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   rec.music.beatles      Postings about the Fab Four & their musi      88,323 messages   

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   Message 87,641 of 88,323   
   Curtis Eagal to All   
   "Cold Turkey" Not A Beatles Song, 'Now A   
   31 Dec 23 16:18:06   
   
   From: eagalitarian@gmail.com   
      
   When John Lennon previewed "Cold Turkey" for release as a Beatles song, it was   
   rejected as being off-brand for the band: while this could be understandable   
   from the subject matter of his withdrawal ordeal, and its extremely harsh   
   stylistic treatment, the    
   official video at its end includes a verification of his subliminal   
   intentions, with a letter-by-letter etching scrawled into the film   
   frame-by-frame, spelling out 'F-R-E-E-D-O-M,' then the entire word 'FREEDOM'   
   appears, and quickly seen being scratched    
   out, coinciding with a brief outro of oddly serene reversed tones. Of course   
   John sought physical freedom by undergoing withdrawal as the title and lyrics   
   suggest, yet the savagely repeated electric guitar riff appears to present the   
   unfinished phrase,    
      
   'YOU KNOW THE SAVIOUR WANTED --!"    
      
   The concluding tones start with a musical approximation of the word 'Freedom'   
   being vocalized, adding three more words, completing the thought that had been   
   recurring in partial form during the strong riff.  The theme does not have the   
   Christ desiring    
   freedom for Himself, but is more along the "Power To The People" concept.  As   
   primary Dreamweaver of The Beatles' Christ-Dream, Lennon assumed the role of   
   an advanced theologian, capable of transposing the Creed and story of Jesus   
   into small doses for    
   consumption by the unwitting contemporary audience, strung together in a   
   comprehensive format, having his group collectively task themselves with a   
   series of projects comprising a Modern Remembrance. The failure of society to   
   acknowledge his    
   accomplishment eventually led to his resorting to Primal Therapy, to hopefully   
   purge the madness of religion from his psyche, where his engaging in disbelief   
   as a liberating game became culturally embraced as revealing a true atheist   
   persona - although "   
   I've seen religion from Jesus to Paul" could be interpreted as looking back at   
   his collaboration with Paul McCartney.  When Lennon attempted in interviews to   
   hint at how his true intentions had not become common knowledge, it was to no   
   avail: the public    
   would believe the lyrics themselves, more than comments by the composers about   
   them, or how the sounds in the songs were ironically crafted as their   
   recording art.  John explained his 1965 song "Girl" had explored the dubious   
   notion of suffering in life    
   to achieve some eventual spiritual reward, as being a forerunner of the idea   
   behind his later song "God."   
      
   The guitar opening of "Across The Universe" presents a remark John might have   
   uttered about his personal attitude, starting,   
      
   'Got NO -    
   Use For...'    
      
   - the remaining two notes finishing the phrase would be self-evident if   
   tracking the musical-verbal crossover, allowing the instrument to speak as he   
   said he was intending, but lacking that there is no coherent thought being   
   conveyed.   
      
   As skilled arrangers, The Beatles were able to cover songs written by others   
   in a mode suiting their own purpose.  For the Larry Williams song "Bad Boy"   
   the strong guitar opening repeats (both times followed by differently-phrased   
   parts), a dramatic    
   question -    
      
   'Will He    
   Save Himself?!'   
      
   A recurrent riff continues the enigmatic notion by further asking,    
      
   "How Could The    
   SAVIOUR    
   Save Himself?"   
      
   Transcribing basically notes for syllables in the instrumental middle section,   
   John's trademark scream overlaps a reference to the Crucifixion, although the   
   context is complicated, and the track was released after it was relevant for   
   the stage when it    
   was recorded.    
      
   While the crowd murmuring at the opening of "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club   
   Band" album was taken from a sound effects recording (complete with the   
   indistinct shout), the orchestra tuning up begins that section of the Christ   
   dream with strings    
   suggesting,   
      
   'Jesus   
   Agreed -    
   To Be...'   
      
   - then a violin string being plucked provides,   
      
   'DUNKED!'   
      
   - before the phrase is completed with,   
      
   'By Cousin'   
      
   - so the stage was set for the loud electric guitar fanfare, beginning   
   appropriately with,   
      
   'BAPTIZING MAN!   
   THREW WATER...'   
      
   After meditating in India, they took on the challenging stage for the White   
   Album, using the obscure Infancy texts as a basis, departing from the Gospel   
   material (as John said towards the end of his apologetic interview in 1966,   
   they could not self-   
   generate subjects to continue indefinitely, despite that being the prevalent   
   perception): the strange chord opening "Back In The USSR" suggests the word   
      
   'TWELVE:'    
      
   - this is followed by two chords stridently proclaiming,   
      
   'Last -    
   Year -'    
      
   - before McCartney finishes by vocalizing,   
      
   "...Young!"   
      
   So this established the chronology for the Infancy material, regressing from   
   the age of thirteen, representing adulthood in ancient Hebrew culture.  While   
   Prudence Farrow reclusively meditating to an excessive degree inspired "Dear   
   Prudence," that    
   component was merged with the musical adherence to the Christian format, where   
   the first iteration of a gentle guitar riff in the song implies,   
      
   'Young King'   
      
   The Infancy texts being obscure to the Western audience means those stories   
   would first have to be recounted, before explaining how they relate to the   
   songs on the double album, whose stereo and mono versions had sometimes   
   significant differences.    
   However the penultimate track,    
   "Revolution 9," an unusual avant-garde collaboration between John and Yoko Ono   
   with George Harrison, has a conglomeration of dissonant sounds and effects   
   recognizably relating to the efforts by King Herod to destroy in His youth the   
   figure whose Nativity    
   was sought by the Magi through prophetic clues as an emerging King: one   
   recurring loop aurally implies,   
      
   'The Herod    
   SLAUGH-ter!'   
      
   The timing for the issue of the final Beatles song, "Now And Then," was   
   partially dictated by the technology becoming available to separate Lennon's   
   vocal track from a recording where it was included with piano, emerging from   
   the "Get Back" documentary    
   chronology.  The lyric, "If we must start again" demonstrated Lennon was   
   giving up hope that their first effort as The Beatles would ever be   
   acknowledged as a Modern Remembrance of Christ, and was finally open to   
   McCartney's idea rejected at their break-   
   up that they begin again, "From Square One": however this arrived too late to   
   ever manifest, with electric guitar played in Harrison's style as a homage   
   lamenting,   
      
   'We -    
   NEVER did'    
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)   

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