Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3yTqJmz

SUMMERTIME BLUES

Blue Cheer was not the only group that covered the 1958 Eddie Cochran hit.

FARMER’S DAUGHTER

Since Mike Love was the frontman, most people thought he sang lead on every song, but this was untrue. “Farmer’s Daughter” is one of my favorite Beach Boys tracks, it takes a trope used in jokes and makes a sentimental story and it’s all glued together by Brian Wilson’s falsetto vocal, never mind the humming in the middle. It doesn’t have to be complicated to be good, “Farmer’s Daughter” is so simple yet so right.

LONELY SEA

There was no internet, only transistor radios, you could be alone on the beach looking into the endless distance, especially on the west coast, where the next stop was Hawaii, and then Japan. That feeling of contemplation, it’s been lost in our fast-paced, connected society.

LANA

Another track with Brian Wilson’s falsetto.

FINDERS KEEPERS

Forget the lyrics, which could be accepted without irony in the early sixties, check out the changes. There are more in this nearly sixty year old track than in a whole host of today’s number ones.

At this point, 1963, most people did not buy albums, which were seen as singles with filler, and therefore most people only know the hits from that era. But after buying “The Beach Boys Today!” and “Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)” I went back and bought “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” I was always an album guy and knew and still know it by heart. So the above three songs mean so much to me.

CATCH A WAVE

“Catch a wave and you’re sitting on top of the world”

Need to know any more? The best description of a sport in any song ever! And you wonder why we were so surf-crazy, even those in landlocked states. And how about that harp?

“Baby that’s’a all there is to the coastline craze”

OUR CAR CLUB

Never forget that “409” was on “Surfin’ Safari,” the Beach Boys’ first LP. In other words, cars and surfing coexisted, even though it’s conventionally thought that at first songs were about surfing and then cars.

Most people had no idea what a car club was until “American Graffiti,” when cruising the boulevard was brought to the masses.

SPIRIT OF AMERICA

A track on the “Little Deuce Coupe” album that most people never heard until it was released in 1975 as the title track of the double album hits compilation “Spirit of America” that followed up the smash double LP hits compilation “Endless Summer” released the year before.

POM, POM PLAY GIRL

It was hard to understand the words on the primitive playback systems we employed, “run, kick or pass”? I always heard that with profanity, I didn’t catch the football references. This was back when having school spirit was still cool, you wanted to be popular, you wanted to wear a letterman’s sweater, this was all turned on its head by Frank Zappa and the advent of the late sixties. Ever hear Frank’s “Status Back Baby”?

KEEP AN EYE ON SUMMER

Sounds like a hit, but it wasn’t, just an album track. The sound hearkens back to what came before as opposed to what was to come in the future. I heard this on Sirius the other day, it brought me back to a simpler era, when summer wasn’t commercialized, but a two month era of freedom, that never ended before Labor Day.

ALL SUMMER LONG

Yes, the title track of the 1964 album, but most people weren’t exposed to it until it closed the aforementioned “American Graffiti” ten years later.

LITTLE HONDA

Yes, a Beach Boys original that was covered by the Hondells shortly thereafter and turned into a magnificent, magical hit. Interestingly, the Hondells were a studio group concocted by Beach Boys songwriting partner Gary Usher, although Usher was not involved in the writing of this song.

Yes, Honda was a motorcycle company first, and its scooters were a mania in the early sixties. The Navarette girls across the street had a red one. My mother let me ride on the back of it with one of the sisters once, I remember having to help push it up the hill, it lacked power, and no, I was not wearing a helmet.

GIRLS ON THE BEACH

The title song for the beach party movie released in ’65 within which the Beach Boys appeared playing around a campfire, I saw it on Steel Pier in Atlantic City.

DON’T BACK DOWN

My college roommate Lyndon used to play it to psyche himself up for the drive to Maine to go surfing.

GOOD TO MY BABY

The opening cut of “Today!” was a cover of the Bobby Freeman song “Do You Wanna Dance?” sung by Dennis Wilson and it was a hit in the summer of 1965. I dropped the needle on it at the social at Camp Laurelwood and I strode out on the floor in my clam diggers and busted a move and promptly stole Jill from her boyfriend Jimmy.

“Good to My Baby” followed up “Do You Wanna Dance?” and couldn’t have sounded more different, you either lifted the needle and dropped it on the opening cut once again or let the album play and learned to love “Good to My Baby,” like me.

DON’T HURT MY LITTLE SISTER

I always thought of my younger sister Wendy when I heard this, although she was only ten, not a teenager, at the time.

PLEASE LET ME WONDER

The first side of “Today!” was upbeat, the rockers, and the second side was the ballads. This was the b-side of the “Do You Wanna Dance?” single and respected today but it didn’t get much mindshare back then.

I’M SO YOUNG

And now I’m so old. They were always talking about getting married and having children, that was never my dream.

THE GIRL FROM NEW YORK CITY

“Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)” is the apotheosis, my favorite Beach Boys album. “Good Vibrations” gets all the ink, but do you know what it was like to hear “California Girls” on the radio in the summer of ’65? Beatlemania was raging, music was everything, but the U.K. sound was darker, the acts wore suits, the Beach Boys seemed to be stuck in the past and then came “California Girls,” with a lengthy instrumental intro that all stations played, and lyrics glorifying California girls, but the truth is the entire track is a tribute to the Golden State and after hearing it there was no doubt in my mind that that’s where my heart lay.

“The Girl from New York City” was the album opener. Why? Maybe because “Do You Wanna Dance?” had opened and hit from “Today!”? Superfluous, a shadow of the Ad-Libs ubiquitous hit, I’ve heard it more than the original because that’s how much I love “Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)”

AMUSEMENT PARKS U.S.A.

Back before they were called “theme parks,” when the only theme was FUN! They had a roller coaster and the Wild Mouse and junk food and you begged your parents to go, if you were older you went and hung out unsupervised with other teens. But forget the subject matter, this is just a fantastic track, I love it.

THEN I KISSED HER

Once again, like with “The Girl From New York City,” the sexes are reversed, but this one works much better because of Al Jardine’s full-throated vocal.

SALT LAKE CITY

This was back before air travel was cheap, when most people had never been anywhere, that was one of the perks of being a musician, you went places, even though Brian Wilson burned out on the grind. But you listen to Mike sing about the Lagoon and…he makes it sound better than it actually was, I know, I ultimately lived there.

GIRL DON’T TELL ME

My favorite Beach Boys track, for the last few decades anyway. The deal is sealed by Carl Wilson’s vocal. And the story of summer love, I understand that, see Jill above.

LET HIM RUN WILD

Must be included for the intro verse if nothing else, the exquisite sound of Brian’s vocal and the instruments.

YOU’RE SO GOOD TO ME

Brian sans falsetto…until the magical chorus.

SUMMER MEANS NEW LOVE

You don’t need lyrics to set your mind free. Brian was not just a pop star, he was a COMPOSER!

I’M BUGGED AT MY OLD MAN

Before we knew all the drama with Murry, it was just seen as a throwaway about teen culture.

AND YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE

Never underestimate the power of a cappella, which has finally gotten its due on TV but never forget the Eagles open their show with their a cappella version of Steve Young’s “Seven Bridges Road,” it sets the bar so high, who else can do this?

VEGETABLES

The original version, from “Smiley Smile,” so simple, nearly completely a cappella this was back before vegetables were cool, when the closest teens got was the fries at McDonald’s. Yes, Brian ultimately cut “Smile” decades later, but this is the version you want to listen to.

WITH ME TONIGHT

Like “Vegetables,” the original is better than the subsequent rerecording and you’ve got the benefit of Carl’s sweet voice.

WONDERFUL

The song is known today, but was completely unknown back then, there was a backlash against “Smiley Smile” despite its two hits, “Good Vibrations” and “Heroes and Villains,” the Beach Boys were seen as has-beens, and as a matter of fact “Wild Honey” was released just three months later.

I WAS MADE TO LOVE HER

Stunningly the Beach Boys had another hit, with “Darlin’,” but the truth is music had changed and AM was no longer seen as cool, all the action was on the FM band, exploration as opposed to ditties. However, you must listen to this cover of the Stevie Wonder hit because of Carl’s amazing vocal.

COTTON FIELDS

And then they had another hit, with the retro “Do It Again,” looking backward as opposed to forward as the sixties were explding. Then again, Brian was partaking of the “lifestyle” and his involvement was limited, there was a cover of “Bluebirds over the Mountain” but “Cotton Fields” is superior because of Al Jardine’s vocal.

SLIP ON THROUGH

“Sunflower” was the group’s first album on Warner Brothers and even though it lacked a hit it was a complete return to form, at least in quality, because the sound was more modern and with the retreat of Brian the other members started to spread their wings, most notably Dennis Wilson, this opener is a tour-de-force, despite being ignored.

THIS WHOLE WORLD

The sound was a giant leap forward. A Brian composition that was brought over the top by Carl’s swirling, meaningful vocal.

IT’S ABOUT TIME

My favorite song on “Sunflower,” it’s a dash through the life of an artist that ends up on a positive note that bursts with energy, never mind the delicious slow breakdown in the middle. It was written by Dennis but it’s got a Carl vocal, as he was becoming the dominant, controlling member of the act.

“I used to be a famous artist

Proud as I could be

Struggling to express myself

For the whole world to see

I used to blow my mind sky high

Searching for the lost elation

Little did I know the joy I was to find

In knowing I am only me”

Become uber-successful and the game changes, formula no longer works, it’s got no meaning, everybody wants you to be who you were but you’re not that person anymore. Now that you’ve got cash and sex, the trappings, you realize how worthless they are and you start to wonder who you are, you start exploring, which is what musicians of yore did before they all became brands, and the billionaires are still clueless, they think it’s all about commerce, but it’s about art. Go to an exclusive party…people will be lining up to talk to the famous musicians, not the billionaires.

DEIRDRE

Bruce Johnston was given landscape and delivered with this and “Tears in the Morning.”

FOREVER

The sleeper that got absolutely no traction upon “Sunflower”‘s release but got recognized when John Stamos covered it on “Full House” multiple times. It’s a genius song from back when Dennis could not only write, but before his voice got so tattered and gruff.

DON’T GO NEAR THE WATER

Yes, topical, ecological, but catchy nonetheless, with the harmonies on the chorus sealing the deal, Brian sang on it but had no hand in writing it.

“Toothpaste and soap will make our oceans a bubble bath

So let’s avoid an ecological aftermath

Beginning with me

Beginning with you”

As relevant now as it was then. I wonder what Mike Love thinks about global warming, never mind student wokeness, he did sing “Student Demonstration Time” on “Surf’s Up.”

FEEL FLOWS

The notes going up the scale and Carl’s vocal put this over the top.

‘TIL I DIE

Used to be my favorite Beach Boys song, I thought I was the only one who knew it, and then Don Was featured it in his Brian Wilson documentary and…that was back in ’95, more than a quarter century past, time is slipping through our fingers.

MARCELLA

The Beach Boys have success with the “Surf’s Up” album and then follow it up with the dud “Carl and the Passions – ‘So Tough,'” which was paired with “Pet Sounds” in a double album and promptly ignored. This was the beginning of the nostalgia era, the Beach Boys started touring to big numbers but it was all based on the past, not the present, except here was this song “Marcella” at the end of the first side, as great as anything the band had done in the sixties, with Carl Wilson’s vocal, but it was really the waterfall of sound that sealed the deal.

“One arm over my shoulder

Sandals dance at my feet

Eyes that’ll knock you right over

Ooo Marcella’s s sweet”

Hear it once and you’ve got to hear it again and again, but very few did.

THE TRADER

So “Holland” opens with the great, mid-chart hit “Sail On, Sailor” sung by previous Flame member Blondie Chaplin, but other than that Brian Wilson’s involvement was minimal, except for the attached, disappointing bonus EP “Mount Vernon and Fairway.” And the first side had the disappointing “California Saga,” but the second side opened with this. “The Trader” is put over the top by Carl Wilson’s high vocal in the chorus and the indelible change, the transition to something smooth, like catching the wave and riding it to heaven.

FUNKY PRETTY

Brian was one of three writers on “Funky Pretty” but it’s put over the top by Carl’s vocal, especially in the repetition of the title starting at 2:40.

IT’S O.K.

Brian was back, only he wasn’t, except in this song. A lot of “15 Big Ones” was covers of classic hits of the sixties, but this original was a full-throated evocation of the sound of the sixties, but by this point no one cared and FM didn’t play stuff like this and AM meant little anyway so we had the great Belushi/Aykroyd special, a lot of press and ultimately no hits other than a lame cover of Chuck Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music.”

JOHNNY CARSON

And now it was 1977, a year later, and Brian was REALLY BACK! And it turned out he shouldn’t have been. “Love You” was a curio that didn’t deserve the press, Brian’s quirkiness was evidenced, but it demonstrated he wasn’t quite ready for prime time. Ergo this number, back when Johnny Carson was not cool. The end result was something that sounded like an outtake from “Smiley Smile”…interesting subject matter, not ready for radio play ANYWHERE! As for home play…for diehards a few times.

GOOD TIME

Much better, but basically a redo (predo?) of an American Spring song from 1972. 

COME GO WITH ME

“The M.I.U. Album” was listenable, only disposable, but this remake of the Del-Vikings hit is great, primarily because of Al Jardine’s vocal.

FULL SAIL

“L.A. (Light Album)” was much better than “The M.I.U. Album,” but it was hobbled by the almost eleven minute disco remake of “Here Comes the Night” on side two. But not only was the opening cut “Good Timin'” a complete return to form, a genuine hit, had it still been the sixties, there were other gems on the album, like this, cowritten by Carl and Geoffrey Cushing-Murray.

ANGEL COME HOME

Even better is this, also written by Carl and Carl Geoffrey Cushing-Murray. “Angel Come Home” is my favorite on the album, at this point my second favorite Beach Boys track even though most people still have not heard it. Dennis sings it and his voice is just starting to become rough and his vocal is so heartfelt and meaningful, you can see, hear, feel him begging for her to come home. This is the kind of stuff they played on FM radio…before it was all programmed by Lee Abrams into hits only Superstars format. I’ve never heard “Angel Come Home” on the radio, but if you hear it and are open to it you will never forget it, it will play in your brain at the strangest times, it will become one of your treasured listening possessions.

BABY BLUE

Not only do we have the magic of Carl, but Dennis on vocals too. Very quiet, the opposite of in-your-face, but it definitely parks itself in your brain. It’s beautiful… Forget commercial success, this is what we want from music. This is the opposite of mindless dance music, the opposite of posturing, this is honest emotion that stops you in your tracks and sets you a-thinking.

PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY

And then it was basically over. There were a couple more albums on Caribou that weren’t listening to, and ultimately the Mike Love-led remainders had a hit with “Kokomo,” but Brian had gone his separate way and then Carl died and the dream was over, until…

It was 2012, the fiftieth anniversary of the group, and there was an album and a tour and then discord and separate tours once again.

And all the criticism of “That’s Why God Made the Radio” was about the use of Auto-Tune, but once again Joe Thomas was involved, who was at the helm for Brian Wilson’s best solo album, “Imagination,” and…the truth is times had changed, no one wanted to listen to new music by the Beach Boys, they just wanted nostalgia, but listen to this…

“Sometimes I realize my days are getting on

Sometimes I realize it’s time to move along

And I wanna go home

Sunlight’s fading and there’s not much left to say

My life, I’m better off alone

My life, I’m better on my own

Driving down Pacific Coast, out on Highway One

The setting sun

Goodbye”

This is what it’s all about. The Beach Boys made baby boomer music, and the boomers are old and dying and they’re laden with memories and if you live out here and drive on PCH on a weekday, or any day as the sun starts to go down, you’ll get this feeling, a connection to what once was and will never return, but if you listen to the music you’re twelve years old again, your body is healthy, the world is at your fingertips, you’re optimistic and then the song ends and…

You come back to reality.

This is not what anybody is selling anymore, but Brian and the boys nail it here and it resonates, this is the only place you can get it and they deliver the original article.

Goodbye.

TRAILER: https://bit.ly/3hyyOqY

You’ve got to watch this for the Jersey City/east coast feel.

Would I put “Seven Seconds” at the top of your list? Absolutely not. First check off “Borgen,” “The Bureau” and “Spiral,” not to mention many others. But we’re starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel.

I’m sick of genre shows. And movies. You know, someone is kidnapped/killed and the rest of the show is about uncovering who did it. Seems like this is the only trope that works on TV, it’s so much harder to do comedy or family/relationship drama, and those are what I like best.

Having seen most of the A level television, and please don’t recommend your favorites unless you check online and find that they have in excess of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, maybe 78%, because if you’re a party of one…chances are I’m not in your party.

And yesterday I learned I was a highbrow. In the seventies you could be both a highbrow and a lowbrow, I like to get down in the gutter, if it’s AC/DC or earthy…if it’s just plain trash, appealing to the lowest common denominator, I’m not interested, I don’t want to waste my time, and time is all we’ve got, it’s our most precious resource, you realize it’s going to run out and that’s scary, you don’t want to dribble it away unconsciously. I don’t want to be entertained, I want to be MOVED!

Kind of like “Putney Swope.” You probably saw that Robert Downey, Sr. died. I don’t think he would have gotten such prominent obits if it weren’t for his son. But Sr. was quite the innovative filmmaker back in the sixties and seventies, when that was still a thing. You could be innovative and still get distribution, your movies could still be seen. And “Putney Swope” had an indelible effect on me. First and foremost it was rated X, and my older sister had to buy tickets for me. Second, I went on a bad set-up date in Boston where I was visiting said sister at college. This woman couldn’t stop saying she needed ice cream, I think it was a way to deal with her anxiety. Anyway, I was wowed by “Putney Swope,” I couldn’t stop talking about it. And I saw it again about four years later and I’d like to tell you it held up, but it didn’t quite, then again maybe I was self-conscious because I dragged all my friends to see it. And I saw Downey’s “Greaser’s Palace” first run too, I was a fan. But I don’t think you could make “Putney Swope” today, they’d picket, you’d be instantly canceled, but back then the cutting edge was part of society, today it’s so far off on the fringe no one knows about it, no one knows about that which is supposedly mainstream! I haven’t seen a single network TV show in at least a decade. I’m stunned they’re still on. As for movies…

I watched Soderbergh’s “No Sudden Move” on HBO Max. It could be the most complicated/hardest to follow film I’ve ever seen. No, that’s not true, how about “Memento”? But, you can’t multitask while you’re watching “No Sudden Move,” you’ll miss something. As for whether you should watch it… Sure, just don’t expect too much. As for the casting, does anybody believe Matt Damon in this role? He’s so clearly Matt Damon, it’s a disservice to the picture. Don Cheadle is better, but Benicio del Toro is somewhat superfluous and…if this is what they’re selling as Hollywood great, count me out.

So, yesterday, having watched so many TV series, I decided to go to the movies, on my iPad. I watched “There Will Be Blood.” This is one of the best pictures of the past two decades, that’s what my research said… It’s a circle jerk of criticism. It’s more about image and feeling than story, and that can work for Terence Malick, but not Paul Thomas Anderson. I loved “Boogie Nights,” but “There Will Be Blood” was almost an endurance test, like “The Master.”

And then I started “Mystic River” and they kidnapped the kid and I was out. Ergo that genre/highbrow reference above. So I looked for Oscar-winning foreign films and found “Ida,” which I liked in theory but also turned into an endurance test. Black and white Polish film about Holocaust survivors…well, that gives the wrong feel, this isn’t about the disenfranchised underclass, but if you hate foreign flicks don’t watch it, it’ll make you hate them more.

Which had me looking at foreign TV shows again. I was combing through the websites, I’m stunned how many I’ve seen, kinda like the Top 100 greatest movies of all time (I don’t waste my time, I do research before I dive in), I’d seen 95, so there were slim pickings there. All of which is to say my opinion of “Seven Seconds” went up.

Now “Seven Seconds” is a commitment. It’s ten one hour episodes, a couple are even longer. Could it have been shorter, more compact? Yes. Then again, what you think will happen in episode nine or ten happens in episode four, the plot keeps superseding itself. You think it’s about one thing, then that is solved and it’s really about another thing and then over and over again, and this is a good thing.

And it’s about race in Jersey City and… Have you ever lived on the east coast? It’s old, and dirty. In the west, the south, so much is so new, there’s little grunge, but it’s baked in on the east coast, it’s part of the character. And you can live ten miles away and have a completely different accent. And life is hard and nobody’s complaining about it, it’s seen as your duty to endure the weather and the hardships, the competition, the belief is that you’re superior and the challenges breed character. And to a good degree that’s true. East coast people are talkative, they’re in the mix, which is the opposite of native Californians. They want to know you, mix it up, you’ve got to be aware, east coasters are not laid back.

And Jersey City is a hole. Across the river from New York, you live there if you can’t afford the greatest city in the world. And unlike in Los Angeles, the races are all mixed in together, they’re not geographically separated and…so much of what is in this series is representative of the cause of white flight. People don’t want to live with other races, ethnicities… Sure, some do, but most don’t, they want to circle the wagons of their own, like the cops in this show.

So, on one side you’ve got the abused presumed guilty Blacks, and on the other you’ve got the establishment, the police, who judge a human life based on its place in the economic ladder. It’s a job, not a cause, the people come and go, the police remain, don’t get too hung up on the individuals.

So what you’ve got here is a post-Ferguson story. Black Lives Matter before George Floyd. And you’ve got sex and loyalty and drinking and abuse and…

There’s some great acting in “Seven Seconds.” Regina King won an Emmy for her role, but I found Clare-Hope Ashitey just as good. And I love Michael Mosley, you know, the preacher in “Ozark.” And all the cops are good. Especially David Lyons as Mike DiAngelo. The funny thing is he’s Australian, he fooled me, he acted so well he seemed to be from the heart of the city.

So you’ve got the snow and the cold and the grit and it’s not like everybody is involved in outdoor sports, they’re just enduring the weather until it gets better.

And you’ve got duplicity and lies and the question is can you ever get justice? I don’t think you can. Seems like everybody lies on the stand these days and family is more important than the law, your loyalties are to the tribe, not society, and that’s scary.

Yes, I winced a couple of times, when the cops were suddenly right outside the rehab center…why?

Then again, Messiah, the dope king, is so smart and so right. He’s playing the hand dealt him, and he does this well.

And at one point the father of the dead boy, and I’m giving nothing away, this is in the opening segment, has a speech wherein he says he thought he was different.

I thought so too.

And then you realize you’re not.

It’s kind of like Bob Dylan saying “for them that think death’s honesty won’t fall upon them naturally life sometimes must get lonely.”

You’re gonna die, I guarantee it. And chances are it won’t be smooth sailing up to that point. You’ll get cancer, maybe you’ll survive it, maybe you won’t. You’ll lose a family member. Life is about enduring loss. You’re optimistic when you’re young, but it’s hard to keep that upbeat outlook. You have dreams and the truth is you don’t know how hard or even how to reach your dream until you’re too old to get it, assuming you try to begin with, too many punt so they won’t fail.

These are the questions that interest me, these are the issues I want to see depicted.

And “Mare of Easttown” has a global star as its lead, but the story of “Seven Seconds” means more and sticks with you.

So, if you’ve got ten hours for a slightly flawed American show…

Oh, I didn’t mention Gretchen Mol! One of the greatest disappointments in acting history. She was on the cover of “Vanity Fair” billed as the next big thing and then she wasn’t but when you see her here you think she deserved to be, she wows without appearing phony, like she’s acting at all.

So we live for art. I couldn’t wait to sit in front of the flat screen to watch episodes of “Seven Seconds.”

Maybe you’ll feel the same.

Oh, for the wankers who’ve never heard of Google, it’s on Netflix.

Spotify Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3hwhZ0b

10. DON’T BOTHER ME

From “Meet the Beatles” or “With the Beatles” depending upon which side of the pond you were on. Yes, after “Meet the Beatles!” broke we got the rerelease of VeeJay’s “Introducing the Beatles” and not long thereafter Capitol’s “The Beatles’ Second Album” as well as the double-sided single “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You” on Tollie and let’s not forget the Swan single with “She Loves You” and “I’ll Get You” back at the beginning. This was all evidence of Beatlemania. The band was an English hitmaker and unknown in the U.S. and suddenly…they were everywhere. It doesn’t happen this way anymore because no one can be as big as the Beatles, no one can have that mindshare (and please let’s not compare chart numbers, they’re apples and oranges) and no one can rehearse/play and record in excess of half a decade before the mainstream public becomes aware of them. Today you make it and immediately distribute it, it’s one of the 60,000 tracks added to Spotify each week. You believe if you make it they will come but music is no longer a field of dreams.

There were Beatle wigs, boots and buttons. And my father bought us 4 buttons… “I Love Paul!,” “I Love Ringo!,” “I Love George!” and “I Love the Beatles!” These weren’t the tiny buttons of the English new wave, these were four or five inches in diameter and even though they might be perceived as girlish I wore my “I Love George!” button to school and no one ranked me out. Everything was rare back in the sixties, today things are artificially rare, like at Supreme, but back then they couldn’t judge the market accurately and then they couldn’t produce fast enough and you might own something completely different from your friend.

George was my favorite… Because of his hair, guitar-playing and sneer/attitude. He was the “Quiet Beatle,” but that’s been disproven, it turns out George was quite a big talker.

Anyway, you bought “Meet the Beatles!” and I don’t know anyone who didn’t own it, ANYONE, and you played it over and over again until the grooves got gray. And I liked “Don’t Bother Me” but it was never my favorite until a few years back. I was playing the CD and it stuck out. George hated the song, thought it was amateurish, but maybe that’s why I like it so much, it resonates…and the fact that he didn’t want to be bothered, I understood that, but actually I wanted to be bothered, just by the right people.

9. ANOTHER GIRL

“For I have got

Another girl”

As big as the mania was for the Ed Sullivan shows and “Meet the Beatles!,” it was eclipsed by “A Hard Day’s Night.” It got great reviews, the UA soundtrack was released a month in advance and seeing it was a requirement, a ritual. “Help” not so much. Because although it was in color, reviews were not quite as spectacular, but really because in the wake of the Beatles came the British Invasion and the U.S. started to heat up too and if you wanted to know which way the wind blew you turned on the radio. At first it was just the Beatles, they wiped everything before them off the map, from Perry Como to Fabian, it was kind of like AOL in the nineties, then again, Gen-Z has grown up with the internet all their lives.

The American Capitol release of “Help!” was essentially the first side of the English LP. And if you look at the track listing on the English album, you’ll be astounded. Seven incredible songs in a row. At first I loved the title cut, “Help!” As for “Ticket to Ride,” that was a single, months before the movie, when it was still titled “Eight Arms to Hold You.”

For a long time my second favorite cut was “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” we all learned to play it on the guitar and we’d get together and sing…HEY!

Then my second favorite on the American LP was track 2, “The Night Before,” it sounded like the night before, looking back, reminiscent.

And “I Need You” was intimate, there was someone, a specific person singing the song, George.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve cottoned to “You’re Gonna Lose That Girl,” with its intense, meaningful Lennon vocal, because after the first run of weddings you find out some people ignore their spouses and…

So, I was having a hard time deciding amongst all these “Help!” cuts, I didn’t expect to see so many contenders but ultimately I decided the opener on the second side of the American “Help!” for the song, vocal and attitude. That’s why the Beatles were so great, they fired on ALL cylinders. Today few can write a song, and those who can feel that they’re entitled to sing it when they’ve got an inferior voice and…

On one hand you could bop your head to “Another Girl,” but on another like with “I Need You” you could visualize a specific situation, and the Beatles could be on the losing end, unlike today’s “singers.”

8. I’VE GOT A FEELING

There was a boxed version of “Let It Be” with a book that was hard to get in the U.S. But the press preceded “Let It Be”‘s release, word was not kind. And sure, if you wanted to compare it to what came before, but…

Phil Spector made “Long and Winding Road” an unlistenable to fans hit, but the opener “Two of Us” was simple and magical and easy to learn how to play on the guitar. And I liked “I Me Mine” and “For You Blue” even better but nothing on the LP compares to my love for the opening cut on the second side that I never hear anybody talk about, “I’ve Got a Feeling.”

It’s the guitar lick, but even more it’s the vocals, by both McCartney and Lennon. This was before McCartney became too cutesy, when he was just a member of a group, not everything, and you get the Lennon that doubled-down in the seventies, a deep thinking individual bristling with an edge.

“Everybody had a hard year

Everybody had a good time

Everybody had a wet dream

Everybody saw the sunshine

Oh yeah, oh yeah”

A wet dream?  You couldn’t even talk about it, never mind sing about it!

“Everybody had a good year

Everybody let their hair down

Everybody pulled their socks up

Everybody put their foot down

Oh yeah, oh yeah”

When you’re at the top you can play it safe, give people what they want or take a risk. Lennon could display humor at a time when people were taking the music and music business so seriously.

The worst thing is you can’t copyright a title so when you talk about “I’ve Got a Feeling” people think you’re talking about a Black Eyed Peas song.

7. I WANT TO TELL YOU

The origin of riff rock. Yes, credit George Harrison because no one ever does. He was the progenitor, with “I Want to Tell You” he demonstrated a riff could make a track.

6. TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS

“Revolver” had a huge double-sided single, “Eleanor Rigby”/”Yellow Submarine,” one heavy and one light and both dominant, heart everywhere throughout the summer of 1966.

The album started with “Taxman,” George Harrison complaining when most of us had no idea of taxes. And “Here, There and Everywhere” was gorgeous and “Good Day Sunshine” really opened the second side of the American album with a bang, you woke right up and paid attention.

As for “Got to Get You into My Life”…it was okay, but when they released it as a single long after the band’s demise, I thought that was heinous, no dollar can be left on the table.

For a long time I would have told you I preferred “She Said She Said,” then again both it and “Tomorrow Never Knows” are really John Lennon compositions. And back then we had no idea that Peter Fonda was the one who said he knew what it was like to be dead, thank you internet, but the sound of the guitar and the changes…magic.

But “Tomorrow Never Knows”…

“Turn off your mind relax and float downstream”

This is the difference between then and now. Today the more success you have the more you’re tuned in, everybody’s goal is to be tuned in to what’s going on, to not be left behind. But back then life was so in-your-face and traditional values were being questioned and the goal was to relax, disengage and find yourself. I’ll argue so many of the younger generations have no idea who they are, they go to college to learn a trade, they don’t go to Europe after graduating, it’s their loss.

I could cite the innovations of “Tomorrow Never Knows,” like it being all one chord, but you probably know all of them. The point is once you’ve digested everything else on “Revolver” you’re left with “Tomorrow Never Knows” and you can play it again and again both then and now, preferably on headphones, disengaged from the world.

5. DEAR PRUDENCE

“Revolution” had already been a hit, but in a much faster version. Other than that, the White Album was a deep dive into the unknown, which wasn’t always sunny, you were picking up rocks and finding such weird stuff beneath them.

My original favorite was the opener “Back in the U.S.S.R.” because it was an homage to my favorites, the Beach Boys, and it had the Russian references when the U.S.S.R. was still the enemy.

Now everybody talks about “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” whereas back then “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road” got more press. I liked “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” but there were other numbers which penetrated my soul more.

Like “Rocky Raccoon.”

And “Blackbird.”

And “Mother Nature’s Son.”

And “Martha My Dear.”

What got a lot of talk in the winter of ’68-’69 was “Piggies,” but today everybody either is or is hustling to be a piggie, boy how generations change.

But one lonely night back in the early nineties I was playing “Dear Prudence” and it suddenly resonated. Oh, I knew it by heart, but I finally got it. Of course today we know the importance of Donovan’s influence and who it’s about but really the song stands on its own.

“The sun is up, the sky is blue

It’s beautiful and so are you”

We don’t have this kind of optimism today. The song was dark and meaningful but really it was a journey to self-realization and happiness, it’s not in-your-face, you can never burn out on it.

4. YOU NEVER GIVE ME YOUR MONEY

Tenacious D just did a cover, ignore it, they mess with the song’s essence, which is ethereal, it’s from another world, not Earth. It’s so pretty, so right, and then it changes and becomes a brisk walk down the high street that starts out as a lament…

“Out of college, money spent

See no future, pay no rent

All the money’s gone, nowhere to go

Any jobber got the sack

Monday morning, turning back

Yellow lorry slow, nowhere to go”

College graduation is a wake-up call, which was depicted well in “The Graduate” but nobody I knew was looking to get married right after graduation, the last thing we wanted was commitment, to truly start our lives. And the work world is hard, very different from school, and oftentimes even less fulfilling.

“But oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go

Oh, that magic feeling

Nowhere to go, nowhere to go”

These are the lines that resonated back in the nineties and have stayed with me. That magic feeling is music. A record sets you free and nothing else matters, our whole lives are a search for that magic feeling.

3. IN MY LIFE

The American version of “Rubber Soul” had no singles…NONE! Can you imagine that today when the label forces you to go back to the studio to cut a hit or they won’t release your project? And honestly, with only so much money at my disposal I didn’t buy “Rubber Soul” when it came out because of its lack of hits, but I’d play it at my friend Marc’s house, he had the English version, which opened with “Drive My Car,” which was exotic in those days, you rarely heard it.

There are so many great cuts on the American “Rubber Soul,” especially the opener, “I’ve Just Seen a Face” and George Harrison’s “Think for Yourself” and honestly, it took me eons to understand the wisdom of “In My Life.” I was too young to get it. And at this late date I marvel at the fact that Lennon could write lyrics with such wisdom at such a young age.

“There are places I’ll remember

All my life though some have changed

Some forever, not for better

Some have gone and some remain”

Sometimes all you’ve got is the memories. The places no longer exist, the people are dead or you’ve fallen out or lost touch with them. But the visuals are still crystal clear in your mind. As for change, we can only go forward and I don’t want to go back to the past but I must say important stuff has been lost in the march forward.

“All these places have their moments

With lovers and friends I still can recall

Some are dead and some are living

In my life I’ve loved them all”

I think I got into “In My Life” when “Rubber Soul” finally came out on CD, and then it was used in “thirtysomething”…

2. SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (REPRISE)

Ultimately “She’s Leaving Home” is the most meaningful song on “Sgt. Pepper.” No one runs away anymore, as a matter of fact they FaceTime with their parents multiple times a day, not that the parents truly understand today’s kids who are too often brainwashed to become automatons. Hell, we had endless lockdown and what got us through? ART! But every bloviator on the flat screen denigrates art history majors, no one wants their kid to be an artist, there’s no music and art in schools and…

We all want to be understood, and don’t believe you are if you aren’t.

Sure, “With a Little Help from My Friends” had an immediate impact, but then it grew to unparalleled prominence, its lyrics entered everyday culture, never underestimate the power of Ringo.

And the controversy was all about “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” being about LSD but truly the younger generation didn’t care if it was or not, only the oldsters, the news magazines did.

My initial two favorites were “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” and “Lovely Rita,” which few talked about back then. As for “Good Morning Good Morning”…this was back when you wanted to sleep in, not brag about how early you got up. And I’m not sure anything more needs to be said about “A Day in the Life” other than we still don’t know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall, but…

No one ever talks about the theme song. The opener, with the orchestra tuning up, the story of the band being told. But in truth, as much as I loved that I always preferred the reprise on the second side whose only flaw was it was too short and back in the vinyl era there was no way to put it on endless repeat. The reprise starts off with pedal to the metal, the faders up full, but what truly puts it over the top is the lyric “It’s Sgt. Pepper’s ONE AND ONLY lonely hearts club band.” I love the way that is sung.

1. EVERY LITTLE THING

At this point my favorite album, the one I play most, is “Beatles for Sale,” which didn’t exist in America, instead it was broken up into two albums, the great “Beatles ’65” and the somewhat lame pastiche “Beatles VI,” with one of the worst covers of all time.

So I always loved “No Reply” and “I’m a Loser,” but “Beatles for Sale” includes “Eight Days a Week,” one of the band’s truly great singles.

“Hold me

Love me”

And the handclaps in-between. Seems simple these days, but you’ve got to put yourself back in ’65 when the U.K. was still operating in black and white and music was the elixir of the youth, our joy and our Bible.

But I did not know “Every Little Thing.”

But I had this songbook, “The Golden Beatles,” with all of the band’s songs up to that point that you could play on the piano or the guitar, and songs I’d never heard I learned how to play, like “What You’re Doing” and “Every Little Thing,” and ultimately it turned out I got them pretty right. I learned that when I finally bought “Beatles VI” years later, needing to complete my collection.

“When I’m walking beside her

People tell me I’m lucky

Yes, I know I’m a lucky guy”

The older you get the more you realize this doesn’t apply. I remember remarking to a lawyer at my sister’s wedding that his wife was hot, and she was, and the truth was he was stepping out on her and on his way to divorcing her. You never know what goes on behind closed doors, you never know the truth of another couple’s relationship.

As for looks…

You can get a trophy wife to impress the others who believe in trophy wives and live in an endless loop of materialistic phoniness. I’m not saying looks are unimportant they’re just not that important, they don’t supersede everything. If you’re involved with someone to impress others…better take a long hard look at your values, maybe it’s time to go to the shrink.

“I remember the first time

I was lonely without her

Can’t stop thinking about her now”

Oh the pain of distance. Where are they, are they thinking about you? There’s no worse pain than heartache, there’s no pill that will make it go away. As for loneliness…it can kill, that’s the truth.

“There is one thing I’m sure of

I will love her forever

For I know love will never die”

Too often it does. The number one criterion of a successful relationship is commitment, without it you’re doomed. Choose appropriately, not the person who will give you a good time so much as the one who will stand by you, be there for you.

As for the sound of the track…

The timpani…

The double-tracked guitar…

The changes…

The vocals…

“Every little thing

Every little thing

Every little thing”

Rick Beato has 2.42 million subscribers to his YouTube channel “Everything Music”: https://bit.ly/3hD3MNH He has scores of videos with more than one million views, his “Top 20 Acoustic Guitar Intros Of All Time” has 13 million views! Rick teaches you how to play the songs and analyzes why they’re great or why they’re not. Pull up his page, but be prepared to go down the rabbit hole, as we do in this conversation, where we discuss Rick’s history, how he creates his videos and the ups and downs of the YouTube game.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rick-beato/id1316200737?i=1000528217014

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast