The Beatles Evolver Part XXIV: 1972
After all the draaamaaa in 1971, 1972 was a relatively quiet year for the ex-Beatles. John was the only one to put out a new album. George didn’t release anything at all.
A lot of the output was decidedly political. The Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland, where 27 civil rights protesters were shot by the British military, inspired songs from both John and Paul. Most of John’s album "Sometime in New York City" was about political topics. Although Paul and Ringo both provided comic relief with their singles….sometimes intentionally so.
Give Ireland Back to the Irish (Paul and Linda McCartney) – Paul McCartney’s response to Sunday Bloody Sunday. The song was banned by the BBC, so it didn’t do well on charts in the U.K., however it was number 1 in the Republic of Ireland. As always, very catchy tune. I could have done without the "Great Britain you are tremendous bit." But definitely an A for effort. Usually when Paul tries to be political I think "Oh no no no, Sweetie. Stick with the silly love songs!"
Back Off Boogaloo (Starkey) – And now for something completely different. Ringo was having dinner with a friend who kept using the word "boogaloo." After Ringo went home, he got the idea for the song. However every tape recorder he found was either broken, or was missing batteries. "So I stole the batteries from the kids’ toys and I got the song down."
Mary Had A Little Lamb (Paul and Linda McCartney) – There is some debate whether this song was recorded before, or after "Give Ireland Back to The Irish"…as a sort of response to the BBC ban. The McCartney kids joined in on the backing vocals of this one. Glad he was having fun with his family…but definitely the sort of song where I go "Come ON, buddy! You wrote ‘Helter Skelter’!" Enjoy the trippy video.
SOMETIME IN NEW YORK CITY – John Lennon and Yoko Ono
For "Plastic Ono Band" and "Imagine" we were fortunate enough not to hear from Yoko as she was doing her own albums. On this album…she’s baaaaAAAAAAaaaack. This is also John’s most overtly political. However instead of talking about general concepts like "Imagine" or "Working Class Hero", this time he and Yoko are singing about specific issues. Hence it’s John’s most dated album. That being said…there are still some songs on this album that I really enjoy.
Woman is the Nigger of the World (John Lennon/Yoko Ono) – When Caroll Spinney (better known as Oscar and Big Bird) first performed in front of Jim Henson, it wound up being a total train wreck. Spinney was very upset and figured there was no way he’d ever get to work with Jim Henson. However, Jim approached him backstage and said "I loved what you were trying to do!"
That’s how I feel about this song. There are a number of factors that blatantly don’t work. For example the fact that the song only seems to be geared towards men, and blames men only for the problems of sexism. (While not mentioning that for sexism to exist, women also need to ACCEPT it.) However, I do except that this former wife-beater changed his ways, and was trying to become a feminist. Yoko, who first came up with the line "Woman is the nigger of the world"…did manage to teach John a thing or two. I also love the instrumentation, especially the saxophone part.
My mother once, wide-eyed, said to me "Did you know John Lennon has a song called ‘Woman is the Nigger of the World’?!" And then I REALLY surprised her by being able to sing it.
This clip shows a live performance of the song, as well as John explaining to Dick Cavett how the song was written.
New York City (Lennon) – This song feels like a sequel to "The Ballad of John and Yoko."
Sunday Bloody Sunday (John Lennon/Yoko Ono) – Not to be confused with the U2 song by the same name. Listen at your own risk. It cruises along nicely and then Yoko bleats in for the Suuuunday Bloody Suuuuunday. As a side note, Bono was pretty blatantly influenced by John Lennon. He wrote a song called "God Part II" as a response to Lennon’s song "God" from "The Plastic Ono Band."
The Luck of the Irish (John Lennon/Yoko Ono) – More than once, while playing cards, if the game is going well I find myself singing the first line of this song: "If you had the luck of the Irish…" The problem is, at least for singing this during a card game, the second line is "You’d be sorry and wish you were dead." I enjoy the song. Even the Yoko part is more tolerable than usual. For fun I made an arrangement of this with "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" so there would be a Lennon/McCartney song.
Here’s two versions of "The Luck of the Irish" courtesy of youtube; with and sans Yoko.
Hi Hi Hi (McCartney) – The second single by Paul McCartney/Wings to get banned from the BBC. First off because of the line "we’re gonna get hi hi hi" was assumed to be a drug reference. Secondly because they misheard a line as "get you ready for my body gun" and they took it as a sexual reference. The line was actually "get you ready for my polygon"….which I think is probably the worst McCartney lyric ever. Ranks right down there with the time he said in an interview: "I love tribute bands because they are, you know, a TRIBUTE!"
Cheer up folks, things are a lot better all around for the Lads in 1973.
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