Saturday, May 28, 2016
Continuing The Beatles' White Album tracks: Helter Skelter / Long, Long, Long
1968
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The track Helter Skelter, the second last on Side 3 (the White Album being a double album) will be forever associated with Charles Manson. The item below looks at the song, the Manson aspect will be looked at tomorrow, being too lengthy to do in this post.
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Helter Skelter
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Video:
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Lyrics:
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide
Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride
Till I get to the bottom and I see you again
Yeah yeah yeah hey
Do you, don't you want me to love you
I'm coming down fast but I'm miles above you
Tell me tell me tell me come on tell me the answer
Well you may be a lover but you ain't no dancer
Now helter skelter helter skelter
Helter skelter yeah
Ooh!
Will you, won't you want me to make you
I'm coming down fast but don't let me break you
Tell me tell me tell me the answer
You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer
Look out helter skelter helter skelter
Helter skelter ooh
Look out, cos here she comes
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide
And I stop and I turn and I go for a ride
And I get to the bottom and I see you again
Yeah yeah yeah
Well do you, don't you want me to make you
I'm coming down fast but don't let me break you
Tell me tell me tell me the answer
You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer
Look out helter skelter helter skelter
Helter skelter
Look out helter skelter
She's coming down fast
Yes she is
Yes she is coming down fast
(My head is spinning, ooh...
Ha ha ha, ha ha ha, alright!
I got blisters on my fingers!)
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About:
- Written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon and McCartney.
- When The Who released I Can See for Miles, Pete Townshend was quoted in an interview as saying that the song was the group’s most extreme sound to date. It inspired McCartney to not only want to do likewise but to top it. He stated in a 2008 interview:
I was in Scotland and I read in Melody Maker that Pete Townshend had said: 'We've just made the raunchiest, loudest, most ridiculous rock 'n' roll record you've ever heard.' I never actually found out what track it was that The Who had made, but that got me going; just hearing him talk about it. So I said to the guys, 'I think we should do a song like that; something really wild.' And I wrote Helter Skelter.
You can hear the voices cracking, and we played it so long and so often that by the end of it you can hear Ringo saying 'I've got blisters on my fingers'. We just tried to get it louder: 'Can't we make the drums sound louder?' That was really all I wanted to do - to make a very loud, raunchy rock 'n' roll record with The Beatles. And I think it's a pretty good one.
- A helter skelter is a fairground ride mainly popular in Britain, in which people could climb the inside of a wooden tower and slide down a spiral ride on the outside.
A touring helter skelter, travelling to shows, fairs and events, often used with burlap sacks for sliding.
A modern form of helter skelter, permanently fixed in a playground
- According to McCartney:
I was using the symbol of a helter skelter as a ride from the top to the bottom - the rise and fall of the Roman Empire - and this was the fall, the demise, the going down. You could have thought of it as a rather cute title but it's since taken on all sorts of ominous overtones because Manson picked it up as an anthem, and since then quite a few punk bands have done it because it is a raunchy rocker.
- According to Ringo Starr:
Helter Skelter was a track we did in total madness and hysterics in the studio. Sometimes you just had to shake out the jams, and with that song - Paul's bass line and my drums - Paul started screaming and shouting and made it up on the spot.
- According to John Lennon:
"That's Paul completely ... It has nothing to do with anything, and least of all to do with me.”
- The first version was a 27 minute jam session. 21 takes were recorded, the last take being the one used on the album.
- The fadeout line “I’ve got blisters on my fingers” was from Ringo, whose fingers were literally bleeding and blistered from the constant forceful playing. He shouted it on the 18th take in response to John’s call “How’s that?”
- Don McLean references the song and the Manson murders in American Pie with the line “Helter Skelter with a summer swelter”.
- The song has been hailed by many as an introduction to (and by some as the birth of) heavy metal.
- Over the years there have been suggestions that the remaining members of The Who and the Beatles should form a combined band and tour as The Whotles.
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Long, Long, Long
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Video:
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Lyrics:
It's been a long long long time
How could I ever have lost you
When I loved you
It took a long long long time
Now I'm so happy I found you
How I love you
So many tears I was searching
So many tears I was wasting, oh oh
Now I can see you, be you
How can I ever misplace you
How I want you
Oh I love you
Your know that I need you
Ooh I love you
Oh
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About:
• This track concludes Side 3 and is a complete contrast to the heavy Helter Skelter which precedes it.
• Written by George Harrison, who also provides the vocals.
• The "you" in the song refers to God.
• The Beatles recorded 67 takes.
• The rattling sound at the end is a bottle of Blue Nun wine that was left on a speaker.
• The last 30 seconds of this song has been called an audio simulation of Paul's supposed death in 1966.
• The song marked Harrison’s return to the guitar after 2 years studying the sitar.
• From Wikipedia:
The idea for the end of the song was inspired by the sound created by a wine bottle sitting on a Leslie speaker, through which the organ was connected. Whenever McCartney played a certain note on the keyboard, the bottle began to vibrate, producing an eerie clattering sound that the Beatles decided to incorporate in their subsequent performances of the track. To compound the effect on the selected take, Starr played a fast snare drum roll and Harrison vocalised a prolonged, high-pitched wail. While noting the "palpable spiritual longing" conveyed in the song, Chris Gerard of PopMatters describes this coda as a "weird spectral ending, with Harrison wailing like a wounded ghost while the band members rattle their instruments ominously".
Friday, May 27, 2016
Good morning Byters.
Friday again, the end of the working week for most of us and the prelude to the weekend. And also time for some Friday Funnies. Enjoy.
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A pharmacist walked into his shop to find a man leaning against the wall.
“What’s wrong with him?” he asked his assistant.
“He came in for cough syrup, but I couldn’t find any so I gave him an entire box of laxatives”.
“You idiot” said the chemist. “You can’t treat a cough with laxatives”.
“Of course you can,” the assistant replied. “Look at him . . . he daren’t cough now!!”
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A BMW was driving very erratically through the streets of Melbourne when it attracted the attention of a cop car. They flashed the lights and hit the siren and got the car to stop.
“Would you mind blowing into this bag?” the policeman said.
“I can’t” said the driver. “I’m a chronic asthmatic”.
“Well sir, accompanying us to the station for a blood test.”
“Sorry officer, I’m a haemophiliac”.
“Well sir, would you step out of your vehicle and walk along a straight line?”
“No way. I’m too bloody pissed”.
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Three lads were roaring around the backblocks of Queensland in a panel van. They were doing wheelies outside the Town Hall when the cops pulled them over. “Don’t give your real names”, hissed the driver.
A cop asked the bloke sitting in the middle his name. He saw a neon sign over the cop’s shoulder. “David Jones,” he replied.
Now the cop turned to the other passenger. “And what’s your name?”
“Aah, G J Coles.”
Now the cop circled the ute to the driver.
“Okay, name?”
“Aah, Ken.”
“Ken? Ken what? I suppose you’re Ken bloody Myer. What’s your last name?”
“Tucky Fried Chicken.”
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A bloke crashes his single seater plane in the outback. Close to death from thirst and hunger after several days in the wilderness he comes across a stream and jumps in to take a drink. As he does this he steps on a platypus, killing it. After he drinks as much as he can he picks up the dead platypus, makes a fire and begins to cook it.
While he is eating the platypus, a ranger rocks up and arrests him for killing an endangered species.
In court he explains to the judge his harrowing tale of survival, going to great pains to describe his near death experience. He tells the judge that he was too weak to forage or hunt for food, seeing as though he was starving and that he had no faith that he would be rescued soon, decided to eat it to survive.
The judge is sympathetic, ruling the man was within his rights to survive by any means necessary, in this case, eating the endangered species through convenience.
As the man was leaving, the judge asked, "Just out of curiousity, what does platypus taste like?"
“Well, Your Honour,” said the man, “it sort of tastes like a cross between a koala and a dolphin.”
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Wycheproof has a train line going right through the middle of town. And right in the middle of the town there is a Town Hall where a council meeting is going hammer and tong. Suddenly the door opened and a man rushed in. “My mini-bus is stalled on the railroad tracks. I want to ask that it be moved.”
“I say move,” cried a voice from the back of the hall.
“I second it,” said another.
The Mayor banged his gavel and said, “You’ve heard the motion. All in favour say ‘aye’ “.
“Aye” came the chorus.
“So ordered. Now let’s get on with the other business that we were talking about.”
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Corn Corner:
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There was a prison break and I saw a midget climb up the fence. As he jumped down her sneered at me and I thought, well that’s a little condescending.
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My friend recently got crushed by a pile of books, but he’s only got his shelf to blame.
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What’s the best part about living in Switzerland? Not sure, but the flag is a big plus.
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I started a band called 999 Megabytes — we haven’t gotten a gig yet.
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What is the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don’t know, and I don’t care.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Quote for the Day
“And he gave it for his opinion that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.”
- Jonathon Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
Locals will have seen the disgraceful conduct of protestors at the first meeting of The Council of the Inner West, being the merged Councils of Ashfield (where my office is located), Marrickville (where my home is located) and Leichhardt. The NSW Government has dissolved 40 local Councils and merged them into a smaller number with elections postponed to 9 September 2017. In the interim, the merged Councils will be managed by an Administrator. This does not sit well with people hostile to the sackings of the Councils, the local government pollies who lost their Council seats and the objectors to the WestConnex motorway extensions. See film of the meeting at:
I happened to quote the above words to our trivia team members last night during discussions about the Council meeting. As you can gather, I am not a great fan of politicians.
The words were spoken to Gulliver by the King of Brobdingnag, which is the land Gulliver visits after being Lilliput. Whereas in Lilliput he had been the giant, in Brobdingnag the locals are of enormous size, making Gulliver the tiny one. It was the King’s view that government is a matter of commonsense and justice, that useful government is dedicated to productivity for the benefit of the people, not power politics and all its associated negative aspects.
Bonus quote from the King of Brobdingnag:
“…I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.”
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
From readers
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Sent to me by Thomas:
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From David B:
Talking of kids on bikes this photo might interest you. It shows a 6-7 year old me in ~1954 with my late dad. Prior to that i used to travel in a sidecar attached to the tandem
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From Wayne:
The baby carrier bile from Holland looks like the old shop delivery bicycles we had in the 1950s.
I always wanted to visit Bruges to see the canal system. Now I want to add Giethoorn to the list.
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From Tobye P:
Wow! Mega-cool views-and the bike too!
Thanks, Tobye
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From Sandra B:
A man becomes marooned on a deserted island.
He's learned how to survive and manages to keep up the routine for 10 years. One day while sitting on the beach a gorgeous woman walks out of the waves in full scuba gear. He runs up to her ecstatic to see another human face. He is still in disbelief when he says, "Are... are you real?" She nods and responds with, "How long have you been here?"
"Ten years."
"So how long has it been since you tasted your dear friend Jack?"
"Ten years."
She opens one pocket and takes a bottle of Jack Daniels out and hands it to the man. His entire body warms with one sip and the taste is nothing short of euphoric.
"How long since your last drag?"
"Ten years."
She opens another pocket and hands the man a cigarette and lighter. He inhales deeply and savours the moment.
At this point she begins to unzip the front of her suit to reveal she is not wearing anything underneath.
"How long since you played around...?"
The man’s eyes grow and he exclaims, "DON'T TELL ME YOU HAVE A SET OF GOLF CLUBS IN THERE!"
Haiku
Caution: risque language included
Haiku:
a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.
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A teacher required her young class to write haiku (what is the plural of haiku – is it haiku or haikus?). This was the response of one pupil:
Some more haiku . . .
I see you driving
Round town with the girl I love
And I'm like haiku.
Haikus are easy,
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator.
Anyone can write
a haiku just stop at the
seventeenth syllab
Not all haiku are
funny, some are quite profound
Like this, for instance . . .
(I wrote that one but none of the others)
Tittering monkey
In spring he climbs treetops
And thinks himself tall
Counting syllables
seventeen is not enough
eighteen would be bet
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Some Dutch items
Yesterday I posted some pics from bygone days, one them being of a tandem bicycle with a baby carrier at the back:
It inspired a friend in Holland, who is a subscriber to Bytes, to send me an email:
I couldn't believe the bike picture with the baby lying on the back carrier, just super dangerous.
Dutch people have different models of bikes to carry their kids with them to school , shopping etc.
This is the model that our physiotherapist has who brings his little boy to wherever he needs to go. The child faces him sitting in a baby seat with the seat belt on. There is space for shopping, pram and/or dog, whatever.
Of course it makes it easier here that it is flat country.
Take care.
Dianne
(The cover for the carrier can be back folded as seen, or closed over the child's carrier or canopy.)
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Coincidentally, that same day I also received an email from Charles D with photographs from Holland of a parade of ships.
Here is the commentary and some of the pics:
Every five years the parade of ships 'SAIL Amsterdam' takes place. In August thousands of vessels, from small sailboats to large replicas of caravels, arrive together at the IJ bay north of the city and then pass to the capital of the Netherlands, in 2015 involving 8,000 vessels!
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One further item about Holland (the country of my birth, although I have lived in Oz from age 5).
There is a village in Holland known as Giethoorn which has no roads, only canals and 180 bridges. There are 2,620 residents. The village fended off competition from 182 contenders across the world to achieve a place on the board of the new international edition of Monopoly.
Some pics:
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