Can't Stop LeBron...

Can't Stop him!

It was 40 years ago today,,, Sgt Pepper told the band to play...

Sgt. Pepper at 40: The meaning in the music

Bruce Dancis | MCT News Service

It was 40 years ago - June 1, 1967, in Britain, a day later in America - that the Beatles changed the world.

Of course, the Beatles had changed the world many times before, but the release of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was different.

It was called "a decisive moment in the history of Western civilization," one of its tunes ("She's Leaving Home") was credited with being one of the three great songs of the 20th century, and in the week after the album came out, "the irreparably fragmented consciousness of the West was unified, at least in the minds of the young." Because those comments were made by, respectively, the Times of London's noted critic Kenneth Tynan, New York Philharmonic conductor Leonard Bernstein and New Yorker writer Langdon Winner, they signified the acceptance and triumph of "Sgt. Pepper" and the Beatles in the arts - and adult - community.

Young people, meanwhile, thought the album was cool.

Getting creative

"Sgt. Pepper" emerged in a context of great creative experimentation in rock 'n' roll and social upheaval.

The Beatles themselves had led the way in 1965 and '66 with their path-breaking "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver" albums. Bob Dylan, having moved from folk to rock, burst the limitations of the two-minute song. The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and the Mothers of Invention's Frank Zappa broke new ground with "Pet Sounds" and "Freak Out." And the Beatles' friends and rivals the Rolling Stones were keeping pace with their "Aftermath" and "Between the Buttons" albums.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were also as much a part of the youth movement of the '60s and affected by it personally as they were key influences upon it. Resistance to illegitimate authority, the generation gap, the use of recreational drugs, a freer attitude toward sexuality and a communal ethos are all given new expression in "Sgt. Pepper."

Added instrumentation

The album also broadened the sound of rock music, as the Beatles supplemented the usual rock instrumentation of guitar, bass and drums with instruments as new as the mellotron and as old as the Indian sitar and the strings, woodwinds and brass of a classical orchestra. Producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick brought in vintage sounds of Victorian bands along with experimental recording methods.

"Sgt. Pepper" was one of the first rock albums to open like a book and to print all of the song lyrics. No singles were released from it; it is intended to be listened to as a whole.

The album spent 15 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard charts and to date has sold 11 million copies. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it No. 1 in its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Meaning in the music

Here's an A-to-Z guide that will help explain what "Sgt. Pepper" was all about.

A - "A Day in the Life": The Beatles' opus and album closer, its existential lyrics were written and sung primarily by John, with Paul supplying the bridge. A 40-piece orchestra was brought in for several sections, including the climactic ascending cacophonous scale, which is followed by a lengthy piano chord played simultaneously on multiple pianos by Paul, John, Ringo, George Martin and Mal Evans. The song was banned by the BBC over the line "I'd love to turn you on."

B - "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite": According to John, he was in an antiques store where he saw an 1843 poster advertising a forthcoming show by Pablo Fanque's Circus Royale. He bought the poster and sang words from its text while playing the piano, and eventually had a song.

C - Celebrities: Photos of many famous and not-so- famous people are included on the album's front cover collage. Known internally as "People We Like," among those appearing are actors (W.C. Fields, Diana Dors, Marlon Brando), writers (Edgar Allen Poe, George Bernard Shaw), comic Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan, Karl Marx and former Beatle Stu Sutcliffe.

D - Drugs: All four members of the band were regularly smoking marijuana while making "Sgt. Pepper," and John was frequently taking LSD. Alleged references to drug use are in "A Day in the Life" ("I'd love to turn you on," "found my way upstairs and had a smoke") and "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" (the initials LSD). Some also cite drug references in "Fixing a Hole" and "With a Little Help From My Friends." In most of these cases, the Beatles denied any intentional references to drugs.

E - Emerick, Geoff: Staff recording engineer for EMI Records at the Abbey Road Studio, he worked with the Beatles throughout their career.

F - "Fixing a Hole": Paul wrote and sings lead on this light but slightly melancholy number, based in part on home improvements he had made to his Scottish farmhouse.

G - "Getting Better": An optimistic song by Paul, it features some of the best harmonies on the album, by Paul, John and George.

"Good Morning, Good Morning": The acerbic side of John comes through in this song, supposedly inspired by an irritating Kellogg's Corn Flakes commercial on TV.

H - Harrison, George: The band's lead guitarist had a relatively small role in the making of "Sgt. Pepper," contributing only one song, "Within You Without You," and even being replaced by McCartney on lead guitar for the title track.

I - Indian music: George's interest in Indian music and philosophy is shown on his "Within You Without You," which uses such Indian instruments as the sitar, dilruba, svarmandal, tabla and tambura.

J - June 1 and 2, 1967: Release dates for "Sgt. Pepper" in Great Britain and the United States, respectively.

K - Keyboards: A variety of keyboards are played on the album, including piano, Hammond organ, organ, harmonium, harpsichord, Virginal (a miniature harpsichord), pianette, Mellotron (tape loops played by a keyboard) and tapes of steam organs and calliopes.

L - Lennon, John: The undisputed leader of the band during its early years, through a combination of disinterest, unhappiness and drug use John was withdrawing and letting Paul take on a greater leadership role during the songwriting and recording of "Sgt. Pepper." Still, his contributions to the album are crucial: writing and singing lead on "Good Morning Good Morning," "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite," "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and most of "A Day in the Life." He also co-wrote "With A Little Help From My Friends," and contributes guitar and harmony vocals throughout.

"Lovely Rita": A jaunty number by Paul, supposedly based on an encounter he had with a traffic warden in St. John's Wood. John had the idea for the comb-and-toilet paper kazoo orchestra.

"Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds": A dreamy song by John, filled with colorful and fantastical imagery, it was assumed to be influenced by hallucinogens and was banned by the BBC. But John always insisted the song was based on something else. "This is the truth," he said. "My son came home with a drawing and showed me this strange-looking woman flying around. I said, 'What is it?' and he said, 'It's Lucy in the sky with diamonds,' and I thought, 'That's beautiful.' I immediately wrote a song about it."

M - Martin, George: The Beatles producer throughout their career, he plays a major creative role in creating, performing, orchestrating and recording the songs and sounds of "Sgt. Pepper."

McCartney, Paul: Paul became the principal leader of the group during the recording of "Sgt. Pepper." In addition to writing and singing lead on "When I'm Sixty-Four," Fixing a Hole," "Lovely Rita," "Getting Better," "She's Leaving Home" and the title cut, and co-writing (with John) "A Day in the Life" and "With a Little Help From My Friends," he plays lead guitar on the title song. He also worked closely with producer Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick throughout the 129-day recording effort.

N - No touring: At the time they recorded "Sgt. Pepper," The Beatles had gotten fed up with live performances and decided they would do no more touring and concentrate instead on recording.

0 - Outtakes: John's "Strawberry Fields Forever" and Paul's "Penny Lane" were among the first songs recorded for the album, but George Martin and manager Brian Epstein, under pressure from EMI for Beatles product, decided to release the tracks as a two-sided single and took it off "Sgt. Pepper." George's "Only a Northern Song" was also left off the album because of its poor quality (it shows up on the soundtrack for the animated movie "Yellow Submarine."

P - Paul is dead: Supposed "clues" to the rumor, or urban legend, that Paul McCartney died in a car crash during the recording of "Sgt. Pepper" and was replaced by a lookalike include: in "Strawberry Fields," John allegedly says, "I buried Paul," at the end of the song; the flower arrangement on the front cover suggest a funeral; in the band photo on the back of the album jacket, Paul is the only Beatle not facing the camera; lyrics on the album allegedly refer to Paul's accident - "Wednesday morning at five o'clock" (the supposed time of the accident), "Nothing to do to save his life," "He blew his mind out in a car, he didn't notice that the light had changed."

Q - Queen Elizabeth II: For the album photo in which The Beatles posed in their Sgt. Pepper costumes, George and Paul wore the MBE medals the Queen gave them in 1965.

R - Rolling Stones, The: The album cover includes a Shirley Temple cloth doll wearing a sweatshirt reading "Welcome The Rolling Stones, Good Guys."

S - "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (the song): A pioneering foray into what would become known later as "heavy rock" or "heavy metal," this McCartney-penned number, which is reprised as a bridge into the concluding "A Day in the Life," features Paul's tough-sounding lead vocal, a raucous guitar break (by Paul, rather than George), ultra-powerful drumming by Ringo and the addition of four French horns.

"She's Leaving Home": Paul's "generation gap" song, about a teenager who's run away from a stultifying existence at home, and the parents who can't understand why she left. The accompaniment is played entirely by a 10-member string section, with no rock instruments.

Starr, Ringo: The Beatles' drummer does perhaps his most varied and sophisticated work on this album. He sings the lead vocal on "With a Little Help From My Friends."

T - Tracks: "Sgt. Pepper" was recorded on four-track tape recorders at Abbey Road Studio, but through the use of dubbing and other recording techniques the band was able to use many additional tracks while constructing their songs.

U - Underwood, John: A classical viola player, he appears on "A Day in the Life" and "She's Leaving Home."

V - Vera, Chuck and Dave: Paul's fictional grandchildren mentioned in "When I'm Sixty-Four."

• - "When I'm Sixty-Four": Paul wrote most of this jaunty, music hall-style number when he was a teenager in the early 1960s during the band's sojourn in Hamburg, Germany.

"With a Little Help From My Friends": One of the last true collaborations by the Lennon-McCartney songwriting team, this was Ringo's featured vocal on the album, the one in which he's introduced as Billy Shears. The lyrics reflect a spirit of unity among the band members, and the band's sense of solidarity with the international youth counter-culture. The working title was "Bad Finger Boogie."

"Within You Without You": George's sole composition on the album, it reflects his growing interest in Indian music and philosophy, particularly his view that modern society had become spiritually bankrupt.

X - XTC: The English rock band led by Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding was deeply influenced by the Beatles generally and "Sgt. Pepper" in particular.

Y - "Yellow Submarine": The 1968 animated feature includes an outtake from "Sgt. Pepper" - George's "Only a Northern Song" - and references to Billy Shears.

Z - Zappa, Frank: Paul referred to "Sgt. Pepper" as "our 'Freak Out,'" indicating the influence of the 1966 debut album by Zappa's band, The Mothers of Invention. And in 1968, Zappa and the Mothers released "We're Only in It for the Money," a parody of "Sgt. Pepper."

She's so Right! Suddenly The Gin Blossoms are Very Cool Again...

It's ANARCHY in the USA...

I got to watch visions of total Anarchy start to form yesterday. There were cars lined up all over the place at gas stations that were still at $3.21 a gallon instead of $3.65 +…

The end is near my friend the end is near! $4, $5, $6…

Arrgggh! The Triple Crown Nosed Out!

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Curlin, the third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, won a tight stretch duel with Derby champion Street Sense to win the 132nd Preakness Stakes. Hard Spun was a well-beaten third.

Curlin, who did not race as a two-year-old, paid eight-dollars-80 sense for a two-dollar ticket. The winner jockey was Robby Albarado, who outrode Calvin Borel aboard Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense. The win gives trainer Todd Pletcher his first victory in any Triple Crown race.

For the 29th straight year there is no Triple Crown winner. Affirmed is the last Triple Crown winner in 1978

Many have lived their entire lives never to have witnessed a Triple Crown Winner! One of the most Sacred Jewels in sports! I wait every year for the chance to witness one again...

Why America deserved 9/11...

Paul's 9/11 explanation deserves to be debated

POSTED: 9:26 p.m. EDT, May 18, 2007

By Roland S. Martin
CNN contributor

Roland S. Martin is a CNN contributor and a talk-show host for WVON-AM in Chicago.

(CNN) -- Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was declared the winner of Tuesday's Republican presidential debate in South Carolina, largely for his smack down of Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who suggested that America's foreign policy contributed to the destruction on September 11, 2001.

Paul, who is more of a libertarian than a Republican, was trying to offer some perspective on the pitfalls of an interventionist policy by the American government in the affairs of the Middle East and other countries.

"Have you ever read about the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we've been over there. We've been bombing Iraq for 10 years," he said.

That set Giuliani off.

"That's really an extraordinary statement," said Giuliani. "As someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq; I don't think I've ever heard that before and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11."

As the crowd applauded wildly, Giuliani demanded that Paul retract his statements.

Paul tried to explain the process known as "blowback" -- which is the result of someone else's action coming back to afflict you -- but the audience drowned him out as the other candidates tried to pounce on him.

After watching all the network pundits laud Giuliani, it struck me that they must be the most clueless folks in the world.

First, Giuliani must be an idiot to not have heard Paul's rationale before. That issue has been raised countless times in the last six years by any number of experts.

Second, when we finish with our emotional response, it would behoove us to actually think about what Paul said and make the effort to understand his rationale.

Granted, Americans were severely damaged by the hijacking of U.S. planes, and it has resulted in a worldwide fight against terror. Was it proper for the United States to respond to the attack? Of course! But should we, as a matter of policy, and moral decency, learn to think and comprehend that our actions in one part of the world could very well come back to hurt us, or, as Paul would say, blow back in our face? Absolutely. His real problem wasn't his analysis, but how it came out of his mouth.

What has been overlooked is that Paul based his position on the effects of the 1953 ouster by the CIA of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

An excellent account of this story is revealed in Stephen Kinzer's alarming and revealing book, "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq," where he writes that Iran was establishing a government close to a democracy. But Mossadegh wasn't happy that the profit from the country's primary resource -- oil -- was not staying in the country.

Instead, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now known British Petroleum, or BP) was getting 93 percent of the profits. Mossadegh didn't like that, and wanted a 50-50 split. Kinzer writes that that didn't sit too well with the British government, but it didn't want to use force to protect its interests. But their biggest friend, the United States, didn't mind, and sought to undermine Mossadegh's tenure as president. After all kinds of measures that disrupted the nation, a coup was financed and led by President Dwight Eisenhower's CIA, and the Shah of Iran was installed as the leader. We trained his goon squads, thus angering generations of Iranians for meddling in that nation's affairs.

As Paul noted, what happened in 1953 had a direct relationship to the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in 1979. We viewed that as terrorists who dared attack America. They saw it as ending years of oppression at the hands of the ruthless U.S.-backed Shah regime.

As Americans, we believe in forgiving and forgetting, and are terrible at understanding how history affects us today. We are arrogant in not recognizing that when we benefit, someone else may suffer. That will lead to resentment and anger, and if suppressed, will boil over one day.

Does that provide a moral justification for what the terrorists did on September 11?

Of course not. But we should at least attempt to understand why.

Think about it. Do we have the moral justification to explain the killings of more than 100,000 Iraqis as a result of this war? Can we defend the efforts to overthrow other governments whose actions we perceived would jeopardize American business interests?

The debate format didn't give Paul the time to explain all of this. But I'm confident this is what he was saying. And yes, we need to understand history and how it plays a vital role in determining matters today.

At some point we have to accept the reality that playing big brother to the world -- and yes, sometimes acting as a bully by wrongly asserting our military might -- means that Americans alive at the time may not feel the effects of our foreign policy, but their innocent children will.

Even the Bible says that the children will pay for the sins of their fathers.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the writer. This is part of an occasional series of commentaries on CNN.com that offers a broad range of perspectives, thoughts and points of view.

THE BOXES TOLD ME YOU WERE LOST...

SO NOW YOU’RE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD!

Link __________________

Honor Thy Mother...

Man you can't get this many people to agree that it's daytime with the sun shining...

As always in the end Karma meets Lil Princess! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Am I Paranoid or do these News Stories Reek of Propaganda???

Torture chamber discovered

U.S. and Iraqi forces chasing a suspected terrorist with ties to Iran early Sunday discovered a bloodstained torture chamber and a massive amount of artillery stored in a building in Baghdad's Sadr City, the U.S. military said.

"Had that thing gone off -- when you start talking about 150 artillery shells -- the extensive damage that it could have done in killing innocent civilians in Sadr City would have been horrific," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said at a news conference Sunday.

The building was destroyed in a controlled explosion by a U.S. military ordnance team. Video showed a massive pile of rubble, with some debris landing on nearby cars. Other vehicles had shattered windows, possibly from the impact of the blast.

There were no reports of any casualties among coalition or Iraqi security forces.

Sadr City, a densely populated Shiite neighborhood, is a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia.

Caldwell would not reveal specific information about the "known terrorist" that was the target of the intelligence-driven raid because he was still on the run.

"As best we know, this was some kind of Shia extremist element, some sort of secret cell," Caldwell said.

Ghost of Barbaro Saddens This Years Derby...

Saddly missed I still morn his loss!

Paris Hilton gets Jail! Gas Prices Rise Again...

Am I right? I am! Right thats the real reason?

Britney Lip Syncs, Bombs Onstage! Gas Prices Soar...

I knew there was a connection