Reviews by charidotes20

Things like this calm me down when I really need it.

(9/10)

It's a compilation album-- it has some good songs, but it lacks a good arrangement. It's pretty cool, at least.

(8/10)

This is going to be an experiment in me being a modest music critic, not trying to dazzle anyone, and, for once, without the need to do verbal therapy on myself, if that makes sense.

This is a good album, and Taylor Swift is a good artist. I would call her the greatest ever, but, it's just as good as James Taylor, say. And I personally am glad of this-- that alot of female artists, to me, come across with this whiney sound which distresses me.... but she does not. Maybe there are just too many 'punk' people in the world, but, again-- she is not.

She's good.

P.S. One Direction is fun, too. Actually, I think that "Take Me Home" is probably as fun as some of the Beach Boys stuff, but.... how can I explain this?

P.P.S. Do you remember the Byrds, and their song, "So You Want To Be a Rock And Roll Star", about being the Beatles or trying, so to be, and "Renaissance Fair"-- I think that maybe I'm dreaming, except maybe it's a nightmare sometimes, and the Byrds being themselves, it was all about that one song, and, was it okay.... This is what we want.... Is it, Okay....

It's Okay. It Is Okay. ("WHY", right. "why".)

P.P.P.S. And I do wish that I had written something about "Take Me Home", lol, but, but-- "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" is just a great song. Best part of not being indie or 'punk'-- when you really really need to say it, you.... just can.

N.B. I hope that this isn't getting excessive, but, I'd just like to note, that now that I've come to try to tag my music finally, that I understand the difference between indie rock and just rock, better than the difference between rock and pop.... Rock and roll.... Pop, ular?

I just don't understand labels as well as I do people.

Ah, see. James Taylor reference. I'm a genius.

After all, fucking Parlophone is a label, right.

~ And, for what it's worth, my researches tell me that even Paul McCartney wants to be as good as The Beatles, lol.... (Excessive: Although, the 70s were a trippy time, maybe some of those bad reviews for the early Wings stuff and solo stuff was, "obliging"-- oh, you're right, we *shouldn't* let Music be, all about *you*.... But, who can understand even the Byrds or Wings or something-- better to stick with what we actually can figure out, sometimes-- our own contemporaries, I think....)

OH AND BY THE WAY-- "Stay Stay Stay" following "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together".... and with all the ambiguity that's in it.... is a good example of the sort of arrangement that makes a good album good.... Kinda like "Turn! Turn! Turn!" which has a *splendid* arrangement.... but now, look, hahahaha.....

...............

And, you know what-- I need both of that. Just like alot of the songs from "Younger than Yesterday".... love's not only pleasant, and you actually learn to respect it alot more, when you don't always expect it to be like it is on Ed Sullivan's show....

Like "Girl Without a Name", or, like when they say in that intentionally-annoying studio voice, "Masterpice."

"Red" is actually more complimentary, hahaha.

.................

And the suck-y part about being any kind of musical critic is, that it's easier to tell people about how the Beach Boys (or One Direction, or.... Taylor Swift, or.... lots of people, actually) counsel that a bad love can bring pain, {"Here Today"}, rather than to-- just listen, and just, get it.

................................~~~~

Uncertainties aside, however, this is a very good album.

(9/10)

Okay, I'm going to try to say this.

I give a '10' to every album that the Beatles ever did, except for 'Revolver' and 'Beatles for Sale'. ('Sgt. Pepper' is pretty great, but, he wouldn't be on my list of Top Ten Beatles Albums, if you'll excuse the expression.) And to everything that the individual Beatles did, a '9', I think-- from "McCartney", to "Sentimental Journey", to 'Officially Certified Trippy-Super'.... I'm sorry, was that what it was called? How many words were there, in the title....

But the problem with John's solo stuff is that.... it's not that good, seems like. Even "Imagine" isn't that good as a song-- it's just good at being John Lennon.

I mean, there *are* times when you say, 'That is SUCH a John Lennon thing', and it's not really a compliment.

I'M A LOSER. I'M A LOSER. And I'm not what I appear to be.

Even in 1964, that was a little.... stupid.

John, you're stupid. (Nobody likes you, not even Paul.)

And you can't even do that raga rock shit, right. Hell, Jim McGuinn could do that better than you.

I mean, it's like-- The Beatles. The Beatles are better than God and America and my parents.... they're better than the Byrds, they're better than the movies.... Owen Wilson: *sad voice* They're even better than the Beach Boys.

*Russian accent* And John Lennon, part of this, rock group?

Like our boy Roger-- he's part of a rock group too. ("Yeah, why don't you just go home, man-- just.... get out of here!") *deaf old lady serving tea* You know, not *everyone* is, you know....

I don't know. I mean, I tried to pick the John Lennon (solo) album that had SOME merit, at least. Like Gene Clark, you know-- mental.....

But, God-- he's such a loser. And he's not what he appears to be.

(But, beneath this mask, he's doing what he planned, so to do.)

I guess that he's really just typical of that class of funnymen you get with that Liverpool lot-- not like our lads here in Yorkshire....

From whence cometh all good.

..........

John Lennon: So, what was the idea with the Byrds?
Gene Clark: *blinks* Well, the idea was that instead of an 'i'--
John Lennon: *laughs* Go listen to the birds.
Gene Clark: *turns his head towards the camera* And buy my new studio album, "White Light".
John Lennon: *laughs* *rests his head against his arm, propped up on the table* Yeah, everybody, go buy Gene Clark's new album.

*An unemployed man named Vyacheslav Molotov is watching at home* *he laughs*

"The Poles like to call it 'światło białe', where they dwell, so far towards the west."

*Michael Clarke, also sorta unemployed, thinks that this is funny*

"Bright and colorless-- like light. Like Gene Clark's new studio album."

*Molotov is eating a sandwich*

"Don't talk to me-- funny man with an odd Nordic look to you."

*Michael Clarke starts laughing so hard, and Molotov smiles*

I mean-- seriously, though. John Lennon wanted people to love *peace*, more than his discography, even.

I mean, by the middle of 1964, he was pretty much set for money, you know.

John Lennon: *bites his lip subconsciously*
Gene Clark: *waves his arms as though in magic spell* I'll set you free this time.
John Lennon: *laughs* But only because you don't like me.
Gene Clark: *laughs with genuine pleasure*

..............

*A black guy looks at this very black bodybuilder who looks like he weighs like 700 lbs. He thinks, Okay, that's cool. Whatever.*

*He listens to, "Set You Free This Time". He makes that, certain, *MMMMM*, sound, like, Huh. He really thought about that, only, like, *MMMMM*, and in a certain black kinda way*

*Then he listens to "Mind Games", a studio album by John Lennon and Yo-no, Oh-no*

"I guess this is okay too."

............

P.S. I love you--

And one other thing.

*John Lennon is talking with Gene Clark*

John Lennon: *sarcastic* Oh, that's a nice car.
Gene Clark: Wait, my Toyota Avalon?
John Lennon: No, not your car, Gene. *When you're talking to someone, sometimes you see things they don't because they're faced the other way*
Gene Clark: *darkly* A Volkswagen....
John Lennon: Don't even say it.
Gene Clark: *theatrically* You know, I think that it's funny that there's an intellectual aspect to music.
John Lennon: *they continue theatrically* Because, in a way, how can there be.
Gene Clark: But they do have theory and everything-- it's very involved.
John Lennon: I don't suppose that I ever understood the theory, though.
Gene Clark: One aspect of it always interested me, though. How could you *explain* to someone-- if you had to-- that this is, "C"
John Lennon: Of course you could call it anything.
Gene Clark: Of course. It's not *really* the same way to use the letter 'c'-- that's just what you call it.
John Lennon: Yes, that is what you call it.
Gene Clark: But *how*, how on Gaia's green earth, could you *explain* to anyone-- if someone tried to make you-- that "this" is "C", and "this" is "C", Middle C and High C and Low C-- all "C". It has a certain sameness.
John Lennon: All C.
Gene Clark: How could you explain that to someone.
John Lennon: There'd be no way to explain it to me, if I didn't already know, somehow.
Gene Clark: There'd be no way to *explain* music-- no way to *explain* to Denzel Washington "Oh! Susanna!"--
John Lennon: No. It's a gift. And everyone has it.
Gene Clark: So, you could almost say-- that that's how you know that that other man is a person.
John Lennon: Pardon?
Gene Clark: Well, *I* can't explain it, John. But there *is* no way to explain it. A person can understand basic musical notes-- "C" and "c"-- because that is simply their nature as a person. The people in the most distant countries have this understanding....
John Lennon: By Intuition.
Gene Clark: And simply because they are all people-- *all* of them.

*Erich von Manstein gets out of the Volkswagen*

*with extreme rudeness* "Hey! I thought that you guys were dead!"

"Funny the way that man speaks, isn't it, John."
"I'm not quite sure that he learned how to speak our language very correctly."
"A pity we can't speak *his* language."
"Oh, no-- it's *not* a very great pity. I study the Japanese language, but perhaps I wouldn't study just anything."
"Perhaps we should address his question, though, wouldn't you say."
"For politeness."
"John, when did you die?"
"In 1980. Gene, how about you."
"In 1991. Are we still here, John?"
"I suppose that we're still around, more or less where we've always been-- in mostly the same places."

"Yeah, well, I died in 1973--"

John Lennon: *the bearded intellectual* *smartly* With full military honors. In the Federal Republic of, West, Germany.

..............

"Mom, it's fine-- I'm eating a sandwich. You don't have to freak out making lots of food."
"John, dear, what are you up to?"
*and he thought, Deliberately making an average album, but, he said something different*

(8/10)

It's just as good as "Revolver". I hate "Revolver".

There. I dared you-- I *challenged* you to call me an idiot.

I would also like to now make several unsubstantiated claims about *who it was exactly* who....

Did anyone watch "Mr. Deeds"? "I slept outside of his flat, in his garbage dumpster, for *three days*, disguised as a carton of ice cream!"

But, now-- I have *several* unsubstantiated claims from an undisclosed source, about *who it was, exactly*, who screwed up....

*uncrumples piece of paper* The Notorious Byrd Brothers.

Well, enough of that, at any rate.

It's an interesting little full-circle journey, (and I guess just as good as "Untitled"-- it's funny, I think), and I think that it's just as good as, anything else, I don't know....

I mean, as the sorta, Famous Ringo Starr and George Martin Cover Band-- *random guy from Capitol in 1964* "In case you don't know-- this man is Ringo Starr!", *screaming girls from the backing vocals of, So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Starr*....

In a way, it is kinda.... full circle. I like it.

And you know that he was getting ready for this, right. Maybe not like George, (super-triple super-duper....), but, you know....

"I'd like to be
Under the sea
In an octopus's garden
In the shade."

"Rock on, George-- Rock on George, for Ringo.... One more time...."

*George Martin starts trying to play some kind of musical instrument*

I mean, it's funny, you know.

Roger McGuinn: God, my life sucks. Being a Rock And Roll Star sucks. Everything sucks. I hate everything; I'm so tired. I tried so hard. I'm so tired.
Chris Hillman: No, wait. Look. *Sentimental Journey, by Ringo Starr*
Roger McGuinn: *starts laughing* This is great. This is.... *fun*! I like it!
Chris Hillman: Let's do some more.

You know what I mean.

Gene Clark: *rises up from the bottom of the screen like a cartoon character* *starts doing backing vocals so softly that you're can't hear it*

George Martin: I don't get it; what's the point of doing it so softly that you can't hear it.
Ringo Starr: You are not a musician. You understand nothing. *dramatic hand thing* Nothing.
George Martin: Are you sure that you were playing the drums on 'I Am The Walrus'? All that I could hear was the piano and John and stuff.
Ringo Starr: Oh, screw you-- you could hear the drums on that one.

I mean-- I don't know what Ringo does.

I just like him.

And I like the whole, Beatles Cover Band sort of thing, you know.

Rock on.

Never stop.

"Everybody has been burned before.
Everybody knows the pain....
But you die inside if you choose to hide.
So I guess instead I'll love you."

Actually, that's from Younger than Yesterday. By the Byrds, '67.

Ringo was actually one of the unidentified session musicians on select tracks in '68 when the shit hit the fan in Byrds-land. He played the tambourine. Paul played the drums, and George Martin helped write some of the songs.

I can prove all of this. I can prove whose fault it was.

I can even prove what the album cover really means.

(9/10)

The Beatles are my favorite band, but I also never signed a contract to consider each and every one of their albums, as their best album. If that's already too much for you-- then just cover your ears now....

Some people, who can think think that which they please, of course-- think that "Revolver" is.....

I mean, "Taxman"-- the song just pisses me off. It's like: George Harrison pisses me off sometimes-- Exhibit A, "Taxman". Screw you, George. Oh my god, stop *whining*-- you're supposed to be a *beatle*!!!!!

I mean, I *like* the Early Beatles. It's not they didn't do *alot* of awesome shit on the B-side, if you will-- they had alot of fun. I think that "I Am The Walrus" is alot of fun, for example. "Hey Jude" is alot of fun. "Strawberry Fields" is alot of fun-- "Hello Goodbye" is fun.

But I don't think that this is alot of fun. The lead song turned me off-- and the rest of it.... I mean, to be honest, there was a time when I was under the impression that George wrote "Taxman" in the 70s in one of his "screw the Beatles" phases, you know.

(And sometimes there is something, even in a mis-understanding. That one of my silly friends mis-took "So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star" for "Eight Miles High" *really does* say something, I think, about the real talent of Chris Hillman-- the guy wasn't an idiot. And he was always very calm, I think.... And there is something in that.... It's just that.... I don't know, now I'm getting *ironic*....)

I mean-- don't get me wrong, it's still pretty great, considered against the *whole world*, but....

But, I mean, as far as Master-Pieces go, it sucks, IMO. Compared to "Pet Sounds", it sucks, *I* think. It's probably as good as "Fifth Dimension", which was probably the best that the Byrds ever did, I find. But I'm also not sure.... I don't think that it would make my list of the Top Ten Beatles Albums, if you'll excuse the expression.

George, just shut up. God, I used to *like* you.....

Don't pull a David Crosby on me, or maybe I'll fire you and replace you with Chris Hillman.... (Yes, like Pete Seeger, I am God. I am God, so I can do trippy things like firing George Harrison from the Beatles....)

I mean-- I think that the 1965 albums are better, I really do. "Help!", which, to me, is like the Last Early Beatles album, IMO, has this kinda cool way of being.... traditionally subversive, at times, among other things-- "You're Gonna Lose That Girl" is a great sorta traditionally-subversive vibe, I think.... as opposed to "Taxman" which skids dangerously along the edge of Crosby Lane, I think, and, I mean, even the rest of.... *Revolver*. Revolver. I mean-- it *does* have more than one meaning, I'll allow that. But, still. The *Beatles* called one of their albums, *Revolver*, and the lead song was *Taxman*.....

I mean, they're still The Beatles, but, I don't like it.

I mean-- it's still a super album, in a way.... they are simply, exceptionally talented. It's just not as good, *for them*.

And, in "Rubber Soul".... that was good.

I mean, Paul still wrote some songs for "Revolver"-- "Good Day Sunshine" is obviously a Paul song, I knew it before I looked it up to make sure-- he was always himself, you know-- it's *easy*.... Just like it's kinda easy to tell that "You've Gotta Hide Your Love Away", from "Help!" is John, being a certain sort of John which is actually *very* John-- it's just that you forget, sometimes, somehow.

It's funny.

I mean, in "Rubber Soul" there is this new maturity, new.... *sophistication*. In a way, it's very John-- a *new* John emerges!-- but, Paul is there too. And Paul is always Paul, not like John, really-- but he does change, ever so subtly and cleverly. "Michelle" is a very *intelligent* song, in a way. (And, amusingly, right-- the French. "Toujours means I always will"-- oh, no, wait, that's James Taylor. You know how people, "speak French", though, it's funny.) It really is very intelligent, though, it's very. Very funny. It's exactly the right thing to do-- now my way of life becomes more *sophisticated*.... you like that too. You like that too....

But with Revolver-- I mean, it could be alot worse, but it *is* there a bit, and, so, I'm not sorry to say it. There's almost this-- you know what? Screw you, Parlophone, (British comedy label named Parlophone), ..... I only have to release *one* album this year! And I'm going to call it.....

I mean-- didn't they.

Part of the frustration is naturally that the Beatles and people like that were changing.... and other people, *were not* changing, at all.... It's not fair; it's not fair; it's not--

George. Shut up.

I mean.... but.... yeah. Yeah.

It's a bit like "Beatles for Sale", from '64, ironically enough. ("Everybody's trying to be my baby....") There is some unhappiness in that album, albeit in an "Early", subtle kind of way.

*annoying* I want to be more *artsy*. (Is that from.... or....?)

*Beach Boy* You mean.... "Wouldn't it Be Nice"?

You know.

I think so.

I mean-- "Beatles for Sale" is clever to, in a couple of interesting ways. It's still not the best album. Compared to "With the Beatles", or the "White Album", it's not quite as.....

It's really not quite as good, I think.

And compared to "Revolver".... I don't know-- a little similar, isn't it funny.

(One day, I'm gonna be all *artsy* and shit-- I'm not gonna listen to Parlophone any more!!!)

OMG! I'm being artsy!!!

Yeah. I mean-- it is *rather* nice.....

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" comes up from this, and is an improvement in a way, I think, although, at times, a little similar.

I mean-- I'm not saying that George Harrison is an idiot or anything, or that Ravi Shankar and everybody.... I mean, "Norwegian Wood" was pretty cool, in a John kind of way, hahaha. I'm not trying to say that *every* use of *foreign* music-- hahaha!.... hahaha! That's funny!!! hahaha, ah, that's funny.... (Oh! Susanna! Don't you cry for me! 'Cause I come from Alabama, with a banjo on my knee..... Oh! Darling! Please believe me! I'll never do you, no harm.....).... Yes, that is pretty funny.

{I mean-- and then there was the band that literally released an album in '04 called "American Idiot".... because there were punks, I guess.... From Steven Foster.... No, from David Crosby.... Ed Sullivan, where are ya, man?.... I used to (sorta-- that's the thing, when you hardly listen to what you hear) listen to stuff that was way worse than Franz Ferdinand.... which itself.... flirts with the pedantic.... God, what happened to Chuck Berry, who literally wrote a song called "Rock and Roll Music", you know.... "It's gotta be rock and roll music if you wanna dance with me".... (John told me that) Chuck said.... and then John said, "If you want money for people with minds that hate, all I can tell you is brother you have to wait....".... that was *totally* John's I mean, Elvis is the King, and John loved him, but he did also say, "If it wasn't called rock and roll, it'd be called Chuck Berry"-- I mean, he did literally, write, 'Rock and Roll Music', lol.... I think that Chuck Berry, *is*, actually a much better musician than Jimi Hendrix.... than Chuck Berry? No, and it is, I find, very unjust that people say it like it ain't.... And I don't even think that it's a Paul and John thing-- people didn't just *imagine* that John Lennon was a great man.... No, it's more like saying that, not even *comparing*, actually saying that Eric Clapton is "better" than the Beatles-- (lol), "if you go holding pictures of Chairman Mao".... I mean, it's so stupid; it's like something that *Nixon* would do. I mean, I don't think that Nixon was a *malicious* man the way the Reagan and such were, but god what a pedantic little *idiot* he could be.... Ringo for President-- '64, lol.... I'm sorry, it's so true, though....}

{I mean, at least it got better, because they were.... I mean, Sgt. Pepper got better, it's not like the Beatles were giving.... *laughs* *amusing dramatic* Sgt. Pepper is a solider for racial justice, and a true class-friend, just like.... LBJ was born in Stonewall, Texas-- now, *that* is funny.... I mean, I hate "songs like that", but, I'll allow that Sgt. Pepper is just as good as the other albums, because it got a little bit better, from "Revolver", somehow.... *laughs*.... God, it could have sucked so much....}

{I've also never understood the way that some people felt about Kennedy, but I guess that I'm not as Irish as my parents were.... (and, incidentally, some of the things that Johnson did were very good... Yeah, we don't want that....).... I mean, "He was a Friend of Mine" by the Byrds was a great song.... I kept waiting for the tie-in with.... Oh, they mean Dallas in Texas.... but, there's not any place in Russia.... I guess that they can't mean Bryce Dallas Howard, because..... So, I guess they mean the Southwest.... what's in the Southwest, though.... Lol-- not, literally, but.... lol....}

I mean-- I would never would never say that *every* use of foreign music is.... conceited, I guess.... What would be the best word.... not quite pedantic, more.... *show-y*, or, something. I mean-- sometimes, George Harrison really *honestly* wanted people to listen to Ravi Shankar because it's, really true, that it was really just good music.

"I wish them well, where they now dwell, all across the sea...."

In the north of England.

And, you know, the one song from "Fifth Dimension"-- "I Come And Stand At Every Door"-- was actually written by a Turkish gentleman. Turks are pretty cool people. There are actually alot of cool people in the world. Like Russians. ("Been away so long I hardly knew the place-- Gee it's good to be back home-- Leave it to tomorrow to unpack my case....") They had that one man, the bearded intellectual, Lenin, who loved the people, and then there was that *other* foreign gentleman from England, and his name was....

I think that you might really groan at me if I made a joke about Alabama and Georgia....

*with Russian accent* But sometimes that foreigner, bad man.

Like George Harrison.

..... Okay, man, well-- then, I *don't* like you!

I mean, he literally wrote a song about what a bastard he is, right.

I guess that he wanted me to know something. *rolls eyes*

But, I mean-- I still want it put it in perspective. It's still a great album, and a Beatles album, even. It's just that it's not as good as.... "Magical Mystery Tour", for example!!!

And at least it's not modern crap from the 90s or even later, or, even earlier.... actually even by the 80s, it's modern crap already, and not.... *classic*.

I mean, like those *broad-minded indie guys* "They Might Be Giants", who formed in 1982, and performed in 1990 that classic of Turkish folk rock, "Istanbul, Not...."

.... Not a good song, lol.

("There are weddings; there are feasts-- may friends remember me....")

And it's also not as good as "Back in the USSR"-- it seriously, just, isn't. I mean.... have you ever heard an Easterner try to.... dissent, I guess.... from these whiney shitty Westerners and the way that they *whine*?....

{And yes-- my review title is a little silly, in the sense that, I do actually kinda want George Harrison to be slightly more super than fucking Scott Pilgrim the indie loser who's watched about seven too many sci-fi *extravaganzas*.....)

I mean, the song-- "Istanbul", or, whatever-- was originally recorded in 1953, the year that Stalin died and the Nazis living in East Berlin staged an uprising....

.... I guess that some people had failed to become "classic rock", even before that shitty song, "Eye of the Tiger" was written in 1982.

I try to juggle all these different ways of keeping it in perspective.

I know that maybe the comparisons might sounds excessive maybe, but there really is a reason why it's as good as it is and as not good as it isn't.

I mean-- compared to "Rubber Soul", right.

Maybe the problem is that they were younger than they were yesterday-- something like that.

...............

Then again, sometimes I'm bogus disconcerted, because compared to "5th Dimension", which I love, this is a trippy easy day trip.

And, yeah, Eleanor Rigby.

So, I still don't know what to say.

(9/10)

I thought that "Fifth Dimension" (1966) {was the last} with the almost-original Byrds lineup-- obviously, by 1970, things were a.... a little different. But, upon further investigation, it seems that that.... distinction?.... would go rather to "Younger than Yesterday" (1967), and somewhat to "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" (1968)-- although, by that time, it was literally already happening, the band, (like the American folk, I guess), was pretty much disintegrating: David Crosby had turned into an asshole, (basically-- he did), Michael Clarke essentially left the band in protest, (because he did *not* want to.... protest!), and so.... Mister, McGuinn, (that I *can't* date-- it's too confusing), canned his ass: "The Byrds fired David Crosby".... So, basically, Paul and Richard were left in Abbey Road more or less alone.... They hired lots of session musicians, lots of them.... They had to scramble to fill the void, it was literally all in the middle of coming apart, in 1968.

But, actually, in 1967, that was all still (somewhat) in the future. But, since I find this stuff really endlessly fascinating-- that is the angle that I'm going to take it from. (Gene Clark left simply because he found that he couldn't travel with them any-more.... but the David Crosby incident-- now, *that* was Psychodrama City....)

But, in a sense-- here's what's interesting, or, rather *who*-- Chris Hillman, oddly enough. The band's.... dark horse, maybe, the "third song-writer", isn't he? In this album, where he emerges as such-- in a sense that makes him the interesting person of the album. And, in a way, it's *not* the most interesting album.... but, it is something. "So, you want to be a rock and roll star?", said Jim McGuinn to Chris Hillman....

And, as the, quiet party, I guess, the the Notorious Byrds Brothers dispute-- he is pretty interesting.

Sociologically speaking, Chris Hillman is a lot like George Harrison. And, to be fair, maybe that George Harrison is, yeah, so much cooler than Chris Hillman is one of the reasons why the Beatles are the Beatles and the Byrds are the Byrds. But, one of the reasons why the Beatles are so fascinating is.... sociologically. And, if you look at both bands together, it's even *more* interesting, and maybe even more so for an American-- European dreams, American realities....

And alot of things that happened among the Byrds weren't pretty. We like to think of the rock band as being this four-man group, (and, in a way, they never quite were-- first there was Gene Clark and Jim McGuinn, then there was Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn, and David Crosby-- the Eight Miles High trio, right.... Gene Clark was influential, but also only briefly, so then there was Jim McGuinn and David Crosby, but also Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke, when it actually did become, "The Byrds", and not just Clark-McGuinn-Crosby, or, something like that, at any rate.... but, when the bad weather came, it ended up that McGuinn was the real frontman, after all-- the one who always stayed that way, and so, always must have been, I guess.... And he himself changed throughout the group's existence, just like any one of the Beatles, although the others eventually chose or for some reason could not continue with it like before-- and, of course, in one case: got rather ignominiously chucked out by the others), but we like them to get along. Even metal-y Led Zeppelin would rather roll up the flag than go on without John Bonham.... in the Byrds, what Michael Clarke did *did* matter, but.... in a different way, somehow.

And, in a way, Chris Hillman was even more important. He was actually the last one of the original four who left to leave-- and that implies something interesting about him, I think.... maybe, the sort of thing that can *only* be implied.

To explain-- let me use.... an illustration. Even a relatively conservative, in a sense, group like the Byrds were somewhat commie-- Bob Dylan, without.... Bob Dylan!.... so, let's talk about communism. Even Paul McCartney loved it. "Show me around the snow-peaked mountains way down south-- that Georgia's always on my mind." Ah, yes. That Georgia. Stalin. Paul McCartney, and Stalin. Now-- *now*, we have something interesting. Not John Lennon, no, no, no-- not even close. *Paul McCartney*, the *conservative* Beatle.... and the.... conservative communist! After all, nobody ever compared Stalin to Bob Dylan-- he's far too *conservative* for that. But, then, *why*? Why.... communism? Because *not everyone was like Paul McCartney*, obviously, and some things back then were just.... crap! Some people wanted the *crap*, to.... go away!

In a *sense*, this is what happened in 1968. (Hey Jude-- don't make me report you....) And, yes, even in the Byrds. Hell, *especially* in the Byrds. The Byrds-- the cute little byrds in the tree, the cute little folksy, commie-like little.... *entertainers*!..... had a veritable.... Great Purge! Half the band! Gone! It's Beria' band now, right!

.... And you know that some people will never leave you alone-- no matter what you do. It wouldn't matter if you saved the world.... But, everything changes anyway.... eventually my municipality, even, takes away the garbage.... (I just don't know why you have to tell me how to eat!)

But, what the hell does this all have to do with Chris Hillman-- this, "young", member of the band.... this, "younger" man? Well, what do all these Great Purges have to do with.... the younger men? That they benefit-- to put it most simply.

When Hitler invaded Russia, the Nazi officers were much older than the Soviet officers of roughly equivalent ranks. The Soviet officers were younger.....

One might almost say, that they were-- younger than yesterday. That they were *younger than yesterday*, younger than they were yesterday. And, why? Because of Stalin. Because of the Purges.

The same principle holds for something voluntary-- Gene Clark just.... fading away. In a sense, Gene Clark is "old". He seems like an "old" man to.... well, to me-- somehow, but I'm pretty sure that I'm right. He's an old soul..... So, when he left, the band became.... "younger". (He let them be.... younger! "I'll set you free this time....") In a sense, the average "age" dropped....

Wow-- is that so difficult to understand, America. (Wallpaper over FDR, I swear to God.... Such liberal hypocrisy....)

Anyway.

In the Crosby dispute, Mr Crosby himself portrayed the matter as entirely selfish and sectarian-- Jim McGuinn fired him entirely for his own reasons: it was Mr Crosby versus Mr McGuinn .... But, truly, I think that there is some truth in this saying that-- "The Byrds fired David Crosby". In other words, the headman of the band-- the band's headman-- actually and legitimately acting in the interests of the whole group, and not just for himself alone and selfishly or sectarianly. Or other words-- Michael Clarke, and, somehow even more: Chris Hillman. They *all* wanted him to go: *everyone* wanted David Crosby to go, except for him himself.

And it was a mess.... a big 'drama': a mess. But, nobody shot David Crosby. If he had been an officer in Stalin's army.... but, he wasn't, and lucky for him, with his attitude.

But, anyway.

As a very concept-y review, I'm going to linger a little longer on this idea of being 'younger than yesterday'.

The first sense I guess I've already covered-- a group of men becoming younger than it was yesterday, by old men leaving it. If you think about it, there is much indeed that works like this: things, people, groups-- become steadily older and older, in infintesimial increments, day by day, ("you're older than you've ever been-- and now you're even older", although to be honest, I think that in truth "They Might Be Giants" are *not*.... really and honestly they are exactly the type of this modern group that nobody would accuse of having any talent.... "The Byrds" understood being young-- Do you have to criticize the way that I sign my name?..... Roger McGuinn~!-- but they also.... didn't suck.....), things get older and older, and every group gets older and older, until, suddenly-- it's younger than yesterday, with births.... and, deaths!

It's also an interesting symbol of the band, even the {album's} name-- technically they borrowed it from Dylan, the phrase, but, actually, they invented the phrase themselves. Just like John Lennon technically borrowed "Imagine" from Karl Marx.... except, actually, it's everything like John Lennon and nothing like Karl Marx.... I mean, they made it "folk" and poetic, I think-- *younger than yesterday*, Norse-y alliteration at its finest, really. And, also, a decent album by the Byrds. Not the {very} best, but....

Also, even people-- in a sense, they are always maturing, growing older-- but, sometimes, it does *seem* as though there comes a day when a man is younger than he was yesterday. Steve Carell-- think of him. "So you want to be a rock and roll star".....

And, also-- perhaps, a sadder sense. In 1966, the Beach Boys made their master-piece, "Pet Sounds". Suddenly, they were "old"-- they looked at the world, and they understood it. They were wise.... But, then, as they grew older-- they never broke up, so many bands did, or.... but, no, they managed to keep together, and it would have been bad if it *all* had gone away, and it's good that the Beach Boys are still together this very day, but.... it's also no longer 1966. "The moon wanders, days pass by-- may friends remember me...." But sometimes, *something* is lost-- *something* dies.... some of that wisdom is lost.... you find yourself.... younger than yesterday, even when you didn't want to be.... (Why did he lie! Oh, where are the heroes of yesterday!....)

In 1966, the Byrds found the "Fifth Dimension", and, suddenly, they *were* old-- they *did* have wisdom, but, then....

Suddenly, they would find themselves being, much, much younger, than yesterday.

(What! Buddy Holly is *Dead*!.....

Why!

When Buddy Holly died, women wept.

The whole nation was younger than yesterday.)

(8/10)

Oh yeah. I do know that guy.

No, really-- I think I heard his in Burger King when I stepped in on a rainy day, and I knew that it wasn't the first time that I'd heard his, you know. Although for the life of me, I couldn't place the name.... I couldn't have told you his name if Hugh Grant the animated pirate demanded to know at swordpoint.... It's like, after listening to George Harrison in '64 rollin', rockin', Roll Over Beethoven, I thought-- Chuck Berry, I want to look up Chuck Berry.... But who knows Chuck? Who knows Chuck, you know....

But anyway-- yeah, "James Taylor", this name without a man behind it, seemed like, and that man without a name in my hand, in my own hand.... were actually, the same.

And what do they have the same-- the "merchant of mellow", and the guy who's rollin', rockin'. They both want to have fun.

And I do want Beethoven to roll over. (Roll over, dead.) I never liked Beethoven. Or Germans. Their gene pool must be very isolated. Not like the Russians-- their gene pool is like a lake, or the....

{I read that this old 60s Dutch band covered "Eight Miles High"-- and actually even named one of their albums after it. And, you know, I do hope that if I were Dutch, that the Americans would be my *favorite* people, you know. Hahaha....}

I think he's a good example of a moderately commercially successful musician, and artistically.

.... come to think of it, like Billy Joel, only less.... "knowing". (And that part I wouldn't have thought of with Chuck-- although that line preceding I did think of originally about Chuck.... but you can see how much it also goes with him hahaha.... Rock and Roll Music!)

Well, he does do pretty good on the charts, though. He doesn't *seem* to, though. Elton John-- oh, sure. James Taylor.... really? Really?

And it's not like George Harrison ever.... hahaha. (Ravi Shak.... Sha.... Gaius.... lol).

But, you know, with the Byrds, their first album did well on the charts, and then, basically, as their abilities expanded and increased, their position on the charts..... declined and withered away Engels-style, right, so-- I guess that that's what you can learn from the capitalists and their charts, right.

Actually, it's pretty good though.

That's sorta what I meant, though-- that's what I was thinking of, like a little chain in the.... chain.... ("I don't want a chink in my chain, Greg.") Which is sorta what I was feeling interesting in.... Although it's funny, when you actually meet it-- because when I meet John, I don't really have to care about any man that I happen to meet.... I don't have to; I'm free-- I don't have to care about John, any-more than I have to care about, Yono Oh-no.... as I call her....

But, anyway.

I mean, at least he's not Richard Nixon, right. He's a musician. But Richard Nixon-- Oh-no. He was a *uniquely* boring (and in a sense average) man, I think. He wasn't malevolent, (like the false god Christ), but, by George, was.... boring! (And, yes, that is historical-biographical analysis.) What a Westerner. How boring..... Yes, Molotov, in our country, our leaders are kind of like.... They go to baseball games; they are *very* social.... Shut up, Molotov. Stop laughing at me. Stop laughing-- stop making fun of me! ^^

That's what's funny about it, I think-- the chains in the.... chain. What does James Taylor like better? "Hourglass"? (And, incidentally, I'm not sure that my CD is really "enhanced", but his listal profile-- you know.) Or the Byrds? If you stop "Fifth Dimension" in the middle-- because, well, who cares, I can't explain everything-- and then start playing James Taylor, does he (yes, and I didn't even have to buy the ghetto ghost book from the *inauthentic* paranormal shop, I just *imagine*), say, Oh, that's rather nice, or something, or does he say....

What, in the middle. Really? *laughing*

I mean, he's like Ringo's friend, right-- James Joseph McGuinn, the byrd....

Ringo and the bird.

It's okay-- you don't have to understand how clever I am.

But, I mean, yeah.

I mean, at least it's not a movie. A movie called.... "I Come And Stand At Every Door". Right.

A Door.... a door of truth....

Okay, not....

But, you know. George is like, Hey Ringo, who's your friend. Ringo says, Oh, my friend is one of the byrds-- James Joseph McGuinn, but, then, his name is *really*....

And then George says, I have an eye in my hand, right.

I mean-- I forget how I really wanted to do that, but, once you have to decide how to spell "bird", then.... you can pretty much just forget about it.

And, at least it's not how it used to be-- There were five of them, sir: Bingely, his two sisters, the husband of the eldest, and.... "another young man".

And that was their party. That was the party.

"She is tolerable-- but not enough to tempt *Me*!.... I am unmoved-- she is tolerable. Eh! (back-up singers) Eh! Eh!...." I actually think it would make a good song. I mean, hey, if John Lennon can actually say, "It's been a hard day's night/ And I've been working like a dog/ It's been a hard day's night/ And I should be sleeping like a log".... I mean, wouldn't it be funny, to do Darcy stuff as a spoken word, right, and do a Hey Joe type thing about Wickham, and then say, (No, really-- "I'm gonna go down to my favorite-- Mexico", *said Wickham*), (And I mean, really, if we can make heroes of Steve Carell and Buddy Holly, then why not just tell Wickham, *You know what, Wickham*....), have Darcy say, (Darcy and the Poets, or, something-- like how the Turtles did the concept album, with different fake bands that was really the Turtles pretending to be other people), "If my requirements had not been so severe, my words would not have been so weighty." And then, do a song, The Mary Song-- which will be all like, One two three four five six seven, One two three four five six seven, la la la la la la seven, All good children go to heaven-- and maybe two or three more lines like that.... I was thinking about this in Burger King earlier today, and somehow, listening to James Taylor makes it seem less.... Anyway, I'm thinking I could just call the album, "Pride". I could draft the lyrics as, "Pride: Poetry", and then, to *really* confuse people, call the band, "Poetry". Although, sometimes, it is kinda like, James Taylor, right. (*McCartney*, right-- a whole album.... And then McCartney said to Bingely).... And Chuck Berry used to tour by himself, and everywhere he'd go, there'd be a new band to back him up, maybe he liked that.... And you can always hire session musicians, right-- if you can travel, east enough, lol, to Abbey Road, lol, you can always just hire people, right, to play with you for the day.... And some security to keep dear mother Ketevan and Sheldon Cooper and all your friends, far, far away....

There's a Place.... (the Soviet Union! hahahaha....)

Anyway, I guess that that's the gist.... of what I wasn't even planning of saying in the beginning, you know.

Anyway, I never said that I thought it was the best or anything or totally *unmistakable* or anything-- but, who cares.

I think it's solid decent and enjoyable.... and, to be honest, that's also my opinion about Led Zeppelin, if you want to know the truth.

If that makes you feel better.

If you know what I mean.

.............

I mean-- the Turtles, exactly. What, the Turtles *did* do good in the charts? *laughing* But they're not.... they're not popular! I mean, they, made a couple of songs that everybody liked, but.... *laughing*....

But nobody remembers them! Nobody up and says, so, About the Turtles. People would look at you like you'd lost your mind....

But, my dad, right, who wants me to come see The Beach Boys with him-- shit, I didn't know that Mr Bennet liked the Beach Boys.... wow.... (Mr Collins-Bennet, lol.... hahaha.... *laughing*....)

So, I played a couple of Beach Boys songs while he bickered with his new woman, (*proud* Oh-- the Beach Boys! *I know them*....), and then I guess (after I made a point, without making a point of it, of writing out all of the words of "Wouldn't It Be Nice", even I had to pause it and replay it several times.... while they bickered, about the Papal elections that Protestants hold in their villages-- no, not even "that much", just to have something to say, they'd go at it), I spent most of the afternoon playing Beatles music, since I guess that he likes it too, lol.... and, a few hours in, I played the lead song of The White Album, to have a little fun baiting him, although about a minute or two of that was enough to satiate me, I didn't go on *all afternoon* about the snow-peaked mountains way down south, in the best Georgia, of all the Georgias.... {the one that's always on my mind....} lol.... Do you know what I mean?

But, yeah, and then I played "Happy Together", just because I wasn't *literally* going to play the entire work of the Beatles, so I went for the Turtles.... and dad immediately recognized it-- the Turtles! Because he clicks so well with it, you know.... even though he hasn't heard the song in about seventy years, and said so himself, and has spent the intervening years not so much with Gaia, but with that other guy-- what's his name. (Have you heard his name? No, I keep forgetting-- was it Shankar.... Ravi, Shankar. Was that it?) And the new lady (ironic, lol), wanted me to know all about it-- even though she literally only had the faintest idea who the Beatles were, because she spent the 60s literally more or less studying to be a nun-- my parents were the trashy druggies, unspeakably average, and now dad.... you know, he has the answers, right, *laughs*.... and mom's not quite as bad, but.... but I think she's also the reason why George Harrison went to India, and why John Lennon married Yono Oh-no.... Okay, this is how he would have explained it, if he weren't John, right, ("We both come from islands." Really, John? Really?), 'Well, we're both contrarians, at least-- and, hey, at least she's not....' Well, she wasn't. She couldn't remind him, at least. (Even though she reminds me, lol. I've known lots of Asians.... so, in a way, she does remind me.... LOL....) Anyway....

Toujours means I always will-- always will.

Yeah.

I mean, that's how it is with art, sometimes, right. Really, the Beatles should have this documentary-- this really good, very biographical one, and not the mafia movie director who drew an odd idea out the idea ball box, right.... They should have a couple of decent scholars behind it, very hairy men, you know-- most real scholars are very hairy men: *but they can't make them too important*, the basic narrator should be this very English girl with this very breath-y voice, you know.

Like Patti, you know. *laughing* Ah, you know that George *really* was a man of peace, since Eric Clapton still lives.... *laughing*....

So, that's what they deserve. And not just to make a million pounds, and get cornered in it, like they weigh a million pounds too.

But, yeah-- here's what art gets. The ex is like, Ah, yeah, I know.... Fans, you know. They know. *They know*.... A fan should know, right. Though she was born a long, long time ago-- a fan should know.... and then there's the man, he knows.... some damn thing, but he's so damn *lazy* about it, really, but, as long as He Knows, and he always does, no matter how ignorant he is.... and he always has some damn *fact* to latch onto.... and then there's the other girl-- and she did cook for us, because she's very traditional.... *so* traditional that she doesn't know about the Beach Boys or the Beatles.... no matter how *gentle* it is, some people won't take the ticket, you know.... And you *do* know, or else you don't, there's none of this crap, that people offer you.... No, but she doesn't have any idea-- no idea, at all.... but that doesn't mean, that she doesn't understand the whole Art thing, you know.... so, she spent about twelve hours cooking a simple meal, and I at least got to play some good music, while they bickered....

It was very funny, though-- he knew *exactly* who the Turtles were.... he just didn't *know*....

"Traditional", yeah-- it's just the traditional vices and hypocrisies, and not the traditional virtues and truths, and....

Like *Kitty and Lydia*-- oh no, I'm sorry, *Catherine* and Lydia-- or maybe that'd be Lady Catherine, to you? They want *officers*, right-- they want *class*, because that's the kind of girls that *they* are, right.... *rolls eyes*.... And, so, of course, they go after *Wickham*, who was *not* an officer of *any* kind-- he was just....

And, he *wasn't*, you know. He was a *fake*. Some people.... they be the fake.

I mean, the Georgia with the snow-peaked mountains was pretty traditional, I think, (Hertfordshire when they had to make their own hats, because there was no Macy's-- nobody dwells on that part of it, it's not important that the Thai girls didn't always stitch for us, nobody's interested in that!.... I know that Jane herself is, someone, but who else is?....), but, these "traditional" people-- the first time that a car drives through the dirt highways, they think that they don't have the same virtues and vices that the people of the paleolithic had.... and so they just get a little less virtue, and compound a couple of vices, and end up with something *really* nasty....

I mean-- don't they?

And this then, sir, was her reply.... to John Riley.... It's the *perfect* pattern, sometimes, at least-- the old song, and, sometimes, it is just quite good enough-- and that, too, is enough.

I always thought that the Turtles enjoyed a rather special place among the 60s bands, you know, as the cover band.... as *the* cover band.... (Doing good by Buddy Holly! And not like that scoundrel George Harrison, who probably never....)

And then-- there's James Taylor, the cover band who writes his own songs, all by himself.

{"Treasure these few words until we're.... Together.... Keep all my love.... forever.... P.S.: I love you...."

I thought that was a decent song, you know!}

..........................

Oooh-- and is that a hidden track? It is-- there are really thirteen of them, not twelve.

He must have put in a few extra hours in Abbey Road, right?

Well, whatever-- Paul McCartney's still better.

"Tasting much sweeter than wine".

After all, you know what they say about modern music. We've gone from Chuck Berry to Common, from Paul McCartney, to James Taylor, hahahaha. (And what's his name.... Piano Man.... Billy Joel, hahaha....)

{Actually, I'm happy every time that there's a pianist or keyboardist, which is every time.... probably even for certain cowboy dances, lol.... from Cliff Carter to Thelonius Monk.... I'm counting pages from "Sleep, Baby, Sleep" to Chopin.... OH MY GOD I'M ALREADY THERE.... I'm The Old Polish Master.... I can go tour the Soviet Union like Billy Joel-- awesome! Awesome.}

Ahhhhh! One of the songs sucked! What are we gonna do! Ahhhhh! Let's go watch a movie!!!! Ahhhh!!!!!!

I mean, it was pretty good though. It's there.

............

And, you know-- "Hey Jude" is the greatest song ever. Not every song can be the greatest song ever. And it *had* to be the greatest song ever-- even better than "Hey Joe"-- because it was the first song for Apple.... (George Martin-- I don't need you! You're fired! Gene Clark, if you won't get on that plane.... David Crosby, if you won't *shut up*....

And so he said-- No, I'm John *Riley*-- you're thinking of John.... (John Drummer, John Glasses, John....)

Ah, people named "John". An endless source of name-based humor....)

Gaia....

See, that was an average good song.... LOL....

...........~

*looks up the lyrics* Oh, this really is funny.

"I remember Richard Nixon in '74
And the final scene at the White House door
And the staff lined up to say good-bye
(Tiny little tear in his shifty little eye)
He said, Nobody knows me
Nobody understands
These little people were good to me
Oh I'm gonna shake some hands....

*Oh, I've seen corn in Kansas*
And I've seen picket fences
*And certain cowboy dances*
I've gone lining up for shows
I've been safely placed in rows
Sure I know how it goes...."

That's so funny. *laughing*....

But....

Oh, I've seen corn in Kansas
And I've seen picket fences
And certain cowboy dances....

Not a bad thing to say.

Molotov: *thoughtful* Once I was in Kazakhstan, and I think that I did see.... certain cowboy dances.
Richard Nixon: *makes a face* Ah.... *Soviet* communist. *Not* my favorite kind.
Molotov: *opens his mouth to say something* *closes his mouth, shakes his head, like-- Nevermind*

Some men really are *truly* average, you know.

"But it's much too much emotion-- there are waves out on the ocean; they're gonna wear away the land...."

.... Like the king of the year. Who can be the king of the year. The one most like the others. ^^

It's funny. I think. ^^

(8/10)

Thank God they stopped playing Dylan's stuff, right. ("Ze woirld, it have a change, okay." It's like with Borat. He could tell me what day of the week it was and I'd argue with him.) I mean, I know that sometimes, right, but, basically-- thank God. (I mean, the Tambourine Man song is pretty great; it's not like it's not.... *But*, it's still on some other album, right? Good.)

"Fifth Dimension" and especially, for me, "Eight Miles High" are just really great songs. I hate to compare everything with "Pet Sounds" just because "God Only Knows" is Paul McCartney's favorite tune, lol, but it's a bit like with that, I think-- the first track and the one sorta in the middle, like anchors, because they're both so good.

It's a good arrangement, I think.

I think I've heard "Mr. Spaceman" somewhere else before, I think when I was a kid.... The Byrds are a good 60s band. They're actually a good 60s band; they're very 60s. In a way it's very cool how 60s-y they are. (Still glad they got over Dylan eventually though-- lol.) Kinda like the Turtles, only.... larger. I actually heard of the Turtles first, "Happy Together", I think-- I'm not sure where that came from. But, yeah, "You Showed Me". That's kinda funny, if you think about it.

Anyway.

I don't know much about this band-- not as much. (I can do Paul John George "Richard", lol, like the back of my hand.... With alot of other bands, that comes more difficult.) I wonder what was the relationship between Mr McGuinn and David Crosby-- I guess that this must have been the time when it really worked, at any rate.

I think that the folk-rock aspect of the band does pretty well here, which is pretty interesting. (A refreshingly un-Dylan-y aspect of the 60s, and not necessary the best remembered or preserved, it seems.)

The "John Riley" song, in particular, is pretty good-- both of what it is, and, just-- as is. And the "Eight Miles High" reprise-- I can't get enough of that song, it's pretty great.

That's a little "un-even", I guess, but, I sorta wrote this on impulse. Might as well, sometimes, when you come to it.

I've always been a little interested in the Byrds as 60s folk rock; I think it's an interesting connection. You hear some of the stuff they do, sometimes it's very 60s-y, a very deep flavor of it, without being.... stupid, or anything about it, at least. It seems very, representative, almost, which is an interesting sort of character for a group to have, I think.

And I think it's an interesting connection, "folk rock", because I've listening to some Northern-Scandinavian neopagan sorts of mythological rockin', basically, from about last year, basically. The.... historical?.... roots of that sort of thing (because the sort of literal beginnings of it, that sort of Viking metal, doesn't go back farther than the 80s, at the earliest), the historical roots, of this sort of-- I mean, we're not all foreigners, like George Harrison.... or assholes like Bob Dylan!..... or, *Lutherans*..... *ick*..... (Even, "Turn! Turn! Turn!"-- it's a great song, but one of the Lutherans ruined it for me, hahaha.... It's a great song, (and some things in the world aren't great, lol), but I still, almost, hate it....) historical roots in a more modern sense of what came before us more recently, if that makes sense.... in a very broad sense, not that there's any-thing wrong with the main-stay of rock-n-roll, which is.... well, you shouldn't need to me to explain everything. And it's not good, I think, when these sort of asshole punkish sort of bands denigrate it or act like they're too good for it, or, anything.....

But, just this very general idea, of, different kinds of exploration.... investigation.... I know how different it sounds from saying, Odin!, but, the Fifth Dimension really does open up a lot of doors....

And, yet, at the same time, captures that whole flavor of the moment, which was the 60s-- which is why they put the helicopter sounds in that one song, right after "John Riley"-- in a sense, I feel like they'd almost rather not, if they *really* had a choice, but, it's almost like saying, "I can hear it. I'm not especially *listening* for it, but, it doesn't matter, (and nobody thought of *that*)-- I can hear it."

In my opinion, at any rate.

But, yeah, it's funny -- almost bottling that spirit in the air, as well as having this sort of softcore conceptual side.... it's for both aspects of that, a pretty "folk" kind of rock, I think.

And, you know, Michael Clarke, (from 'the Byrds in the beginning', lol, alliterating like all good Norse poets), is definitely an unmistakably good-looking guy, right-- more than Ringo! :) -- it's not like they are ditching the whole rock-and-roll of the rock band. If they're about folk things, it's still the fertility fairies that they're talking to-- they'd be more about the Vanir, the gods of friendship, and not the super *hardcore* guys-- that's definitely a part of who they are, I think. "John Riley" is like the folklore of Netherfield Park or something, you know.

And, "Eight Miles High", you know-- have I mentioned that song before, haha. It's like the Yuri Gagarin song, maybe even more than "Rocketman". If Yuri could only take one song with him..... *eight miles high*, lol.....

Anyway, I wouldn't call it the Best Album Ever-- and I despise these lists of twenty million songs to sing before I shoot you, it's so Nazi and all that putz-- but, hey. ("You have to listen to Sgt. Pepper." No I don't. Stop telling me what to do.)

(What was that crappy Turtles song called? About being a philosopher? Hahaha.)

It's certainly *distinctly* better than average, in my opinion.

............

Postscript: The 1965 albums received noticeably better chart positions than the 1966 album, but on the whole, I myself cannot look on them as being preferable.

(9/10)

I think this is a *great* album. The songs are awesome and varied; the arrangement is great; it rocks.

I love the Beatles; I love the Early Beatles; I love it.

I guess it just feels good to say it.

And, also, as far as our whole music theory and methodology of commenting on the sacred writ, so to speak, I'd like to register one comment:

I really *very especially* do not like the term "British Invasion". I know about all about (I suppose) Capitol Records and The Ed Sullivan Show and Beatlemania 1964, (I know-- after this), but I just think that it's not an especially *clever* term to express it all.

After all, it's not as though it were Ringo's special duty and mission-in-life to beat up Jim McGuinn with his drum-sticks. (And, *honestly*, alot of people who say after all these years that they didn't follow the Byrds (or whoever) "because of the Beatles" didn't really follow the Beatles, even, that close, really.... and, really-- alot is shared, both because of the shared epoch, and because they of the epoch did alot of sharing with each other.... I think, anyway.)

And, anyway, look at Ringo on the album cover-- he's obviously the all-American running-back, or, something like that.

But, anyway. It's a pretty super album.

Did anybody really like Sgt. Pepper? No, they did not. Why? Because, he invaded. From Britain.

But, anyway, yeah.

I really dislike the term. It rubs me the wrong way. Even when I have tried to use it as a sort of "musical joke", people seldom seem to understand what I mean.

It's *not* an invasion.... it's a magic spell; it's a magic circle.

And that's truly super.

Anyway, now, I'm going to make clever little remarks.

"I Saw Her Standing There" is a great lead-in. If "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is the spark of "Pet Sounds"-- of the Beach Boys; I'm not an idiot, lol-- after the whole thing comes apart at the end of the day with "Caroline, No", "I Saw Her Standing There" is like the Beatles being reborn after dying ten years in the future with "Let It Be".

If that makes sense.

"Misery" is a miserable. It makes you feel.... *miserable*. Actually it doesn't. I'm just being witty, because I'm a goddamn music critic, albeit one that works for free and without a definite audience. (I mean, it's like a song that Georgy Harrison would write-- actually, "Don't Bother Me" is a great song. But, basically, nobody likes that guy. I say so.) (Sullen. Sullen Georgy. Trotskyite.)

"Anna (Go With Him)" is a surprisingly grown-up, married, sort of song. It's like.... I don't know. Being married. I suppose that's the good thing about cover songs, because who could write that sort of song when they were about 20 and doing their first album. It's like shared memory. So, anyway, it's very grown-up. It's like, doing the right thing. Like when Adam Sandler or The Beach Boys suddenly have the answer to serious 'married' problems, you know.... Anyway, it's terrible.

"Chains" would make a great youtube video, with pictures. Actually, it would not. That is a terrible idea. I hereby absolve myself of all responsibility for it.

"Boys" is, I suppose.... about the Beatles! Or, something.

"Ask Me Why".... John Lennon wrote this song? Didn't he write "I Am The Walrus"? Sorry. I know it's not like that. But, I thought that I was pretty good at doing Lennon vs. McCartney. But, I'm not always perfect. Only sometimes. (That's why I'm a music critic, or, something.)

"Please Please Me" is an incredibly clever: (1) phrase, (2) song/single, (3) album title, (4) way to be inappropriate with the desk girl (who likes the Beatles) at the music studio I go to, which I'm never actually going to use.

But it's defs a single. It's really rockin'.

(..... And John wrote it, and George Martin (!)-- the producer!-- helped him!

Isn't that funny!

I certainly wouldn't have guessed. I might have even said Paul; I don't know-- hard to tell.

But it's all very fine, you know.)

Contrast with "Anna (Go To Him)".

Was "Anna" a single.

No, she was not. ;)

And why not?

Greedy, selfish, consumer capitalism, that's why. ^^

"Love Me Do"-- another great single. Also another great, *This Is John Lennon* Early-Beatles moment, if you know what I mean.

Kinda goofy rhyming, and really really hickish early-60s sorta.... rockin'.

I mean, this was the Beatles *first single*, right.

The veritable primordial goo.

Back in ancient times.

It must pre-date Mozart.

"P.S. I Love You"

Many Beatles songs are about love. This one is about writing a letter because you're in love. Like the letter that Darcy wrote to Elizabeth.

Only more.... *better*.

It's a better, letter.

"Baby It's You"

Eh.

*Eh*.

"Do You Want To Know A Secret?"

'Can You Keep A Secret?' Lol.

John Lennon.... Disney? Is this true, Wikipedia? Lennon of John, with Disney of cartoon?

Wow.

But, then, people forget that John is a Libra.

Znaku Librae has the special power of having feelings.

"A Taste of Honey"

This could be a single; it's just as good as any of the other really good songs on the album, for me.

"I'll come back for the honey.... and you!"

"A taste of honey, tasting much sweeter than wine."

It's just really really good. It's a lot of good; it's a lot of fun.

It's really a certain sort of perfect; it really is.

It's that perfect kind of.... Mantovani, sort of style.

It's very good-- an oldie, post-classical, pre-.... now.

It's very old, regal, gentle.... not unrealistic.

"A taste of honey! Tasting much sweeter, than wine."

It's.... sophisticated. Caring, and *artistic* and *sophisticated*.

"I'll come back, (he'll come back), for the honey-- and you!"

And it has a way of bringing me back.

Because this is how a ~*sophisticated* man does it, you know....

"I'll come back, (he'll come back), for the honey, (for the honey)-- and you!"

....If you want, (and you can do whatever you want, I just wrote that line again instead of 'correcting' it.... since I'm listening to it for the 30th time now), you can imagine Paul McCartney being goofy and approving and pointing at the camera-- ".... and YOU!"

For the happy energy.

"There's A Place"

This place is *not* the Soviet Union. This is because Khrushchev is still in power, and he would *not* make a good father-in-law. In about five years, things will be different-- Brezhnev will not be heroic, and not like the Georgian; he'll be wall-paper-- but, bearable.

(But maybe Brezhnev would have liked the Early Beatles better-- what can you do. Some men are *truly* unfortunate, ha-ha.) (You know how at every truly mediocre oldies party, there has to be that guy that makes everyone clap by being the super-important person who stands in the front of everyone and claps? Brezhnev. "As you know, I am not a writer but a Party functionary." Really? I had no idea. I thought you just wrote songs, like Georgy does.)

But "the place" must be totally devoid of schize bald Ukrainians who bang their shoe on the table-- that is absolutely imperative.

"Twist And Shout"

Is this *not* a single, technically?

Even though it's super-famous?

Are covers not singles, is that how it works.

I mean, I guess it might even be a famous song without the Beatles-- although half the time you hear about alot of these solid-gold shared-songs because of the Beatles cover, first, you know-- but, still, it's a pretty great....

And an odd little exit, but, it works, somehow.

"A Taste of Honey" is probably my favorite from the album as a whole, all in all.

I was going to try to do something about the "flow" of the album-- maybe not as obviously or as perfectly as "Pet Sounds", but, some albums have a sort of good flow of energy, without being an annoying concept-y album with weird annoying indie stupidness.

'Cause that's stupid.

I'm the critic. You heard it here first. ;)

Anyway.... it's pretty super.

The second one, "With the Beatles", (screw Capitol, they don't know *what* happened), is just as good, at least as good-- but I suppose that I ended up writing up this one, just because it's the first.

(10/10)