And On the Seventh Day he created The Beatles

We left off with a cassette player with dead batteries, relieved parents, and we are pulling into Paris, France.  Although I was going into 3rd grade I remember that European trip fairly well all these years later.  We began in Holland where my uncle and his family were living.  Uncle Freeman worked for a chemical compay and was constantly being transferred and moved all over the States and to places like Europe.  He was my dad's older brother and a bit of a jerk; as years went on he became more of an asshole to my parents and Freeman's 2 other brothers.  But that's another blog.  Here we are in the summer of 1978 (I think) and in Europe.  


My biggest memory of Holland is that each neighborhood had these amazing playgrounds with  jungle gyms and these guys were all wooden and each park was different.  Also there were french fry stands everywhere and they put mayonnaise on their fries.  CRAZY!  But delicious.  Both families traveled together for about a week where we went to Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia (it was a country back then) and Italy.  When it came time to go back to Paris we split up as Freeman's family had already been and wanted to see some other parts of Europe.


(Side note: in Austria I saw a poster for a Beethoven concert with a picture of his bust on the poster - although I was a little American kid I knew he was a big deal but I had to ask if he was still alive.  Turns out he wasn't.) 


So we arrive in the city of lights - Paris!  We stayed in a hotel in the city where I continued my love affair with Orangina, the fizzy, citrusy drink we discovered on our travels.  I remember sitting on the street at a cafe eating breakfast and drinking the golden deliciousness.  Hey, technically it wasn't soda!  We saw the Eiffel Tower, The Arc de Triomphe, and the highlight of my sight seeing - walking under the city street through the catacombs.  Creepy but amazing.  Maybe that's why I have so many skull tattoos...


By now you are saying "I thought this was about drums?"  Here we go gentle reader:


One morning in Paris my brother and I were our room goofing around.  For awhile he would ride the elevator up and down and I would run up and down the stairs trying to catch him.  Ahh you crazy Americans!  On this particular day I think (it's a little hazy here) Mom and Dad were downstairs at the cafe having coffee and they let us kids hang out in the room.  I do not recall my sister being there so maybe she was with them.  Anyway my brother and I in the room horsing around; the windows are wide open as it is a lovely, warm summer day in Paris.  The hotel is U shaped with the bottom part of the U on the street side leaving an enclosed courtyard in between the two sides of the hotel where all the rooms are.  Or we are very close to the next hotel and there is a courtyard in between us, that detail is hard to remember.  All the windows are open on both sides of the courtyard and I can see the maids cleaning the room across the way.  All of a sudden I hear this sound, this music, that literally stops me in my tracks.  It's as if  I am hearing music for the first time on a conscious level - I do not understand it fully but I understand that it must be important.  The beat grabs me; the rhythm makes me move closer to the window so I can hear better.  I turn to my older brother and ask "Do you know who that is?"  He answers casually, "The Beatles," and is not moved by the sound.  How can you be so nonchalant?  This is the greatest thing I have ever heard!  Yes I know I've been alive for only 8 years but come on man!!  Can't you dig that crazy sound?!


I suppose you are wondering what the song in question was.  I found out again from my brother that the song was "Birthday".  If you know the song you can imagine what grabbed my attention: it was the 8 bar drum break in the middle followed by the clanging guitars and the repeated words, "Yes we're going to a party, party" and that build up and up and up.  I have heard the song hundreds of times since then and when it comes across my ipod it still brings a smile to my face and heart.  I am even lucky enough to sit in with Beetle down in Houston once in a great while and the song is a joy to play.


So... I hear the song, I am shell shocked, and I find out from my aloof brother that it is indeed The Beatles.  As soon as Dad returns from breakfast (or wherever he was) I beg with him and plead that, "When we get back home will you pleeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzeeeee get me a Beatles record.  ANY record by the Beatles I don't know any of them so any one record would be great.  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!"  SInce Dad can get almost any record in his store he comes through with flying colors:  The Beatles Rock n' Roll Music, released by Capitol Records in 1976, a double album:

I like the "thumbs" holding the sides of the album.  The center of each record was a red label with an old style Coca-Cola glass full of Coke and a straw.  The track listing is below.  Notice the lack of ballads - this is Rock N' Roll!

[edit]Track listing

All tracks written by Lennon/McCartney, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Twist and Shout" (Medley-Russell)
2. "I Saw Her Standing There"
3. "You Can't Do That"
4. "I Wanna Be Your Man"
5. "I Call Your Name"
6. "Boys" (Dixon-Farrell)
7. "Long Tall Sally" (Johnson/Penniman/Blackwell)

Side two

8. "Rock and Roll Music" (Berry)
9. "Slow Down" (Williams)
10. Medley: "Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey" (Leiber/Stoller)/(Penniman)
11. "Money (That's What I Want)" (Bradford/Gordy)
12. "Bad Boy" (Williams)
13. "Matchbox" (Perkins)
14. "Roll Over Beethoven" (Berry)

Side three

15. "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (Williams)
16. "Any Time at All"
17. "Drive My Car"
18. "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" (Perkins)
19. "The Night Before"
20. "I'm Down"
21. "Revolution"

Side four

22. "Back in the U.S.S.R."
23. "Helter Skelter"
24. "Taxman" (Harrison)
25. "Got to Get You into My Life"
26. "Hey Bulldog"
27. "Birthday"
28. "Get Back" (album version)

I played the grooves off this record and analyzed everything about it: I had a hard time telling when George sang, who that singing "Boys?" and I noticed right away that not all the songs were by Lennon/McCartney.  I thought to myself, "Who was 'Berry' - he has a few songs here and 'Perkins'?  Who are those guys?"  I soon realized that this was bigger than Elton John and The Carpenters and Roy Clark.  It was even bigger than "Convoy."  I had to find out what and why this was so big and so important.

Little did I know that this album would chart a new course for me and change my life forever.