Chalkhills Digest, Volume 13, Number 26

                   Monday, 11 June 2007

Topics:

                 A 64 year old in flight
           When I'm Two Hundred and Eighty-Nine
                      Paul McCartney
                        Not again!
              foreshadowings... anagrams...
                      Rewind, I'm 64
                 Rare XTC footage on DVD
      "Dame Fortune" is the MySpace song of the week

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Shield your soul from this heat.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2007 21:39:07 -0700
From: "Wayne Klein" <wtdk123@msn.com>
Subject: A 64 year old in flight
Message-ID: <BAY108-F102CEBDE86690F85021D29F9250@phx.gbl>

Ryan asked: but I have a question. I thought "When I'm
Sixty-Four," released in 1967, was the product of a
man (nominally two men) in his mid-20s, but Beatles
freaks on this 'Hill will know: Did Paul actually
sketch out that song years before *Pepper*?

Yes. Paul wrote "When I'm 64" when he was 16 (if memory serves here). John
had nothing to do with the writing of the song.

Actually "Memory" is quite good. Lyrically a bit lite at times but it evokes
McCartney's most tuneful Wings period quite well.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 23:55:40 -0400
From: Harrison Sherwood <hbsherwood@aol.com>
Subject: When I'm Two Hundred and Eighty-Nine
Message-ID: <CB8D3FA9-A140-4D55-BC69-8684FA2CEA1F@aol.com>

On Jun 7, 2007, at 10:21 PM, Ryan Anthony wrote:

> ... but I have a question. I thought "When I'm
> Sixty-Four," released in 1967, was the product of a
> man (nominally two men) in his mid-20s, but Beatles
> freaks on this 'Hill will know: Did Paul actually
> sketch out that song years before *Pepper*?

 From Barry Miles' _Many Years from Now,_ (Owl Books, 1997) written
in extensive collaboration with Paul McCartney:

"Paul originally wrote the tune for "When I'm Sixty Four" when he was
sixteen and revived it for [Sgt. Pepper."]

Apparently, Paul would drag it out onstage at 1960-62 Hamburg gigs
when the rest of the band was too exhausted to accompany him.

Paul's father James was a bandleader of a hot-jazz combo, The Jim Mac
Jazz Band, in the late 1920s (i.e., well before Paul's birth). "They
played a repertoire of the popular hits of the day: 'Stairway to
Paradise,' Chicago,' 'Lullaby of the Leaves,' 'After You've Gone.'...
Music had always been a focus of family life. Jim had an old upright
piano at home which he bought from Harry Epstein's North End Music
Store in Everton -- the McCartneys' first unwitting contact with NEMS
and the Epstein family..." (Ibid.)

It's quite easy to imagine the very young Paul's pride at having
figured out the chords to something like "After You've Gone" (its
chord patterns are very similar to those of "When I'm Sixty-Four,"
and to a thousand other hot-jazz tunes from the Twenties) and his
application of that pattern to a new song. Note that Miles says
carefully that "the tune" was written when Paul was sixteen; he
doesn't say that the *lyrics* were written then. I can also easily
picture Paul dredging up that chord progression and writing new
lyrics that fit the 1967 _zeitgeist_.

While we're on the topic, has anyone else noticed that Sir Paul's
latest, _Memory Almost Full_, happens to be nearly fuckin'
*magnificent*?

Quantum Farmboy: Gimme a few minutes to think about that. My guitar's
in the shop....

Harrison "nearly fuckin' grandiloquent" Sherwood

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 23:11:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Benjamin Lukoff <blukoff@alvord.com>
Subject: Paul McCartney
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0706072308480.18995-100000@vaal.killerlink.net>

Ryan Anthony <hamsterranch@yahoo.com> wrote:

> "Thanks to a song he wrote when he was a teenager,
> there must have been no human being in history as
> self-conscious about turning 64 as Paul McCartney."
> ... but I have a question. I thought "When I'm
> Sixty-Four," released in 1967, was the product of a
> man (nominally two men) in his mid-20s, but Beatles
> freaks on this 'Hill will know: Did Paul actually
> sketch out that song years before *Pepper*?

Yep--he wrote it when he was 16, either 1958 or 1959.
I just read, BTW, that it was originally going to be left off "Pepper" to
be the B-side to either "Penny Lane" or "Strawberry Fields," but George
Martin decided to put those songs out as a double A-side and considered it
"the biggest mistake I ever made" because the songs had to split the sales
figures and the Beatles missed hitting #1 for the first time in years.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 23:51:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tyler Hewitt <tahewitt@yahoo.com>
Subject: Not again!
Message-ID: <357937.42481.qm@web51712.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

Ryan Anthony quoted this passage from Michael
Azerrad's review of Paul McCartney's Memory Almost
Full: "McCartney has dodged the question, but 'memory
almost full' happens to be an anagram for 'for my
soulmate
LLM,' or Linda Louise McCartney, an almost unbearably
poignant fact."

 * * * * * *

OK, I feel a good rant building...

McCartney's 1989 release Flowers in the Dirt is an
anagram for 'Horn Twit Defilers' (which in turn sounds
like it could be the title of a Captain Beefheart
record).

His 1973 lp Red Rose Speedway is an anagram for
'Ospreys were Dead'.

Hell, the name Paul McCartney is an anagram for
'cancer at lumpy', something I won't comment on
further lest I exceed the bounds of good taste.

Damn, when are people going to stop disecting every
little thing related to The Beatles? That sort of
behavior was tolerable back in the '60's,  but moved
from illuminating to idiotic at least 25 years ago.

I'm sorry, but I just cant see the title 'Memory
Almost Full' as being anything more than typical Paul
McCartney behavior: coming up with  something
completely banal and treating it like it was the most
profound thing ever. You know, like people do when
they are stoned. I thought Paul gave up weed after his
big bust in Japan back in 1980. A glance (and a
listen) to much of his work since then tells another
story. In the words of Nigel Tufnel, "It's such a fine
line between stupid and clever."

He's already given us such witty and intellectual
titles as 'Tug of War', 'Press to Play' and 'Driving
Rain'. I'm looking forward to his upcoming releases
'Close Cover Before Striking', 'Sanitized for your
Protection' and 'Ribbed for her Pleasure'.

Ok, end of rant. Whew, I feel better now!

XTC content: Andy Partridge is an anagram for Nerdy
Prig Data. It's also an anagram for Try Dried Pagan.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 01:07:49 -0700
From: Steve <ste7phen@yahoo.com>
Subject: foreshadowings... anagrams...
Message-ID: <46690E55.7050204@yahoo.com>

 >Ryan Anthony wrote:
>
> A paragraph from Michael Azerrad's review of Paul
> McCartney's *Memory Almost Full* at eMusic.com:
>
> "Opener 'Dance Tonight' is a folksy stomp, an
> invitation to a party delivered in prototypical
> dance-music terms ('Everybody gonna dance tonight /
> Everybody gonna feel all right'), and yet it comes off
> wistful, almost melancholic, and it's not just because
> of the mandolins  it's actually a bit of
> foreshadowing...
<snip>
> ... but I have a question. I thought "When I'm
> Sixty-Four," released in 1967, was the product of a
> man (nominally two men) in his mid-20s, but Beatles
> freaks on this 'Hill will know: Did Paul actually
> sketch out that song years before *Pepper*?
<snip>
> "McCartney has dodged the question, but 'memory almost
> full' happens to be an anagram for 'for my soulmate
> LLM,' or Linda Louise McCartney, an almost unbearably
> poignant fact."
>
> We who live in Tucson, Arizona, remember it was Linda
> who brought Paul here to live for at least part of the
> year each year for a quarter of a century.
>
> Not XTC-related, but Chalkhills-related: Check out the
> cover of *Memory Almost Full*. Does it remind anyone
> of our own Becki DiGregorio's *God's Empty Chair*?

...reading your post I started to think Paul is dead!

Another Steve

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 11:20:09 +0100
From: "Darryl Bullock" <dwbullock@blueyonder.co.uk>
Subject: Rewind, I'm 64
Message-ID: <4E1945A632834F5B92F83CCBFF1B3E00@Benson>

In Chalkhills Digest, Volume 13, Number 25, Ryan Anthony asked: "I have a
question. I thought "When I'm Sixty-Four," released in 1967, was the product
of a man (nominally two men) in his mid-20s, but Beatles freaks on this
'Hill will know: Did Paul actually sketch out that song years before
*Pepper*?

Yes, Ryan, he did. He's often claimed that he wrote it in his teens, at his
Dad's piano. There are stories of the lads busking along to it during the
Cavern era when they were rehearsing - although I don't believe they ever
performed the song - and, in the New Yorker this month, talking about his
contract with Starbucks (!) McCartney again refers to this period and the
song's genesis.

It's not the only Beatles song to have come from teenage notebooks, of
course. Let It Be's The One After 909 was a decade old by the time they
recorded it (although they had attempted an earlier - and superior - version
in '63) and there are oodles of outtakes from the 1969 rehearsals which
feature songs like I Lost My Little Girl, reputed to be one of - if not The
- earliest songs Messers Lennon and McCartney were ever involved with.

D

NP: More Songs About Buildings and Food, but about to put on Skylarking

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 04:46:57 +0100 (BST)
From: Paul Culnane <paulculnane@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Rare XTC footage on DVD
Message-ID: <560443.86152.qm@web25911.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>

Before I tackle the matter in the subject heading, I beg to differ
with the recent statement that "All Along The Watchtower" was XTC's
*sole* cover version.  What about Captain Beefheart's "Ella Guru",
which they contributed to a various artists tribute to Mr Van Vliet
(and was a b-side on one of the O&L singles)?

"Countdown" was a weekly Australian TV pop show of the 70s & 80s
(think, a  more slickly-produced Top Of The Pops or American
Bandstand).  XTC mimed along in the  TV studio to "Generals & Majors"
during their tour here in 1980, and that performance is now available
on a double-DVD set, "Countdown - The Wonder Years 2".  The set
contains 70 clips and some of the other artistes included may also be
of interest to  punters here (eg:  Cheap Trick, Tears For Fears, Style
Council, Nick Lowe, Boomtown Rats, Adam & the Ants, The Knack, The
Cure, Ian Dury & the Blockheads, The Pretenders, The Go Gos, Hall &
Oates, Julian Lennon, Thompson Twins, Mr Mister and many others).

You should be able to purchase the set through ABC-TV's online shop at
www.abc.net.au, or try: www.countdown.com.au

Without music, life is just a bunch of dates by which bills should be paid
- Frank Zappa

  Paul Culnane
ICE Productions Australia

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 18:09:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Todd Bernhardt <beat_town@yahoo.com>
Subject: "Dame Fortune" is the MySpace song of the week
Message-ID: <931626.56694.qm@web32007.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hi:

Over at the XTCfans MySpace site (http://www.myspace.com/xtcfans), the
song of the week is "Dame Fortune," written in the '90s and intended
for AV1, but released in 2002 as the first song on on the first disc
of Fuzzy Warbles.

If you want to know exactly what Andy had in his mouth (and mind)
during the instrumental break toward the end of the song, and which
1960s radio series influenced his use of double-entendres in this and
other songs, check out the XTCfans blog site at
http://blog.myspace.com/xtcfans.

Dame Fortune smile when they're spitting at me
Please bring all my washing in

-Todd

------------------------------

End of Chalkhills Digest #13-26
*******************************

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