Spitball Army

Here is the second playlist inspired by my reading of David Browne’s Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970. The following five written excerpts correspond to the first five songs on this playlist. There are numerous more tidbits of information about these songs and others nestled within the pages of Browne’s book, which I highly recommend.

One day in the summer of 1969, [Art] Garfunkel showed [Charles] Grodin an envelope with [Paul] Simon’s handwritten lyrics to “Bridge Over Troubled Water” scrawled on the back. “Too simple,” Grodin cracked, although Garfunkel told him it would sound better with music around it.

By the time of the Déjà vu sessions, [Graham] Nash and [Joni] Mitchell were living a hippie-domestic life at Mitchell’s house, a life Nash immortalized in “Our House”…

…“Maybe I’m Amazed,” an expression of love and devotion that showcased both McCartney’s most earnest singing and his prowess as a lead guitarist…

“I went into a big discourse about religion,” [Arthur] Janov recalled of one conversation there, “and he [John Lennon] said, ‘Well, God is a concept by which we measure our pain.’ He would take all these complicated things we were talking about and put them into very simple terms, which was his genius.”

[James] Taylor had begun writing another new song, “Fire and Rain,” in London, under less than pleasant circumstances. During the making of James Taylor, a friend from McLean [Hospital] and the Manhattan druggy period, Susan Schnerr, had intentionally overdosed on pills.

Approximate playing time: 50 minutes.

1. Simon & Garfunkel  “Bridge Over Troubled Water”  (1970)
2. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young  “Our House”  (1970)
3. Paul McCartney  “Maybe I’m Amazed”  (1970)
4. John Lennon  “God”  (1970)
5. James Taylor  “Fire and Rain”  (1970)
6. Ringo Starr  “Silent Homecoming”  (1970)
7. George Harrison  “Behind That Locked Door”  (1970)
8. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young  “Helpless”  (1970)
9. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young  “Ohio”  (1970)
10. David Crosby  “Cowboy Movie”  (1971)
11. James Taylor  “Sweet Baby James”  (1970)
12. Simon & Garfunkel  “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her”  (1969)
13. Graham Nash  “Simple Man”  (1971)

[V-mail addressed to Ralph N., Richmond, California.  Return addressed to E.R.G., C.M. 3/C, 55th Battalion, Company D, Platoon 4, c/o FPO San Francisco, California. Envelope postmarked 30 November 1943 at 10 p.m.]

Nov. 25 – 43.

Dear Ralph –

So you’re 2B for another few months.  Good for you cause you can do more good over there than here.  Take it from one who knows.  All of us were given a shot in each arm yesterday and my right one is still sore as a boil.  Typhus and tetanus shots they were.  I spent my five days down in Sydney, where the beer flows freely and there are more girls than fellows.  A perfect liberty town for sailors aside from being a very beautiful up to date city.  Even the people there are more like Americans than any Aussies we’ve met.  I picked up a very nice brunette there (you know us, one in every port).  Back at work here again, helping to build up this base.  We had eight days off, a nice rest after 7 months in the jungle, huh?  Some of the fellows are really worn out, a few in the hospital.  I’m having some late snap-shots taken of me so hope to send you one in a few weeks.  It’s nice to have a camera over here.  Guess what!  In Sydney, you can buy cameras and films.  Nice go, huh?  I hear Harry is down here too but not close enough for us to get together.  Do you hear from him and Red Kuder?  Write again Ralph.

So long now –
Bud

CT tech says to hold my breath 30 seconds: “Most people can’t.” I make it 62 to prove all those swimming years good for something.

T Kill a Mockingbird

Synopsis: Caveman gumshoe is hot on the trail of a mohawked TV star suspected of committing avicide.

[V-mail addressed to Ralph N., Richmond, California.  Return addressed to E.R.G., C.M. 3/C, 55th Battalion, Company D, Platoon 4, c/o FPO San Francisco, California. Envelope postmarked 10 November 1943 at 3:30 a.m.]

Nov. 4 – 43.

Dear Ralph –

Say, your last letter was swell, I actually could read it without having eyestrain for the next halve hour.  Yes you noticed right, my rating finally came through and I’m now a carpenter’s mate third class.  This has nothing to do with the type of work I do, it’s just that there were no Storekeeper ratings open I guess.  I don’t mind what I’m called, I’m interested in the $15 per month raise.  Well here we are back in Australia, got back yesterday after a swell cruise of nearly a week.  Nice to be back, and boy, how they do eat down here.  I’ll be fat as a pig in a few weeks.  I put in for a five day leave so am planning on seeing Sydney while I’m over here.  Don’t know how long we’ll be here or where to next.  Came down on a C-1, nice job too.  We’ve had to buy mostly all our smokes, so I don’t know where the Red Cross ones are going.  Maybe to the Army.  Will try to send you a picture soon.  The censors don’t seem to approve of much.  Well, so long for now.

Write again –
Bud.

8/1/11. Faded sign beside the greasy spoon: 50 Years of Quality Food and Service. On the door, a sticker: Serving You Since 1938.

Card is titled: “New Telephone Building from Kentucky Hills, Cincinnati, Ohio.”

Publishing information:

Pub. by Bell Book News & Novelty Co., 606 Vine St., Cincinnati, Ohio.  “Tichnor Quality Views”  Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. Made only by Tichnor Bros., Inc., Boston, Mass.

I recently finished reading David Browne’s Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970, and had an absolute blast doing so. Please read it, while this playlist unfolds in the background. Here are a few of the music0-cultural insights Browne imparts regarding the subjects of his book, and their music.

[At the August 1970 Summer Festival for Peace in Shea Stadium] Knowing that any destruction of the grounds would result in fines, [Peter] Yarrow walked onstage and admonished the kids, saying they could feel free to jump on it [the Astroturf], but if they did, it would be akin to jumping on a dead soldier’s chest. To calm them down, he sang “Puff the Magic Dragon,” which, despite its reputation as a drug song, didn’t fully do the trick.

Rolling Stone’s [Jann] Wenner asked [John] Lennon about the trial and [Charles] Manson’s interpretations of some of his songs. “He’s balmy, he’s like any other Beatle kind of fan who reads mysticism into it,” he said of Manson. “ . . . I don’t know, what’s ‘Helter Skelter’ got to do with knifing somebody? I’ve never listened to the words properly, it was just noise.”

Everyone returned to Sunset Sound on December 17 and quickly cut “Suite for 20G,” named in honor of the amount of money they’d receive once they handed in the completed album. “Twenty thousand dollars was a lot of money back then,” [drummer Russ] Kunkel recalled. “It meant [James Taylor’s manager] Peter [Asher] could buy some furniture.”

“The Only Living Boy in New York” described [Paul] Simon’s ambivalent feelings about [Art] Garfunkel leaving for Mexico to film Catch-22. (Calling Garfunkel “Tom” was a furtive nod to their Tom and Jerry days, but few made the connection, since the duo excluded any references to those days and records from press releases.)

Driving back to Laurel Canyon from the airport, [Stephen] Stills glanced in his rearview mirror and saw a squad car. The moment was unintentionally comical, as if he was parroting the words to [David] Crosby’s “Almost Cut My Hair (“It increases my paranoia, like looking in my mirror and seeing a po-lice car” indeed).

Approximate playing time: 50 minutes.

1. Simon & Garfunkel  “Hey Schoolgirl / Black Slacks”  (live, 28 November 1969)
2. Peter, Paul & Mary  “Puff, the Magic Dragon”  (1963)
3. The Beatles  “Helter Skelter”  (1968)
4. Mary Hopkin  “Those Were the Days”  (1968)
5. Crosby, Stills & Nash  “49 Bye-Byes”  (1969)
6. The Beatles  “Two of Us”  (1969)
7. James Taylor  “Oh Baby, Don’t You Loose Your Lip on Me”  (1970)
8. James Taylor  “Suite for 20G”  (1970)
9. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young  “Woodstock”  (1970)
10. Simon & Garfunkel  “The Only Living Boy in New York”  (1970)
11. The Beatles  “Let It Be”  (1969)
12. Simon Garfunkel  “El Condor Pasa”  (1970)
13. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young  “Almost Cut My Hair”  (1970)

[V-mail addressed to Ralph N., Richmond, California.  Return addressed to E.R.G., C.M. 3/C, 55th Battalion, Company D, Platoon 4, c/o FPO San Francisco, California. Envelope postmarked 21 October 1943 at 11:30 p.m.]

October 11 – 43

Dear Ralph –

Your letter of the 24th arrived last night and I was glad to hear from you and get the latest dope.  First I’d like to mention that if you don’t stop writing so small I’ll be forced to stretch over 7000 miles and kick you in the slats.  Either that or you’ll have to send spy glasses of great power with each letter.  I finally made out most of your letter and I get it you want a picture of me.  We are expecting to leave here soon and go back to our old camp in Australia for a rest.  There I’ll be able to get into town and will have more freedom, so will try to send you a copy of my latest.  Here it isn’t permissible.  Say, when we were both at H.B., I’ll bet you never thought you’d be hearing from me over here did you.  We don’t hardly expect to get home till ’44 sometime.  At first I enjoyed coconuts but tired of them soon and now haven’t eaten one in weeks.  I’m anxious to get back to Australia where we can get fresh fruit, melons and a good many other things.  Hurray for your Ma, winning a contest.  I can imagine how nervous she was if her luck runs anything like mine.  Hope this finds you both feeling as fine as I do.  Seven days a week now huh?  Only 6 ½ over here.  Want to try it out?  Write again.

So long
Bud.

We love to buy books, because we believe we’re buying the time to read them.

– Attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer by Warren Zevon