'Jet,' 'God' : light-hearted joy and profound questioning, in McCartney and Lennon, alive today

'Jet' and 'God' sort of embody the extremes I enjoy most in McCartney and Lennon as solo artists. Well-crafted, listenable, upbeat, driving music with nonsensically-born lyrics? That's 'Jet.'

Stunningly-profound, haunting lyrics and a bedroom-demo sound? That's 'God.'

I've lately been more preoccpied- and directly contrasting- the work of the Beatles song writers, after the Beatles parted. You don't have to pick a side, but you're likely to have a preference. I assumed mine was Lennon, who I saw as bucking commercialism (but not always- even 'Imagine,' the signature hit and the album, were steps towards crafting music for better sales). He challenged notions at the fabric of society, existential questions and alternative ways of looking at ourselves. Paul, I thought I could dismiss as more disposable pop craft.

Paul wrote some meaningful lyrics- sometimes deceptively so, like ' Silly Love Songs' -and stripped back demo-like work like 'Ram On' and 'Dear Friend.' He seems most profound when talking about very personal relationships, like with John, like with Linda. I love the vulnerablity of "Maybe I'm Amazed" but lyrically, it's just a bit deeper than a nice Hallmark card. It's the music that takes it above and beyond- I can feel what his lyrics suggest, all over.

I don't find his pop 70s offerings, particularly philosophical or cerebrally-challenging. In December, 2020, however, I preferred his music to attempting a deep dive into Christmas spirit. I didn't feel hostile towards Christmas- I didn't want to reject it, anymore than I would a dear friend. But I did trade in that seasonal festivity and its stories to be cocooned in McCartney's catchy tunes of another time. I liked the rock sounds of "Junior's Farm" instead. His work is geared more towards relaxing, unwinding and having a good time. His live releases are slick!
The last week of December, I really loaded up on cuts from John's stark solo premier. John, to me, is often at his best using Art to unsettle you- or conversely, you could say he's providing kinshp for people whose minds rebel against more typical bourgeousie strictures. He can put into music things you're not allowed to express in most general company here in the deepest Red State district of Georgia. You can believe in whatever traditions and structures make your personal meanings in life, bold. However, it's good to have those beliefs, not out of a dedication to close-mindedness, but having the growth as a person to listen to an appeal to open your mind, about how you come to that relation.

Conversely, John could be professional and craftsman-like: 'Whatever Gets You Through the Night,' I also like him when he merges catchy pop-rock sounds and fun with his wry word play and counter-cultural point of view, like the song "Nobody Told Me"- an unfinished song that Yoko completed and released to become John's last new Top 10 hit, in 1984. I feel like, in his paens to his marriage and his adoration of his son Sean (he did reunite with Julian during his 'Lost Weekend' phase), he may not be stodgy, but he does capture the maturity to appreciate the benefits of domestic bliss. Better than angst-ridden, brain-pickling penders, anyway.

But generally, "Jet" and "God" embody the way I think of their decade of solo work.

"Jet" had a title inspired, depending on when you ask, by either Paul's Labrador, or his pony. He puts together sounds, with little regard for coherent logic. There's some kind of love-longing and admiration for some breath-taking woman who embodies the inspiration of Passion- a song about The Muse. But what is this nonsense about your father, the Sargeant Major? Even 'suffragette' is only there as a play on 'Jet.' He's on record saying, with this and other songs, don't bother looking for a complex allegory and deeper meaning. This is why I continue to be comfortable singing the bridge with "Darth Vader" and "light saber," or as my wife put it, "Ralph Nader." They mean just as much as the use of 'mater,' Latin for 'mother.'

When John uses "Mother" it's often about his profound alienation as a child. The one time he has fun with it, he doesn't mean mother in the sense of 'mater' at all- it's "most peculiar, mama"- when he's having so much fun, also (like Paul in Jet, playing with sounds of words) playing word games, in "Nobody Told Me," like a take-off on "Mama told me there'd be days like this." He challenges the way we define God in "God." He rejects the mass movements and most idoltarized figures of the 60s, only to land squarely in the humility of his true identity, beneath all the mythologizing that went with being a Beatle.

His choice of "God" as title and subject is as deliberate as Paul's choice of the word "Jet" as title and subject are haphazard. "Jet" is all about the euphoric emotions whipped up by the music. "God" is as introverted, wistful and personal as "Jet" is extroverted, jubilant and made for the purpose of a commercially-viable single. Not that Paul set out to write a single, there- I don't wish to slight his creative process. He was just following his stoned Muse. "God" is, however dour and stark, not without joy, either, because in the end, John finds warmth in his existential crisis- even if he is ever-so melancholy for those who needed and used "The Dream" in establishing meanings. After all, were we not all simply searching, now as in the 60s?


However shallow and adolescent one might judge the modern era, there is also very nearly an even stronger surge in cultural revolution. Social consciousness may've seemed secondary if you look at 70s pop culture, but mourning for its demise was premature.


There may be no end of absurdity and dance challenges on Tik Tok, but the conversations that were part of the counter-cultural zeitgeist have a much-wider audience among the young people of today. It's McCartney, but it's Lennon, too. Welcome to the new decade- 'May it begin strongly with efforts of Hope and Light!'- The Marc Kane

We all live in a Yellow Submarine

I've been in a very BEatles mood. Last year, I read a great Paul McCartney bio, and this year, Beatles '66: The Revolutionary Year. That gave me a strong urge to ask for a copy of Revolver for my birthday- which I got, after a massive Chef Chen Buffet dinner! We had so many good laughs- but then, Mama will laugh at a fried shrimp falling off a plate onto the floor, much less across the table, so that part was pretty easy. We played Sorry! afterwards, too.


Oh, right, the BEatles: I enjoyed reading how the songs were written and recorded, most of anything in the book, as well as the influences they were taking in ;-D When I finished, I found myself feeling more in common with Beatle John- my favorite since I was 14, when I really turned on to them-warts and all. We really could do with a Paul. I try, but my drive works differently.

I was asked to think about writing and performing children's songs by our friends the Coopers. Now, kids have almost always been an enthusiastic audience for our songs anyway. It's a super time to be part of someone's memories- it's a time of lasting remembrance. It's a time you always return to as you find yourself in different places in life. (Along those lines, thanks to everyone who clicke on "A'Thawin Me Song"- it's been one of the blog's most popular posts in months!)

And what is "Yellow Submarine," if not a classic kids song? I really got into them at an age where I didn't single the songs out in any way, categorically: it's just all fun music, sometimes introspective, sometimes sing-a-long silly, sometimes rocking, sometimes disconcerting and introspective.
I suspect it's one of my Mom's favorite BEatles songs. She enjoyed Revolver enough to ask us to bring it out again after I played it three times the night I got it, during our first game time in ages. It's possible to see it as a song about being surrounded by the peculiar pressures of Fame, too, but this song marks the highwater mark of Beatle comraderie, to me.
There's an official site, too. http://yellowsubmarine.com/

For our version: we spent a little time practicing it, maybe half an hour or so at most before we had our take. I got the idea to play the 'band' interlude on electric guitar and then play with reverb and pitch. I still don't think the tempos quite match but it kinda works. I had a ball overdubbing the sea (my breath!) and the bird (more reverb on me mimicing the original), and the dinner bell ended up sounding a bit like sonar. My crazy Cockney was screwing Anj up so I over dubbed him, too. I guess I put about four hours into it at most, some during the first quarter of the championship college game.

I hope you enjoy. We'll be doing the soul rocket thing out somewhere soon, but over Christmas I played for children at Stepping Stones the last Friday before Christmas, and we played for friends a bit and recorded that; I'm sending around CDs and dropboxes to a few people. You can have one too. Our cover of John Prine/ Iris DeMint's "In Spite of Ourselves" nearly made one of Anj's co-workers pee herself on the ride home, she laughed so hard. Things like that make me happy to play and sing and share it with people. We could all do with a good laugh.

Here's to a good 2018. Keep Calm and Remember We All Live In A Yellow Submarine!

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I'd Go Anywhere With You : Washing with the Beatles

The Beatles were the subject over laundry a couple of days later. Lewis had connected with them at age fourteen, when he discovered counter-culture. “The Beatles were so cool, it didn’t matter if uncool people were into them, which is saying a lot,” he said. “I don’t know if Elton John was ever really cool, but he was kind of coming back as an adult contemporary artist with a pop hit when I was a big fan. They were probably his most massive influence, too, along with a lot of black records, like it was for the Beatles, and the Band really shaped his ideas, too, early on.”

“I had outpatient surgery to remove a cyst from my eyelid when I was thirteen. The two days I was home from school, I heard his songs on the Oldies Lunch Set on K-98. After ‘Rocket Man,’ ‘Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road,’ and ‘Tiny Dancer,’ I was hooked! I couldn’t believe one man sang all this great stuff. There was more, too.”

“The Beatles was what got me invested in song writing,” he admitted, with a huge load of clothes in a bag that he took into the apartment complex washateria not far from where he lived. He had gotten into the habit of coming here while Ed, Wylie and Chris lived here as roommates. Today this trip would put them close to the hospital where her grandmother Custer was recuperating, so they started laundry as part of a two-in-one trip.

“I had tried playing along with some Top 40 songs, and knew a little piano, but between Elton and the Beatles, I got into lyrics and melodies. Well, actually Bernie Taupin wrote most of Elton’s lyrics.”
Gina started slotting quarters as Lewis continued enthusiastically.

“They had such a variety of song styles, although their straight-forward rock style that broke them in America is still classic. It’s what they did with harmonies, for one. And rock was really hungry for something fresh, with Buddy Holly gone, Elvis kinda neutralized by Colonel Tom and the army…”

He began stuffing the clothes in without any care, mashing the big pile down.

“Even something like ‘Octopus’s Garden’ which was written as a Ringo Starr one-off had this special magic, you know,” he continued, blithely rhapsodizing about Beatles. She knew they would wash better if they were separated piece at a time.

“It’s all these touches they brought as an ensemble, too. I wish I had a guitarist like George Harrison to work with! I mean, that’s what makes ‘Garden’ such a cool if goofy hit.”

She smiled and looked at her cool if goofy fiancé.

“Oh, Darlin’” she began, as if to sing to him, “would you stop for a minute and pay attention? I just realized something. You just got on my nerves for the first time!”

“I’m sorry, wha--?”

“Carelessly shoving everything into the washing machine in one huge pile,” she said.

“Oh! Well, I couldn’t really see any…”

“It just washes better if you put things in one at a time. Like, if you have socks balled up in a shirt, or something. Ha!” She felt relieved. She put her hands on his chest. “If you want to talk to me about the Beatles, would you mind if I took over? Because I don’t mind, it’s just…”

“Hahah! Okay. Sure…I’ll watch for that in the future,” he said, standing aside. “You know, I don’t expect you to get that, just because you’re the woman, you know.”

“Oh, I know,” she said brightly. “I was just watching you do that, with your mind somewhere else, and it just irritated me!”

“Well, every disagreement should end so simply,” he said, smiling.

“I’m sorry, heh heh! It’s no biggie.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry I got on your nerves, Gina Belle. But yeah, it was Lennon and McCartney’s basic facility with these masterful little songs, about all facets of love and some kind of surreal take-offs on lyrics, that were the basis for the band’s success. All good players…great singing…but it’s the song itself that makes the difference. And you see how their writing evolved, and how they more and more started writing by themselves…”

He didn’t stop enthusing over rock history. He also didn’t bother to touch another article of clothing the rest of the time.

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