Paul, John, George, and Ringo

Today was a day of class, grocery shopping and the library like most Mondays are for me here. We continued our study of music in Sociology. We started where we left off last time, that being the Beatles. We listened to "I Saw Her Standing There". It was written by Paul McCartney and was a huge hit in the US. Starting here, the Beatles and their producer George Martin start to change their sound incredibly quickly. We moved forward 12 months to 1964 and the McCartney song "And I Love Her". The sound is much more confident and studio production is a lot more noticeable. The guitar sound is similar to Spanish guitar because the Beatles took a holiday in Barcelona and heard it there. It made me think of St. Nicholas Square in Granada at night. Lennon's writing was more abrasive, radical, and sad. McCartney's was more optimistic and romantic. A good example of this difference is that last song (romantic) and the Lennon song "I'll Be Back" (kind of sad). We listened to "Help!" next. Another huge hit. A song that sounds happy and stuff but the lyrics are actually pretty dark, a trend that becomes more prevalent. "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" was recorded only 18 months after their first single but is so different it is astounding.

The music for "Yesterday" was thought up by Paul in the middle of the night and he thought he had plagiarized, it came so easily to him. Turns out he didn't. It was the first song that only one Beatle sang and played on. There are more recordings of this song than any other ever. The song broadened the appeal of the Beatles to more people. McCartney was only 22 when he wrote it (!!!) but the lyrics are very world-weary and jaded. "Eleanor Rigby" has a very interesting story behind it. It was originally called Dorothy Hawkins because that was Paul's first girlfriend but wanted to change it. Paul and John both liked a woman named Eleanor Brown so they named it Eleanor Hawkins. Then Paul was with his girlfriend at a clothing store named Rigby's so he changed the name to Eleanor Rigby. Father McKenzie in the song was originally Father McCartney but he didn't want to do that to his dad. Well, Paul and his girlfriend went to Liverpool to visit his parents and he showed her the churchyard he used to play in as a kid. One of the gravestones said Eleanor Rigby and the one next to it said McKenzie. CRAZY!!! He totally didn't think of them like that. Next we listened to "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "A Day in the Life" both of which were induced by and sound just like a drug trip. They were heavy into LSD and such by now. "A Day in the Life" was recorded with a 100 piece orchestra in a 24 hour period. A 24 hour party came afterwards, haha.That's where we stopped with the Beatles. It was so interesting.

We finished the class by looking at a slide show of British Subcultures. The Edwardian Boys, The Rockers, The Skins (not like we think of them) were some of the subcultures through the 60s. The 70s had Hippies, Glam Rock, and Jamaican. The most famous of all was punk. The Clash and the Sex Pistols were huge. The 80s had Gothic, New Romantics, and House/Techno. Since then, there haven't been any documented subcultures really. Justin said that it is just a "Post-Modern Supermarket of Style". People just grab and use styles of the past and mix them all together. The best example of this is Amy Winehouse. I love her song "Valerie"(wait through the first minute or so, then the song starts). She doesn't make an appearance in the video though .

In Senior Sem, we talked about morals. We finished with Utilitarianism and then discussed Kant. We talked more about baggage storage. The last part was spent talking about our final farewell activity. The basic consensus was trying to find a river cruise where we could maybe eat lunch or something. I might be in Paris when it goes on because people want it on the weekend and I will only be here on Sunday. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it really. Frankly, I would rather go to Paris no matter what anyway. That's not to say that I won't be kind of sad about missing it.

After class, I ran a bunch of errands. I bought just a couple groceries to get me through to Wednesday night. I bought some art supplies to make my Art Journal (construction paper and a journal). I got my glasses fixed. I walked in the optician and asked the guy if he could fix them. It took him like 5 seconds and I asked how much it cost. He waved me away and said it wasn't a problem. I was very grateful. That was so nice of him. Then I went over to the library to drop off and pick up some more books. I came back and worked on stuff then made and ate dinner. I had quiche in preparation of Paris (haha, not really, it's cheap). That was my day. Sorry about all the Beatles info. I think it is really interesting and I like posting the YouTube links. The music is crazy good too. Tomorrow more class.

Cheers!