The Beatles

The members of the band were Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. The name of the band and the players in the band changed in the early days, but by 1962 the make up of the band members were the previous named players and remained so until they disbanded.

There is so much to be said and understood about the Beatles, the place to start is Wikipedia's page about the band.The output of material is overwhelming and people have spent their lives documenting the Beatles history and music.

I don't believe in, and it's hard to say one example of an art form is the best ever. On one level, it's a matter of personal taste. On multiple levels we can judge the facts and numbers. In the record business that usually means the number of records sold. The Beatles have smashed all of those records, except one. As I wrote under my Bing Crosby post, Bing holds the record for a single record sold at over 100 million copies for "White Christmas." And it's hard to rate, against others, those who create a new style within an art form.

The Beatles "rock and roll" may have started out as contemporary (for their time) music and they did cover songs in the early days, but the musical composition team of McCartney/Lennon created a whole new style of music. Great music! That makes them great and exempt from, and superior to comparisons of other bands of their time.    

The Beatles were excellent, progressive musicians individually and perfection as a band together. Although, you would never be able to tell that watching the video below, which is the earliest video recording of the Beatles in 1962 at the Cavern Club, and they had been playing together for a while by then.

The Beatles first came to America in 1964, but they were huge stars by then. A conscience decision by the band to wait until they were successful before they appeared in America. The fanaticism surrounding the band was started in England and Europe and American teenagers were just copying and extending what became known as Beatlemania.

The phenomenon of the Beatlemania effect was not new to American audiences, or world audiences. Women used to scream and faint at Frank Sinatra concerts and similar reactions happened with Bing Crosby, Rudy Valli, Caruso, and other musical acts throughout history. Having said that, there was never anything like Beatlemania. It literally made personal appearances all but impossible for the band. The audience could barely hear the music over the screaming and going to one of their movies in a theater was the same. I personally experienced both. I was not one of the screamers and I was amazed by the audience reaction. 

When listening to Beatles music, I prefer and advise, listening to studio cuts. There are plenty of live recorded cuts, but it's hard to hear all the quality music being played. The fads they started, the hair cuts, etc., etc.....are all things an adoring public has followed with other popular musical acts and personalities, but not to the same extreme.

                                                Ed Sullivan Show February 1964.

                                                  "I Want To Hold Your Hand"

                                  Three years later in 1967 this is, "Hello Goodby"

                 The last appearance as a band together. The rooftop of Apple studios.

                                                            January 30, 1969

       . 

In September 1969 John Lennon privately informed the other Beatles that he was leaving the group, there was no public acknowledgement of the break-up until Paul McCartney announced on 10 April 1970 he was leaving the Beatles.

There were sporadic collaborative recording efforts among the band members (Ringo Starr's 1973 album Ringo was the only time that the four – albeit on separate tracks – appeared on the same album post-break-up), although all four Beatles never simultaneously collaborated as a recording or performing group again; Starr's 1976 album Ringo's Rotogravure is the last post-break-up album on which all four Beatles contribute and are credited: besides Starr's drumming and songwriting contributions, Lennon, McCartney and George Harrison all composed one track apiece. After Lennon's death in 1980, McCartney and Starr appeared on Harrison's single "All Those Years Ago", and the trio reunited for the Anthology project in 1994, using two unfinished Lennon demos – "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" – for what would be new songs to be recorded and released as the Beatles.

There are all sorts of stories about why the Beatles broke up including (and most importantly) from the Beatles themselves. There is a fine line between love and hate, which we see in our own families. The Beatles were best buddies, they were a family, they loved each other. If negative things were said, that happens sometimes. The love is still there.

John Lennon was assassinated outside his home in New York on December 8, 1980 by a nut with a gun. Unfortunately, a rather common happening in America.

George Harrison died November 29, 2001, after a long battle with cancer.

I think it's sad that McCartney does not own his own music. I thought he might get a chance to buy it all when Michael Jackson died, but I haven't heard anything about the issue. 

The numbers tell us McCartney/Lennon were the greatest music composing collaboration ever. Their music tells us they were geniuses who sang about love in their own way. The music did not die for them when the Beatles broke up. They all were very popular and successful after the Beatles, creating great music. It all happened within ten years, which makes it even more amazing. If you wonder what it was all about, listen to the music. 

Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson; their cousin Mike Love; and their friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by their vocal harmonies and early surf songs, they are one of the most influential acts of the rock era.

The Beach Boys began as a garage band managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, with Brian's increasingly sophisticated songwriting and recording abilities dominating their creative direction. Emerging at the vanguard of the "California Sound", they performed original material that reflected a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance. After 1964, they abandoned the surfing aesthetic for more personal lyrics and multi-layered sounds. In 1966, the Pet Sounds (link on side bar under full albums) album and "Good Vibrations" single vaulted the group to the top level of rock innovators and established the band as symbols of the nascent counterculture era.

                                                             Fun, Fun, Fun

                                                             I Get Around

                                                           Good Vibrations

Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke (born September 11, 1945) is an acoustic guitarist. He is known for a fingerpicking style that draws on blues, jazz, and folk music, and for syncopated, polyphonic melodies. He recorded his first album in 1969, called "12 String Blues."

Focusing primarily on instrumental composition and playing, Kottke also sings sporadically, in an unconventional yet expressive baritone described by himself as sounding like "geese farts on a muggy day".

This song is from his album "Mudlark" released in 1971. It's called "Eight Miles High" and is one of the songs he sings on. I don't agree with his description of his voice, but his voice is unique. Leo got started in Minneapolis playing the Scholar coffeehouse. I grew up in Minneapolis and have been a fan since his early days when I got a chance to get to know him. He is an excellent guitarist and composer.

 

New Tax Law

The Republicans have finally passed their only significant legislation, their tax bill is now law. Tax law that gives 83% of its benefit to the top 1% of income earners. We can debate the particulars on political grounds, but the Republicans are in majority and that is the power of a political majority. It cannot be debated that this tax law will increase the debt by at least 1-1/2 Trillion dollars and probably more, which is concrete proof that Republicans have lied about being deficit hawks. A lie they have been saying for decades as their previous budgets and laws have racked up trillions of dollars of debt for the United States.

Then there is the lie that trickle down benefits will come from these tax cuts to businesses. Like these tax cuts will create new jobs by allowing corporations to keep more profits, thus able to hire more workers. Of course we know from the experience of the last 50 years that that is simply a lie. Not to mention that any debt (like 1-1/2 trillion) is obscene when we already have a 20 trillion dollar debt. It is the height of irresponsibility for any Congress to vote for such a bill.

Then there is the issue of the actual deaths that will be caused directly by this new law and that includes thousands of children. That's nothing new, the United States Congress have been passing laws that directly caused the death of its citizens for a couple of hundred years and lets not forget the genocide of Native Americans and the barbaric and fatal enslavement practices backed by United State law until the Emancipation Proclamation. We have proven that our character as a people is that of violence and death; and that we actually vote for laws that cause violence and death.

Trump is not the most racist, hate filled, bigoted, man who could care less about American lives ever elected president of the United States, but we had hoped his kind were in our past and he certainly is unhealthy and dangerous to be our president in 2017. The saddest part is that enough Americans agreed with this slob (Trump) that he was voted president of the United States and only by 1-1/2 % did a State almost vote for a pedophile for national Senator.

The people get the leadership they vote for (deserve). Our biggest problem is ourselves. Hopefully our Justice system will save us from ourselves, but Trump is trying to obstruct that process also.

Churchill once said, "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else." 

Like a drunk having to end up in the gutter before he pulls himself out of the gutter, but by then he has ruined his life.      

The Liberals Keep The Hate Going

The liberals, who claim they are the party of morals and character, keep proving they are as hate filled as the Republicans they claim are Nazi like.

Obama has now jumped on the hate band wagon and inferred the Nazi scare lie about president Trump. Trump is many vile things including an accused sexual molester, but he hasn't got the brains to be another Hitler. That kind of evil needs some level of intelligence, which Trump has none of. 

RN of the blog Rational Nation (anything but rational) new post claims Trump keeps a copy of Hitler's book (Mein Kamph) next to his bed. RN cites his supposed reliable source, but as it turns out that claim is a simple lie. More liberal hate, which only exacerbates the hate in the country and proves nothing but liberals can lie as well as Republicans.

The liberals spent eight years calling Bush Hitler and wonder why they couldn't enlarge their voting base. They offered up Hillary from the Clinton machine who was supposed to be a shoe in and lost to an unknown Senator from Illinois.

It was the Clinton machine that first cast the accusation that Obama was not American born and Trump turned that lie into a multi year hate campaign that finally helped him win the presidency, again beating the supposed shoe in Hillary. Hillary has to be one of the biggest losers in American political history and another loss for a corrupt political machine.

The Democrats are still in minority in Congress with no sign of that changing in the next mid-term election. The Democrats are in such bad shape they can't even convince the country they are better leaders than the morally bankrupt, lying Republicans.

We can be grateful that the Republicans can't seem to put their majority to good use and pass all sorts of hurtful legislation. The tax bill, which is not law yet, would be the first real piece of legislation the Republicans might pass, that certainly will hurt the United States.   

Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young

Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) was a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. They were known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY) when joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young, who was an occasional fourth member. Great music! The full album (Deja vu) these songs are from is on my side posts.

                                                                Woodstock

                                                                   Carry On

Franken Quits

Sen. Al Franken said today that he will resign as Senator from Minnesota in a few weeks, and rightfully so. I imagine that means by the end of the year.

Franken's decision comes after multiple women came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct and after over a dozen of his Democratic colleagues (mostly women) called for his resignation. No doubt this is a political decision so the Democrats can claim the moral high ground on the sexual molestation issue, but it is the correct and moral decision.

Unfortunately, it will not give Democrats the political morality edge they need because the voters don't seem to care, or is it just the voters of Alabama? 

It should be noted that the Governor of Minnesota will appoint the new Senator from Minnesota until the next election, and currently Governor Dayton of Minnesota is a Democrat, so we can expect to see a Democrat appointed temporary Senator for Minnesota.

It is not a given that an election in Minnesota will vote for a Democratic Senator. Franken won his election by less than 400 votes and the election went to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Minnesota can be a hard State to predict political winners. Minnesotans have voted for the most liberal Senators like Wellstone and Humphrey and the most conservative like Rudy Boshwichz. Minnesotans also voted for a wrestler as their Governor and the conservative Pawlenty as their Governor. Minnesota currently has a Republican majority in their Congress and a Democratic Governor.      

McConnell (the Republican leader of the Senate) who was saying just two weeks ago that Moore should not be in the Senate if the allegations against him were true and he said he believed the women who were making those allegations, now says he supports Moore and all Republicans should vote for Moore. The president of the United States (a Republican) has endorsed Moore.

Nothing will change until the people change the leaders of federal government. The numbers from the last election tell us that means this decision (to change leadership in Washington D. C.) is in the hands of women voters. The same women who voted for Trump last election.

Lets hope Franken's resignation is not the last word on sexual misconduct by federal politicians. His conduct was not as bad as Moore's conduct, or Trump's conduct, not to mention the many elected officials who have current allegations of sexual misconduct against them. So far, Democrats have had two of their leaders resign over this issue because of pressure from their own party. Republicans are forging ahead with their accused sexual perverts, so there is a clear choice for women to make.  

Liberal Hate Loses Again

The tax bill is not law yet, but I doubt Trump understands how that works. A reconciliation and final, single bill has to be arrived at before it goes to the president's desk for his signature. Amazing how the Democrats could not motivate the public to force a couple of Republicans to vote no on this horrible tax bill.

The country would be better off if Flynn had gotten off and the tax bill died. The vocal liberals were busy trying to convince the public how bad Trump is and spewing their hate about him, rather than telling them how to stop Trump's first attempt at serious legislation, which will be a disaster for years to come if it passes.

The Democrat's priority is spewing hate about Trump hoping that will motivate the public and the Congress to impeach Trump. Good luck with that. I'm sure the Democrats can whip up enough hate against Trump to get the vast majority of the public to want to impeach Trump, but that won't get Republican votes in Congress to vote to impeach Trump and if the liberals think spewing hate against Trump will get them those votes, they haven't been paying attention to what's going on. According to the public polls the public by majority don't like this tax bill, but the Republican Congress, as usual, could care less what the majority of Americans want.

The liberals couldn't get enough voters to hate and vote against Trump to override the gerrymandered edge the Republicans had during the election. And still today they cry about Clinton winning the popular vote, as if that is the way we have decided who wins the presidency for the last 218 years. The Constitution is clear about how one wins a presidential election.

That gerrymandered edge still sits with the Republicans for the next off year election and will be there during the next presidential election. This is a political party that has been pushing to cancel children's health care for a long time, accepting the deaths of thousands of children by that act. They are not going to stop supporting Trump until he loses the next election, or they lose majority in Congress and whatever vulgarity they have to swallow because of Trump, they will. Trump's public polls are dismal, but his Republican Congressional polls are still at 80%.

One would think it would be easy to generate enough hate against a pedophile to ensure that scum bag loses an election, but then along comes an opposition party member with his own sexual improprieties and along with a politically split public creates a false equivalency that creepy voters swallow and I wouldn't be surprised if the pedophile wins the election. So again, it seems the hate machine isn't going to work.

It seems Muller might be my only hope, so I will root for him and hope Trump won't fire him, which the Congressional Republicans will swallow, no matter what they have said before. I'll put my faith in the justice system instead of the liberals hate machine designed to move public opinion.

For multiple reasons of priority, I have not posted for a few months either about politics, or music. I'll continue to post mostly about music. Trump being president takes the interest out of politics, for me.

I'm sure my troll Dervish will be back with his death threats and thousands of vile emails, but he won't be allowed to bother serious commenters on this site. And I will tend not to publish comments from those who support and befriend Dervish and his public calls to assassinate the president of the United States, kill me, or attack others, as is his character and behavior.

There is lots of Christmas music posted from last Christmas. Check the archives from last December and enjoy,

Merry Christmas.

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. The band's heavy, guitar-driven sound has led them to be cited as one of the progenitors of heavy metal, though their unique style drew from a wide variety of influences, including blues, psychedelia, and folk music.


                                                      The Battle for Evermore

                                                                    
  

                                                          Immigrant Song
                                                                 
                                
                                                             

Murder By Gun

Political assassination is nothing new in America, neither are nut jobs with guns killing for their peculiar reasons. Mass murderers are not new either, except there are more today because their weapons of choice can kill more people, faster. It's just a simple fact that a guy with a knife trying to kill as many people as he can in a crowd will be stopped before he kills 60 people, whereas, a guy with a rapid fire gun can do it, not moving and from far away making it 100 times harder to stop him.  

In the 1960's assassination by gun was the chosen method to eliminate leaders of all kinds of ideologies. Whether it was the president of the United States, the leader of the Civil Rights movement, a leader of Muslims, a racist ex-Governor, a presidential candidate, and many other kinds of leaders. I grew up knowing this was just an ugly part of the American character and certainly our history was full of murder and violence. Some of which (Native Americans) we claim is part of our growth that made us a great country.

There have always been nut jobs like Richard Speck, Charles Manson, Mark Chapman, and countless other killers. Speck of course, used a knife to kill eight nurses, but he is an exception, most killers choose a gun to do their killing. A gun is a quicker, more efficient weapon for killing, but some killers like Speck get off on the hands on bloody violence.

It's impossible to stop crime, that's why we need and will always need police and laws to protect us. Making laws to try and keep people safe is governments goal and responsibility. The fact that that effort is never 100% effective does not relieve us from the duty and responsibility to try and to make new laws to deter crime with preventative measures. It does become a balance between individual rights, freedom, and restraints on individual behavior for the good of the public's safety.

Of course it's politics. Political decisions made everyday cost, or save lives. We use to have a ban (AWB)  on certain guns, then we did not. Cuts on Medicare can kill. Threatening nuclear war will kill, even if that war never happens. Lowering highway speed limits saved lives, that's just a fact. Making stiffer penalties for drinking alcohol while driving did change people's habits and saved lives, that's just a fact.

Where is the concern for public safety, or even common sense when we allow people who have multiple convictions for drunk driving, to still drive? Why does the Republican majority allow people with proven mental problems have guns? Is it an infringement of a persons constitutional right to put a limit on the number of guns a person can own? Or to have background checks? Or to ban certain gun accessories? NO, it's not and the Supreme Court has already ruled on those questions, but the question should be will any law help prevent crime and/or deaths.

Common sense and the public's safety tells us we need more restrictions on guns; and today's society and behavior, is not comparable to the society and behavior of 250 years ago. Technology always brings with it new problems to deal with. Those who claim the founders would be shocked if we amended the 2nd amendment have to explain why the founders gave the constitution the process to be amended as part of the constitution.

I was convinced after the sniper at a Texas school campus killed at will and JFK was assassinated. I thought for sure 50 years later when 20 grade school kids were killed and these killings became common the American people would have had enough, I was wrong.

Maybe we can never stop a nut job like the guy in Las Vegas, but we can certainly give him less to kill with and save lives. Besides, he is not an example of the major gun problem in America. We can certainly save lives and that is our duty and responsibility.