On Saturday morning I worked out the chords for the tenth and eleventh verses of “Allons z'enfants” (Be All You Can Be) by Boris Vian and the fourth verse of “Ophélie” (Ophelia) by Serge Gainsbourg.
The furnace was running again for the first time in a few days and it was almost time to turn my humidifier back on for a while.
I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions.
I weighed 86.15 kilos before breakfast.
Around midday I rode with my bike trailer to No Frills but not the store at King and Jameson. I wanted to do a price match on grapes with the Food Basics price but the No Frills on King doesn’t price match with Food Basics because it’s out of their district. So I rode up to the No Frills at Dundas and Lansdowne, which does price match with Food Basics. I haven’t been to that bigger No Frills for a few years. It has a lot more frills than the other No Frills. There were only three bags of grapes that weren’t too soft. I also got two packs of raspberries, cinnamon-raisin bread, a pack of chicken legs, kitchen bags, mouthwash, a pack of toilet paper, a jug of low sugar iced tea, two small jugs of orange juice, a bag of Miss Vickie’s chips, and two containers of PC skyr.
I weighed 87.25 kilos before lunch. I had Breton crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. It was almost cold enough on the way back for winter gloves.
I weighed 86.45 kilos at 18:00.
I was caught up on my journal at 19:00.
I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “Comme un Boomerang” and “Like a Boomerang” from September 27 to October 1. On September 27 and October 1 I played “Comme un boomerang” on my Martin Road Series acoustic guitar. On both occasions I didn’t have a firm grip on the E flat chord. On September 28 I played “Like a Boomerang” on the Martin and the take at 3:45 was okay. On September 29 I played “Comme un Boomerang” on my
Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar and the Gibson sounded horrible. On September 30 I played “Like a Boomerang” on the Gibson and the guitar didn’t sound as bad as usual but the E flat did.
I’ve been searching my files for the lyrics with chords of the poems from my book Paranoiac Utopia so I can gather them all into one document. I’ve worked out the chords to more of these songs than I thought I had.
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 the first two episodes of The Beatles cartoon series from the 60s.
The first video begins with The Beatles in Transylvania and looking for a big, quiet rehearsal space where they won’t be interrupted by fans. Ringo says he knows a big and empty place. Paul asks how they’ll all fit inside his head. Ringo is established as the least bright of the quartet. They arrive at a big castle that has a graveyard outside and then the cover on one of the graves is moved and a ghoulish looking man emerges. He says he’s the caretaker and that he keeps his office below because it’s cool. He’s happy to let the band rehearse in the castle. They begin singing “Hard Day’s Night”. But then they hear a wolf howl and start running. Monsters, vampires and ghosts begin to emerge. They are surrounded and a hooded guy with an axe asks if they were the ones singing. John says they didn’t mean to disturb them. A Frankenstein’s monster type with a Boris Karloff accent says they loved it. A female vampire says there hasn’t been music there for 200 years. A skeleton says they want more and so The Beatles oblige and sing “Hard Day’s Night” while all the monsters, vampires, ghosts and witches dance.
The second part of the show is always the sing along.
The first song is a less well known Beatles tune: “Not a Second Time”, which was of course credited to Lennon and McCartney but written entirely by John Lennon. During the singalongs the animation is either very simple and repeated or just still images repeated. The lyrics address someone who broke up with the singer but now wants to return. The singer however is once bitten twice shy and doesn’t want the lover back.
The second singalong is “She’s Got the Devil in Her Heart”. The cartoon features mostly still images of a female wizard. The song is an adaptation of “Devil in His Heart” by Richard B. Drapkin, originally recorded by The Donays in 1961. George Harrison is the lead vocalist on the Beatles version. The other Beatles are singing warnings about the girl in question while the singer responds that he doesn’t believe the negative reputation she has and he’ll take his chances.
The second story has The Beatles trying to take a quiet cruise but they are being chased all around the ship by screaming fans while the announcer describes the situation. The Beatles keep hiding or disguising themselves until finally they address the announcer and tell him to stop announcing where they’ll be next. They hide inside a diving bell that is dropped into the ocean. They are grabbed by a love struck octopus and so they sing her “I Want to Hold Your Hand” while all the sea creatures dance. When they get back to the ship Ringo sees that the scientist who owns the diving bell has captured the female octopus’s boyfriend. So Ringo buys him back and they drop him into the sea to rejoin his mate.
In the second video The Beatles have rented an Irish cottage. They follow legend and leave their jugs on the mantle so a leprechaun will fill it with gold. A pretty female leprechaun appears. She tells them if they promise not to tell she’ll take them to the Land of Leprechauns and the secret pot of gold. They sing “Do You Want to Know a Secret”, which was the first top ten song featuring George as the lead singer. It was mostly written by John Lennon with George in mind as the singer. The leprechaun leads them to the pot of gold, which turns out to be a band called The Leprechaun Boys and she is their manager. The Beatles get in their car and drive away.
The singalong is to “Hard Day’s Night” and there is no animation. Just cartoon images of the Beatles with a dog. The second singalong is to “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and the animation has another underwater theme.
The second story has a female Frankenstein type mad scientist named Dr. Dora Florahyde waiting for Igor to bring her a brain for her monster. Igor brings John but the scientist says she wanted the brain of a beetle. Igor tells her that John is the brains of The Beatles. Dora tells John she’s going to put his brains in her monster and so he tries to run away. During the chase the song being played is “If I Fell”, which was written mostly by John but sung by John and Paul, Everly Brothers style with them both singing into the same microphone. John is captured and his consciousness is electronically transferred into the monster’s head. Then the monster continues singing the song. But then screaming teenagers run to it and tear it apart, each taking away a piece. John gets his brain back. Dora is sad and so John tells her she should give the monster the brain of a scientific genius. She asks where she can find one. He says they’re all over and he was a scientific genius in high school. They begin to chase him again for his brain while he asks himself when he’ll learn to keep his mouth shut.
The Beatles cartoon series was produced by Al Brodax, who also produced Yellow Submarine. The Beatles apparently didn’t like the cartoon series when it first came out and so they were reluctant about Yellow Submarine until they saw it. John Lennon later said that he had a blast watching re-runs of the cartoon series.
Paul Frees did the voices of John Lennon and George Harrison. He didn’t really achieve a Scouse accent though.
Lance Percival did the voices of Paul and Ringo. Ringo’s voice sounded the most authentic.
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