I finished working out the chords for “Ophélie” (Ophelia) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through singing and playing it in French. I revised my translation of one of the verses and tomorrow I’ll run through the whole song in English.
I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions. It stayed in tune a little better but the action is still low. Tomorrow I’ll begin a two session stretch of playing my Kramer electric.
I weighed 87.4 kilos before breakfast.
At 12:15 I left for The Graduate School of Dentistry for the last follow-up after my surgery two months ago. Dr. Xia says he’ll see me again sometime in the next few months. I asked if it will be okay to get a front filling replaced on the tooth next door and he said it should be okay as long as the dentist doesn’t touch the one that had the surgery. He said ideally if I could wait another couple of months it would be better but I told him I would be on stage at my book launch and he said in that case I can get it done. On the way home I was passing Dentistry on Queen West and decided to stop and book an appointment to fix the front filling. They said I could come in tomorrow at 15:00.
I weighed 86.8 kilos at 14:30, which is the least I’ve weighed in the early afternoon since last Tuesday.
I took a siesta at 15:15 and got up at around 16:52.
I weighed 87.55 kilos at 17:00.
I was caught up on my journal at 18:15.
I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “Like a Boomerang” and “Comme un boomerang” from October 6 to 9. On October 6 I played “Like a Boomerang” on my Kramer electric guitar and the take at 5:15 was okay. On October 9 I played “Comme un Boomerang” on the Kramer but the take that ended at 10:45 didn’t sound good. On October 7 I played it on my Martin acoustic guitar but in the take that ended at 14:45 I didn’t have a firm enough grip on the E flat. On October 8 I played “Like a Boomerang” on the Martin and the take at 3:30 wasn’t great but it looked good. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to play the E flat chord properly on this song with a barred C chord on the third fret so I might have to look for an alternative. Maybe a barred E chord on the eleventh fret.
I continued to gather the chords for the poems from my book Paranoiac Utopia into one document. Some of the songs have to be reformatted so they are all uniformly in Times New Roman. I’ve got about half done. I still haven’t had a chance to practice any of these poems for my performance at the book launch.
I had a small potato with gravy and a slice of roast beef while watching episodes 7 and 8 of The Beatles cartoon series.
In story 1 of video 7 the Beatles arrive in Africa for a safari. Their guide is Allen Watermain the great white hunter. John and Paul run after a lion while a rhino runs after the car that George and Ringo are riding in. The song being played during both chases is “I’ll Get You”. When John and Paul corner the lion they take out their camera but it turns out it’s just two men in a lion suit. John and Paul borrow the costume to scare George and Ringo. It works but then Watermain starts shooting at what he thinks is a lion.
The first sing along song is “You Really Got a Hold On Me” by Smokey Robinson. The second singalong is “Any Time At All” which was mostly written by John. The high notes in the chorus are sung by Paul because John couldn’t reach them.
In story 2 of video 7 The Beatles are visiting a rodeo. Two cowboys are fighting about how to pronounce “rodeo” as one says “Rodeeo” while the other says “Rodayo”. Ringo gets pushed into riding a very ornery bull named “Honey”. While Ringo is trying to get the bull to behave he sings “Honey Don’t” by Carl Perkins. This is the first time Ringo is shown doing a lead vocal on this show.
In story 1 of video 8 The Beatles are in an art gallery in Paris looking at a painting of the Three Musketeers. Then all four of them begin to fantasize that they are the Musketeers rescuing a damsel in distress while singing “Any Time at All”. Back in reality Ringo laments that there are no more damsels in distress to rescue. But then a blonde woman with a French accent and wearing a beret, sunglasses and a trench coat says she is a damsel in distress as two men with guns are following her. Pretending again they are Musketeers they try to stop the men but they are knocked down. Ringo tries to swing at the men from a chandelier but misses and causes the chandelier to fall on John, Paul, George and the lady in distress. But the men with guns tell the Beatles they have just captured the notorious jewel thief Fefe Le Crook.
The first sing along song is “I’ll Be Back”, which was mostly written by John. The second song is “Little Child”, which was written by John and Paul for Ringo to sing. But Ringo was only given one song to sing on every album and on “With the Beatles” his song was “I Wanna Be Your Man”.
In Story 2 of video 8 The Beatles go to a Left Bank art show in Paris. A young artist is being made fun of because she painted a pussy cat rather than something abstract. She’s upset and laments that she can’t seem to let herself go. So the Beatles sing her “Twist and Shout” by Phil Medley and Bert Burns for inspiration and she creates several abstract works during the song. The song was a hit for the Isley Brothers in 1962. John’s lead vocal on the Beatles version is considered to be one of the best rock and roll vocal performances of all time. The young artist wins first prize but her prize is her own painting of the pussycat.
The Beatles cartoon series was created by Al Brodax, who previously helped to develop Your Show of Shows. He produced and co-wrote Yellow Submarine. He executive produced and wrote the TV cartoon series Beetle Bailey and co-created the series Cool McCool. In the 60s he ran the motion picture and television division of King Features Syndicate. He produced the revival of Krazy Kat and Casper the Friendly Ghost.
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