Strawberry Fields Forever

            On Monday morning I uploaded “Allons z'enfants” by Boris Vian to my Christian’s Translations blog and began preparing it for publication. It’s a long song so it may take a few days. 

            I published “Delirious”, my translation of “Flagrant délire” by Serge Gainsbourg on my Christian’s Translations blog and also posted the lyrics on Facebook. There are only eight songs left in my Serge Gainsbourg project to translate all of his songs from 1958 until his death in 1991. 

            I memorized the first verse of his song “Au charme non plus” (The Charm is Gone). I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. The action is still high and though that makes it more difficult to play it’s not enough yet to motivate me to ride all the way out to the Twelfth Fret at Danforth and Woodbine to have it adjusted. 

            I weighed 87.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I packed my laundry into my two bike trailer bags. The packing wouldn’t have been as much work this time if I hadn’t included my comforter. I hadn’t planned on washing it this time but since I’ve started seeing bedbugs again it seemed necessary. I put my stuff in the washer and headed home to wash the dishes. I went back to load my things into the dryer and while I was doing so a woman came in with a rolled up carpet and asked if she could wash it. The attendant said no and the woman got very angry, saying that she’d done it lots of times when there is no attendant at all three laundromats in the area. She referred to the people who run laundromats as “You fucking people”. While waiting for the drying to be done I went to No Frills where I bought a big box of Earl Grey tea, two boxes of baking soda, and two containers of skyr. A woman was holding up two cashier aisles because she wanted cash back in a $50 bill but her cashier didn’t have it and so she asked my cashier. But the $50 my cashier gave her wasn’t the kind she wanted. 

            I weighed 86.3 kilos at 15:00, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since October 29. 

            I took a siesta at 15:30 and didn’t wake up until 17:45 when it was too late to take a bike ride. 

            I weighed 86.95 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:18. 

            I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “Vomit of the Star Eater” from October 5 to 7. On October 5 and 6 I played it on my Kramer electric guitar. On October 5 the take at 30:30 didn’t sound horrible. On October 6 the take at 9:30 was okay. On October 7 I played it on my Martin acoustic guitar and the take at 20:15 wasn’t bad.

            I managed to get in fifteen minutes of practice playing my song “Paranoiac Utopia” but I need to put in some at least one hour rehearsals with only 12 days until my book launch. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last two chicken drumsticks while watching episodes 33 and 34 of The Beatles cartoon series. Episode 33 is the second season finale and episode 34 is the third season premier. There’s no difference in the intro between the two seasons but in the third they try more experimental backgrounds for the animation. 

            In story 1 of episode 33, the Beatles are hiking in the mountains when they come across a hermit’s cave. They just walk in without a by your leave as if other people’s privacy means nothing. The hermit wants to be alone and tries to get rid of them with his shotgun and with rolling boulders but everything he tries backfires on him while The Beatles sing “Nowhere Man”. In the end the Beatles fly away in a helicopter while the entire mountain that housed the hermit’s cave collapses. 

            The first singalong is to “And I Love Her”, which was written mostly by Paul. The second singalong is to “Michelle”, which was also written mostly by Paul. It won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1967. McCartney asked Jan Vaughan, a French teacher to come up with a French name and a phrase that rhymed with it. Vaughan came up with "Michelle, ma belle", and a few days later McCartney asked for a translation of "these are words that go together well" and that’s the source of “sont des mots qui vont très bien ensemble”. McCartney sang the song to Michelle Obama in 2009. 

            In story 2 of episode 33, a publisher wants each of the Beatles to write the story of how they met each other and he’ll turn the best one into a best selling paperback. Ringo fantasizes that he wrote, directed, and played all the parts in a musical version of Hamlet and John, Paul and George were three poor fans who came to get his autograph. They sold his autograph on the black market and bought guitars so they could start a band. Paul fantasizes that he had just been knighted for finding a malaria cure and was starting on yellow fever. He came up with a serum and needed to test it on some prisoners named John, George and Ringo who were serving life sentences. If they survived the injection they would be set free. The Beatles do a concert and sing “Paperback Writer”. While playing, George fantasizes about being a James Bond type hero with a beautiful girlfriend and a sports car. He beats the enemy spies and they turn out to be John, Paul and Ringo. John imagines himself as a WWI flying ace who boards a dirigible and captures three German officers who turn out to be Paul, George and Ringo. They take their stories to the publisher and he throws them out. 

            In story 1 of episode 34, The Beatles visit Scotland Yard and meet England’s greatest detective, James Blond. His code name is OO because he makes all the girls scream “Oh Oh!” A mob of screaming fans come running towards the Beatles and they think it’s for them but they trample them to get to James Blond. The Beatles are jealous. Then while passing an alley they overhear some crooks plan on robbing Penny Lane. They head for Liverpool to stop the theft. While waiting for the crime to occur they sing “Penny Lane” as the animation depicts all the characters described in the song. In the end there is no robbery at Penny Lane and it turns out that James Blond saved the beautiful heiress Penelope Lane from having her jewels stolen. 

            The first singalong is to “Good Day Sunshine”, which was written mostly by Paul. In 2005 Paul played it live to the crew of the International Space Station. The second singalong is to “Rain”, which was written by John. Ringo considers it his best recorded drum performance. The recording made the first use by the Beatles of vocals played backwards. The animation for this singalong used photographs as the background. 

            In story 2 of episode 34 The Beatles are riding in their coloured limousine through a poor neighbourhood portrayed in black and white. They stop in front of an orphanage and all of the children are also in black and white. They try to visit the children but they run and hide. The Beatles decide to change the children’s environment by singing “Strawberry Fields Forever”, which was written by John. John used to play in the garden of the Strawberry Field Salvation Army Children’s Home in Liverpool. John considered it his best Beatles song. The animation during the song borders on psychedelic. Near the end the Beatles begin flying and they cast shadows that turn the black and white world beneath them into colour, rendering the children happy. 

            “Strawberry Fields Forever” was highly influential on the development of the genre of psychedelic pop. The accompanying film also influenced what became the artform of music video. Pete Townsend was blown away by the song and Brian Wilson was frustrated because “Strawberry Fields Forever” did everything he’s planned on doing with “Smile”.