Things We Said Today

I'm running late with my blogs this week - not due to lack of trying (honest!), but because of technical failures. It seems that that's all OK now...

...which is great, because I want to allude to the sordid tale of Sir Paul McCartney’s divorce proceedings. I don't want to dwell on this, and (like most people) I’m not qualified to do so. We should all really let it be.

Did you see how I finished that sentence? “Let it be”. Get it? I wish that was an original line. I think I read it somewhere last week, in relation to the said anti-nuptials. I just saw an article in The Australian newspaper about the same topic. The headline? “Carry that weight”. The great thing about Beatles making the news, it seems, is that you can always quote the songs in your headlines. When Julian Lennon’s music career was taking off in the 1980s, I remember the terribly clever headline on the cover of Rolling Stone: “Here Comes the Son”. (Julian was trying to make a name for himself, not just as someone else’s son. Also, that was named after a song written by George Harrison, not John Lennon, so it always seemed inappropriate to me. It’s haunted me to this day. I really need help!) And then we have the plethora of Beatles books, all named after a song. One of the best biographies, the first one I read as a kid, was called “The Love You Make” (from those great lyrics to The End, which was, fittingly, one of the last songs they ever recorded). There was also a day-to-day record called A Day in the Life, a chronicle of their final concert tour called Ticket to Ride, a book about the “Paul is dead” hoax (you can buy Beatles books about anything) called "The Walrus was Paul" (which was a line from… all together now… no, not All Together Now, but let’s all say it: "I am the Wal -" no, not I am the Walrus, but Glass Onion!). George’s memoirs were called I, Me, Mine, after one of his own later songs. Fair enough. Yes, the references get a bit obscure. But still, there are possibly at least a few Beatles songs that have not been used for headlines just yet. Here are some suggestions for appropriate occasions… I’m Looking Through You: Sightings of John Lennon’s ghost.

Fool on the Hill: Ringo buys a new hilltop mansion that – as he soon discovers – is built on a faultline.

Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey: lost Beatles tapes found in primates cage of London’s Whipsnade Zoo by one of the zoo’s most popular residents, Barry the Baboon.

The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill: Sorry, I’m not sure what could possibly give us an excuse to use this one. Strangely, the first Beatles biography – published way back in 1969, and updated frequently since then – was Philip Norman's Shout! That’s the title? How silly. Shout was an Isley Brothers song, immortalised (for Australians, at least) by the immortal Johnny O’Keefe (who was one of Australia’s immortal living legends… until his tragic death). It was also recorded, quite successfully, by Lulu (who was, granted, a friend of the Beatles). Unless someone finds another tape of obscure recording sessions (which seems to happen every six months), we can assume that it was never recorded by the Beatles themselves. So why didn’t Philip Norman have a different, more appropriate title – like Got to Get You into My Life or… or Something? Maybe later. Wait. It won’t be long. Tomorrow never knows.