Fab Four Hijacking

DISCLAIMER

Looking back over this item I realize that those cheeky lads from Liverpool have effectively commandeered and usurped  this weeks entry!  Carolyn, I guess  your going back to the music thing, especially something with one of the Fabs involved,  with a rabid Beatles fan such as myself  was tantamount to an offer I couldn't refuse - you’re possibly an accessory to this sliding off-topic misdemeanor , or at least involved in some aiding and abetting:



 I'd love to compare notes with you on the 121212 concert but I didn’t see it. So I  checked some reports and reviews afterwards- Let's hear it for YouTube!  The lineup was bulging, some were even saying conspicuously top-heavy, with aging classic rockers and some heirs apparent.  If I was assembling the playbill for a fundraiser, especially for NYC I guess I'd stack the deck with lotsa native or adopted sons/daughters and my target demographic would be those complacent, couch-ridden baby-boomers with wallets swelled by a lifetime of successful slogging away in the “establishment”      ( does anyone actually still use or even recognize that once derisive term - other than Jack Black? )  So bulking up on Boomer rockers makes economic sense, I guess.  Kanye West was probably a nod to any  bling-encrusted hip-hoppers who might have tuned in. 


Sir Paul simply turns up everywhere lately it seems. Richer than Croesus, Donald Trump and the King of Saudi Arabia combined he obviously still does it because he needs to be up front of an audience.


I  confess that I am  3/4 of a fanatic in matters of John, Paul George and Ringo. I have a whole wall of my basement devoted to them and half a bookcase of books about them, many reread.  Of all the Fabs Paul was my least favourite simply because he seems as disingenuous as he is talented.   Alas, in the clips I saw of his go round with the temporarily reassembled Nirvana his years were showing. If he had the same voice chops he had when he recorded Helter-skelter it would have been killer. I may not have any real fan affection for him but I cannot deny his prodigious talents. He may be the Citizen Kane of Rock .

Lennon may well have been a right prick occasionally  ( fairly occasionally, it seems )  and much more neurotic and capricious than his once partner but he was also not one to sugar-coat or  do the hidden agenda thing. He totally spoke his head up front, ( War can be over if we want it!  ) and I think that’s why he’s probably the Beatle of choice for a simple majority of fans. Also,  Mark David Chapman’s gunning down of Lennon is one of the few things I can think of that make me  reconsider capitol punishment - he robbed us of so much !   BTW  if you’ve not seen it I highly recommend  “ Nowhere Boy”  (2009)  a great little movie about the early years of John Lennon.      

 Honestly, I’m trying to put the Beatles soapbox away as we speak/blog.



No, this has absolutely nothing to do with Sci-fi or Fantasy.  In fact I can’t even think of any songs that the Fabs put out that had any  major sci-fi connection. Maybe there's a wee bit of fantasy in "Maxwell’s Silver Hammer". I suppose  their guileless forays into Eastern philosophy,precipitated in part by George Harrisons initial infatuation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,  could be seen as fantastical in a way since they dabbled in spacey stuff like cosmic consciousness, TM and supposed powers of levitation. If anything,  the music that came from Lennon and McCartney through these adventures was reactionary - The White Album’s “ Sexy Sadie” was apparently originally to be titled “ Maharishi”  It was a Lennon composition and hardly hid his disdain for someone who claimed to have the answers but turned out, for him at least,  to be a religious flim-flam man. Gee, not too many of those about, are there!



So now to the even gooder stuff - the riddles! Carolyn, your guess for my first one was as you say “ darn close. “  It’s not grease but gravy - I thought the consorts openly with sandwiches part would be a gastronomic giveaway but maybe open faced sandwiches all slathered with gravy aren’t a culinary thing where you are like they are here. 

 I’d never even heard of poutine until I went to Quebec, either. 


The second one, all three verses of it, wasn’t  a political campaign but its certainly a crucial part of one. Once again you were powerfully close. It was advertising.  My apologies for the  wretched excess of clues here   ( Jeez, Gollum would have fallen asleep faced with this one, eh?)  but my M.O. for new things ( like this riddling addiction) usually includes simply overindulging in them right off  and then pulling back to find a happy medium.  Ya have to sin in order to be redeemed , I’ve been told.   This is a prime example thereof.


My guesses for yours are  gold for the first one and travelers cheques for the second: ( Hmmm, I'm not completely sure about that second item! )


Here’s just one this time ( I can’t promise to limit myself this way in the future, though )

Brittle

Work for me and be poorly rewarded

Buttery

Pachyderm dreams

Ballpark maintenance nightmares

Crucial to Crackerjack experience

Anyhow, I’ve spent so much wordage on this  Beatles stuff  that I’ve used up my dance card here. Again!



Back on boxing day. Keep a cool tool 'til the Yule!



Don