My Inner Lester Bangs: "Helter Skelter" by The Beatles

"This is a song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles.  We're stealing it back." - Bono, from "Rattle and Hum"

This quote is extremely pretentious, and one that even Bono admits was ill-advised.  However, the song that they played is just awesome.  In fact, I firmly believe it's one of the parents for hard rock.  This song rocked harder than any other Beatles song, and deservedly received praise for the rawness and emotion.  It's decidedly not as polished as the rest of the Beatles songs, and Paul basically wrote it because he was tired of people saying he only wrote love songs and ballads.  (By the way, Paul later recorded as The Fireman and did a song called "Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight" which was similarly angry, and definitely not Paul McCartney like at all.)

Anyways, great song starts off with the guitar playing, and then adding the drums.  However, what really brings the nasty on this song is the bass line.  It's the main force for the song, which is unusual for a band with two guitars.  It's just fuzz and repetition.  It's what makes the song really.  The bass, loud drums, and then the guitar coming in on the chorus and the bridge.

The lyrics are almost inconsequential, but they still rock too.  A Helter Skelter in England was a high winding slide.  (Hence the line, "When you get to the bottom you go back to the top of the slide."  It meant an actual slide you know.  It's also a metaphor for the fall of the British Empire according to Paul, but I'm not so sure about that one.)

There is just so much good about this song.  The album version that starts to fade out only to kick back in, play for a little longer, fade back out, come back up to the ending where it all breaks down and you hear John say, "Was that all right?" and then the yell from Ringo, "I've got blisters on my fingers!"  Apparently that was the 18th take of the song, so he might have had blisters.

Paul says that the song came about because The Who said that their song, "I Can See for Miles" was the most rough, raw and hardest song they'd ever done.  McCartney says that when he listened to it that he didn't hear that at all, and decided to make something even harder.  Hence a song he'd had that was silly became the rocker it is today.

Gotta admit, I used to listen to this song before going out in London.  If you strip away the mental illness from Manson stuff, it's a song that really gets you pumped.  (Hey, my friend Socks from University used to listen to "Hunka Hunka Burnin Love" before he went out at night.)  Plus, I lived right next door to the place where the Beatles recorded the song, so it kind of made sense to listen to one of their songs, right?

Go listen to it. Preferably with the music turned up and the bass on loud.  It's a great song, and one that needs to be experienced again.

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!"

Lloyd Bridges was awesome in "Airplane!", wasn't he?

Well, this week (and the one before it, and the one before that) haven't been great, have they?  Especially not for US Government workers.  I tell you, it's stressful to say the least.

Combine a government shut down with a looming debt default, and then add on top of that bidding for a new job, and it's amazing that I haven't had a coronary or stroke. 

As I've said before, being a Management Officer is no picnic.  Hey, I could have done other things with my life, I know.  So please spare me the discussion of how I "Feed at the Government Trough" and "Need to get a real job."  (These are actual comments I've seen on Facebook and in newspapers.)  Yes, I chose to become a public employee. Basically for three main reasons:  1) I love to travel and wanted to experience all this world has to offer;  2) I get to serve my country and help my fellow citizens; and 3) Generally speaking, working for the government is considered a pretty safe job to have (compared to others in the economy, I mean).

Look, I'm still working and getting paid because the State Department is able to use funds over multiple fiscal years, and did a decent job of predicting that this would happen and was ready.  However, that won't last long, and many of the other agencies that work in an Embassy don't have that luxury.  Their employees are still working with no idea when their next paycheck will arrive.  That's not really cool, you know.  Plus, when they get their backpay, it'll come in one lump sum, which means more taxes will be taken out.

Oh, and I haven't even gotten into the other things I've had to deal with.  There was a workshop planned for Johannesburg at the end of the month.  Well, that's cancelled.  So tomorrow I have to go and try to make amends with a hotel so that we don't have to expend money on an event that isn't happening.  (And try to make sure we still have access to his hotel, as we'll need it if a major event does happen and we suddenly get a lot of visitors.)

Plus I'm the face of the furlough for many of the local staff members.  I'm the Management officer, so I get vented to about their difficulties and listening to questions about why my government is so disfunctional.  I don't have any answers for them.  I just know that a lot of them live hand to mouth, so this hurts.  People all over the US are hurting because of this.  Why punish the people who want to work and do their job?  Isn't that what people have been banging on about?  People should be paid for doing their job.  I just don't get it.

Anyways, back to Lloyd Bridges comment in the title.  Seriously, I sometimes feel like it would have just been better to not feel anything about all of this and not think about how it'll hurt.  But I can't do that.  Too much empathy I suppose.  It's a gift and a curse.  But it does make me want to sniff glue sometimes. (Disclaimer: I do not, and have never, sniffed glue.  Just say no kids!)

St. Pete the Elf

I'd like to talk to you today about something that happened in the past, around about the time of the last government shut-down.

(While I'd like to talk about THIS government shut down, I won't.  Just know that it is affecting a lot of people, and no good can come of this.)

Back in 1995, almost 18 years ago, The George Washington University Basketball team went to St. Petersburg, Florida for a basketball tournament.  A few lucky souls from the pep band also got to go with them to support the team.  I was one of the chosen few, and off we flew to Florida.  My parents drove down I-4 to meet us, brought me some home-made cookies, and we all had a great time.  There was one or two things though that stand out on this visit.

One was that we had one of the tallest, and one of the shortest, players in the Atlantic 10.  Alexander Koul was supposedly over 7 feet tall, and Shawnta Rogers supposedly stood 5 feet 4 inches.  (Actually I bet that was in his shoes, cause I stood next to him once in line to get a burger, and he was almost a foot shorter than I was.)  On the flight home the flight attendant kept yelling at someone to sit down in the back because we couldn't leave until everyone was seated.  Actually in was Alexander (nicknamed Sasha) she was yelling at, because he was so tall it looked like he was standing even while sitting down.

The second was the addition of what at the time became a legend in the band.  The freeing of St. Pete the Elf from his bondage to the city of St. Petersburg.  I should explain.

It was getting closer to Christmas, and St. Petersburg had some of their decorations out.  While walking to get something to eat one night, we saw that there was a little Christmas wonderland set up in a public park.  There, in the midst of all the decorations, was a wooden elf nailed to a stake and stuck into the ground.  He looked as if he'd been around for a long time, and wouldn't have stood out except for the colors he was wearing.  While all the other elves where wearing green or red, this one was wearing a blue tunic with gold tights.  Buff and Blue, if you will.  The exact colors of The George Washington University!  Obviously we had to free our alumnus, so we hatched a plan.

There were about 6 of us that night.  Strangely I only remember Jeff, myself and Kim Ethier, but I know there were others.  I believe the thought for having Kim with us was that she could distract someone if we got caught so we could escape.  Luckily, this wasn't necessary.  Jeff pulled him out of the ground and we beat it back to the hotel.

St. Pete was given to the Tuba section, and became a bit of a mascot for us.  We had him at every home game.  Then something strange happened: GW started winning.  I think we went undefeated at home that year, and finished with a 21-8 record.  It was awesome!  At every game we would designate the Elf bearer.  They would hold him solemnly throughout the game, only putting him down to play the next song during a timeout.

For the next few years, St. Pete would make an appearance at all games where the pep band played.  The bearer was passed down to any new tuba player, including our female tuba player, Shorty.  St. Pete made the trip with the band to South Carolina when the Women's Basketball team knocked off the top seeded North Carolina team went to the Elite Eight.  He also came with us when I got kicked out of Rupp Arena during the Duke basketball game because the guys sitting next to me made some rather rude comments about the Duke cheerleaders and the lack of meat on their bones.  (I actually think OUR cheerleaders were the ones that told security on those guys.  I swear I didn't say anything!)

At the end of my college band career, we decided it was time to retire St. Pete the elf.  He was hung on the wall of the band office.  To be honest, I'm not even sure what happened to him, as I know he wasn't there the last time I went by the office.  If anyone knows, please leave it in the comments.

Still, it was a great year for basketball in 1995-1996.  I'm not saying that some band geeks stealing a wooden elf from Florida helped make it happen.  But then again, I'm not NOT saying that either.

MILB: "Blue Veins" by The Raconteurs

Jack White is definitely one of the hardest working men in showbiz.  The man is in like three different bands, does solo work, and collaborates with some amazing people.  (Loretta Lynn being one of them.)  He also guest sang (secretly) on Electric 6's "Danger, High Voltage".  He got together with a bunch of other musicians to form The Raconteurs back in 2005.

The album is quite good, and very different from The White Stripes or any of the other bands that are represented.  (The group includes members of Blanche, The Greenhornes and solo act Brendan Benson.)  Their first album, "Broken Boy Soldiers" was a big hit with "Steady as She Goes".  While it's a very good song, it's not my favorite song on the album.

"Blue Veins" is a bit of a throwback sound to the 30s and 40s.  It starts off with a sound like the music is being played backwards, which it probably is considering that White loves to experiment.  Lots of organ, and a distorted bass and guitar.  Then comes a quick motif from a piano, leading to an echo of the opening lines, "Your blue veins."  Then a roll in with a ringing guitar.  Great stuff.

The song is about one of two things: the singer's love interest that is extremely devoted, and is the only one that gets him, or it's about heroin.  I'm going to go with the first discussion, but not entirely letting go of the second.  (Heck, the exact thing can be said about the song "There she goes" by The La's.)

During the middle of the song comes a break, with a roll on the piano, and the song suddenly gets played backwards, including the singing.  I know this sounds weird, but it really works.  Trust me on this one.

I've always been a big fan of Jack White.  The White Stripes were just awesome, and I'm even a huge fan of The Dead Weather.  He likes experimenting with stuff, and that's good in music.  If there wasn't experimentation, we'd still be stuck listening to Pat Boone.  (Not that there's anything wrong with Pat's music, it just sucks.)  Music wouldn't have the same resonance if it never changed.  Think about it.  Classical music is considered one huge thing, but if you compare Beethoven with J.S. Bach, it's completely different.  There are many of the same things there, but it's completely different.  (What most people listen to on Classical Radio is actually from the Romantic era.  Beethoven, Berlioz, Schubert, Mendelssohn, etc.  Sorry, just showing off my IB Music knowledge.  It's been 20 years, and I still got it.)

Anyways, give it a listen.  You might fall in love with it.