Saturday, May 21, 2016

Beatles' White Album tracks, continued



Caution: risqué language included

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Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey 

 


Lyrics:

Come on come on
Come on come on
Come on is such a joy
Come on is such a joy
Come on let's take it easy
Come on let's take it easy
Take it easy take it easy
Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey

(Ooh) The deeper you go the higher you fly
The higher you fly the deeper you go
So come on (Come on) come on
Come on is such a joy
Come on is such a joy
Come on let's make it easy
Come on let's make it easy (Oh)
Take it easy (Yeh yeh yeh) take it easy (Hoo)
Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey

Oh!

Your inside is out and your outside is in
Your outside is in and your inside is out
So come on (Ho) come on (Ho)
Come on is such a joy
Come on is such a joy
Come on let's make it easy
Come on let's make it easy
Make it easy (Hoo) make it easy (Hoo)
Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey

Hey!

Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on
Come on, come on, come on...

Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on
Come on, come on, come on...

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxFQrBKk6gE&list=RDMxFQrBKk6gE#t=13

About:

The song was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney.

The song’s title is the longest of any of the Beatles’ songs.

A monkey on the back' was a jazz term for heroin addiction thought to have originated in the 1940s.
 
According to Mojo magazine, Lennon had been piqued by a cartoon that showed Yoko as a monkey clinging Lennon’s back and took 'monkey' as his pet name for Ono.
“That was just a sort of nice line that I made into a song. It was about me and Yoko. Everybody seemed to be paranoid except for us two, who were in the glow of love. Everything is clear and open when you're in love. Everybody was sort of tense around us: you know, 'What is she doing here at the session? Why is she with him?' All this sort of madness is going on around us because we just happened to want to be together all the time.”

— John Lennon
The line, "Come on, Come on, it’s such a joy" was something the Maharishi said while The Beatles were in India in 1967. The original title of this was "Come On, Come On." 
 
Many listeners, including Paul McCartney, believed that the song was about heroin, as the term "monkey" is often associated with the drug. Although Lennon and Ono used the drug, McCartney, as well as Harrison and Starr, did not, with McCartney later saying, "It was a harder terminology, which the rest of us weren't into.

An early foreshadow of the primal scream style that he would increasingly be drawn to in some of his "solo" work with Yoko.
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Sexy Sadie

Lyrics:

Sexy Sadie what have you done
You made a fool of everyone
You made a fool of everyone
Sexy Sadie ooh what have you done

Sexy Sadie you broke the rules
You layed it down for all to see
You layed it down for all to see
Sexy Sadie oooh you broke the rules

One sunny day the world was waiting for a lover
She came along to turn on everyone
Sexy Sadie the greatest of them all

Sexy Sadie how did you know
The world was waiting just for you
The world was waiting just for you
Sexy Sadie oooh how did you know

Sexy Sadie you'll get yours yet
However big you think you are
However big you think you are
Sexy Sadie oooh you'll get yours yet

We gave her everything we owned just to sit at her table
Just a smile would lighten everything
Sexy Sadie she's the latest and the greatest of them all

She made a fool of everyone
Sexy Sadie

However big you think you are
Sexy Sadie

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK3mq_wMiDw

About:

The song was written by John Lennon in India and credited to Lennon–McCartney. 
 
In February 1968 the Beatles had traveled to Rishikesh, in northern India, to attend an advanced Transcendental Meditation training session at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Lennon left India prematurely after becoming disillusioned and hostile at an account that the Maharishi had hit on one of the women in their entourage.

“[The song was inspired by Maharishi. I wrote it when we had our bags packed and were leaving. It was the last piece I wrote before I left India. I just called him, 'Sexy Sadie,' instead of (sings) 'Maharishi what have you done, you made a fool...' I was just using the situation to write a song, rather calculatingly but also to express what I felt. I was leaving the Maharishi with a bad taste. You know, it seems that my partings are always not as nice as I'd like them to be."

- John Lennon
Lennon told Rolling Stone that when the Maharishi asked why he was leaving, he replied, "Well, if you're so cosmic, you'll know why.” 

 
Paul McCartney and Cynthia Lennon later said that they believe that the story had been made up by Alexis Mardas, Lennon’s former ‘guru’, who was also at the ashram. Mardas was jealous of having been replaced by the Maharishi and used the allegation to discredit him.
“Alexis and a fellow female meditator began to sow the seeds of doubt into very open minds... Alexis's statements about how the Maharishi had been indiscreet with a certain lady, and what a blackguard he had turned out to be gathered momentum. All, may I say, without a single shred of evidence or justification. It was obvious to me that Alexis wanted out and more than anything he wanted The Beatles out as well.”

    - Cynthia Lennon
Contrary to rumours, the girl involved was not Mia Farrow.
"It was a big scandal. Maharishi had tried to get off with one of the chicks. I said, 'Tell me what happened?' John said, 'Remember that blonde American girl with the short hair? Like a Mia Farrow lookalike. She was called Pat or something.' I said, 'Yeah'. He said, 'Well, Maharishi made a pass at her.' So I said, 'Yes? What's wrong with that?' 'He said, 'Well, you know, he's just a bloody old letch just like everybody else. What the fuck, we can't go following that!'

They were scandalised. And I was quite shocked at them; I said, 'But he never said he was a god. In fact very much the opposite. He said, "Don't treat me like a god, I'm just a meditation teacher." There was no deal about you mustn't touch women, was there? There was no vow of chastity involved.' So I didn't think it was enough cause to leave the whole meditation centre."

    - Paul McCartney
That was written just as we were leaving, waiting for our bags to be packed in the taxi that never seemed to come. We thought: 'They're deliberately keeping the taxi back so as we can't escape from this madman's camp.' And we had the mad Greek with us who was paranoid as hell. He kept saying, 'It's black magic, black magic. They're gonna keep you here forever.' I must have got away because I'm here.

    - John Lennon, 1974
The depth of Lennon’s hostility can be gauged from the first session for Sexy Sadie, on 19 July 1968, Lennon demonstrated to McCartney how it was originally conceived:

You little twat
Who the fuck do you think you are?
Who the fuck do you think you are?
Oh, you cunt
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Next week: The track you've been waiting for . . . Helter Skelter.

Some coming scenes . . .





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