All posts by Egil

The Beatles 40 best songs: at 29 “Come Together”

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‘Come Together’ changed at the session. We said, ‘Let’s slow it down. Let’s do this to it, let’s do that to it,’ and it ends up however it comes out. I just said, ‘Look, I’ve got no arrangement for you, but you know how I want it.’ I think that’s partly because we’ve played together a long time. So I said, ‘Give me something funky and set up a beat, maybe.’ And they all just joined in. „
—John Lennon, 1969

“ On the new album I like ‘Come Together,’ which is a great one of John’s. „
—Paul McCartney, 1969

Wikipedia:

A-side “Something”
Released 6 October 1969 (US), 31 October 1969 (UK)
Format 7″
Recorded 21–30 July 1969, EMI Studios, London
Genre Blues rock, hard rock
Length 4:18
Label Apple
Writer(s) Lennon–McCartney
Producer George Martin

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The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live in Stockholm, 1969 (Video)

jimi hendrix stockholm 1969

“We’re gonna play nothing but oldies-but-baddies tonight, we haven’t played together in about six weeks, so we’re going to jam tonight and see what happens. Hope you don’t mind.”.. and as he steps away from the microphone we can vaguely hear him mumbling something like:  “You wouldn’t know the difference, anyway.”
~Jimi Hendrix (intro to the concert)

On the whole, I can’t understand how anyone who saw us on this tour could have liked us. There was a lot of filming for Swedish TV and compared to similar films in 1967, we were a different group. Jimi was sullen and removed and actually slagged off the audience during the first set. He rarely bothered to sing. I paced grimly in my corner and turned my back on him. The sparkle was gone, very gone, replaced by exhaustion and boredom which showed in the sloppy repeats of the hits as we stared at the crowd with dead eyes. We hated playing Sweden. Always the same problem–no drugs. We were forced to drink the killer Schnapps, and it brought on Jimi’s mood for the first set.
~Noel Redding (Are You Experienced?: The Inside Story Of The Jimi Hendrix Experience)

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Today: The late Waylon Jennings passed away in 2002 – 12 years ago

Waylon_Jennings

“I’ve always been crazy but it’s kept me from going insane.”
― Waylon Jennings

“Don’t ever try and be like anybody else and don’t be afraid to take risks.”
― Waylon Jennings

If any one performer personified the outlaw country movement of the ’70s, it was Waylon Jennings.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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Bob Dylan: To Ramona, Stockholm, Sweden 4 November 2011 (Video)

bob dylan 2011 Sweden

 

Ramona
Come closer
Shut softly your watery eyes
The pangs of your sadness
Shall pass as your senses will rise
The flowers of the city
Though breathlike
Get deathlike at times
And there’s no use in tryin’
T’ deal with the dyin’
Though I cannot explain that in lines

Globe Arena
Stockholm, Sweden
4 November 2011

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The Beatles 40 best songs: at 36 “All My Loving”


the-beatles-all-my-loving-1964-16
Lennon expressed his esteem for the song in his 1980 Playboy interview:

“ LENNON:”All My Loving” is Paul, I regret to say. Ha ha ha.
PLAYBOY: Why?
LENNON: Because it’s a damn good piece of work. … But I play a pretty mean guitar in back.”

The complicated rhythm guitar is probably the reason that John left the deep singing part (in the last verse) to George, he simply couldn’t do both.
Cynthia Lennon believed John wrote it for her, but in fact Paul (the writer) probably had Jane Archer in mind when he wrote the lyrics.

We should also pay attention to Ringo’s great drumming, it has a very distinct and difficult to copy, latin style. It add a sophisticated rhythm to a song that without it would much more ordinary pop/rock, this is evident on the Live at the BBC  album were he plays an ordinary 4/4 rhythm. It gets a more rock’n roll feel but loses a bit of it’s uniqueness, I think.

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