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Tonight was BEATLES night. After butterscotch, the Beatles are England's most important export. Who can resist either? We had Scott, Sam, Ken, Christine, Vin, Liz, Joe, Arlene, Jen, Nathan, Ann and Chris. Then came Suzala, a rare sighting. As the Moody Blues sang in 1969, "Lovely to see you again, my friend."
I'm mostly listing the American albums these songs are from and the year those were released. (Not 100% consistent on that.)
1. I'm So Tired, The Beatles (usually called the White Album, 1968 (Ken)
Not a bad start. Ken gets extra points for inserting the mumbling at the end of the song. If you stop your turntable and spin the record backwards with your finger, then drop the needle down, you hear, "Paul is a dead man. Miss him. Miss him. Miss him." Pretty freaky. (This was part of the infamous "Paul is dead" controversy.) Don't do it too often. It's not good for your needle or your vinyl album, and it's a little scary.
2. Lovely Rita, Sgt. Pepper, 1967 (Christine)
This is a clever, funny song from Paul.
3. Octopus' Garden, Abbey Road, 1969 (Christine)
This started too slowly, especially for a song with such common chords, then sped up to a good tempo. Ringo wrote this one.
4. I'll Follow the Sun, Beatles '65 (Christine)
5. Across the Universe, Let It Be 1970 (Christine)
Ken did this as an instrumental solo, but quit part-way through. I'm not sure why. It sounded pretty good.
6. Rocky Raccoon, White Album (Christine)
This was very sloppy. It should have been an easy song to do. I've played this as a repeating loop with mostly sevenths (Am7 D7 G7 and C). We used Am6 as another name for D7, plus an extra Cmaj7 after the C. Could those minor things have thrown us off?
7. When I'm 64, Sgt. Pepper (Ken)
Not too hard, even with the E7 augmented, and we got in a little kazoo practice at the end.
8. Beatles Ukulele Medley in G (Ken)
Hey Jude, Yesterday, Let It Be, Ticket to Ride, Come Together, Can't Buy Me Love, All You Need Is Love, Yellow Submarine, Hello Goodbye, Hard Days Night, Help (not necessarily in this order).
It could have been worse. There were lots of changes in tempo, which is usually tough. My preference would be to do a few of these separately, but it was probably a good exercise, just to keep us limber.
9. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Sgt. Pepper (Sam and Scott)
Here was another duet. (Vin picked this back in January, probably for the theme of girls names. It has an interesting intro, including an A augmented.)
10. While My Guitar Gently Weeps, White Album (Nathan and Chris)
They did a duet, with Nathan on guitar and Chris singing.
11. I Want to Hold Your Hand, Meet the Beatles, 1963 (Ken)
12. She Loves You, Beatles 2nd Album, 1963 (Ken)
The lads did German versions of these two songs. It's fun to see how they were translated. I guess translations are rarely word for word. For example, "Yeah, you got that something. I think you'll understand when I say that something. I wanna hold your hand," is translated into German as, "Oh you are so beautiful-----beautiful like a diamond. I want to go with you. Come give me your hand." (Oh du bist so schon-----schon wie ein Diamant. Ich will mit dir gehen. Komm gib' mir deine Hand." So you see, my three years of German at Uniondale High School have finally paid off.
13. Penny Lane, Magical Mystery Tour, 1967 (Nathan)
14. Ballad of John and Yoko, 1969 (Vin)
This was put on an interesting album called Hey Jude, released in 1970. It contained leftover scraps which previously hadn't made it onto an album, including old hits like Can't Buy Me Love, I Should Have Known Better and Paperback Writer, plus the more obscure Rain and Old Brown Shoe.
The album cover has one of my favorite photographs of the Beatles as a group. It was the last ever Beatles photo session and showed them at the top of their hippie coolness.
15. I'll Get You, Beatles 2nd Album (Dan)
Only Ken and I knew this pleasant early number. On this night of duets and solos, I did this myself.
16. I Will, White Album (Jen)
Ken and Jen played it and sang it. This would be an appropriate wedding song.
17. Two of Us, Let It Be (Ken)
Ken and Vin played parts of this, tried to teach us the neat intro, but did not finish.
18. I'm Only Sleeping, Yesterday and Today, 1966 (Dan)
Here's an overlooked gem. I think of this and I'm So Tired together. Donald Trump would probably call Lennon "very low-energy."
19. Love Me Do, 1962 (Arlene)
This was one of the first things they recorded with George Martin, the genius. Rest easy, George.
20. Good Day Sunshine, Revolver, 1966 (Arlene)
McCartney said he was influenced by the Lovin' Spoonful's hit Daydream. (John Sebastian said Daydream was influenced by the Supremes' Baby Love.)
21. From Me to You, 1963 (Nathan)
We came undone towards the end, but this was one of our better efforts of the evening.
22. Yesterday, Yesterday and Today, 1966 (Ken)
I seem to recall that a bit of clowning around and general lack of serious application marred this soaring ballad. If I may channel my inner Catholic nun for a moment, it often happens that some of us (don't make me name names) are strumming our ukes idly or are into our own thing when we're trying to get a song off the ground. Therefore, we're not all starting at the same time. Some are playing the start of the verse while others haven't finished the intro. We should, at the very least, make an effort to coordinate the start of a song. Often people are talking to their neighbors about non-ukulele topics when Ken is reviewing chords or pointing out tacets or other potential pitfalls in the song we're about to do. Maybe Ken needs to bring a gavel and call us to order, or maybe he should threaten to send us to the assistant principal's office. And another thing: I don't want to see any gum chewing, nor spitballs flying across the room. Let's grow up, people. (I hope Sister Mary Rita is proud of me.)
23. The Long and Winding Road, Let It Be (Ken)
This was another pretty one, and this is how we ended the evening.
For our next jam, we'll do songs with the broad theme of TIME. There are units of time (minutes, days, centuries), time pieces (clocks, the 12 o'clock whistle, hourglasses) and more abstract notions of time (the stages of life, the exalted flow of the space-time continuum). Any of these could be in the title, lyrics or themes of the song you pick.
Scott had suggested a theme of Led Zeppelin songs. I love the idea of playing Zeppelin on the ukulele, but I fear many of us wouldn't be familiar enough with their songs, at least not twenty of them.
Sam suggested a Rolling Stones night. That might be a little more doable.
Near the end of the evening, Christine was ready to curl up on the floor in the corner of the room due to fatigue. Before she left, she suggested to me this TIME theme. I took it upon myself, acting as her agent (I get 10% of all the money she makes in her ukulele career) to put her suggestion forward. There are tons of songs which fit this topic. Which are your favorites?
-- Dan.
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