110: Don't Give Me An Option

Last time around I was very focused on the Beatles. Tonight I still am. I think that, as a lover of popular music, one must have at least an understanding of the techniques the Beatles used that differentiated them from their contemporaries, and even if you don't actually like the music, it has certainly endured and there's a reason for that. Something that has attained such status must at least be acknowledged, you know?

Part of my recent investigation into my previously unknown Beatles tracks was filling in the gaps of the White Album. I'm one of those who sort of looks down on the White Album, because to me, it's sort of a car crash of material. there is some brilliant stuff on there, like "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Back in the USSR" and "Dear Prudence," and some noteworthy stuff that maybe isn't as impressive, like "Helter Skelter," "Happiness is a Warm Gun," and "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey." And then there's a ton of songs that either don't distinguish themselves or provide as much bang for the buck of your attention. "Why Don't We Do It In the Road?" Har har, Paul. "Glass Onion." That sort of thing. I keep going back and forth on "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da." I remember Joe enjoying playing it, and it's kinda fun. I guess it fits in that "Helter Skelter" category.

But really, that was the point of the White Album now wasn't it. Now that pop songwriting had been utterly exploded by their previous few forays, how could things ever be the same? So here are about 30 songs self-consciously spinning out of control of genre and classification. John Lennon writes a blues dirge in which he curses explorer Sir Walter Raleigh ("I'm So Tired.") Paul writes a love song to his dog ("Martha My Dear.") And the weird thing is, they're good songs. They're not necessarily good Beatles songs, that's the mind-bending thing, they're still really good tunes. "I Will" is featherweight compared to the later "Oh! Darling" or the earlier "Here There and Everywhere" but any Brill Building songwriter would have given their left nut to have composed it, slathered it in production and had some sweet soulful voice croon it. (Including Carole King.) With "Martha," Paul writes more sincerely to his pooch than most people can to their spouses. And it's a bouncy, inviting song. Then there's your "Blackbird" and your "Julia" and "Good Night." And these were the days that produced "Hey Jude."

Well listen. I still don't think the White Album is better than Abbey Road. I listen to that side-two medley and I'm just taken right away, and those two George songs on Abbey Road are two of my all time favourites. Even the bad songs on side 1 are really great. But I'm starting to appreciate what it is, which is an explosion, a hurricane of styles and experiments, some pleasing to the ear, some not, but all worth a try. Four men running in opposite directions from the north pole and meeting again at the south.

It was a nice day today. I should've devoted more time to reading short stories, but I was distracted. See, it is after all garage sale season, so I stopped by a big ole yardsale at the apartment building down the street. Multi-family, which is always a good sign. There are only a few things you can really hope to find at these sales, if you're not looking to clutter your place with ugly old furniture. Old CD's, or if you're lucky, vinyl. My dad recently got a turntable/CD recorder to play with. Along those lines, there are also usually old VHS tapes but I don't have a VCR. Old video games are sweet, if you have something to play them on (a vintage system is basically the jackpot - Eric and I still reminisce about the time he found an Atari and we played it for a while before selling it at our own garage sale.) But for me, I am always determined to find action figures.

Mostly, people who hold garage sales are older couples whose kids have probably grown out of the action figure phase years ago, which in theory means that the kids are my age or older, which means they have the kinds of action figures I liked as a kid. Maybe some classic X-Men or Spider-Man figures. Almost definitely some Ninja Turtles and He-Man. I hit the jackpot today, taking home a bunch of cartoon Ghostbusters, a Beetlejuice, some Ninja Turtles, (including the obscure Fugitoid and the always badass Casey Jones,) and, of all things, a Gremlins 2 figurine. At 10 cents apiece I spent about a buck fifty on 15 figures in all. Yes, I'm about 8 years old.

Anyway, something's brewing, but in keeping with tradition of things I actually feel are important, I'm keeping a lid on it for now to see how it works out. I'm trying to motivate myself to do my Short Story assignment, as my procrastination has been a killer and it's starting to really come to the wire. I blame the fact that so much of the course is on Portal, which I don't really like going on, and thus I ignore the material by and large.

Which is a cop-out way of saying I suck without admitting I suck.

Well if you feel you like it, go get your lover and reel and rock it, roll it over and move on up just a trifle further.

Keep on rockin'
-Scotto