“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…
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The End…is all about the love….
St. Paul and Sir Paul were trying to tell me pretty much the same thing as I said goodbye to someone I loved very much and will miss for the rest of […]
“We Can Work It Out”: that wonderful harmonium
Not enough songs make use of the harmonium. “In ‘We Can Work It Out,’ Paul did the first half, I did the middle eight. But you’ve got Paul writing, ‘We can work […]
Don’t Pass Me By… because everybody loves Ringo….
“Don’t Pass Me By” is a rollicking faux country blues honk and the fiddle part is as crazy as Ringo says. It’s charming, funny, and totally Ringo. For a first effort, it’s […]
Cry Baby Cry…darkness in the nursery
“Cry Baby Cry” is exactly what we would expect a nursery rhyme to be: a charming sing-a-long with a dark message at its core. “…I think I got them from an advert […]
In My Life: Lennon remembers…
There’s something Shakespearean about Lennon’s meditation on life and meaning. “I think ‘In My Life’ was the first song that I wrote that was really, consciously about my life, and it was […]
