however big you think you are!" That's genius stuff, "You'll get your's yet!." It's The Beatles as victims, giving up everything they owned just to sit at his table. Beautiful bit on the "Latest and the greatest of them all." And "You made a fool" and "Sexy Sadie" a little more buried. This song is a treasure.

23) Helter Skelter - About a playground, amusement park ride, I've heard. But of course if you're a mass murderer, you might take it other ways! It's kind of intense, kind of menacing for such a playful description (amusement park.) The guitars are thick as mud, Paul's voice as rocked out as ever, ragged, raw, like heavy metal. I love Paul, really, but now that he's like all of us, old and mortal, sometimes we think of him like Pat Boone. Wow, there's a laugh I never heard before, and some extranea on the left earbud right about the same place. "Look out!!!!!!" "Comin' down fast!!!!" That was a very dangerous ride. Paul is singing closer to the mic. Talking on the right earbud at the end, a few snippets actually. Then the mud guitars come in for another menacing bow, and shrieking horns I've never noticed. And what next? It's going to fade back in, isn't it, and some guy is going to shout something about blisters on his fingers!! This track is chaos of the most inspired kind.

24) Long, Long, Long - Soft George track. I never think of this track when I think of the White Album. It's kind of buried in there and obscure. "So many tears I was searching." I don't even halfway know the lyrics to this one. I don't think I've ever intentionally listened to it before, you know, going, "I think I'll listen to 'Long, Long, Long.'" I didn't even remember it had three Long's in the title. So what's it? The instruments have a slight warble. Then a door creaks, and there's the new dawn of what?, a bunch of ghost crows escaping or something. It was nice enough.

I think we're at side four, with Revolution 1:

25) Revolution 1 - John says, "OK." Guitar is great, one of the Revolutions, different from the flip of "Hey Jude" but in a more loping, less distorted form. The lyrics of Revolution excluded the Beatles from violence and some of the left's more extreme political response to Vietnam, etc. The "bump, shooby doo wop" stuff puts this in the parody class, like what was going on with "Back in the U.S.S.R." A great song, which I actually like more in the Single Version. "You better free your mind instead. If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow." That's a slap at someone.

26) Honey Pie - Here we go. Paul's 78 rpm charmer, complete with surface noise there a bit. I actually like this kind of musical theater, London stage sound, which of course Paul was brought up hearing. Very sentimental, vaudeville, voodie-o-doh. You could play this track to your Grandpa (back then) [I never did] and say, "See, the Beatles are not so bad, eh, Grandpa?" And he puts his big earhorn up to it and next thing he's cutting the rug and maybe the mustard with Grams.

27) Savoy Truffle - This is one of my GO-TO songs on the White Album. I love it. A bunch of candies that will rot your teeth, with George's voice in amongst a bunch of streamlined, clipped, clean-as-a-whistle instruments. I heard some extra little voice stuff on the left earbud. And by the way, the vocals are not balanced here, but all to the right. That's a little unnerving. The guitar solo is as antiseptic and sharp as a razor. Turn it up and it'd split a drum, guaranteed. "What you eat you are, but what is sweet now turns so sour." Then a swat at "Ob-La-Di" and Da. "But you'll have them all pulled out after the Savoy Truffle!" I love this song.

28) Cry Baby Cry - John. This song is kind of like "Long, Long, Long" for relative obscurity. I've heard it a lot and basically know it but I don't. Vocals are balanced, with some sound effects buried under the vocal, and the "Cry Baby" refrain is over at the left, with an even more buried accompanying vocal on the right. Some harmony. Tagged on the end is a tune I thought I missed and I was going to have to check my Gigabeat to see if I'd left it off, "Can I Take Me Back?" Just a little bit of nothing. I think on the Anthology CD this tune doesn't even have a copyright credit, but don't quote me on that.

29) Revolution 9 - OK, here we go. I should have some coffee as I type this. This is going to be a long hard slog, though I listened to it one day and sort of enjoyed it. [I'm on PAUSE for all those who think I'm indeed live-blogging this. I just need to vent my spleen about this track a bit before I proceed.] This was never a favorite of mine. I have usually skipped it and decried its existence. I always hated having to go over and lift the needle and put it on the last song. This track if it was on the album should've been last, or a 45 stuck in as a bonus. But it's there. One thing about it, everyone's who heard it has remembered at least one little thing, "Number Nine." Anytime the word "Number Nine" comes up in conversation, someone, if there's anyone under 65 in the room, will say in that robotic music studio voice, "Number Nine." [Off Pause and to the track]:

The "Number Nine" is bouncing back and forth. Then some unearthly music clips, indeed clipped or reversed. Drums, like off a TV show. Muttering, confused, and John there clearly speaking, and George. I heard J & G were the only Beatles on this track. What can I say? It's a lot of rubbish, but there's some good little bits. A baby's voice, the number nine guy, and very little else. Like a mash-up of movie openings and closing. There's a "Riiiight" guy on the right, and a bell. Turn off and turn on whatever tape loop you happen to have. It's sort of a blog of sound. Here's George and John a bit more. And a guy going "Hoooo!" The track might really be a good soundtrack to the time, which wasn't as innocent as we always think the "past" was. People being killed, RFK, MLK, 1968, not in that order. Prague. LBJ. Vietnam. There's some protest sounds in the mix. John's voice is this low monotone dark voice. Shooting, suggesting a western. George is reading something about a night watchman. I check, only a minute 39 to go. "Take this brother, may it serve you well." Someone's watching TV, which sounds like Yoko. And a trebly section follows, like a frightening noise chamber. Let me out. "If you become naked." "Hold that line!," a protest bouncing back and forth between the tracks, as we close....

30) Good night - Beautiful Ringo warbler. I love this track. From the Anthology CDs we find there was a spoken bit before, as originally intended, or was that "Yellow Submarine"? Speaking of movie openings and closing (see above), this one definitely has a swelling Hollywood feel to it, except for the voice being the voice of Everyman and not a big Hollywood Starr (sorry). The trills and swells are swell indeed, and the girl voices back there in the mix. The music is so far and away over the top, I love it. Ringo's voice was just right for such a quirky, parody thing like this. Ringo whispers, as we all have heard, "Good night."

And with that we come to the end of side four!

The Beatles - The White Album


We've most of us all probably heard all the cliches (truth) about the White Album. It wasn't called the White Album, but The Beatles. It came out in Nov.-Dec. 1968 with individually numbered LP jackets. George Martin thought it would be better to boil it down to one record, with only the best tracks included. The Beatles did more individual work on tracks and less ensemble work. Some of the songs were conceived on their trip to India. Etc.

It's never been my favorite Beatles album. But it has some very great songs on it. I didn't have the album as a kid, which is true about most albums. There was some talk about John and Yoko's Two Virgins album right about that time (in the newspaper, maybe TV) and some confusion about the white cover of the Beatles' album, that they were one and the same thing, with the white covering the offending picture. I remember around Christmas time going by the local music store and seeing a whole bunch of the White Album stacked around in the window display. But my Dad had made a new rule, because of the nude picture and, going way back, part of the roots, John's statement about being more popular than Jesus. The new rule, "Never will a Beatles record be in my house," something like that.

I don't know if the rule held up perfectly. I never had money for such things anyway. So it was a few years after, and after I was moved out anyway, that I ever got the White Album. Then the one that was issued on white vinyl. And in the used record market, somewhere along the way, I ended up with 0927160. So if anyone out there has 59 or 61, we're White Album companions! Then when it came out on CD, I was in Kansas City and went to some obscure, out of the way record store that probably doesn't exist anymore, and they had the CD (2 CDs) for like $9.99. No kidding. I'm sure it about had to be a mistake, but I didn't say anything and the guy ringing it up didn't say anything, so I walked out thinking how lucky I was. The cover (first disc's cover) was also numbered, and mine is 323,946. So, again, if you happen to have 45 or 47, hey!

There ought to be a White Album registry on the internet. Maybe there is, where we keep track of where each number is!

I've had other White Album run-ins over the years, including various sessions, mono versions, McCartney talking about it, etc., on usenet. I just saw some "Blackbird" sessions on one of the newsgroups today, but I'm not that interested in collecting everything there is!

I always thought the 8-track of this album was kind of attractive, high-contrast B&W versions of the 4 portraits on a little 8-track label and on the box. The 8-track was two cartridges.

My next post will be....me listening to the album on my Gigabeat and making a few comments. Of course I will not be able to avoid saying some of the things I've heard about the various tracks over the last 30 some years. One thing that is different, is I don't think I've ever listened to this whole album on headphones. And I was listening to a few tracks earlier and noticed hoots and talking, etc., that I don't recall just by listening with regular speakers.

So let me warble "Goodnight" to this post, and catch the next BOAC flight to Destination: Next Post!