Typing Out Loud: Counting Down The Beatles

Selfie with Ringo, he’s a little far away. 

Talking ‘bout boys

I’m listening to the Beatles Channel and have fallen into the habit of thinking “top third, bottom third, middle third” with each song and wondered why I haven’t done my own ranking of each song from last to first.

It's a huge undertaking and I’m sure ever-changing opinions on songs will make them slip up and down my chart. I don’t want to think this opinion is set in stone; the channel does rank songs by listener vote on an annual basis.

I'm pretty stubborn about what I consider proper Beatles albums, so what are my parameters for Beatles songs? And what do I do with the Anthologies, live at the BBC recordings, and alternative takes? What about Now and Then? I know for a fact A2 version of It’s Only Love ranks higher than the Help version, so I count them both? And what about the remixes for the Cirque du Soliel musical Love? 

Simply, if it’s credited to The Beatles, it counts. Including Tony Sheridan, The Quarrymen, and The Silver Beetles. That means I get to give love to Pete and Stu! 

Hearing a version of The Long and Winding Road off Let it Be… Naked changed my mind about ranking all to ranking the best version only. I really don’t want to have to sort out fifteen different versions of Rocky Raccoon. That means I have to pick a version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

Basically, my list, my rules. And I will say I don’t think Revolution 9 will be last. But what will be? I’m eyeing you, Yes It Is. Although Christmas Time is Here Again is in right now and… yikes.

Secret Life of Objects: Eu de Melissa

A signature scent!

I didn’t do a SLoO post for November! This should make up for it. 

Back in 2011, my parents wanted Will all to themselves while giving me a birthday weekend. I had a bunch of freebies to redeem, so I reluctantly gave Will over to his grandparents who were ready to go show him off.

I gathered up my birthday coupons and treated myself to free makeup from Sephora and Ulta, ice cream from Baskin Robbin’s, a burger from Steak n Shake. It was the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks so I attended a memorial concert and planted a flag. I even attended the Hispanic Festival and drank pina coladas out of a pineapple.

The most curious giveaway I got that year was a free custom blend perfume from Aveda. All I had to do was find a salon and do a consult. 

What I got was a quick lesson in how to build a fragrance. We discussed top notes and base notes, what my scent personality was. Jasmine! Bitter orange! Ylang-ylang! Vanilla! The consultant was waving around sticks and having as much fun as I was. She blended a bottle for me, threw in a few extras for my birthday, and sent me in my way. 

I made it last as long as I could and when I got down to the last bits, I added alcohol to the oils to make it last. It still smells good just not as strong. I have since picked up more oils from Aveda - lavender, tangerine, stress relief blend - to create another scent. 

Why Art Matters: A Date with Jet Screamer

I was thrilled to see an episode of The Jetsons this weekend I hadn't seen in probably 45 years. The episode, A Date with Jet Screamer, is visually stunning and catchy as hell. 

Judy is a big fan of pop idol Jet Screamer. Dad not so much.

He's hosting a songwriting contest where the winner gets to hang out with him and he will perform the song on his show.  Judy writes a song, and George attempts to sabotage her by sending some secret code she wrote with Elroy instead. However...

Judy wins!

And the name of the song? 

And that means "I love you."

It's a catchy piece of surf music, which was the norm in 1962. I would not be surprised to hear it on Little Steven's Underground Garage.

They meet a funny little man on their date. 

Jet asks you to "come fly with me."

In my next life, I want to be a backup singer with rotating antennas in my hair.

Judy is thrilled by the attention from the paparazzi. 

Play that song on the piano, man. 

A date at the Fun Pad? I'm so there. 

Typing Out Loud: Do you, really?

 

Nice.

I'm struggling to type this as it is NOT MY BUSINESS. 

But.

A certain someone who was once in my life (yes, an ex) got engaged recently. I smirked "Fourth - or is it fifth? - time is the charm," which I admit is not kind. I am honestly pleased for him since he seems to be chasing happiness, but the narcissist in me is smarting from rejection that is nearly 40 years old. 

Then his fiancee/wife posted they found an open slot at the courthouse and went ahead and...

And what? 

Suddenly, she stops posting, her Facebook account goes dark, and he deletes all posts going back before their reunion in August. 

Again? 

This particular ex always had one eye down my shirt and one eye on the door to see if something better had come along. He did break up with me during his senior year in high school so he could play the field unattached. Then broke up with me again once a pretty waitress started at the restaurant, thinking he had a chance. The third strike happened my senior year when he was dissatisfied with the - ahem - progress in our relationship, and I was out. 

When I say the fourth or fifth time is the charm, he's been married, a lot.

He has a pattern of dissatisfaction with the bird in hand. 

My inner girl code is hoping he didn't break her heart at the altar. I don't know her, but she seems sweet.

Then again, maybe they are on their honeymoon. 

Then again, not my business. 

December: That's It, Just One Line - She Came in Through the Bathroom Window

New feature, just one line from a song that just kills it. Tells the tale, sums it up, slam dunk, and out of here. 

"She could steal, but she could not rob..."

Typing Out Loud: Pen Pals

The agency we got pen pal names from - I remember the newsletters! 

In this digital age, it's easy to keep tabs on friends using social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat - and those are just the old people apps, as the kids are using TikTok and lord knows what else to keep in touch. 

But once upon a time, we used pen and paper to forge a connection.

I feel like I've told Nancy's story here before, but it bears repeating. 

I met Nancy at the Holiday Inn Holidome in Sandusky, Ohio when our day at Cedar Point was canceled due to major thunderstorms. I think I was probably about 8 years old. Our parents decided to cash in our tickets for rolls of quarters and all of us kids played video games, putt golf, and swam in the pool while they ordered pizzas and drank beer poolside. Nancy and I forged a deep friendship at that time and promised to write or call. 

And that we did. Faithfully, for years, we would trade letters monthly and be allowed the occasional phone call. Our correspondence died out when I went to college and she was engaged to a guy in the service. I wasn't invited to her wedding, but I invited her to mine, and she sent a picture frame. I called her parents' house once while we were driving through Buffalo, and her brother excitedly said I had just missed her by a day. I left my number with him but I never heard from her again. I looked her up on Facebook again just now and think I found her and extended a friend request. 

Sacha is a little different. I found her through one of those pen pal services they had for grade school kids to forge a better and bigger world in maybe seventh grade, which seems right since that's the kind of thing Mrs. Hanna would have done. IPF was the agency. I want to say I paid fifty cents and got three - a boy from Italy, a girl from France or Brazil (I don't remember), and Sacha from England. 

Sacha and I wrote a little less frequently than Nancy and I, but we bonded over music, (Madonna, Culture Club, Wham!, Def Leppard), boys, school, and learning about each other's families, sports, and activities. We too kept writing up until the end of high school. 

Did I do a pop-in on her? Well, while in England on our honeymoon we traveled through Huddersfield and fate had us turn on her street. Having no way of understanding how to find her house since she didn't have a street number, I stopped at the corner shop to ask. The shop owner knew who I was! Mail was delivered to the post boxes in their shop and Sacha and her sister would walk down to pick the mail up. When she got letters from me, she couldn't wait and would open them up and share pictures and news about me and that is how they recognized me. 

Sadly, her mother had died and since the girls were grown, her father had sold the house and had moved... the week prior. I asked if there was a forwarding address or if I could leave her a note to post, but I never heard from her again. 

A name like Sacha Kelly is fairly common, and chances are she's since married and hasn't been known by the last name Kelly for years. Still, I may trot that box out and see if there are clues - her school maybe? - in tracking her down. I'm suddenly bashful, wondering if I've lived an interesting enough life to track her down to say what's up. 

Why Art Matters: Now and Then

 

Truly Now and Then, digital editing was the only way to create this magic in the video. 

Why the cassette? The demo was recorded in this format on a boom box, with "for Paul" written in John's handwriting on the label. The feels. 

Why the three shadowy triangles? Ah, this goes back to the re-releases of the Beatles' red and blue greatest hits albums and the corners in the stairwell from those covers. Does the single represent the third installment? 

See?

I've seen the triangles turned vertically, with four, which also calls back to the With the Beatles album cover. Am I also seeing something in the pixelation? I think there's more there than meets the eye.

And what's with the clock? Apparently, it was an art piece George owned. Olivia was looking at it in their home when Paul called to say he wanted to start work on the song, with her and Dhani's blessing. Startled, she looked at the phone in one hand and the clock in the other. Her reply was "This has to be George's way of saying yes." 

Beatles fans are having a field day with the new single, both for and against. My take? It's not on par with Here There and Everywhere or While My Guitar Gently Weeps but I love it; of the three post-Lennon singles, it is my favorite. 

Detractors are complaining that it's a John solo, and should have been credited as such. My argument against this lies in the fact it was written, in his handwriting, that it was for Paul. It was given to him by Yoko. The remaining three worked on it back in the 90s with the intention of it being a Beatles record. There was intent by all four. 

Detractors are also complaining that in real life, George hated the song and refused to work on it. In fact, he hated the poor quality of the audio, which is what Peter Jackson fixed. I also think that Olivia, Dhani, and Jeff Lynne, well aware of who George was as a person, would not have been on board with this project if that was the case. 

George's veto is why it is unlikely we will ever see Carnival of Light released under the Beatles name. 

What is my take? It is wistful, melancholy nostalgia. I love how it ends, it's beautiful. The harmony is especially poignant, John's youthful voice frozen in the 70s, accompanied by Paul's aged voice. I wish Paul would have written some of the lyrics, but as I understand it, the song is credited to all four. 

And special grace to Pete Best, who contributes a look back: within the video, as the timeline starts to go backward, he provides the only color footage of the band from their time in Germany. Who would have thought Pete would be a secret weapon in all of this? Makes me wish there was a touch of Klaus, Astrid, and Stu in there too. 

One of the vlogger critics sums it up nicely, saying that it was a classic Beatles collaboration in that Paul is the only one who could take John's sad song and make it better. 

There you go.

For some reason, the song made me reflect on my fandom, which started in the early to mid-70s, making it, sadly, impossible for me to have ever seen John in concert. Fittingly, Peter Jackson was going for that too. What would my timeline look like? 

Sing along children...

1973 - I start watching the Beatles cartoons after school, learning the lyrics from Paul and Ringo singalongs

1977 - buying the red album on 8-track 

1978 - The Bee Gees Sgt Pepper movie musical turning me towards watching Help! and A Hard Days Night. 

1979 - jamming to McCartney and Wings

1980 - a bright snowy morning, learning of the actions of the devil's best friend

1981 - Lennon memorial recordings, listening to Double Fantasy

1985 - First real after-school job, start buying Beatles on cassette

1986 - Singing Spies Like Us with the gang on the way to our Christmas party

1987 - bonding with friend Maria and having Beatles sleepovers that included Let it Be and Yellow Submarine on picture disc and tubes of cookie dough, McCartney's All the Best on cassette

1988 - Revolver on repeat, Travelling Wilburys, scoring the Lennon documentary poster from a video store as a birthday gift from my sister

1989 - Relishing the WRKX Beatles catalog, including a dirty copy of the White Album

1992 - First Beatle live, Paul McCartney at the Silverdome, McCartney on MTV Unplugged

1993 - graduating from college and buying the Beatles box set for myself as a graduation present

1994 - Live at the BBC is released, including rarities recorded live on the program

1995 - Anthology on A-Beatles-C

2001 - Heartbroken, I call in sick to watch VH-1 coverage... IYKYK

2002 - Macca in STL

2003 - Let it Be... Naked is released, and Paul's animosity toward Phil Spector justified

2004 - Ringo and Sheila E at the Fabulous Fox

2005 - "We aren't buying a Blue Ray player until Yellow Submarine comes out"

2007 - Ringo at Soaring Eagle with friends from Norway

2011 - free Fab Four album from iTunes, I skate to My Sweet Lord

2015 to 2018 - I skate to Within You Without You 

2016 - Macca at the Van Andel, up there with the best show ever

2017 to 2019 - I skate to Here There and Everywhere

2018 - Purchase my first remaster box set, the White Album, obsession with the Love soundtrack

2021 - OBSESSED with McCartney's remix of Find My Way and I watched Get Back four times before it was taken off The Disney Channel

2022 - Love at the Mirage for our anniversary, Ringo at Soaring Eagle, Revolver remaster

2023 - Abbey Road remaster, I skate to I'm Only Sleeping, Ringo at DeVos, I'm featured DJ on Sirius/XM Beatles Channel, and contribute to Now and Then making it to #1 

2024? I'm debating skating to Long Long Long or Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight. I've been a fan for 50 years, I think I'm in it for life.