Over a decade ago, I worked on a project called the Well-Tempered Songbook. It was a countdown of the top 48 popular songs that had an impact on me – not an easy list to compile. Here is one of them.
The White Album was played so often through my early childhood and on and into my teens. The songs, every one still repeat over and over in my head, it only takes one chord to trigger all the rest…
I didn’t love them then either, the songs annoyed me but not as much as the fact that I was forbidden from looking inside the cover.
Of course I did….
In my parents copy there were five photos, the four you mention and another. The fifth was of JL and YO standing, arms about each other, naked as babes. I felt like I’d been scalded by hot irons when I first saw it, that had been permanently damaged just by the act of seeing it. Maybe I was…
To this day I’ve no idea where that fifth photo came from or where it went, when I inherited the album it was gone.
“I suppose he can’t smile at you in the headshot and then tell you what you need to hear.”
I don’t recall either of them smiling in that photo either…
It's crazy. The memory plays tricks. I thought I suddenly remembered another photo as being in there, too, but when I checked the web tells me there wasn't. I'd even started to imagine looking at that picture in my childhood living room. This is why I'm getting out of the memoir business.
I remember being put off by photos of the two of them almost in any period right up to the end. Neither of them were particularly attractive and they were very "in your face" about their relationship in a way that jarred me. I felt there was an almost aggressive exhibitionism to them. What I will say is that their work on Imagine together is transporting. Yoko is so, so, so uncredited for the lyrics in that song it is almost a crime. They're basically her words.
“he can’t smile at you in the headshot and then tell you what you need to hear.” Right on. This puts his artistry in a new light for me. Imagine knowing what he knew and still having the courage and talent to express it the ways that he did. The toll that could take.
“It is a nostalgic perpetual motion machine this song, that only changing our hearts and stopping wars will still.” Bravo. What a sentence, what a truth.
I loved Beatles-back then , where I'm from, it was not easy to just, you know, go in a store and get a record-became possible in late eighties. So people would go to great length, and we were quite crazy about them of course.
I loved everything my older brother loved, I must add. At least what I could understand. i think I knew several albums by heart then-and yet I don't recall the song?..
I should find it..
And-Yes-that's precisely the order in which I liked them, knowing very little about them- just as you wrote it.
I don't want to go on and on too much because this post is too beautiful-thank you, Adam.
I made a friend in St. Petersburg and he showed me a book he'd created in the 70's and 80's of perfect drawings of rock album covers front and back. The albums were exchanged in an underground sort of way, and when he had them he recreated them exactly into his books. It was one of the most beautiful testaments to rock and roll I've ever seen/felt. The book was stunning and you could feel rock and love and the government all in one. Quite something.
The White Album was played so often through my early childhood and on and into my teens. The songs, every one still repeat over and over in my head, it only takes one chord to trigger all the rest…
I didn’t love them then either, the songs annoyed me but not as much as the fact that I was forbidden from looking inside the cover.
Of course I did….
In my parents copy there were five photos, the four you mention and another. The fifth was of JL and YO standing, arms about each other, naked as babes. I felt like I’d been scalded by hot irons when I first saw it, that had been permanently damaged just by the act of seeing it. Maybe I was…
To this day I’ve no idea where that fifth photo came from or where it went, when I inherited the album it was gone.
“I suppose he can’t smile at you in the headshot and then tell you what you need to hear.”
I don’t recall either of them smiling in that photo either…
Thanks for planting the songs again Adam…
It's crazy. The memory plays tricks. I thought I suddenly remembered another photo as being in there, too, but when I checked the web tells me there wasn't. I'd even started to imagine looking at that picture in my childhood living room. This is why I'm getting out of the memoir business.
I remember being put off by photos of the two of them almost in any period right up to the end. Neither of them were particularly attractive and they were very "in your face" about their relationship in a way that jarred me. I felt there was an almost aggressive exhibitionism to them. What I will say is that their work on Imagine together is transporting. Yoko is so, so, so uncredited for the lyrics in that song it is almost a crime. They're basically her words.
“he can’t smile at you in the headshot and then tell you what you need to hear.” Right on. This puts his artistry in a new light for me. Imagine knowing what he knew and still having the courage and talent to express it the ways that he did. The toll that could take.
He was such a great foil to McCartney – both of them for each other.
I was listening to Lennon's Mother last night by chance. Such an unusual and intense talent.
“It is a nostalgic perpetual motion machine this song, that only changing our hearts and stopping wars will still.” Bravo. What a sentence, what a truth.
Wow, that would be quite the list to compile—no doubt a walk down so many pathways of mind and heart.
I see that Kimberly highlighted the line I came here to champion. To changing our heads and stoping wars!
I loved Beatles-back then , where I'm from, it was not easy to just, you know, go in a store and get a record-became possible in late eighties. So people would go to great length, and we were quite crazy about them of course.
I loved everything my older brother loved, I must add. At least what I could understand. i think I knew several albums by heart then-and yet I don't recall the song?..
I should find it..
And-Yes-that's precisely the order in which I liked them, knowing very little about them- just as you wrote it.
I don't want to go on and on too much because this post is too beautiful-thank you, Adam.
I made a friend in St. Petersburg and he showed me a book he'd created in the 70's and 80's of perfect drawings of rock album covers front and back. The albums were exchanged in an underground sort of way, and when he had them he recreated them exactly into his books. It was one of the most beautiful testaments to rock and roll I've ever seen/felt. The book was stunning and you could feel rock and love and the government all in one. Quite something.
Lovely meditation on a haunting song. Thank you for this elucidation of what "Merry Xmas" is doing. One of my favorites, too.
Thank you.