Song Musings

It’s hard to believe today is the final Wednesday of 2023. I hope everybody is feeling groovy. For the last time this year, welcome to my weekly feature, where I take a closer look at a song I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date.

If you’ve visited this blog before or are aware of my music taste otherwise, you know The Beatles are my all-time favorite band. I also like a good deal of each member’s solo work and have featured them and the band on many other occasions but not in Song Musings except for John Lennon.

Today, I’d like to turn to George Harrison. While he had become a seasoned writer by the mid-’60s, many of the songs he presented to The Beatles were rejected by Lennon and Paul McCartney. My pick was one of them. Ironically, it’s titled Isn’t It a Pity.

Harrison wrote Isn’t It a Pity in 1966 and proposed it for inclusion on a Beatles album various times, including the Get Back sessions that resulted in Let It Be, as well as The Beatles (White Album), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Revolver. Like many other such songs it ended up on All Things Must Pass, Harrison’s massive first solo album after the break-up of The Beatles and his third overall.

“‘Isn’t It a Pity’ is about whenever a relationship hits a down point,” Harrison explained in his 1980 biography I, Me, Mine. “Instead of whatever other people do (like breaking each other’s jaws) I wrote a song. It was a chance to realize that if I felt somebody had let me down, then there’s a good chance I was letting someone else down. We all tend to break each other’s hearts, taking and not giving back – isn’t it a pity.”

Isn’t It a Pity, paired with My Sweet Lord, was released as a double A-side lead single on November 23, 1970, four days prior to the All Things Must Pass album. In the UK, My Sweet Lord was paired with What Is Life. The single became a massive hit worldwide, topping the charts in the U.S.; Canada; various European countries, including the UK, Republic of Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden; as well as Australia.

It also became Harrison’s best-selling single, reaching Platinum status in the U.S. and the UK, and 2x Platinum in Japan. In the mid-’70s, that success got him into trouble with My Sweet Lord, and he was found guilty for subconsciously having plagiarized Ronnie Mack’s He’s So Fine, a 1963 hit for The Chiffons. Going back to Japan, here’s a live version of Isn’t It a Pity, captured there in 1991 during Harrison’s tour with his friend Eric Clapton. While it’s a pity the video is blurry, the audio is pretty good!

Co-produced by Harrison and Phil Spector, Isn’t It a Pity included a remarkable amount of high profile musicians: Tony Ashton (piano); Billy Preston (piano); Gary Wright (electric piano); Bobby Whitlock (harmonium), of Derek and the Dominoes; Badfinger’s Pete Ham, Tom Evans and Joey Molland (each acoustic guitar) and Mike Gibbins (tambourine); Klaus Voormann (bass); and Ringo Starr (drums). In addition to providing slide guitar and vocals, Harrison played acoustic guitar and Moog synthesizer. Orchestral and choral arrangements were done by John Barham. All of this creates a lush wall of sound, but I think it works magnificently for this song!

One of the things I absolutely love about Isn’t It a Pity is Harrison’s distinct slide guitar – a true signature sound. Apart from melodic playing and overdubbed harmony action, the soft tone is outstanding. The latter likely resulted from Harrison using his thumb instead of a pick. It’s also part of the equation for Jeff Beck’s magic tone.

In addition to the famous long 7:10-minute version, All Things Must Pass includes a shorter edit, Isn’t It a Pity (Version 2). At 4:48 minutes, this cut isn’t only significantly shorter but also noticeably slower. Apparently, Harrison initially wasn’t happy with the long version. The shorter version is said to have come about by chance on a separate occasion after one of the backing musicians began playing the song.

Taking a look at the credits for version 2 reveals the following: George Harrison (vocals, acoustic guitar), Eric Clapton (electric guitar), Tony Ashton (piano), Bobby Whitlock (organ), Carl Radle (bass), Ringo Starr (drums), Mike Gibbins (tambourine) and John Barnham (woodwind arrangement). It’s a more subdued cut, but I like it as well.

Isn’t It a Pity has been covered by many other artists, including Matt Monro, Nina Simone, Cowboy Junkies, Annie Lennox and Peter Frampton, among others. The songs was also performed during the commemorative Concert For George on November 29, 2002 by Eric Clapton and Billy Preston who were backed by a large band that included Jeff Lynne and Harrison’s son Dhani Harrison.

I’m leaving you with three of the above renditions, as well as the lyrics.

Isn’t It a Pity

Isn’t it a pity
Now, isn’t it a shame
How we break each other’s hearts
And cause each other pain

How we take each other’s love
Without thinking anymore
Forgetting to give back
Isn’t it a pity

Some things take so long
But how do I explain
When not too many people
Can see we’re all the same

And because of all their tears
Their eyes can’t hope to see
The beauty that surrounds them
Isn’t it a pity

Isn’t it a pity
Isn’t is a shame
How we break each other’s hearts
And cause each other pain

How we take each other’s love
Without thinking anymore
Forgetting to give back
Isn’t it a pity

Forgetting to give back
Isn’t it a pity
Forgetting to give back
Now, isn’t it a pity

[Repeat: x6]
What a pity
What a pity, pity, pity
What a pity
What a pity, pity, pity

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; YouTube

Song Musings

Another Wednesday is upon us, and I’d like to welcome you the latest installment of my weekly feature, which takes a closer look at a song I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. My pick today is Jealous Guy, one of my all-time favorites by John Lennon.

If you’ve followed my blog for some time or know my music taste otherwise, you’re probably a bit in disbelief that after seven and a half years into my blogging adventure, I’m telling you I haven’t written about this gem. You’re not entirely wrong. I’ve included Jealous Guy in a couple of previous posts about Lennon, but I haven’t done a deep dive on it until now. It’s about time!

Jealous Guy first appeared in September 1971 on Lennon’s sophomore solo album Imagine. Incredibly, the song wasn’t released as a single at the time. Eventually, this happened postmortem in November 1985 in the UK and October 1988 in the U.S.

Lennon began work on the song in 1968. At that time, it was called Child of Nature and was one of many songs The Beatles demoed for their self-titled double LP, aka The White Album. Originally, the lyrics were inspired by a lecture Maharishi Mahesh Yogi gave in early 1968 while The Beatles were in India to attend his spiritual retreat in Rishikesh. That version was part of the so-called Esher demos that were released in November 2018 on The Beatles: 50th Anniversary Edition, which I covered here at the time.

According to The Beatles Bible, Lennon made another attempt to present the song to his bandmates. It happened in January 1969 during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions. Quoting from the Bible: Similarly, Lennon revived ‘Child Of Nature’ – here known as ‘On The Road To Marrakesh’ – although it was clear that the song wasn’t working for The Beatles. Wikipedia adds there’s no evidence Lennon ever visited the Moroccan city. I found this clip on YouTube, which seems to capture the aforementioned moment.

This finally brings me to Jealous Guy, the song that ended up on the Imagine album. Lennon recorded it in May 1971 at Ascot Sound Studios, a recording studio he and Yoko Ono had built in 1970 on the grounds of their home Tittenhurst Park, a Georgian country house in the English county of Berkshire. String overdubs were subsequently added at the Record Plant in New York City.

Lennon (vocals, acoustic guitar, whistling) had a little help from some friends: In addition to Mike Pinder (tambourine) of The Moody Blues and Badfinger’s Joey Molland and Tom Evans (acoustic guitar each), the recording featured Nicky Hopkins (piano), John Barham (harmonium), soon-to-be Yes drummer Alan White (vibraphone), Klaus Voormann (bass) and Jim Keltner (drums).

I would be amiss not to mention the first version of Jealous Guy I ever heard on the radio back in Germany in the wake of Lennon’s murder in December 1980: the beautiful rendition by Roxy Music they initially added to their touring setlist as a tribute to him and subsequently recorded and released as a single in February 1981.

Following are some additional insights from Songfacts:

John Lennon confronts the green-eyed monster in this song, where he sings about the fits of jealousy that controlled him. At the time, he was married to Yoko Ono, who believes the jealousy Lennon describes is not sexual, but more an unfounded feeling of inadequacy. “He was jealous about the fact that I had another language in my head, you know, Japanese, that he can’t share with me,” she told Uncut in 1998. “It was almost on a very conceptual, spiritual level. It wasn’t on a level of physical or anything ’cause I just would never give him a reason for that.

Doing press after this song was released, John Lennon explained: “When you’re in love with somebody, you tend to be jealous, and want to own them and possess them 100 percent, which I do. Intellectually, I thought owning a person is rubbish, but I love Yoko, I want to possess her completely. I don’t want to stifle her. You have so little as a child, I think once you find it, you want to hang onto it. You grab it so much, you tend to kill it.”

Paul McCartney stated in the February 1985 issue of Playgirl: “He (John) used to say, ‘Everyone is on the McCartney bandwagon.’ He wrote ‘I’m Just a Jealous Guy,’ and he said that the song was about me. So I think it was just some kind of jealousy.”

Speaking with Rolling Stone months after Lennon’s death, Yoko said that he made her write out a list of all the men she slept with before they met. “He wrote a song, ‘Jealous Guy,’ that should have told people how jealous he was,” she said. “After we started living together, it was John who wanted me there all the time. He made me go into the men’s room with him. He was scared that if I stayed out in the studio with a lot of other men, I might run off with one of them.”

Keltner shared his thoughts in the 2019 Above Us Only Sky documentary: “‘Jealous Guy’ was a beautiful piece of music, so typical of John Lennon: intuitive, like nothing to worry about. And Klaus, the way he hugged the beat. It was a gentle thing, but we weren’t being precious with it. It just was accommodating the lyric.”

Voorman added: “It was very personal. That was the moment when I got so much into what he was saying and what he was playing that I didn’t know what I was playing – it was like a trance. I didn’t know what key I was in – it just floated automatically.

Joey Molland recalled working with Lennon in an interview with Gibson.com, “It was great! He was just a plain-talking, regular guy. No b.s. at all. Now, of course, he was John Lennon, so he had that energy about him; he kind of lit up the room, you know? But he welcomed us, said he was thrilled to have us, and then he said, ‘The first song we’re going to do is something called ‘Jealous Guy.” It was pretty amazing, sitting there with your headphones on, hearing John Lennon singing this fantastic song. Totally remarkable.”

Yoko Ono contributed to the track’s lyrics. However, because of the public’s negative attitude towards her at the time, her role was downplayed. She told NME: “Well, if it was just John, [he] would have given me the right credit, but it was a difficult time. No famous songwriter would have thought of splitting the credit with his wife.”

Yoko added regarding her influence on the track: “I think it’s a good song from a women’s point of view as well. John was trying to create a fun song about going on a trip to Rishikesh. That might have been great too, but it ended up not being that.”

Sources: Wikipedia; The Beatles Bible; YouTube

John Lennon’s Imagine Turns 50

Exactly 50 years ago today, on September 9, 1971, John Lennon released Imagine, his second solo album. Initially, I had not planned to cover this milestone, especially given how many other records that are arguably better are also hitting their 50th anniversary this year. Imagine sounds much more produced than Lennon’s solo debut John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band – even lush at times, which isn’t surprising, given Phil Spector’s involvement. Still, listening to it the other day reminded me this is a pretty damn good album by a member of my all-time favorite band. Do I really need more justification to celebrate its 50th anniversary?

Let’s revisit some of the songs. Starting with the opening title track really is a no-brainer. Whether you agree that it’s a great tune or not, it’s undisputable Imagine is John Lennon’s signature song. One could criticize a certain degree of hypocrisy that Lennon sang about peace while at the same time he was ignoring his first son Julian. Yes, John Lennon wasn’t perfect, but tell me one music artist you consider to be one of your heroes who is! Plus, it doesn’t change the fact the tune is a beautiful ballad with thought-provoking lyrics. Imagine also appeared separately as a single in the U.S. in October 1971 and in the UK in 1975, reaching no. 3 and no. 6 on the national charts, respectively. It became the most successful single of Lennon’s solo career.

One of the nice things that can happen when revisiting albums is that you come across a song that you previously had not quite recognized. This is how I feel about Crippled Inside, the second track on side one (speaking in vinyl terms). I love how that tune sounds, in particular the salon style piano played by Nicky Hopkins. Another notable guest I’d like to call out is George Harrison, who played Dobro guitar. There was also Ted Turner. According to Songfacts, he received a phone call from Lennon at 11:00 pm while his band Wishbone Ash was recording their own album to ask whether Turner could join Lennon’s recording session right away. Turner did and provided acoustic rhythm guitar.

“When you’re in love with somebody, you tend to be jealous, and want to own them and possess them 100 percent, which I do,” Lennon said about Jealous Guy, as captured by Songfacts. “Intellectually, I thought owning a person is rubbish, but I love Yoko, I want to possess her completely. I don’t want to stifle her. You have so little as a child, I think once you find it, you want to hang onto it. You grab it so much, you tend to kill it.” Songfacts also notes Yoko Ono told music magazine Uncut in 1998, “He was jealous about the fact that I had another language in my head, you know, Japanese, that he can’t share with me. It was almost on a very conceptual, spiritual level. It wasn’t on a level of physical or anything ’cause I just would never give him a reason for that.”

Time to move on to side two and Gimme Some Truth, a song about Lennon’s frustration with slick and deceptive politicians. Songfacts adds the tune also refers to cover-ups like the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, with Lennon demanding simple truth. Lennon’s outspoken stance against America’s war engagement in Vietnam did not endear him to the Nixon Administration, which mounted deportation efforts against him. Ultimately, they failed and “Tricky Dicky” was forced to resign in disgrace! Once again, George Harrison guested, playing electric guitar and slide guitar. Sadly, sleazy politicians are still all too common, so these lyrics very much remain relevant today.

Perhaps the album’s most intense track is How Do You Sleep?, which Lennon wrote when his relationship with Paul McCartney was at rock bottom. The song was a response to what Lennon felt were McCartney’s attacks against him on the Ram album, including lines in the song Too Many People and a picture of two screwing beetles on the back cover – or as Songfacts puts it, as if Paul was telling John, ‘screw you from one Beatle to another.’ Songfacts also notes an interview Lennon gave to BBC Radio 1 on December 6, 1980, two days before he was killed, during which he said, “I used my resentment against Paul, that I have as a kind of sibling rivalry resentment from youth, to write a song. It was a creative rivalry… It was not a vicious vendetta.” How Do You Sleep? is another tune featuring nice slide guitar work by George Harrison. Lennon would revisit the melody of the chorus on Steel and Glass, a tune that appeared on his fourth solo album Walls and Bridges from September 1974.

Let’s do one more: Oh Yoko!, the closer. The Beatles Bible notes Lennon started work on the love song in 1968 in India while The Beatles were visiting guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The melody was inspired by Lost John, a song by skiffle artist Lonnie Donegan, one of Lennon’s early influences. Additionally, Oh Yoko! holds the distinction of Lennon playing harmonica for the first time since Rocky Raccoon and The White Album. It also turned out to be his last recording using the instrument.

In addition to George Harrison, Nicky Hopkins and Ted Turner, Imagine featured many other guests. Some included drummer Alan White who in 1972 joined Yes and is a member of the band to this day; Klaus Voormann who had been brought in by Harrison and played bass on all tracks; as well as Badfinger’s Joey Molland and Tom Evans who provided acoustic guitar on Jealous Guy and another tune titled I Don’t Wanna Be a Soldier, Mama.

Just like the title track, Imagine became Lennon’s most successful solo album, topping the charts in the U.S., the UK and various other European countries, as well as Australia and Japan. It has achieved 2X Platinum certification in the U.S. and Gold certification the UK. Imagine was ranked at no. 80 in Rolling Stone’s 2012 edition of the list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. As of 2020, it’s still on the list, coming in at no. 223.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; The Beatles Bible; YouTube

Best of What’s New

Welcome to the first installment of Best of What’s New for 2021. Hope everybody had a great and safe transition into the new year. I don’t you how you feel, but I’ve already forgotten 2020 – I wish, but well, not quite. In any case, good riddance and hopefully on to a better year!

I’m kicking off the year with three lesser known bands/artists and something new by a band that had their heyday in the ’70s: Badfinger. Yep, you read that correctly, though there are some caveats. It’s really Joey Molland, the only surviving member from their classic line-up who with a little help from some friends has come out with newly recorded versions of Badfinger tunes. Are you ready? Let’s get to it!

The Dirty Nil/Done with Drugs

Yes, as hard as it’s to believe, there are actually some new music releases dated January 1st, though based on Apple Music, I could only find a handful. One is from The Dirty Nil, a Canadian alternative rock band from Hamilton, Ontario. They were formed in 2006 after their members Luke Bentham (vocals, guitar), Ross Miller (bass) and Kyle Fisher (drums) had started playing together in high school. The band’s debut single Fuckin’ Up Young in 2011 was followed by a series of additional singles and EPs before they released their first full-length studio album High Power in 2016. In 2017, The Dirty Nil won the Canadian Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year. Done with Drugs is from their new album out today cheerfully titled Fuck Art. The song “is actually my commentary on people’s interaction with social media and posting all their resolutions and stuff on the internet, which I just find fascinating…rather than just making life decisions by themselves and being private about it,” Bentham told Apple Music. The band, which combines punk and grunge music with relatively catchy melodies, reminds me a bit of Green Day.

Jarod Clemons and The Late Nights/Ramblewood Parkway

Ramblewood Parkway, a great blues rocker, is the new single by Jarod Clemons and The Late Nights, which was released on December 25. I’ve written before about this New Jersey rock band led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Jarod Clemons, the youngest son of the late Clarence Clemons, the amazing saxophone player of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. Founded in June 2019, the band also includes Zach Tyler (guitar, backing vocals), Stephen Verdi (keyboards), Alex Fuhring (bass) and John DiNunzio (drums/percussion).

Henry Nowhere/Sad Songs

Henry Nowhere couldn’t have chosen a better stage name, since background information on him is nowhere to be found. Neither his Facebook page nor his Soundcloud include a profile. I’m sorry but I really don’t get it, especially in this day and age! After a bit of detective work, I came across this Billboard story, which provided some clues. Born Henry Moser, he used to be the touring bassist for Day Wave, an Oakland, Calif. indie rock project formed by musician Jackson Phillips in 2015. In September 2018, Nowhere struck out by himself with an EP, Not Going Back. Again, the title appears to have been appropriate, since Nowhere evidently has continued his solo career and released what appears to be his second EP on December 18: Think About Me. Which definitely would be easier with more of an online presence! Anyway, here’s Sad Songs.

Badfinger featuring Sonny Landreth/Suitcase

Joey Molland, the only surviving member from Badfinger’s classic line-up, has been pretty busy lately. Apart from releasing Be True to Yourself in mid October, his first new solo album in 10 years, Molland has teamed up with different guest artists to put out new versions of various Badfinger songs this year, all released under the Badfinger name. The most recent example is a great remake of Suitcase featuring Sonny Landreth on slide guitar, which appeared December 8. Written by Molland, Suitcase originally was included on Badfinger’s fourth studio album Straight Up, which was first released in the U.S. in December 1971. Other previous newly recorded Badfinger tunes include Midnight Caller (with The Legendary Pink Dots – October 26), Come and Get It (with Rick Wakeman – September 29), Day After Day (with Ian Anderson and Terry Reid – July 30) and Baby Blue (with Matthew Sweet – May 28).

Sources: Wikipedia; Facebook; Billboard; Apple Music; YouTube