“I think it’s 100 per cent John. Being tired was one of his themes; he wrote ‘I’m Only Sleeping.’ I think we were all pretty tired but he chose to write about […]
I’m So Tired: so say we all, John…
Jim Booth
Novelist, college professor, rock musician - are we getting the band back together? Maybe....
Random thoughts about the record album – part 6: one last hurrah…and into the mystic
“There hasn’t been anything real since grunge. That was the last movement led by music or an art form.” – Daphne Guinness (Read part 1, part, 2, part 3, part 4, part 5) […]
Dear Prudence: John’s beautiful dreamer…
The song represents an aspect of Beatle songwriting that emerged on the White Album: the album is filled with songs that offer carefully observed portraits of characters real and imagined along with […]
Random thoughts about the record album – part 5: they want their MTV
Video killed more than just the radio star. “It made the record industry a one-trick pony. It became only about a three-minute single and a visual image, and if you didn’t have […]
The Beatles’ “I’ll Be Back”: mood is everything
Sometimes a song simply resonates with some inner mood that is part of our existential selves. “I’ll Be Back” is that kind of song for me. “A nice tune, though the middle […]
A few words about The Sorrows of Young Werther
What is most fascinating about The Sorrows of Young Werther is how much its love triangle structure permeates our culture in one form or another. Ich habe das Herz gefühlt, die große […]
Eleanor Rigby: the real and the imagined…
It would be enlightening to hear McCartney explain how he came to create such an effecting portrait of loneliness and existential pain. “I thought, I swear, that I made up the name […]
Some wasted words about Gregg Allman
By blending rock and roll, soul, country, blues, and jazz, the Allmans created a brand of music that nearly 50 years later sounds as fresh and original as it did when it […]
Richard Farina’s Been Down So Long…a myth maker’s myth…
Richard Fariña was the Baby Boom generation’s chief myth maker. “The conscience of my elusive race gives not a fig for me, baby. But I endure, if you know what I mean.” […]
Strawberry Fields Forever… and ever… amen
“No one I think is in my tree…” John Lennon “Strawberry Fields” shouldn’t work – but it does. Brilliantly. The intriguing question is – why? Adulthood is all mixed up, as almost […]
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