Bool

Something remarkable happened this week.  No not the rare moment where I folded all the laundry including the bath towels.  Not even the unusual circumstance that led to me decelerate when the traffic light turned orange (amber for the meticulous colour fanatics).  The Beatles released a new song, Now and Then, 53 years after the singing group broke up.  I called them a singing group because when I use to call them a band, my father would chastise me because of the lack of woodwinds and trumpets in their band.

Now in the current working world we all take pride in our accomplishments and meeting deadlines with projects.  But even the most understanding boss would mark “Below Expectations” in your performance review if 53 years passed between your work project successes.

The new Beatles song “Now and Then” hit number 1 on the British music charts in one week.  What is it about this musical group that elevates them to a standard that no musical artist has or will ever achieve.  Books have been written, documentaries have been produced and now The Beatles is a subject at universities around the world.  I have read practically every book about the lads from Liverpool and possess far too many albums, cassettes, and CDs with repetitive versions of the brilliant songs.   

Theories and scholarly analysis have been shared on the reason for their popularity and continual impact on culture and music, but for me the experts have missed on one of the key ingredients to their musical attraction and sustainability.  The problem is I can’t quite come up with the word that best describes this phenomenon.

Cool is one word, but that word isn’t quite right.  We all remember the cool kids at school and so this word might emit a sense of divisiveness and ostracizing when you read that word.  Cool can be friendly or standoffish so this is not the word.  So once again I have to create a new word to best serve my point.  Bool.   A combination of beautiful, brilliant, bold and cool in the best sense of that word.

One of the Boolest things the Beatles did in their songs was extend one syllable words into 2, 3 4 and sometimes 7 syllables.  This went against every convention of song writing.  Gershwin, Cole Porter Rogers and Hammerstein and all the great song writers before took immense pride in selection the right word with the right rhythm and perfect syllable choice.  It was frankly the hallmark of proper song construction.

If you research this you will find that most songs written before the Beatles matched lyrics appropriately with notes and syllables used in the song. 

True Confession:  I have not checked on every song that has ever been written to make my case (Remember I had laundry to do today), however I will leave this to the scholars and researchers to prove me wrong.

Anyway the Bool thing the Beatles did was extend the one syllable words in most of the songs they wrote into longer words which went against the foundation of song writing. 

Their first song ever, “Love ME Do” did it.  Please became “Plea ea ea ease.  Love me do”. 4 syllables and 4 different notes in that simple word.   “I Want to Hold Your Hand” became I Want to Hold your Ha a a a an  and!  1 syllable word 7 notes.  The obvious She’s got a Ticket to Ri hi Hide.  They even added an “H” to the mono-syllabic Ride.

Traditional song writers would scold the boys for not selecting the correct word but this lack of discipline only raised their Bool. Use of consonants and vowels was getting interesting.

I will leave to the fans to discover songs too numerous to name here, that shatter song writing convention yet became an unnoticeable change in the structure of the art form.   Thanks Lennon and McCartney.

Just recently Peter Jackson released Get Back a better version of the Let it Be movie and album.  In the song “I Dig A Pony” John Lennon sings the word I with 7 notes and syllables.  Bool stayed throughout the career of this band.  (Don’t’ tell dad I said band). 

Now and Then we must reexamine past cultural phenomena to gain insight and learning into what made the events so different.  Now and Then it’s comforting to look back through the tears of nostalgia and warm reminiscing to, not live in the past, but cherish it.   Now and Then is really just looking at today and Yesterday and the Beatles know a little about YESTERDAY.  Now and Then we all need to pull over to the side of the rode and take a good look around.  Or as The Beatles say in their last song looking back is okay because “ I know you’ll never Stay ay ay ay”

Speaking of looking back …