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Because of the various discussions and whatnot about the 50th Anniversary of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, I think I'll start off with what I said about my view of the Beatles in general about eight years earlier:
I suppose I have a rather skewed view of the band compared to most people. You see, I was a baby in their heyday (I was born around the time Revolver came out) but they had already broken up by the time I was allowed to listen to the radio in the early Seventies. So I knew all four of them as solo artists FIRST. It wasn't till much later in life that I got the message that these guys were THESE GUYS and so on.
The media establishment was so quick to move on that their songs as a group were largely out of circulation for some years. Besides, Paul kept on making hit records with Wings. There was no point to look back at that time...unless you were looking back to the Fifties in the wake of American Grafitti and Happy Days. It took the Disco backlash, Elvis' death, the Beatlemania Broadway show (anybody remember that?) and the Sgt. Pepper's movie/soundtrack to start a Beatles nostalgia trend in earnest.
Anyway, I come from a time warp with regards to that realm of pop culture. I'm like a baseball fan who has to remember that the Dodgers once played in Brooklyn, or a car nut who must be prompted that GM used to have a brand of cars called LaSalle. Well, I'm not THAT bad. After all, I can ask my brother (who played a role in his High School's Beatles-based revue).
--So, what about the album itself? Really I took my own sweet time getting to it. You see, my sister had the vinyl of the movie soundtrack, which of course threw the original narrative of the album out in favor of a contrivance of both it AND Abbey Road. So my own views of what the songs were and what they meant were very very wrong, on many levels.
I only got to hear the songs that were on the album that were not remade for the movie in the early Eighties when a family friend let me borrow her vinyl of the Beatles LP--and I never heard the Beatles LP all the way through till just after the start of this Millennium when on a road trip with my brother. The new PBS special about the album's making swung my compass on it completely around.
The new remaster is going on my Xmas Wishlist.
FP
Useless Fact
Dec. 15th, 2015 02:54 pmI Shouldn't Mind That I'm Too Old...
May. 2nd, 2015 07:37 pmMy Research Addiction brought me to the website of a classic rock radio station that regularly polls listeners and then publishes the results of these polls. I've just pored over the latest "favorite songs of all time" list, and while I expected that the songs of not only my childhood AND my high school years would be old enough for "classic rock", it turns out that the music of my COLLEGE years qualify now as well! It shouldn't have surprised me but it did.
The good news is that now I've found a bunch of acts I've probably HEARD but don't so much KNOW about.
Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) didn't like to work hard, and yet he was also prolific. In fact, his desire to avoid strenuous exertion was an important factor in his abundant output. He got things done fast. His most famous opera, The Barber of Seville, took him just 13 days to finish. Another trick he relied on to reduce his workload was plagiarizing himself. He sometimes recycled passages from his earlier works for use in new compositions. Feeling good was another key element in his approach to discipline. If given a choice, he would tap into his creative energy while lounging in bed or hanging out with his buddies. In the coming weeks, Sagittarius, I recommend you consider strategies like his.
"Looney Tunes", huh? Maybe I ought to find some cartoons to watch.
FreeWill Pulls Out All The Stops
Dec. 30th, 2014 09:08 pmDieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707) was a German composer whose organ music is still played today. He was a major influence on a far more famous German composer, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). When Bach was a young man, he decided it was crucial for him to experience Buxtehude's music first-hand. He took a leave of absence from his job and walked over 250 miles to the town where Buxtehude lived. There he received the guidance and inspiration he sought. In 2015, Sagittarius, I'd love to see you summon Bach's determination as you go in quest of the teaching you want and need.
Okay, so now I know how to spell "Buxtehude".
FreeWill Gets Beatical
Dec. 4th, 2014 12:41 amWith both symbolic and practical actions, Sagittarius-born Pope Francis has tried to reframe the message of the Catholic Church. He's having public showers installed for the homeless in Vatican City. He has made moves to dismantle the Church's bigotry toward gays. He regularly criticizes growing economic inequality, and keeps reminding politicians that there can be no peace and justice unless they take care of poor and marginalized people. He even invited iconic punk poet Patti Smith to perform at the Vatican Christmas Concert. You now have extra power to exert this kind of initiative in your own sphere, Sagittarius. Be proactive as you push for constructive transformations that will benefit all.
Maybe I ought to lobby for "G-L-O-R-I-A" to be added to the canon of Christmas music.
All This Machinery Making Modern Music...
Nov. 18th, 2014 04:35 pmFreeWill Sprints Off The Line
Jul. 22nd, 2014 11:04 am"If I seem free, it's because I'm always running." So said Sagittarian musician Jimi Hendrix, widely regarded as one of the most inventive and electrifying guitarists who ever lived. Does that prospect have any appeal to you, Sagittarius? I don't, of course, recommend that you keep running for the rest of your long life. After a while, it will be wise to rest and ruminate. But I do think it might be illuminating to try this brazen approach for a week or two. If it feels right, you might also want to mix in some dancing and skipping and leaping with your running.
While there is nothing wrong with running, and I'd do it more if I had a safe place to do it, I'm more inclined to see the wisdom of yet another Sagittarian rock guitarist--Keith Richards--who very famously said that he would walk before they made him run. :)
Randomnity
Jun. 10th, 2014 02:21 pm* The Public Radio station is playing the Lord of the Rings Symphony as I'm writing this.
* Dad just installed the window air conditioner unit, and it works.
* I frosted the cupcakes for Dad's Bible study group tomorrow.
* When I looked up my own name on a search through my data base for a graphic I've already shared here, I found a reference in a Battletech e-book. I'm a Steiner. I don't know how I feel about that.
* We await word from our mechanic on the status of Dad's pickup truck. A stud in one of the wheel mounts failed, and the other studs for that wheel mount were in bad shape, so he's replacing the lot.
* I'm dabbling with Bitstrips on Facebook...but it doesn't seem to be habit-forming, yet.
The Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Eighth Symphony in a mere two months during the summer of 1943. He worked on it in an old henhouse on a former chicken farm. The location helped relax him, allowing him to work with extra intensity. I wish you could find a retreat like that for yourself sometime soon, Sagittarius. I think you would benefit from going off by yourself to a sanctuary and having some nice long talks with your ancestors, the spirits of nature, and your deepest self. If that's not practical right now, what would be the next best thing you could do?
Some would say that Rather Manor is a good place to start if you want a creative retreat. But I have found over the years that we tend to bring in a lot of our own noise without realizing it. So I don't know what the answer is here.
"If you’re in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark." That helpful advice appears in Norwegian Wood, a novel by Haruki Murakami. Now I'm passing it on to you, just in time for your cruise through the deepest, darkest phase of your cycle. When you first arrive, you may feel blind and dumb. Your surroundings might seem impenetrable and your next move unfathomable. But don't worry. Refrain from drawing any conclusions whatsoever. Cultivate an empty mind and an innocent heart. Sooner or later, you will be able to gather the clues you need to take wise action.
"...We're gonna make our own lightning!"--Neil Diamond
FreeWill Punks Out
Sep. 4th, 2013 12:04 amPunk icon Henry Rollins did an interview with Marilyn Manson, rock and roll's master of the grotesque. It's on Youtube. The comments section beneath the video are rife with spite and bile directed toward Manson, driving one fan to defend her hero. "I love Marilyn Manson so much that I could puke rainbows," she testified. I think you will need to tap into that kind of love in the coming days, Sagittarius: fierce, intense, and devotional, and yet also playful, funny, and exhilarating. You don't necessarily have to puke rainbows, however. Maybe you could merely spit them.
What are my "true colors"? Are you sure you want to see them?
FreeWill: Feeling Robert Plant-ish
Aug. 13th, 2013 12:42 pm"All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name." So said French writer André Breton. I suspect that many of us feel the same way, which is kind of depressing. But the good news for you, Sagittarius, is that there will be times in the coming months when you will get as close to naming that mysterious thing as you have ever gotten. On more than a few occasions, you may be able to get a clear glimpse of its true nature. Now and then you might even be fully united with it. One of those moments could come soon.
"Your love is cradled in knowing/Eyes in the mirror, still expecting they'll come/sensing too well when the journey is done/There is no turning back/No/There is no turning back--on the run"--Big Log
You have both a poetic and a cosmic license to stretch yourself further. It's best not to go too far, of course. You should stop yourself before you obliterate all boundaries and break all taboos and smash all precedents. But you've certainly got the blessings of fate if you seek to disregard some boundaries and shatter some taboos and outgrow some precedents. While you're at it, you might also want to shed a few pinched expectations and escape an irrelevant limitation or two. It's time to get as big and brave and brazen as you dare.
I'll leave the playing of saxophones to others. I don't think Scotch Whisky is for me either at this point. Do I have a name when I lose?
Cue That Drum Machine Thing
Dec. 18th, 2012 10:48 pmMy car was on fumes and I came to a station that would accept my plastic
I had to switch off the ignition so I could unlock the fuel cap
And that meant your would-be driveway moment wasn't gonna pass
I'll try to turn you all back on as fast as I could
The car's tank only holds about ten gallons...
But you're gone, and the radio already moved on to the next number on the playlist
And the deejay's left for the wings so I won't know what I've missed
I'm back on the street--that main drag pointed at the heart of town
Disgusted with the tune that replaced you so I turn the radio down
This errand is taking forever
I want to pull over
But I never do
That place I thought would never go away is gone
They've torn down the building and workmen are clearing out the rubble
Will it sit empty for ten years, or are they going to put something new there in a month
I don't know who to ask who would know or care
It's just a shock, though
I guess it will pass
This town just seems to have all the wrong businesses
Though I have no idea what the right ones could be
Stay here too long and you'll just want to move on to the next one
But the next town over is pretty much the same
And so's the one after that...and the one after that...
So why bother?
Where can you go from here?
That shopping center is an eyesore--the whole place is run down
They're replacing the old cheap supermarket with a cheaper one
So half the tenants that were there are closing or moving
The only place that seems to want to stay is a chain that has seven other locations here
Which makes no sense
They can't afford to do that
Yeah, my plan on leaving the house included that store downtown
But I changed my mind because I've had enough of messing with this traffic
If that traffic light had changed just a little earlier, before I committed
I could have taken that highway out through Baneberry
Now I have no choice
Back the way I came
December here only has one kind of weather
And the word for that kind of weather is "bleak"
It's bleak when it's cloudy because it never is cold enough for the snow lovers
It's bleak when it's sunny because the wind smacks down the sun lovers
There isn't even anything to satisfy the haters
So it's best just to be indifferent and give up caring
They won't play another rap song on the station I'm listening to
Because it's the wrong time of year
And they need to play something very long for a staff meeting
The deejay won't be back for at least thirty minutes
So I just shut it off
This car will be back in its carport before he returns...
Keep A Hard Hat Ready. Freewill Speaks
Jul. 26th, 2012 03:17 amAfter consulting the astrological omens, I've concluded that during the next three weeks, you will deserve the following titles: 1. Most Likely to Benefit from Serendipitous Adventures; 2. Most Likely to Exclaim "Aha!"; 3. Most Likely to Thrive While Wandering in Wild Frontiers and Exotic Locales; 4. Most Likely to Have a Wish Come True If This Wish Is Made in the Presence of a Falling Star. You might want to wait to fully embody that fourth title until the period between August 9 and 14, when the Perseids meteor shower will be gracing the night skies with up to 170 streaks per hour. The peak flow will come on August 12 and 13.
The wild frontiers and exotic locales aren't likely, at least for a while.
Reading this, I was reminded that a whole genre of music was invented not by the performance but by the description of said performance, when a reviewer wrote that Jimi Hendrix' guitar play was like "heavy metal falling from the sky". Maybe this means, I might discover something completely new to human experience, even if I don't do it myself.
