{"id":1624,"date":"2008-01-13T08:53:54","date_gmt":"2008-01-13T13:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.net\/?p=1624"},"modified":"2008-01-13T08:53:54","modified_gmt":"2008-01-13T13:53:54","slug":"on-a-mysterious-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=1624","title":{"rendered":"On a Mysterious Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days ago I received Anthology Plus<\/i>, a Beatles bootleg album, in the mail<\/a>. For once, eBay came through. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

In terms of discovering something new about the Beatles, I’m not sure that I did. There’s a fair bit of live tracks from their early career, and it is intriguing to hear “One After 909” as they played it live in their early career. A blues-tinged “I Saw Her Standing There” is intriguing. The orchestral score for “Strawberry Fields Forever” is pretty nifty, too. And there’s a really<\/i> up-tempo version of “Two of Us,” one of my favorite Beatles songs.<\/p>\n

As I wrote, Anthology Plus<\/i> is a really nice package. It won’t feel out of place among my other Beatles CDs. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

So, naturally, thoughts turn to… What next?<\/p>\n

When in doubt, turn to Wikipedia<\/a>, and their article on Beatles bootlegs. Reading through the article I noticed an interesting note:<\/p>\n

“Peace of Mind<\/a>“: Supposedly a demo recorded around 1967 and found by bootlegers in a trash can at Abbey Road Studios. Many audiophiles claim the outtake was either from Pink Floyd or The Pretty Things<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That sounded intriguing. Probably a fake, Wiki said, but no one was sure who did it.<\/p>\n

The song is here, attached to a video of Sgt Pepper<\/i>-era Beatles film footage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And it is a bizarre<\/i> song. The lyrics, as best I can decipher them:<\/p>\n

I’m looking at the candle,
\n   Burns a flame to meet the sky.
\nI heed the candle laughing,
\n   I turn my face to cry,
\nA safety pin returns my smile,
\n   I nod a brief hello,
\nWhile you are building molecules
\n   With your garden hoe.<\/p>\n

Why can’t this last forever,
\n   These things repressed inside,
\nOne feels it almost instantly,
\n   Unless the novice died,
\nIt’s over, it’s done,
\n   Babe I need it again,
\nJust please, please please
\n   Oh, don’t keep me from begin. <\/p>\n

I need to hear the colors
\n   Red and blue, unwhispered words,
\nTo fly all day and sing a tune,
\n   And not hear what I’ve heard,
\nTo see you all around me,
\n   And to take you by the hand,
\nAnd lead you to a brand new world,
\n   That lately has been banned.<\/p>\n

We’ll build things never built before,
\n   We’ll do things never done,
\nAnd just before it’s over,
\n   It’s really just begun.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Naturally, I needed to find out more.<\/p>\n

And no one knows where this song came from. Some argue passionately that it’s a Beatles demo<\/a>. While others argue that it’s clearly not<\/i> the Beatles. Maybe it’s Pink Floyd. Maybe it’s a bunch of stoned kids trying to sound<\/i> like Pink Floyd.<\/p>\n

So what it is?<\/p>\n

“Peace of Mind” does<\/i>, at least to my ears, sound Beatle-ish. Of course, I’m the person who spent years<\/i> believing that Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” was actually Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. Oh, and that some Bob Dylan songs were actually Sonny Bono. Perhaps my ears aren’t a finely tuned instrument. On the other hand, there’s a track on Anthology Plus<\/i> — a performance of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” — that I can tell instantly<\/i> is not<\/b> the Beatles, because the vocalist sounds nothing<\/i> like Dr. Winston O’Boogie.<\/p>\n

“Peace of Mind,” then. It’s an intriguing piece of psychedelia, that’s for certain. It sounds like something the Beatles conceivably<\/i> could have done.<\/p>\n

I like it. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago I received Anthology Plus, a Beatles bootleg album, in the mail. For once, eBay came through. \ud83d\ude09 In terms of discovering something new about the Beatles, I’m not sure that I did. There’s a fair bit of live tracks from their early career, and it is intriguing to hear “One AfterContinue reading “On a Mysterious Song”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4097],"tags":[98],"class_list":["post-1624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beatles","tag-the-beatles","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}