Paul Frees

            On Sunday morning I worked out the chords for the twelfth and thirteenth verses of “Allons z'enfants” (Be All You Can Be) by Boris Vian and the fifth verse of “Ophélie” (Ophelia) by Serge Gainsbourg. I think from this point on the chord patterns are repeated and so I might have the song finished tomorrow. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions. Tomorrow I’ll begin a four session stretch of playing my electric guitars. 

            I weighed 86.65 kilos before breakfast. 

            I’ve been experimenting with the right level of humidity to maintain with the warm mist humidifier. If I wait until the hygrometer in the bedroom is at 60 it becomes way too swampy in my living room. I’ve decided to only turn it on when it drops to 50 and to shut it off when it reaches 55. That seems to make things more comfortable. 

            Around midday I started cleaning up my place because Nick Cushing was going to be popping by while he was in town from Hamilton. He had at first said that he would be here at 13:30 but then messaged me that he’d forgotten about the time change and would be here an hour later. But he ended up arriving at 13:30 anyway. By that time I’d only managed to sweep the floor. I continued cleaning the kitchen and bathroom floor and the bathroom sink and toilet while we chatted. Because he’s been so generous with me over the years I gifted him a signed copy of my book Paranoiac Utopia. He became the first owner of a copy of the book and so I took his picture with it. 

            I weighed 87.15 kilos at 15:30 and had a late lunch. 

            I took a siesta and when I got up at 17:30 it was too late to take a bike ride. I’ll make up for it when I ride to get a haircut at Yonge and St Clair tomorrow. 

            I weighed 87.4 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. 

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “Like a Boomerang” and “Comme un boomerang” from October 2 to 5. On October 2 I played “Like a Boomerang” on my Martin Road Series acoustic guitar and the take at 3:30 was okay. On October 3 I played “Comme un Boomerang” on my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar and the take that ended at 14:45 didn’t sound good because of the rattly sound of low action on the Gibson. On October 4 I played “Like a Boomerang” on the Gibson and had the same problem. On October 5 I played “Comme un Boomerang” on my Kramer electric guitar and the take at 6:45 didn’t sound horrible. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Basilica sauce, a sliced hot Italian sausage and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episodes 3 and 4 of The Beatles cartoon series. 

            In the first story of the third video, the Beatles are broke in Africa because Ringo spent all their money on fifteen rings. Paul says they need to pawn his rings to buy food but the rings were all stolen when Ringo shook hands with autograph collectors. They want to telegraph Brian Epstein for money but haven’t got enough money to send the telegraph. However they come across a jungle telegraph consisting of a hollow log and two clubs and so Ringo beats out a message. He hears a return message from Brian’s secretary telling them that the postman’s on his way with money. Then he hears a beaten message from the operator telling them they owe ten pounds because Ringo forgot to reverse the charges. They find some eggs but they’re crocodile eggs. They give a concert for the charity of The Beatles and the audience is all screaming girls. They sing “Please Mr. Postman”, which was originally recorded by The Marvelettes in 1961. It was the first Motown song to hit number 1 on the regular Billboard charts. It was through their recording of this song that The Beatles introduced the UK to the Motown sound. John sings the lead vocal with backup by Paul and George. The cartoon actually accurately shows who is singing what parts. The postman arrives during the song and has to crawl to the stage under the legs of hundreds of screaming girls. He finally hands it to The Beatles and they are expecting money but it’s a bill from the Liverpool Light Company. Ringo says who cares since they’re far away from Liverpool but suddenly the power is shut off in Africa. 

            John introduces the first singalong song with Ringo serving as the prop man. John says it’s a jump tune and so Ringo dresses as a parachutist but has the parachute on upside down so he falls upwards. The song is “If I Fell”. The second singalong is to “Do You Want to Know a Secret”. 

            In the second story the Beatles are in Transylvania again. Ringo goes for a walk and George says he can’t help worrying about him because sometimes he’s like a little kid. Ringo walks a long way and decides to return but loses his way on the journey back. At a crossroad he flips a coin, but the coin sprouts bat wings and flies away. He chases after it and bumps into the house of a witch who is looking for a husband. She says to come in for a spot of soup but he says he already has one on his shirt. She makes a love potion and puts it in a squirt gun. She begins chasing him but keeps missing and hitting objects that come to life, like a chair that starts amorously chasing another chair. While she pursues him the song “Devil in Her Heart” is being played. She’s got him cornered when George knocks on the door. She trips and falls into her cauldron. Ringo tells George he’s saved him but then the witch emerges, transformed into a beautiful witch. Suddenly Ringo doesn’t want to be rescued and begins chasing the witch. 

            In the first story of the fourth video The Beatles make it through a screaming crowd of girls to board a plane at the Liverpool airport. They make it into the air but find that the flight attendants are just as fanatical and so they parachute out. They land in the jungle where they are looking for a place to rehearse. They face three crocodiles who turn out to be three fans in disguise. They escape and are about to rehearse when Ringo sees three crocs again. He jumps them and ties them up, then sets his drum kit on top of them and finally they play the song “Not a Second Time”. Then it turns out that the crocs are real crocodiles but also Beatles fans. 

            The gags for the sing along segment are repeated from the first video. The first sing along is to “Baby’s in Black”, which was recorded with John and Paul singing at the same time through one microphone. The second sing along is to “Misery”. It was written by John and Paul for Helen Shapiro but her people decided not to use it. Kenny Lynch recorded it and became the first non Beatle to record a Beatles song. 

            In the second story a town in the western US has voted to rename itself Ringo Ravine and so The Beatles are travelling by car across the desert to get there so Ringo can receive the honour. Ringo wishes he could ride into town on a horse. A prospector out in the desert has a mule called Gold Nose that can sniff out gold and it smells two of the Beatles’ gold records in their car. The prospector also has a horse and so John, Paul, and George rent it so Ringo can ride it into town. But the horse is out of control and Ringo is helplessly hanging on while the song “Slow Down” is being played. “Slow Down” was written by Larry Williams and was the flip side of his 1957 hit “Dizzy Miss Lizzy”. Ringo is lost as the horse runs through the desert. Finally he starts dropping his rings so Gold Nose can track him. Gold Nose finds him and he is brought to town but then the town decides to rename itself Gold Nose. 

            The voices of John Lennon and George Harrison were done by Paul Frees, who couldn’t do their Scouse accent. Early in his career he performed as an impressionist on vaudeville under the name Buddy Green and his specialty was the voice of Orson Welles. He fought in WWII and was wounded and shipped home. He attended the Chouinard School art school in LA. He acted in many popular radio series, including Escape and Gunsmoke. His film debut was as a voice in The Adventures of Sir Galahad. He was the voice of the unseen benefactor on the TV series The Millionaire. He was also the voice of Boris Badenov on the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon series and the voice of the Ghost Host for Disney’s Haunted Mansion. He was the voice of Ludwig Von Drake for Disney. He dubbed Tony Curtis’s “Josephine” voice in “Some Like It Hot”. He was the voice of The Thing in The Fantastic Four animated series. In 1970 he made $50,000 a year just from doing the voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy. He was the voice of Toucan Sam for Fruit Loops. He did four of the voices in Spartacus. He did voices for the first Star Wars film. In the 60s he was also apparently an undercover narcotics agent. He was married six times.