Chuck Berry

If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry

Said so, John Lennon, a whose credentials might not need any telling for anyone remotely associated with Rock/Rock n Roll music. Elvis, was and always shall remain the King of Rock & Roll. Buddy Holly shall always be credited as amongst the first who started writing Rock & Roll music, who brought Rock & Roll to the fore. Elvis delved in Gospels and other genres as well beside being the King. But it was Chuck Berry who popularised, revolutionised and brought Rock & Roll to the fore.

Johny B. Goode, might forever be enshrined in the anals of Rock & Roll history as the one of the most popular song to come under the genre.Berry’s showmanship has been influential on other rock guitar players, particularly his one-legged hop routine, and the ‘duck walk’, which he first used as a child when he walked stooping with full-bended knees, but with my back and head vertical under a table to retrieve a ball and his family found it entertaining; he used it when “performing in New York for the first time and some journalist branded it the duck walk.”

Chuck Berry will always be remembered as one of the greatest artists to have ever held a guitar and a mike. Yet, the greatest of the men have had their follies and this guy was just a rock (& roll) star and such people are bound to have their own misdoings. This man, true to his billing, went completely different way, as compared to other music stars. While most such stars are in news mostly because of their habit of destroying themselves under some influences. But, Chuck Berry was charged with perhaps the more petty  and more disappointing offence of installing cameras in the ladies bathroom of a restaurant called  The Southern Air, that he owned. The case subsided only after a class action settlement, he had to make with 59 women (which supposedly cost him $1.2 million). A police raid on his house did find the aforesaid videos (including 1 video of a minor). Although, he was let off with a marijuana possession charge for the 62 gms of stuff found at his place.

The famous duck walk

She’s leaving home

Not only the stories associated with the Beatles songs are an interesting bit of trivia for me, but one thing I like about their songs is, the stories they convey through the songs, and No Album does it better than the arguably Most Influential album in the history of Rock music, the concept album, which tells about the Lonely Hearts Club band of Sgt. Pepper. In this album, there are many real life incidents picked up by Beatles (mostly by Macca) and converted them into songs. Lovely Rita is another Macca song from the album, which does a similar thing, but here I shall pick up the song which talks about a certain Miss Melanie Coe, who ran away from her home, thus making it to the front page of Daily Mirror.

Although, Macca made up most of the facts in the song, as Melanie didn’t meet a guy from motor trade, rather her guy was a croupier and she left in the afternoon, contrary to the song, where its early morning when her parents discover that she is missing. Although, Melanie who was just sweet little seventeen then, claims that most of the other facts fitted to her story as well as the truth.

After 10 days of hiding away, the girl was finally discovered, as she too like many foolish teenagers, had let slip the place where her boyfriend worked. Coincidentally, Coe had met McCartney three years earlier when she was a contestant and prize winner on ITV’s Ready Steady Go! She has been known to go on record, saying that although
having a song written about her was good, yet this song shall always serve as a haunting memory of the misdoings of her past, as a result the song has been nothing but a painful reminder of a painful past!

Trivia : This was one of a handful of songs of The Beatles in which the members did not play any instruments.
PS: When discussing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, composer Ned Rorem described “She’s Leaving Home” as “equal to any song that Schubert ever wrote.

Get Back

We (atleast me) have heard a lot of special Dylan, Lennon, McCartney songs through the anals of rock music. Best thing about musicians is, the inspiration they take listening to each other’s music, observing then write and work. Lennon did a Dylan first, then  Dylan did a Lennon which had only left Paul McCartney as one of my all time fav artist, not to be in the mix, and that’s when Get Back come to my listening circles.

Most interesting part of the song is, the lyrics and the theme/tune of the song. This is a pure McCartney song, where you are blasted with his super amazing voice in the starting of the song along with the Ringo drumming at its full fore, pretty strange for a Macca song. Which mostly rely on less of instruments, and even if needed, they are piano/guitar, never the heavy thumping of the drum.

An interesting aspect of Lennon’s writing always is, the slogan or catch phrase writing which he does. Give Peace a Chance, Imagine, All you need is love, You know my name, there are countless such examples and this is the exact same technique applied by Macca.

Such songs, generally have a strong line which is the whole-soul of the song, while there are a few lines thrown here and there, many times they wont even make sense, sometimes they might be a >conversation between 2 people, while the theme line takes most of duration of the song. The aforementioned features (more or less) in above songs can as well be, very easily observed in Get Back.

Song Trivia : -
1. According to Lennon, Paul looked at Ono, everytime while singing the line, “Get Back to where you once belonged”.
– I say ‘Super Win’
2. Although many artists like Clapton have recorded with Beatles, but no one ever got any credit in Beatles songs, Billy Preston, for this song is the only Non-Beatles to have ever got a credit on any Beatles song.

 

Lennon vs McCartney

Towards the end of The Beatles, the inter Beatles relations had come to an absolute low and they were showing their rage against each other, only way they knew, through the means of songs. It all started with the song “Wah Wah” written by George Harrison for his old time friend and the one who introduced him to Lennon and effectively made him a Beatle. McCartney came up with his version of Lennon bashing with the song Too Many People. But the song we are talking about is, How Do You Sleep, John’s response to Paul completing a sort of chain.

George Harrison played guitar on the song, and Klaus Voormann(the man who created the cover of Revolver played bass on the song, both long time McCartney friends, thus hurting him even more. Ringo, the only Beatle who was against the disbanding visited the studio during recording of the song and was reportedly upset saying “That’s enough John”

Having a look at the lyrics, anyone can make out what this song refers to

So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise
You better see right through that mother’s eyes
Those freaks was right when they said you was dead
(We all know about the Paul is dead controversy)
The one mistake you made was in your head
Ah, how do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?

You live with straights who tell you you was king
Jump when your momma tell you anything
The only thing you done was yesterday
(Yesterday is THE most popular song Paul wrote as part of the Beatles)
And since you’re gone you’re just another day
(Another day was the song Paul recorded after leaving the Beatles)
Ah, how do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?

Ah, how do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?

A pretty face may last a year or two
But pretty soon they’ll see what you can do
The sound you make is muzak to my ears
(Comparing his songs to muzak/Elevator music)
You must have learned something in all those years
Ah, how do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?

Paul’s answer to this was Let Me Roll it, a song sung and written in John’s style and can be seen as an olive branch offered to John! Thus trying to tone down the bitter feelings at both ends.

Dylan’s Norwegian Woods

Norwegian Woods, one of the most loved Beatles song from the album Rubber Soul was the time when Beatles were finally writing new things, they were listening to new sounds “due to some substances” to quote Ringo. That’s when came Norwegian Woods, one of the first lyrically strong which had a lot to say in too few words. This was in a sense a move towards the Dylan style of meaningful writing.

Just about 5 months later, Dylan comes up with the song 4th Time Around in the album Blonde on Blonde (perhaps the best Dylan album). One listen to the song, one read at the lyrics and you realise its Dylan’s Norwegian Woods. He has said the story of Norwegian Woods in his own words and style.

This rare occurrence, gives us a chance to analyse the writing of arguably 2 of the best song writers ever lived. Both songs are accompained by light instruments so it’s the lyrics which carry them both (Dylan influence on Lennon)
Lennon, comes says the story in 10 lines using his powerful imagery “biding my time” and “Drinking my tea”. He creates the perfect picture of the room, the rug and the bird that had flown.

Dylan, comes in all his poetic glory talking about the wasted words, and then he would take you along to the her room talking abuot her boot, suit and getting cute. He then just veers off in a tangent talking about the gum. He even tells you about forgetting his shirt, talks about the jamaican rum, and again some gun, and still goes on.
And this is where the difference comes, lennon tells you about things, Dylan about events and actions. That’s why Lennon’s remains a wonderful imagery while it seems as if Dylan is showing you a skit or living his life eating the gum in front of you.

Lyrics:
Norwegian Woods
4th Time Around

Two Songs

Which have captured my imagination, and have left me spellbound for quite some time. I love the music, the vocals, the lyrics of both are exemplary and yet the thing I love the most about them is, the message they are trying to convey.

Imagine - Termed by one of my friend as “Probably the most famous song of the Era”. Imagine is Lennon’s appeal to the world trying to convey the most important message whoich needs to be conveyed to people, a m message of love, harmony, peace, brotherhood and a place without boundaries. This song is a sort of extension of the song Give Peace A Chance, in that song he is only asking that peace be given a chance but here he is asking for something more dramatic. He even shuns the concept of religion, asking us to imagine a world without heaven and hell (the basic concept of almost every religion). Rolling Stones rank the song at no.3 in the all Time greatest list.
Imagine

Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

Respect - This is a song by an artist seldom heard by people (in my surroundings) and yet I have fallen in love with the song more and more with every listen of the song. The power in the song sort of pulls you towards itself. The power in the lady’s voice just blows you over. The appeal is age old, its been there since Humans became civilized, she, a woman is asking for the respect she deserves while making you realise that
What you want
Baby, I got
What you need
Do you know I got it?
She’s making a point, although the person in her life could be important for her, but it could never be at the cost of freedom. A message which (unfortunately) hasn’t been accepted by the society yet.
This song features at no.5 in the Rolling Stones List
<a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respect_%28song%29″&gt; Respect </a>

Definitely two songs worth listening and lots and lots of re-listens

[Tag]Muzzic – Thats how I like it

This must be one of the simplest and most interesting tag!! Thanks Karan for this
I am presenting my data thanks to last.fm!! One hell of an idea,
Stats + Music, the 2 things I love the most!! GG last.fm ppl

So here is my list of top played songs

Song Name – Artist Name ( Play Count)
1) American Pie – Don McLean (751)
2) There’s a Place – The Beatles (353)
3) How Do You Do It – The Beatles (321)
4) I Kept on Loving You – Carpenters (270)
5) Jaane Woh Kaise Log The – Hemant Kumar (236)
6) Yellow Submarine in Pepperland – The Beatles (231)
7) My Back Pages - The Beatles (229)
8 ) Imagine – John Lennon (220)
9) I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends – The Beatles (217)
10)Hazy Shade of Winter – Simon & Garfunkel (216)

As expected the list is dominated by The Beatles, 5 Beatles song and 1 by John Lennon!!

I tag Sultan, Utkarsh, Rakesh (Where are you guys), Skp (though I dont expect much from you ), Sunshine, Abhinav Bhai (if any of you ever chance to visit my blog)

Song of the Day -: Aisi Sazaa from Gulaal

PS1:- Went to a gig in a pub today after what must have been ages
PS2:- Watched Gulaal yest, liked it!! Would suggest everybody
PS3:- Gulaaal music, just cant remove it from my media player.. Too gud!!