A Night of Salsa and The-UnXpected!

Last saturday night was the night of our salsa graduation cum Halloween party @ Xenbar and the night of The UnXpected @ Wala Wala.

Pics for now... Words later...

Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)

Facts about the song:

• Lennon wrote this for his second son, Sean, who he had with Yoko Ono. Sean was born in 1975.


• It was released on the 1980 album Double Fantasy, the last album Lennon released before his death.


• It begins with John comforting his son from what is presumably a nightmare and develops into John passionately describing the love he has for his son and the joy Sean gave him. At the end of the song, John whispers "Goodnight Sean, see you in the morning.


• The line, "Every day and in every way I am getting better and better" is a self-improvement mantra. It was popularized by a French psychologist named Emile Coue, who made his patients repeat the lines "Day by day, in every way, I am getting better and better" (Tous les jours à tous points de vue je vais de mieux en mieux) over and over again as part of therapy.


• The lyrics of "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" also contain a famous Lennon quote: "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."


• It is featured in the movie Mr. Holland's Opus featuring Richard Dreyfuss.


• "The song 'Beautiful Boy' was written for, or about, me. It was also just a story of a father. It was a father-not particularly John, any father-talking to his son, saying, before you cross the street, take my hand. Don't worry because the monster's not there and you can sleep, there's no turtle under the bed trying to eat you up. It was just a beautiful song written about all the things that fathers say to their little boys before they go to sleep." - Sean Lennon

Lyrics

Close your eyes,
Have no fear,
The monsters gone,
He's on the run and your daddy's here,

Beautiful,
Beautiful, beautiful,
Beautiful Boy,

Before you go to sleep,
Say a little prayer,
Every day in every way,
It's getting better and better,

Beautiful,
Beautiful, beautiful,
Beautiful Boy,

Out on the ocean sailing away,
I can hardly wait,
To see you to come of age,
But I guess we'll both,
Just have to be patient,
Yes it's a long way to go,
But in the meantime,

Before you cross the street,
Take my hand,
Life is just what happens to you,
While your busy making other plans,

Beautiful,
Beautiful, beautiful,
Beautiful Boy,
Darling,
Darling,
Darling Sean.

IIT Bombay Rocks!

Found these videos on google.





Reminds me of IITB days. I am what I am because of IITB.

IITB taught me what is Passion.

IITB taught me what is Muzik.

IITB taught me what are Dreams.

IITB taught me what are Friends.

I still have Passion.

I am still into Muzik.

I still Dream.

I do have Friends.

Life's been quite good since I passed out from IITB 4 years ago. Only regret is that I am not doing what I love to do but I will... I surely will... someday. Life has just begun. There is still a long a way to go...

Jeff Lynne Discovered!!!

HEARTS, a local singapore band helped me discover ELO & a genius called "Jeff Lynne". I bought ELO's definitive collection a few weeks back and fell in love with them immediately. Balraj (John Lennon of HEARTS) recommended me another wonderful album called "Discovery". Balraj/Clarence/Roger/Francis, Thanks a lot guyz!! You have given me something really great to explore. Thanks to A & D who generously gifted me the "Discovery" audio cd. Thanks guyz!!

I have been listening to this album back 2 back since yesterday and it continues to sound better everytime. "Jeff Lynne" is surely the most underrated GENIUS.

Line up for "Discovery" album:

JEFF LYNNE: Lead vocals, backing vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, piano and synthesizer, strings and choir arrangements
BEV BEVAN: Drums, roto toms, percussion
KELLY GROUCUTT: Bass guitar, vocals, backing vocals
RICHARD TANDY: Grand piano, all synthesizers, electric piano and clavinet, strings and choir arrangements

A few good ones from the album that you might wanna discover :)

Midnight Blue


The Diary of Horace Wimp


Last train to London


Shine A Little Love


Confusion


On The Run


Njoy!!!

The more I see the less I know for sure

John Lennon's 66th birthday was extra special to me for various reasons:

• I celebrated it in Wala Wala Singapore on 7th Oct 2006 (Saturday night) with "The UnXpected". It surely couldn't have been any better. "The UnXpected" performed Beatles Medley. Find below the video captured in Wala, that will always remind me of the big nite:

The UnXpected played many other rocking numbers that nite like:

• Metallica - Enter Sandman


• Dire Straits - Money For Nothing


• U2 - Vertigo


• Black Sabbath - War Pigs


• The Doors - Roadhouse Blues

I will upload some of those videozzz very soon.

• A & D gifted me following and kept me busy all night on 9th Oct. Thanks guyz! You are the best:

I couldn't sleep before I finished reading "Lennon Legend". It's an amazing and must have collection for all John Lennon fans. I used to think that I know quite a lot about John Lennon & The Beatles but have realized lately that "The more I see the less I know for sure"... :)

Strawberry Fields Forever

Another Lennon Classic!!

Lennon and McCartney's songs shared a similar theme of nostalgia for their childhood in Liverpool and both referred to actual locations there, but they also had strong surrealistic and psychedelic overtones. Strawberry Field was a Salvation Army orphanage just around the corner from Lennon's boyhood home in Woolton. Lennon and his childhood friends Pete Shotton and Ivan Vaughan used to play in the trees behind the orphanage. One of Lennon's childhood treats was the garden party that took place each summer in the grounds of Strawberry Field. Lennon's Aunt Mimi recalled: "As soon as we could hear the Salvation Army band starting, John would jump up and down shouting, 'Mimi, come on. We're going to be late.'"

The period of its composition was one of momentous change and dislocation for Lennon: The Beatles had just retired from touring after one of the most difficult periods of their career, including the infamous "more popular than Jesus" controversy and their disastrous tour of the Philippines; Lennon's marriage was failing; perhaps most significant of all, he was using increasing quantities of drugs, especially the powerful hallucinogen LSD. Although there are no obvious references to drugs, the song's style and tone and oblique, stream of consciousness lyrics often are thought to have been influenced by his LSD experiences.

Quotes

• "Strawberry Fields is a real place. After I stopped living at Penny Lane, I moved in with my auntie who lived in the suburbs in a nice semidetached place with a small garden and doctors and lawyers and that ilk living around - - not the poor slummy kind of image that was projected in all the Beatles stories. In the class system, it was about half a class higher than Paul, George and Ringo, who lived in government-subsidized housing. We owned our house and had a garden. They didn't have anything like that. Near that home was Strawberry Fields, a house near a boys' reformatory where I used to go to garden parties as a kid with my friends Nigel and Pete. We would go there and hang out and sell lemonade bottles for a penny. We always had fun at Strawberry Fields. So that's where I got the name. But I used it as an image. Strawberry Fields forever. [Singing] "(Living is easy) With eyes closed. Misunderstanding all you see." It still goes, doesn't it? Aren't I saying exactly the same thing now? The awareness apparently trying to be expressed is -- let's say in one way I was always hip. I was hip in kindergarten. I was different from the others. I was different all my life. The second verse goes, "No one I think is in my tree." Well, I was too shy and self-doubting. Nobody seems to be as hip as me is what I was saying. Therefore, I must be crazy or a genius -- "I mean it must be high or low," the next line. There was something wrong with me, I thought, because I seemed to see things other people didn't see. I thought I was crazy or an egomaniac for claiming to see things other people didn't see. As a child, I would say, "But this is going on!" and everybody would look at me as if I was crazy. I always was so psychic or intuitive or poetic or whatever you want to call it, that I was always seeing things in a hallucinatory way. It was scary as a child, because there was nobody to relate to. Neither my auntie nor my friends nor anybody could ever see what I did. It was very, very scary and the only contact I had was reading about an Oscar Wilde or a Dylan Thomas or a Vincent van Gogh -- all those books that my auntie had that talked about their suffering because of their visions. Because of what they saw, they were tortured by society for trying to express what they were. I saw loneliness." - John Lennon, Playboy, 1980

• "The reason that Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane didn't appear on the album [Sgt. Peppers] is that Brian Epstein, their manager, was worried. He said to me, 'The boys need a lift - they need a great sequel and what have you got.' Well, I said, 'We've got two wonderful songs - let's issue them both.' In those days we didn't include single releases in albums as we thought we were conning the public. One of the biggest errors I ever made." - George Martin on why the song was not included on 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'

Lyrics
Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever.

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out.
It doesn't matter much to me.

Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever.

No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low.
That is you can't you know tune in but it's all right.
That is I think it's not too bad.

Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever.

Always know sometimes think it's me, but you know I know when it's a dream.
I think a "No" will mean a "Yes," but it's all wrong.
That is I think I disagree.

Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever.
Strawberry Fields forever.
Strawberry Fields forever.

(music fades out and slowly come back on. In the background, John Lennon says "Cranberry Sauce." Some believe that he says "I buried Paul." :) )

More Popular Than Jesus Controversy

Lennon often spoke his mind freely and the press was used to querying him on a wide range of subjects. On 4 March 1966 in an interview for the London Evening Standard with Maureen Cleave, who was a friend, Lennon made an off-the-cuff remark regarding religion.

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. ... I don't know what will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. We're more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

The article was printed and nothing came of it, until five months later when an American teen magazine called Datebook reprinted part of the quote on the front cover.

A firestorm of protest swelled from the southern U.S. Bible Belt area, as conservative groups publicly burned Beatles records and memorabilia. The Beatles looked at this in a wry way, by saying, "They've got to buy them first before they burn 'em."

Radio stations banned Beatles music and concert venues cancelled performances. Even the Vatican got involved with a public denunciation of Lennon's comments. On August 11, 1966, The Beatles held a press conference in Chicago, in order to address the growing furor.

Lennon: "I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have got away with it, but I just happened to be talking to a journalist friend (Maureen Cleave), and I used the words "Beatles" as a remote thing, not as what I think — as Beatles, as those other Beatles like other people see us. I just said "they" are having more influence on kids and things than anything else, including Jesus. But I said it in that way which is the wrong way."

Reporter: Some teenagers have repeated your statements — "I like The Beatles more than Jesus Christ." What do you think about that?

Lennon: "Well, originally I pointed out that fact in reference to England. That we meant more to kids than Jesus did, or religion at that time. I wasn't knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it's true more for England than here. I'm not saying that we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it's all this."

Reporter: But are you prepared to apologise?

Lennon: "I wasn't saying whatever they're saying I was saying. I'm sorry I said it really. I never meant it to be a lousy anti-religious thing. I apologise if that will make you happy. I still don't know quite what I've done. I've tried to tell you what I did do but if you want me to apologise, if that will make you happy, then OK, I'm sorry."

The governing members of the Vatican accepted his apology and the furor eventually died down, but constant Beatlemania, mobs, crazed teenagers, and now a press ready to tear them to pieces over any quote was too much to handle. The Beatles soon decided to stop touring, and never performed a scheduled concert again. A firework was thrown on the stage at one of their last concerts and McCartney later said that the band all looked at Lennon - fearing a gun had been fired at him. The pressure of dealing with incidents like that convinced even McCartney to say that he had had enough. Lennon wrote later "I always remember to thank Jesus for the end of my touring days."

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

One of the greatest songs made ever. The song has pretty interesting structure.

Song structure

The song is nearly six minutes in length and is composed of six distinct sections - introduction, ballad, guitar solo, opera, rock, and an outro.

Introduction (0:00-0:48 )

The song begins with close four-part harmony a cappella introduction in B-flat, which is entirely multitrack recordings of Mercury. The lyrics question whether life is "real" or "just fantasy" before concluding that there can be "no escape from reality." After 15 seconds, the grand piano enters, and Mercury's solo voice alternates with the chorus. The narrator introduces himself as "just a poor boy" but declares that he "need[s] no sympathy" because nothing matters: chromatic side-slipping on "easy come, easy go" highlight the dream-like atmosphere. The end of this section is marked by the bass entrance and the familiar cross-handed piano vamp in B-flat.

Ballad (0:48-2:36)

The grand piano continues the 2-bar vamp in B-flat. Deacon's bass guitar enters playing the first note, and the vocals change from harmony to an impassioned solo performance by Mercury. The narrator explains that he has "just killed a man," and with that act thrown his life away. The chromatic bass line at the end of brings about a modulation to E-flat. Here Taylor's drums enter (1:19), and the narrator makes the first of several invocations to his "mama" in the new key, reusing the original theme. The narrator explains his regret over "mak[ing] you cry" and urging mama to "carry on" as if "nothing really matters." A truncated phrase connects to a repeat of the vamp in B-flat. As the ballad proceeds into its second verse, the narrator shows how tired and beat down he is by his actions (as May enters on guitar and mimics the upper range of the piano 1:50). May sends "shivers down my spine" by scratching the strings on the other side of the bridge. The narrator bids the world goodbye and prepares to "face the truth" admitting "I don't want to die / I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all." Another chromatic bass descent brings a modulation to the key of A, and the "Opera" section.

Guitar solo (2:36-3:02)

As Mercury sings the rising line "I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all," the band builds in intensity, leading up to the song's first highlight: a guitar solo by May that serves as the segue from ballad to opera. May's solo continues to build intensity, but, once the bass line completes its descent establishing the new key, the entire band cuts out abruptly at 3:02 except for quiet quaver chords on the piano: the "opera" has begun. In live performances, the stage would go dark and all the members of the band would walk offstage and allow the entire opera section to play from the recording.

Opera (3:02-4:07)

A rapid series of rhythmic and harmonic changes (E flat major to F minor to A major, among others) introduces a pseudo-operatic midsection, which contains the bulk of the elaborate vocal multitracking, depicting the narrator's "descent into hell". While the underlying pulse of the song is maintained, the dynamics vary greatly from bar to bar, from a single Mercury voice and solo piano, to a multi-voice choir. The choir effect was created by having May, Mercury, and Taylor sing their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 180 separate overdubs.^[2] The band used the bell effect for lyrics "Magnifico" and "Let me go". Also, on "Let him go", Taylor singing the top section carries his note on further after the rest of the "choir" have stopped singing. Lyrical references in this passage include Scaramouche, the fandango, Galileo, Figaro, "Bismillah," and Beelzebub, as rival factions fight over the narrator's soul. The introduction is recalled with the chromatic inflection on "I'm just a poor boy...easy come, easy go." The section concludes with a full choral treatment of the lyric, "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me."

Hard rock (4:07-4:55)

The operatic section leads (with the voices singing "for me" on a block B-flat major chord, topped by a sustained high B-flat falsetto from Taylor) into an aggressive hard rock musical interlude with a guitar riff that was written by Mercury. During group singalongs (including the famous scene in the film Wayne's World), it is traditional to headbang during this passage. At 4:14, a double-tracked Mercury sings angry lyrics addressed to an unspecified "you," accusing him/her of betrayal and abuse and insisting "can't do this to me, baby." There follows three ascending guitar runs, which May described as something he had to "battle with" when performing the song live. The third guitar run is then imitated by Mercury on the piano.

Outro (4:55-5:55)

After Mercury plays ascending octaves of notes from the Bb mixolydian scale, the song then returns to the tempo and form of the introduction. A guitar accompanies the chorus' "ooh yeah, ooh yeah", to give the effect of trumpets. This effect was achieved by playing the guitar through an amp designed by Deacon, affectionately nicknamed the "Deacy Amp". The song progressively becomes quieter while Mercury again sings "nothing really matters to me..." The final line, "any way the wind blows," is followed by the barely audible sound of a gong.

Lyrics
Is this the real life-
Is this just fantasy-
Caught in a landslide-
No escape from reality-
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see-
Im just a poor boy,i need no sympathy-
Because Im easy come,easy go,
A little high,little low,
Anyway the wind blows,doesnt really matter to me,
To me

Mama,just killed a man,
Put a gun against his head,
Pulled my trigger,now hes dead,
Mama,life had just begun,
But now Ive gone and thrown it all away-
Mama ooo,
Didnt mean to make you cry-
If Im not back again this time tomorrow-
Carry on,carry on,as if nothing really matters-

Too late,my time has come,
Sends shivers down my spine-
Bodys aching all the time,
Goodbye everybody-Ive got to go-
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth-
Mama ooo-
I dont want to die,
I sometimes wish Id never been born at all-

I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouche,scaramouche will you do the fandango-
Thunderbolt and lightning-very very frightening me-
Galileo,galileo,
Galileo galileo
Galileo figaro-magnifico-
But Im just a poor boy and nobody loves me-
Hes just a poor boy from a poor family-
Spare him his life from this monstrosity-
Easy come easy go-,will you let me go-
Bismillah! no-,we will not let you go-let him go-
Bismillah! we will not let you go-let him go
Bismillah! we will not let you go-let me go
Will not let you go-let me go
Will not let you go let me go
No,no,no,no,no,no,no-
Mama mia,mama mia,mama mia let me go-
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me,for me,for me-

So you think you can stop me and spit in my eye-
So you think you can stop me and leave me to die-
Oh baby-cant do this to me baby-
Just gotta get out-just gotta get right outta here-

Nothing really matters,
Anyone can see,
Nothing really matters-,nothing really matters to me