Love (2006)- The Beatles Review (Sorta)

Before delving into the subject of this post, first an aside…. Yes, I have failed and reneged on my initial promise to be more forthcoming with posts in my current avatar as a blogger. This post is dated a whole 7 months and 9 day after my previous rant. While blaming the pressures of work is the easy (and default) way out, more than that, I must confess to a distinct lack of interest(motivation?) in keeping this page alive. Why? Maybe because I am not the most natural of writers. Plus, the paucity of ideas stimulating enough to make me write the sort of paras you can see below. So, that’s it for my role as a two-penny intellectual. Atleast, for now.

So, starting now, more posts like the one you are going to read now. I dont expect (m)any comments, because it will be harder to flamebait with a music review.

I got my first Beatles tape when I was in 12th. It was the ‘Ones’ album, a compilation of No. 1 singles by the Beatles. Those were the days when I had long outgrown the Backstreet Boys et al, and was desperate for a proper musical education, at Dad’s expense. I was already well versed with U2, Pink Floyd and a smattering of others, atleast well enough to advance my cred as a ’serious’ music lover. The Beatles, however? Nah. They were clubbed with Elvis and the other old timers. Rock n roll, outdated, still powered by the misty eyed nostalgia of the baby boomer generation. Finally, just out of curiosity, I decided to set aside my prejudices and plunked down 18 dirhams of Dad’s hard earned money and brought home a pyschedelic looking cassette with a cover looking like it had been designed by my sister.

As with most compilations, this was also nothing more than a money minting scheme at best. For the sake of authenticity and the ‘warmth’ so often cited by LP apologists to pick holes with digital audio formats, the tracks werent remastered and most of them sounded, well, old. The early tracks like ‘Love Me Do’ and ‘I Want to Hold your Hand’ were fun but nothing more. No signs of much musical genius there sir. However, nearing the end of Side A, there was a perceptible change, in the songs, the lyrics and most importantly, the workmanship. ‘Something’, ‘Yesterday’, ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’ sounded remarkable, especially considering the fact that they were decades old and still managed to be fresh and familiar at the same time.

The poetry of breaking up

Break ups are bad. Ask anyone who's been through one. It does not have to be true only for those in love. Sometimes, the worst ones are those in which the friends you thought would always be by your side suddenly decide that its not worth it. All of a sudden, the calls stop. The constant meetings are a distant memory. Ultimately, the face that you knew by heart, every line and wrinkle,dissolves in a blur and you are left clutching at straws.

Recently, while going through a friend's blog, i found this. All of it true, and thankfully, there is a happy ending. But my reasons for writing this piece are different. As much as you dislike the all too human tragedies inherent in breakups, you cannot deny that it makes for some fine art. Many of my favorite songs, poems, even books revolve around it. I am sure all of you can think of a nice breakup song off the top of your head.

I am a big fan of Bob Dylan. Apart from writing some great tunes (Knockin' On Heavens Door, Blowin In The Wind, Like A Rolling Stone etc etc), he is also a damn fine poet. Many critics consider him to be one of the best poets, all included, of the latter 20th century. I do not consider myself well versed enough in poetry to comment on that opinion. When it comes to poetry, i am just a plebian. Not for me, the wizardry of an Elliot or Keats(though there are exceptions.) The beautiful simplicity of a Blake, Frost or Wordsworth will do for me, thank you. Dylan's work falls right into the latter class.

Dylan burst into the limelight in the mid 60's during a time of great upheaval in the US, civil and political. Vietnam, Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement, a lot was happening in those years. Dylan sang songs of rebellion and protest. He sang against racism, for equal rights, against the war and everything else in between. He was anointed as a prophet by his fans, a tag he didnt take to at all. Hence, you ll find little or no love/breaking up songs in his early repertoire.

Inevitably, things settled down. Dylan aged, his fiery youth a thing of the past. He mellowed, replacing some of the anger with a melancholy perspective of life itself. The subjects of his songs became personal. He was no longer at odds with the world. He started looking more and more inwards, at the frailities of himself and others.

Dylan's later work contains some searing pieces of breakup poetry (is that a new term??.) I ll save those for another day. When I read that piece i referred to earlier, and thought about breakups in general, one lyric came into focus. This is Shooting Star, taken off his Oh Mercy album.

Seen a shooting star tonight
And I thought of you.
You were trying to break into another world
A world I never knew.
I always kind of wondered
If you ever made it through.
Seen a shooting star tonight
And I thought of you.

Seen a shooting star tonight
And I thought of me.
If I was still the same
If I ever became what you wanted me to be
Did I miss the mark or
Over-step the line
That only you could see?
Seen a shooting star tonight
And I thought of me.

Seen a shooting star tonight
Slip Away.
Tomorrow will be another day.
Guess it's too late to say the things to you
That you needed to hear me say.
Seen a shooting star tonight
Slip away.

This is a simple poem, so simple that you'd think that you could write it. But like Frost and Blake, its charm lies in the idea behind the lines, not the words themselves. I love the way he has used the shooting star, something so fleeting, so quick, burning out in a daze of light and fire, as a metaphor. Not just to illustrate one idea, but three (the different stanzas.)

You might not need to read any further. Just let the words float in your head. But i am proceeding to write down what i understood and took from those words. You might differ. You are free to.

Obviously, the first stanza refers to the other person. I believe the person who initiated the break up. In every break up, one person believes he/she is doing the right thing, for the common good. There are better things to aspire to, for which the relationship is a hindrance. Like a shooting star zipping across the sky, that person is going to 'another world'. Did he/she make it?….you ll never know.

One person is left broken. Everything he/she did was relative to the Other. The Other was the inspiration , the reference, the benchmark, everything that he/she looked up to. Now, the Other no longer exists. Time is now a flux. You wonder if you have changed since then, if you have changed in ways she/he would have liked you to. Or did you lose your orbit and 'miss the mark, overstepped the line', the line only the Other could see….you ll never know.

Ultimately, the blame doesnt rest on one individual. Both parties are culpable in differing ways. In the end, you have to take your share. You waited for too long to say and do the things which mattered…It is too late now. The time has passed, the moment has lapsed…a moment you could see clearly, bright as the burning embers of that shooting star…now faded and out of sight. It has 'slipped away' and you wake up to tomorrow, so different from today, another day'. Would things have been different if you hadnt looked the other way?…you ll never know.

Is there someone in your life you need to talk to? Give a ring? Maybe just a smile perhaps….Do it. Dont wait…for him/her to do it first. Dont let your ego come in the way. Grasp this moment, before it too slips away.

Have a nice, safe weekend.