1:37 AM
And I couldn’t sleep so I’d blog again. Was compelled to write after watching the end of American Beauty. Oh man, another movie I can’t really talk about without spoiling the ending. Though if you start seeing it or read the reviews you’ll know the story is about the end of a man’s life. That’s how the movie begins. You know he’s going to die from the first minute of the movie.
I will say it ends with one of the most beautiful Beatles songs they ever was credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. “Because.”
A simple song really,
Because
Lennon/McCartney
Ah, because the world is round
it turns me on
Because the world is round
Ah, because the wind is high
it blows my mind
Because the wind is high
Ah, love is old, love is new
Love is all, love is you
Because the sky is blue
it makes me cry
Because the sky is blue
Ah, ah, ah, ah
12 lines and some “ahs,” but 12 lines and some “ahs” put together in a beautiful way, in this case to signify the end of a life. The end to a poor schmuck’s existence as he passes on to wherever we go when we die.
I remember Doonsbury made a statement in the early 90’s. A character named Andy was dying from AIDS. He was startled that he lived long enough to finally get the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” album on CD. In fact, his last words were scrawled by his bedside as “Brian Wilson is God” as his final moments here were spent listening to the melodies of that album.
Pet Sounds is one of my favorites. Though I can never find my CD of it. God only knows where it went. I have the cassette here somewhere. My best memory about Pet Sounds came, again, in the early 90’s. I was recruited to come along to the beach for a week with my friend Margie-girl (pronounced MAR-ghee, that’s MAR like in margarine and hee as in hee haw) … and 5 of her friends. 4 guys, three girls to one room at Ocean City Maryland for a weekend.
It was a nightmare. I mean a serious nightmare. I’m strange by nature. I have my own problems and I can barely be around myself for long periods of time. 7 people in one room was enough to drive me nuts. I was also the only sober person there. That probably had a lot to do with it. The first night there we had the couple who was with us get in a massive fight and almost break up, one of the guys vanished with my headphones and fell asleep on the beach, Margie-girl drug me to some party where everyone was drunk and watching cartoons because she wanted to see some guy who didn’t remember her when we got there (he was almost passed out in the backroom), and by the time we got back to the hotel all the spots were taken in the beds and all the pillows and blankets were taken so I had to curl up by the door on the floor and make the best I could of things.
So by 5 am I got pissed and took a walk. On the beach armed with only the Beach Boys Pet sounds and Berlin’s Love Life (another great cd if you find it discounted). I walked the beach for the early morning hours just listening to the music and enjoying myself on a deserted beach. No squabbles, no fighting, no noisy angry people, just me, the waves, the sunrise, and music. It was cool.
My appreciation for music really came from the later Beatles albums back in the days when I was a full time Beatles freak. A lifetime ago, literally. Abby Road was my favorite. Just for the sounds and the harmonies and for the weird ass songs. I mean you go from love songs to a song about an Octopus, to a transsexual drag queen, to complaints about long lost loves and the realities of relationships (“I never give you my number, I only give you my situation, and in the middle of investigation I break down …”), to finally psychotic killers in the courtroom and lonely loners who have no place else to go.
The song was the Beatles’ maturity and if you accept the debate, it was their last album *as a group* (Let it Be was a collection of songs but the group had already fallen apart by then), and their best one. Forget Sgt. Peppers and forget Revolver, Abby Road was where it’s at.
On the downside, it gave us “Come Together,” the worst cover song in the history of music.
Come together, right now, Pepsi Free.
End of story.
On that note, I’m going to go off to bed now.
k9