Buying Love w/o Amazon

I have been spending some time on the free version of the mega-music-streaming-platform Spotify recently. Unlike Neil Young, I don’t really love or hate it. One thing that’s kind of addictive about it is the ability to create playlists. If you’re a music junkie like me, it’s pretty addicting. For example, I recently listened to a couple of alternate versions of Beatles songs including “Can’t Buy Me Love.” This version is an interesting listen because of the additional background vocals from George Harrison and John Lennon.

The song was released in 1964, was included on “A Hard Day’s Night” album, and was a follow up to “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” If Lennon and Paul McCartney felt any pressure, they certainly delivered with the final version. Apparently, they wrote and started the recording process in Paris, but finished it in England.

The “alternate version” arrangement actually reminds me of some songs they recorded later on the “Revolver” album like “I’m Only Sleeping” along with “And Your Bird Can Sing” because it’s John, Paul, and George all contributing to the vocals. I think you can argue the final version is more like a solo McCartney song, which is great in its own right, but different. It’s a catchy pop song that also features that twangy guitar solo by George Harrison.

What else can you say about this song? Apparently, McCartney has opened some concerts with “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Naturally, you had Ringo Starr doing his thing on the drums.

If you’re into cover songs, there about 350 other versions out there. I haven’t really listened to them yet, but the list includes everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Blackstreet to Michael Buble to Lucinda Williams.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Hold That Tigrette

It’s been a busy summer…I’ve been busy mowing the yard, keeping the mower operational, and popping enough allergy meds to kill most people. That said, I came across something blog-worthy today. I was surfing YouTube and watched a horribly AI-narrated video about George Harrison when I learned something new. I had previously heard Harrison had an affair with Ringo Starr’s first wife Maureen “Mo” Cox, but I never really knew what happened to her P.B.B. — Post Beatles Breakup. It turns out she married this guy named Isaac Tigrett so the Yes version of “Tiger Rag” seems appropriate.

So who is Tigrett and why should you know his name? Well, he was one of two guys (the other being Peter Morton) who started the original Hard Rock Cafe and later House of Blues (with Dan Akroyd). I feel like the rock music memorabilia themed chain came to my attention during high school and college. You’d see people walking around with the iconic logo sweatshirts labelled with locations like London, etc. Apparently, Tigrett was inspired to name his place after a photo of The Doors on their Morrison Hotel album. I went to the Hard Rock in St. Louis, MO before it closed.

If you’ve ever seen The Beatles farewell rooftop performance, Maureen Cox is the “Mo” Paul McCartney acknowledges.

McCartney also wrote a song called “Little Willow” as a tribute to her. Jeff Lynne shares a co-writing credit.

Sadly, Maureen Cox Tigrett died at the age of 48 following a battle with leukemia. It’s amazing how many different bands and musicians intersected as part of this blog entry.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

A Short Day’s Night, Vol. 3

Recently, I woke up with an early Beatles tune in my head. It got me thinking about my own personal B.I.P. — that’s Beatles Immersion Phase — between the ages of say 15 and 17. I had the “Red” and “Blue” Greatest Hits albums and knew those songs really well. However, I had my mind blown when a friend of mine dropped by with The Beatles “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music, Volume 1” on cassette. It had a bunch of songs which were unfamiliar to me including the Lennon penned “You Can’t Do That.”

“You Can’t Do That” is an interesting tune. The song’s intro and outro are both kind of funky in an “excuse me” kind of way. You just sort of stumble into and out of the song itself. George Harrison starts the tune with some 12 string Rickenbacker guitar (and then stumbles out the same way on the outro).

John Lennon sings the lead while Paul McCartney and George provide backing vocals. There’s a chunky guitar solo with some call and response backing vocals. While it’s a catchy enough tune, Lennon’s lyrics are on the darker, jealous side. And, yes, this song was on “A Hard Day’s Night” and was the B side to “Can’t Buy Me Love.”

The longest song on “A Hard Day’s Night” was “I Should Have Known Better” at 2:43. “You Can’t Do That” and “Things We Said Today” tied for second-longest at 2:35.

Oh, and Ringo Starr played percussion on this one…drums, bongos, AND cowbell. Take that, Rolling Stones!

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the horizon!

Big Harry Wah Wah

I don’t know why, but I woke up with the George Harrison song “Wah Wah” in my head today. Appropriately, the song features the Wah or Wah Wah guitar pedal on it, but it’s really only one aspect of the song. The first time I heard this was watching The Concert for Bangladesh film. The actual concert was in 1971 and the film was released in ’72.

Harrison wrote the song during the Let It Be/Get Back sessions when The Beatles band was crumbling. I’ve read a few different things about the song’s inspiration…Yoko Ono screaming while no one but Harrison objected…Harrison’s feelings of suffocation and disrespect from Lennon and McCartney…or his throbbing headache as a result of all of those things. (“You’ve given me a Wah Wah.”)

The first time I heard this song, I loved the rocking feel to it and the guitar riff. Harrison’s pal Eric Clapton also played on the track. The song has a certain funk to it.

The other elements of the song are pretty fantastic, too: the vocals, horns, slide guitar solo.

“Wah Wah” was originally released on Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” TRIPLE album. Boy, I guess he did amass a few songs while Lennon and McCartney were passing on them.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Fab Thanksgiving Smithereens

It’s hard to believe Halloween has already come and gone, which puts Thanksgiving as the next major holiday on the horizon. Last year I did my Turducken Tribute to the multi-bird meal that is sweeping the nation. Someone should write a dance song about it. This year, the Fab Four song “Thank You Girl” seems appropriate.

How would you describe this song? I would say it’s fairly simple, but it seems to work. It’s a two minute tune. There’s no guitar solo in it. Rather, the drums are emphasized during the song intro and are repeated during the bridge. There’s also the smallest dash of harmonica as well. It’s basically a three chord song with two additional minor chords during that bridge. I hear The Everly Brothers’ influence in the harmony Paul McCartney sings above John Lennon.

“Thank You Girl” was originally released as a B-side. It was also covered by The Smithereens on their appropriately titled “B-Sides The Beatles“ album.

Give The Smithereens credit for this album. Lead singer Pat DiNizio also released an album of Buddy Holly covers as well. Hopefully, you have lots of movies, music, turkey, etc. to be thankful for this year.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Beatles: Now, Then, & Forever

Mixed feelings. That’s the only way I can describe how I feel about what’s being described as the final Beatles song “Now and Then.” I’m not one to go along with what’s the newest thing out there and my knee jerk reaction to hype is to push back against it. I have no doubt I would not be a Beatles fan if I was around when they were a new and touring band.

Apparently, this whole thing started when Queen Scapegoat Yoko Ono found the demo tape Lennon had recorded, but had not released. Back in the 90s, the technology wasn’t around to allow for separating Lennon’s vocal track when McCartney, Harrison, and Starr got together for a couple of other songs (more on that later). I hadn’t heard the demo version of “Now and Then” until now.

It’s a pretty mellow and melancholy song. The same could be said for their 1995 John Lennon-demo-turned single “Free as a Bird.”

I put these songs and “Real Love” into the same sort of postmark category. Of the three, “Real Love” is probably my favorite.

I think I prefer “Real Love” to the other two because of a few things. First, George Harrison’s slide guitar sounds fantastic. To my ears, it’s just a more upbeat song and is more percussive. In my humble opinion, it’s the most Beatle-ish of the three.

In some ways, I would compare these songs to a deleted film scene. They’re interesting to see/hear, but they don’t really change the overall big picture. Another comparison might be to the films in the Star Wars franchise. I’m an original first three guy. Those were from a certain time period and the others weren’t. The same could be said of The Beatles original albums vs. these three singles.

In any event, Lennon’s family and band mates all thought he would have wanted these songs to be finished so they have been. You be the judge.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

George & the Sitar

Once upon a time, there was a guitarist named George Harrison who lived in Liverpool, England. He played in a band called The Quarrymen with his friend Paul McCartney and bandleader John Lennon. As time went by, said band recruited drummer Ringo Starr and turned into the mega-platinum recording artist known collectively as The Beatles. I suppose I’m skipping a lot, but I also want to mention that Beatles producer George Marin said “that’s a first rate guitar” in reference to Harrison’s playing when hearing it for the first time.

Fast forward a few years and George Harrison gets into Indian music — especially playing the sitar. For most of us, myself included, “Norwegian Wood” (This Bird Has Flown)” was our first real exposure to the exotic sounding instrument. Here’s an interesting demo or working version of the tune.

I’ve read a few things about the song “Norwegian Wood.” I think you have to give The Beatles some creative kudos for all that’s happening in it: telling a story, Everly Brothers style harmony, the use of sitar, and it’s all done within a very short time frame. It’s a pretty unique piece of music.

If memory serves me correctly, Harrison was turned onto Indian music while filming The Beatles’ film “Help!” and got connected with sitarist Ravi Shankar. Following their exposure to sitar, other bands hopped on the sitar/Indian kick and launched the “raga rock” thing with songs like “Paint It Black” by The Rolling Stones.

There are a few Harrison compositions which went deeper into the Indian vibe like “Within You, Without You” and “The Inner Light”, both great songs in their own right. Years later, The Concert for Bangladesh was another exposure to both Shankar and Indian sitar music for me. After Harrison’s death, The Concert for George also featured Indian music including Shankar’s daughter Anoushka on sitar. Harrison’s son, Dhani, also played guitar in the same concert lineup. According to Wikipedia, Dhani ,”is named after the sixth and seventh notes of the Indian musical scale, dha and ni.”

I could spend some time describing what a sitar is and other music instruments, but I will leave those searches up to you. The only thing left to say is Ravi Shankar is also the father of musician Norah Jones.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

My Best Friend’s Riff

The Cars. They had massive radio airplay and hit records, not to mention frontman Ric Ocasek wound up with supermodel Paulina Porizkova somewhere along the way. Recently, I’ve been learning the guitar parts to “My Best Friend’s Girl”, which is an absolutely great piece of catchy pop music. There’s one thing I didn’t realize about the song until I started playing it. It falls into a special category of songs which were recorded in one musical key (E), then the recorded tape was sped up into a higher key (F). There are a good deal of these songs which fall into this category, but that’s a whole other discussion.

Something I recently noticed while watching a video guitar lesson, is one section of the song sounds a lot like the Bo Diddley song “Crackin’ Up.”

Listen around the 4:30 second mark on this lesson, and you’ll hear what I’m saying.

It took me a minute, but I knew I recognized that guitar riff from another song. I can’t remember if I heard the Bo Diddley original version of “Crackin’ Up” first or the version by Paul McCartney on his Russian Album.

This part is a repeat, but years ago, I took some guitar lessons with this ponytailed dude. He was the one who told me “My Best Friend’s Girl” borrowed heavily from a song on The Beatles’ White Album. I scratched my head at first, but then determined he was talking about the beautiful Paul McCartney song “I Will.” As a whole, the songs don’t really sound alike, but there is a guitar riff which certainly does.

Ric Ocasek got the songwriting credit for this song, but give some credit to Cars’ guitarist Elliot Easton for his contribution on this one. I even found a YouTube video with Easton showing how he played the guitar solo on it. All in all, it’s a psychic convergence of music.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

The B Side of Beatle George

If you mention the song title “Old Brown Shoe” by The Beatles, I think many people would say, “Huh? What?” I mean it’s not exactly as well known as “She Loves You”, but it is a fantastic song from the pen of the often overshadowed songwriter George Harrison. (To put things into perspective it was the B side of “The Ballad of John and Yoko.”) I found this early demo version on YouTube featuring more prominent vocals and piano.

Lyrically, the song is pretty interesting. The Wikipedia entry compares it to McCartney’s “Hello, Goodbye” in the sense there are themes of opposites and conflicts in both. In “Old Brown Shoe” Harrison sings about wanting “a short haired girl who sometimes wears it twice as long.” To me, the middle eight section is great both lyrically and musically. “When I grown up I’ll be a singer, wearing rings on every finger.” Give Paul McCartney credit for some interesting bass lines here.

Harrison later recorded this song on his 1992 album “Live in Japan.” If you don’t think this song is bluesy enough for you, check out the version by Leslie West (Mountain) on “Song from the Material World – A Tribute to George Harrison.” It’s also been played by Conan O’Brien and Gary Brooker (Procul Harum) at tribute concerts.

The first time I heard this song was on the cassette version of “The Beatles Greatest Hits 1967-1970.” I thoroughly enjoyed the song’s different texture then and still do now.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Paperback Writer

When I think of this Beatles’ classic from 1966, the harmony is the first thing to pop into my mind. However, there are other interesting elements including a bit of “Frère Jacques” towards the end.. I found a vocal-less version on YouTube and enjoyed listening to the instrumental track as a rocker in and of itself. (No one can mistake this for Karaoke!)

This track moves quickly so it’s easy to miss all of the elements. I’ve always liked the guitar riff in this song as well.

Then there’s the bass of Paul McCartney. There’s a really cool bass lick around 1:50.

It wouldn’t be complete without the, you know, full-on complete version.

You can also find the “isolated vocals” version out there as well. I would have to pick 1966 as my personal favorite year of “Beatledom.” They wrapped up their last tour and were starting to focus their efforts on studio work. This single was released a few months before the “Revolver” album, which is my personal favorite. It’s almost like this effort hinted at what was still to come. The flip side of this single (“Rain”) is an overlooked track which has some of the same elements as “Paperback Writer”: great harmony, and great rhythm section. A bit of backwards guitar on it as well. “Revolver” features more of the same.

Since The Beatles broke up in 1970, I think we should refer to 1966 as “the Year 4 Pre-Beatles Breakup.” Or should it be the Year 4 Pre-B.B. — the year 4 Pre-B.B.U? 1974, on the other hand, would be “the Year 4 Post Beatles Breakup. or the Year 4 Post B.B.U.” I think it may catch on, but I could be wrong.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!