Thanks to all who listened to my Deep Dive of The Beatles‘ Help! album and all the trivia around it. It was my last Deep Dive of the 2023 summer, and a lot of fun. Here’s the set list:
The Beatles – Help!
The Beatles – Help! intro
John Barry – The James Bond Theme
The Beatles – The Night Before (live)
The Beatles – You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
Ken Thorne – From Me to You Fantasy
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers – I Need You (live)
Dave Berry – The Crying Game
Paul McCartney – Another Girl (live)
The Beatles – You’re Going to Lose That Girl
The Ramones – You’re Gonna Kill That Girl
Ken Thorne – In the Tyrol
Vanilla Fudge – Ticket to Ride
Pink Floyd – Brain Damage / Eclipse
The Beatles – Act Naturally
Gary U.S. Bonds – It’s Only Love
Ken Thorne – Another Hard Day’s Night
The Beatles – You Like Me Too Much
The Beatles – Tell Me What You See
Elvis Presley – Trying to Get to You
Ken Thorne – The Bitter End / You Can’t Do That
Paul McCartney and Wings – I’ve Just Seen a Face (live)
Ray Charles – Yesterday
Frankie Lane – Answer Me, Lord Above
Ken Thorne – The Chase
Larry Williams – Dizzy Miss Lizzy
The Beatles – Wait
Thanks for all those who tuned in over the summer! The Deep Dive should return this winter!
A Smithereens cover album of a classic Beatles album?! Yes, please!
It’s no secret that The Beatles are one of the biggest influences on The Smithereens (along with The Who, The Kinks, and many others from the UK), so hearing this American rock band have fun with these tracks is a delight from beginning to end.
They’re a little subdued on their version of “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and it’s an effective in touch – pushing the love in the song more than the riffs. They push the riffs harder on “I Saw Her Standing There,” rocking it for all it’s worth. “This Boy” soothes things down a bit before the rocking, underappreciated Beatles’ classic “It Won’t Be Long” – a song they load with Jim Babjak‘s killer guitar riffs.
“All I’ve Got to Do” has a blues touch to it that’s perfectly suited to Pat Dinizio‘s voice. Severo “The Thrilla” Jornacion‘s bass is all over “All My Loving.” They perfectly capture the 1960s garage rock sound on “Don’t Bother Me.”
“Little Child” flies right by you at fast beats laid down by Dennis Diken, and then “Till There Wsa You” comes in with almost a Tiki lounge comfort to it. They make playing “Beatles swing” sound easy on “Hold Me Tight.” They unleash “I Wanna Be Your Man” on you after you’re all cozy from the previous track, with Babjak taking on lead vocals and having a blast with it. The albums ends with a fade-out on “Not a Second Time,” leaving you with a smile and fond memories.
It’s a fun record, and one that led to other fun cover albums by then. You’ll dig it if you’re a fan of either band.
Thanks to a missing comma, Ft. Wayne apparently renamed the city “Fort Wayne Paul” in McCartney’s honor.
The buzz for Paul McCartney‘s first show ever in Fort Wayne, Indiana was so big that local news outlets were telling people to get to the Memorial Coliseum early, make early dinner plans, and be ready to face construction on Coliseum Boulevard.
I managed to score some upper level tickets at overinflated prices on StubHub after my initial efforts to buy face value tickets were dashed within minutes. I waited months to finally buy the tickets we had. I almost didn’t, but I couldn’t resist the chance to see a living legend in a small arena just over an hour’s drive from my house.
The crowd was enormous and buzzing from the get-go. The merchandise booth was jam-packed with people buying everything from coffee mugs and shirts to tote bags and blankets (Yes, Paul McCartney blankets.). I opted for the limited edition show poster (limited to 100 copies) for the same price as a tour shirt ($45.00). Inside, we also discovered that Sir Paul had vegetarian and vegan food options available at some of the concession stands.
We eventually made our way to our seats, which were nearly ten times face value. Scalpers suck.
The view from our $432.00 seats. Those on the floor in the first section were more than double that EACH.
They turned out to be well worth the money. Sir Paul and his band came out and started with the Beatles‘ “Hard Day’s Night” and then followed it with Wings‘ “Junior’s Farm,” which I didn’t expect and was delighted to hear.
“Hard Day’s Night”
“All My Lovin'” and “Letting Go” followed before they got to “Who Cares” (an anti-bullying song) and “Come On to Me” from his new album Egypt Station (with “Got to Get You into My Life” sandwiched between them).
“Come On to Me”
The Wings track “Let Me Roll It” was followed by a brief instrumental cover of Jimi Hendrix‘s “Purple Haze” and McCartney telling a fun story of him seeing Hendrix play in London just a couple days after Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released. Another Wings highlight just a couple songs later was “Let ’em In” – a personal favorite of mine.
“In Spite of All the Danger”
“Maybe I’m Amazed” is still powerful, and even more so live. Another fun treat was he and his band performing the first Quarrymen song “In Spite of All the Danger.” He told a fun story about the recording of “Love Me Do” (in which he admitted you can still hear how nervous he was singing it in the song after John Lennon asked him to do it so he could play the harmonica on the track) before playing a fun version of it and then playing a solo acoustic version of “Blackbird,” which is still beautiful and poignant. His ode to Lennon, “Here Today,” also tugged at the heartstrings.
In case you’re wondering, Sir Paul played bass, electric guitar (on which he can shred, by the way), acoustic guitar, mandolin, piano, and ukulele throughout the show. The ukulele he played, by the way, was the one given to him by George Harrison. The song he played on it? Harrison’s “Something,” of course, which sounded great.
“George was a very accomplished ukulele player. Many people don’t know that.”
McCartney’s band were no slouches either, with two guitarists, a keyboardist, a drummer, a three-man horn section, and a top-notch sound and video crew doing great work throughout the three-hour show. The graphics on “Back in the USSR” were great, and the pyrotechnics during “Live and Let Die” (complete with jets of fire and cannon explosions) were big crowd-pleasers.
“Back in the USSR”“Live and Let Die” (with cannons and flame throwers)
The main set ended with “Hey Jude.” That alone with over two hours. The encore was another half-hour and included “Birthday,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Helter Skelter” (a wild, unexpected treat), “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight” (another welcome addition), and ended with (What else?) “The End.”
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
He looked great, sounded great, and brought us all a great time. He shows no signs of slowing down, so catch him if you can. The stories he tells are almost worth the ticket price by themselves.
Keep your mind open.
[You don’t have to carry the weight of finding music news. Subscribe and I’ll do it for you.]
I know what you’re thinking: “You’ve never heard Rubber Soul before?” I have, but I’ve never owned a copy. Now you’re thinking: “You’ve never owned Rubber Soul before?” It’s true. I haven’t because I have some of the songs on mix tapes and multiple tracks from it can be heard on local FM classic rock radio eight days a week. I finally found a decent price copy at a local wrecka stow and snagged it.
I don’t know what I can write about Rubber Soul that hasn’t already been written, but it’s one of their best and my favorites. I like how it bridges the gap between their bubble gum stuff and their complete psychedelic freak-outs.
Opening with a track like “Drive My Car” is genius because it gives the listener (and DJ back then) a surefire hit right out of the gate. Those same DJs and fans must’ve been flattened by “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” when it followed with Harrison’s sitar riffs. “You Won’t See Me” harkens back a bit to their earlier pop days and hints at Paul McCartney’s future material with Wings.
Speaking of hints, “Nowhere Man” is a precursor to the political statements the band would eventually make when they had even more freedom to do whatever they wanted in the studio. “Think for Yourself” is almost a dirty blues dis on a woman, and “The Word” is early hippie rock mixed with funk. “Michelle,” with its English and French lyrics, was another surefire winner in the UK and Europe.
The country groove of “What Goes On,” with Ringo Starr on lead vocals, was probably another surprise to Beatles fans back in 1965, but I’m sure the casual fans breathed a sigh of relief when “Girl” followed, as it sounds like a throwback to their early records and love songs with John Lennon and Paul McCartney sharing lead vocals. “I’m Looking through You” is almost a flipside of “Girl,” in that the girl in question is no longer an object of love but one of confusion and frustration.
Lennon and McCartney could very well have retired after “In My Life,” because it’s one of the most beautiful songs ever given to the human race. We’re all glad they didn’t, but it’s a song that would’ve probably made me hang it up if I were a songwriter in 1965. I would’ve thought, “Well, I can’t top that.”
“Wait” is a fun rock ballad, and “If I Needed Someone” gave George Harrison a crack at lead vocals for a change. I love how the album ends with “Run for Your Life,” in which Lennon tells his girl that he’ll kill her if she cheats on him. It’s a shocking song from the guys who used to sing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Please Please Me.”
The Beatles wanted to shake things up in 1965, and they did. Rubber Soul changed everything (a feat the Beatles did multiple times) for them and us.
Keep your mind open.
[We’d be warm in our soul if you subscribed to us.]
Many thanks to Sir George Martin, who died on March 8th, 2016, for everything he helped give the world of music. Commonly known as “the fifth Beatle,” Sir Martin was responsible for producing many of their greatest hits, starting with “Love Me Do” and well into the 1970’s. He also produced music for James Bond films and the themes to Live and Let Die and Goldfinger.
The BBC documentary The Compleat Beatles is an excellent look back on not only the Beatles, but Sir Martin’s contributions to music that continues to inspire to this day.
Keep your mind open.
[Live a little by giving us a subscription, won’t you?]
