One of the highlights of this year’s Grammy Awards was Paul McCartney closing the show by singing the Beatles’ classic “Golden Slumbers”/”Carry That Weight”/”The End” set from Abbey Road (1969). Sir Paul also had some help on vocals and guitar from some other great artists, including Joe Walsh, Bruce Springsteen, and Grammy-winning Foo Fighter Dave Grohl.
The guitar work at the end is a treat, but the best part is the final strains of the lyrics where Grohl is standing behind McCartney singing. Grohl has no microphone, but with a smile on his face he sings anyway for the joy of it, the way many of us have done in our bedrooms as kids listening to the album. But Grohl gets to do it onstage with a look on his face that shows he is thinking, “I can’t believe I’m playing with Paul McCartney!” On a night tinged with sad tributes to Whitney Houston and Glen Campbell (who gave his final Grammy performance on stage as he succombs to Alzheimer’s disease), that image of Grohl captures perfectly the point that host LL Cool J made at the opening of the show: It’s all about the music.
“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
[February 2013 Update: The entire performance is no longer available.]
What did you think of last night’s Grammy Awards show and this closing set? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On February 7 in 1964, the Beatles landed at New York’s Kennedy airport, arriving in the United States for the first time and taking the country by storm. Two days later, on February 9, Paul McCartney (21), Ringo Starr (23), John Lennon (23), and George Harrison (20) appeared on The Ed Sullivan Showin front of screaming fans.
The four continued on a short American tour before returning to England on February 22. In the next few months, they had several hits in the U.S. and released their film, A Hard Days Night (1964). And then they returned to the U.S. in August to play sold-out arenas.
On their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, during the first half of the show, the Beatles performed “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You,” and “She Loves You.” They returned later in the program to sing “I Saw Her Standing There” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”
Before the last two songs, Sullivan announced that Elvis Presley and Colonel Tom Parker had sent the group a congratulations telegram.
The video below features the Beatles performing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” at this appearance. So, remember when rock was young while watching The Beatles play during their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show around a half century ago.
What do you think of the performance? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On December 30, 1922, following the Russian Revolution, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (“USSR“) was established. The country was created out of a confederation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation (which was later divided into the Georgian, Azerbaijan, and Armenian republics).
Before being dissolved in 1991, the Soviet Union eventually included fifteen republics: Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Belorussia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
When any Beatles fan hears “USSR,” the person’s mind wanders to the Beatles classic “Back in the USSR” from the two-disc The Beatles (1968), otherwise known as The White Album.”
Although the song is about the USSR in the title, underlying the song is a tribute to American rock and roll. The title evokes Chuck Berry’s “Back in the USA.” And in the chorus there is a nod to the Beach Boys’ “California Girls“:
Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out They leave the west behind And Moscow girls make me sing and shout. . .
Another line in the chorus mixes the USSR Georgia and the USA state Georgia to evoke Ray Charles and “Georgia on my Mind.” That song was recorded by Charles in 1960 and written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell in 1930. As a tribute, the Beatles sing, “That Georgia’s always on my my my my my my my my my mind.”
Although “Back in the USSR” takes the conflict of the Cold War to make a piece of beautiful music, there was conflict among the band members when the song was recorded. In a precursor to later band troubles, during the making of The White Album, Ringo Star quit the group for a short period. “Back in the USSR” was recorded during this period.
So, Ringo does not play on the song. Most believe that the drums on the song were a composite of the other band members taking a turn at the skins, although a majority of the drumming may be McCartney, the primary writer of the song. For an earlier version of “Back in the USSR,” check out this Beatles demo:
Paul McCartney eventually performed the song in Russia in 2003. By then, neither the countries of the USSR nor the men of the Beatles were together.
Still, it is a good performance. I suspect the people in the crowd know how lucky they are.
What do you think of Back in the USSR? Leave your two cents in the comments.
The truce created by common soldiers during one World War I Christmas has inspired artists such as Paul McCartney and Garth Brooks.
On Christmas day in 1914, peace broke out on the battlefield among common soldiers. Several artists have interpreted the World War I Christmas Truce, including folksinger John McCutcheon (“Christmas in the Trenches“). Two of the biggest recording artists in history — Paul McCartney and Garth Brooks — have also incorporated the historical event into their work.
Although the songs about the truce ignore some of the nuances of the historical record, there is only so much one may do in a three-minute song. But many artists have used the historical event to create powerful art.
The Christmas Morning Truce
On Christmas morning in 1914 at several places along the trenches, an informal peace broke out among the troops. At some places, German troops started singing carols, and then the British joined in. Soon, some of the soldiers began showing themselves, and the enemies met in no-man’s land to exchange food and cigarettes, and in some places they played soccer.
The truce occurred spontaneously at different locations with different men. And it is estimated that more than 100,000 British, French, and German soldiers participated.
Reactions to the Informal Truce
But the World War I leaders on both sides did not appreciate the common soldiers’ truce. Many days later, after word spread about the Christmas Truce, officers ordered that soldiers who possessed gifts from the enemy would be punished. At many places along the lines, the leadership broke up groups who participated in the truce and transferred the men elsewhere along the front lines.
The following year, there would again be some informal truces, but due to pressure from the officers and due to the increasing brutality of the war, the 1915 truces were not nearly as widespread as the 1914 truces. The moment of peace had passed.
Paul McCartney’s “Pipes of Peace”
The video to Paul McCartney’s 1983 song, “Pipes of Peace” — from the album of the same name — shows a dramatization of the truce. In the video, we see English Paul and German Paul meeting on the battlefield. (Fortunately, none of the Pauls from the “Coming Up” video appear).
The lyrics of “Pipes of Peace” do not describe the Christmas Truce and are vague enough to be used either as an anti-war song or a love song. It is sort of like “Love is All You Need.”
In “Pipes of Peace,” Paul sings: “All round the world little children being born to the world/ Got to give them all we can till the war is won / Then will the work be done.”
Garth Brooks and “Belau Wood”
By contrast, in Garth Brooks’s 1997 “Bellau Wood” — from one of his last pre-retirement albums, Sevens (1997) — the lyrics directly describe the Christmas Truce. The story is a fictionalized version of the truce set at the location of a later 1918 World War I battle.
Brooks describes the peace starting with someone singing “Silent Night”: “As we lay there in our trenches / The silence broke in two/ By a German soldier singing / A song that we all knew.” But in the end, the message is similar to the message of the McCartney song:
But for just one fleeting moment The answer seemed so clear Heaven’s not beyond the clouds It’s just beyond the fear
No, heaven’s not beyond the clouds It’s for us to find it here
Brooks has talked about how emotional it is for him to sing the song, so much so that often when he is asked to perform it in concert he performs a shorter version of the song so he can get through it without tearing up. I recall an official video of the Garth Brooks song “Bellau Wood,” but it does not seem to be available on the Internet. You may hear the song with a fan video below.
The Film Joyeux Noel and a Book
Not surprisingly, others have written about the truce in books. An excellent 2005 French movie is based on the truce, Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas). Also, a nonfiction book by Stanley Weintraub called Silent Night tells the real story in more detail.
Although the movie Joyeux Noel is a fictionalized account of the truce, it does a good job of portraying the reaction to the truce, something that is often overlooked in the sweet versions of the story.
In Weintraub’s book, he described how the High Command on both sides were not happy, but “many troops had discovered through the truce that the enemy, despite the best efforts as propagandists, were not monsters. Each side had encountered men much like themselves, drawn from the same walks of life — and led, alas, by professionals who saw the world through different lenses.”
At the end of his book, the author wonders what the world would be like today had the informal truce led to an immediate end of the war that was just beginning.
Although the leaders’ reactions against the truce show the darker and realistic side of war, the fact that the truce took place at all is somewhat hopeful for our species. When France dedicated a WWI Christmas Truce memorial in 2008, German and French soldiers played a game of football (soccer) where their predecessors had played in 1914. This time, the peace endured.
Snoopy and The Red Baron
Finally, here is one more song that incorporates the WWI truce, featuring someone more famous than Paul McCartney and Garth Brooks: Snoopy.
In this holiday season and in the upcoming year, may you understand that your enemies are not so different from you. Peace to all the world and good will to men and women. Happy holidays.
[November 2014 Update: The grocery store chain Sainsbury incorporated the Christmas truce story into a commercial.] Which song do you prefer? Leave a comment.
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