I’ve just seen a face of a woman laughing.
Most Beatles fans know the title “Scrambled Eggs”
was the working title Paul McCartney used
for the music version of the song later
developed with lyrics and a string quartet
and a new three syllable name, “Yesterday.”
Some Beatles fans know the accepted legend—
Paul got out of bed, sat at a piano
and worked out the melody and harmony
right there in one sitting using nonsense words
to keep time until he wrote proper lyrics.
Really detail-oriented Beatles fans
make a face and gesture and say, “Well, yes, but—”
Paul’s room at the house of Jane Asher’s parents
was an upstairs room with a twisting staircase
and the room was small and the staircase narrow.
It’s hard to picture a piano up there.
I’ve just seen a face of a woman laughing
and asking which kind of Beatles fan I am.
I tried to keep my face expressionless but
I felt my forehead creasing, eyes narrowing,
corners of my lips pulling into a frown.
I couldn’t do it. I said, “I’ve seen pictures
of the house. And of stairways in nearby homes.
How could Paul have had a piano up there?
And if we can’t believe a simple story
about where one of the world’s most famous songs
was written, how can we believe anything
about the Beatles? I mean, really, what if
the whole accepted legend of the Beatles
is pop mythology, fiction back-story
to build context around the material
and, so to speak, colonize people’s thinking
and keep them buying the Beatles forever?”
I’ve just seen a face of a woman laughing
but there was a kind of melody to it
and it was a catchy tune performed for me.
Even though I knew she was laughing at me
there was something so musical in her laugh
instead of feeling hurt I felt like her muse.
And she didn’t run off stage after the show.
And later I wrote this with her as my muse.
And workmen struggling to get a piano
safely up a narrow, twisting flight of stairs
is the image at the end of this story.
Most Beatles fans know the title “Scrambled Eggs”
was the working title Paul McCartney used
for the music version of the song later
developed with lyrics and a string quartet
and a new three syllable name, “Yesterday.”
Some Beatles fans know the accepted legend—
Paul got out of bed, sat at a piano
and worked out the melody and harmony
right there in one sitting using nonsense words
to keep time until he wrote proper lyrics.
Really detail-oriented Beatles fans
make a face and gesture and say, “Well, yes, but—”
Paul’s room at the house of Jane Asher’s parents
was an upstairs room with a twisting staircase
and the room was small and the staircase narrow.
It’s hard to picture a piano up there.
I’ve just seen a face of a woman laughing
and asking which kind of Beatles fan I am.
I tried to keep my face expressionless but
I felt my forehead creasing, eyes narrowing,
corners of my lips pulling into a frown.
I couldn’t do it. I said, “I’ve seen pictures
of the house. And of stairways in nearby homes.
How could Paul have had a piano up there?
And if we can’t believe a simple story
about where one of the world’s most famous songs
was written, how can we believe anything
about the Beatles? I mean, really, what if
the whole accepted legend of the Beatles
is pop mythology, fiction back-story
to build context around the material
and, so to speak, colonize people’s thinking
and keep them buying the Beatles forever?”
I’ve just seen a face of a woman laughing
but there was a kind of melody to it
and it was a catchy tune performed for me.
Even though I knew she was laughing at me
there was something so musical in her laugh
instead of feeling hurt I felt like her muse.
And she didn’t run off stage after the show.
And later I wrote this with her as my muse.
And workmen struggling to get a piano
safely up a narrow, twisting flight of stairs
is the image at the end of this story.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
“Yesterday” at Wikipedia
*
The Harajuku Station Forever
Japanese Train Stations Forever
Nuclear Accidents, Beatles, Mean Snakes
A Lost World Where Distance Is God’s Anger
“Strictly Speaking She Harmonizes”
A Quick Badfinger Note
Saturn/Books/Mean Things/Rock And Roll
Marginalia And The Kennedy Assassination — 1 & 2
Polaris In The News And Out
No comments:
Post a Comment