No one who welcomed the sixties as a liberation can understand what it has been like to grow up in their wake. Authorities mouth the rhetoric of revolution, shocking slogans have become clichés, and the anthems of Woodstock and Altamont sell sedans to aging Baby Boomers. A banner at the Paris . . . . Continue Reading »
In 2002, the internet was set abuzz by news that the Beatles had approached J.R.R. Tolkien about doing a film version of Lord of the Rings starring the Fab Four: Once upon a time, the Fab Four—having slain the pop charts—decided to set their sights on the Dark Lord Sauron by making a Lord . . . . Continue Reading »
Our main purpose in looking at this song is to better judge “Eleanor Rigby,” which to some commenters’ chagrin, I criticized in the last Songbook entry. The first contrast is that it is a song that doesn’t grab you at first—in my experience, it takes about five or so . . . . Continue Reading »
The Songbook was analyzing a set of songs about Loneliness and Individualism, such as Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence,” before it got side-tracked into laying out my theory of modernity’s sociological stages. It’s time to return to the first task, which brings me . . . . Continue Reading »
It didn’t become a hit, but this version does contain one of the band’s better guitar solos, and what matters more for our purposes, anti-oligarchic lyrics. (Read my long post below to see what I mean by oligarchic.) Here’s how it starts: You keep sayin’ no to her, Ever since . . . . Continue Reading »
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