In A Play Anyway

Based on Iamaphoney's YouTube Channel, it appears that a new Rotten Apple video should be coming soon, although the date doesn't seem clear. You know how it is. For those anxiously anticipating the big event, I wanted to do a very different type of post today. Instead of simply sharing things that I know, I wanted to go one better, just this once, and actually make some stuff up.

That's right. The following account is fictional. I made it up during a long drive recently. Any similarity between the characters in this play and actual persons living or dead is purely the result of my madness. For those who have been requesting more information than I actually know about Iamaphoney, this post is for you. Those who are interested in facts, trivia and speculation might want to skip today's post and tune in tomorrow.

The Iamaphoney Story: Act IX, Scene 1

Setting: A recording studio in København, Denmark. It is early March 2008. The room is filled with computers, recording gear, and instruments. Ian sits at a Macintosh computer next to a large mixing console. There is a large Sgt. Pepper poster on the wall behind him. He is reading an email from someone he calls the Advisor’s typist. His associate arrives looking a bit disheveled.

Ian: Been drinking again?
M: Fine, how are you?
Ian: Sorry. Good thing you’re here. We’ll be hearing from the advisor any minute.
M: I thought he was too sick to…
Ian: That’s why I got your ass in here. This must be really important.
M: Really. How long has it been?
Ian: I talked to the typist about two months ago, you know about the papers. But yesterday I got this email saying to get you here today at 3:00 for this online chat.
M: Out of the blue?
Ian: Yeah.
M: What time is it in America?
Ian: I don't know. America has too many time zones.
M: Why didn’t he just call on the phone?
Ian: I don’t know. The typist says his voice is weak and this way is easier…Shit, here it is. Get over here. If he asks you to say anything, don’t do any of that net talk shit. He hates that. Pretend you’re writing a letter to Grandpa.


A: Pardon the intrusion. I trust you are well.

I: Yes, thank you. M is here with me as you requested. Hope you are feeling better.

A: Please don’t make me say good days and bad. Down to business.

I: Listening.

A: Concerned about this interview.

I: We have everything under control.

A: Bullocks. Why interview? Haven't you told him enough?

I: Mikey has been a little fighter for us, so I wanted to do something special for him.

A: Not this.

I: ?

A: Interview is a bad idea

I: We have it under control. I made him submit questions ahead of time. We won’t give away anything. Just more puzzles.

A: This is not your project. We've come a long way from those bits from radio shows you were doing when I found you. Realize that this is all happening several tiers above you now. You must not make them unhappy.

I: It will be fine.

A: And the date, mere happenstance?

I: April 10

A: Right, are you out of your mind?

I: Not good?

A: I cannot be connected with this in any way. NO APRIL 10

I: No one will figure that out. I thought it was appropriate.

A: April 10 puts me in the circle. Not acceptable. You underestimate the intelligence of your audience and your puzzles are too simple. Forget the interview.

I: What do I tell Mikey?

A: Tell him anything, no april 10!

I: If he turns on us, we’re in trouble. The natives are getting restless.

A: Is M still there?

I: m here

A: M, give Mikey some tracks. No interview

I: m again. how many tracks?

A: Nothing new, but give him a clean recording of St. Paul and maybe one or two others.

I: This is Ian again. Don’t know how Tafultong will react to no interview.

A: Taful what?

I: The guy who does the Iamaphoney blog.

A: Taful is not as smart as he thinks he is.

I: Everyone knows that. But he said he was doing a special tribute to us in April culminating with the interview on the 10th.

A:You didn’t tell him anything did you?

I: No no.

A: Good.

I: But I don’t know what he’ll write if I let everybody down who's waiting for this interview.

A: Throw together a new video, but don’t release it on April 10. A new vid should satisfy your blogger for now.

I: We’re going to lose fans if we delay this interview.

A: Trust me, by this time next year they will all hate you. Don't expect my superiors to care either. I have worked for these people for a long time. Never give a timetable ---- ever! Wait for them to contact you. Be patient. If people lose interest, que sera sera. It is not your game to lose anyway.

I: Yes, sir.

A: And don’t make any more promises. Lord knows I won’t be making any more promises.

I: What do you mean?

A: There's nothing you can do that can't be done.

I: Anything else I need to know?

A: Stay the course. And Happy Easter.

“A” has left the room.

Ian: You heard the man. Let’s make a few phone calls and throw together a new video.
M: Why did I ever get into this?
Ian: Really.

Remembering John Lennon

On this anniversary of the darkest day in Beatles History, we remember John Lennon. It's hard to believe that 28 years have passed since people in the U.S. heard that horrible announcement by Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football.

Lennon had appeared on Monday Night Football with Cosell in 1974.



I realize that for some of us, those 28 years have gone by in a flash and the tragic memory is still a source of emotional pain. For others, it is ancient history that can be chronicled, satirized and even exploited in conspiracy theories.

I have not read the whole book yet, but from the published excerpts of Philip Norman's new book, "John Lennon, The Life," it appears that people close to Lennon feel that it has been long enough to start revealing some of the more sordid details of John's life. Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney were both interviewed for the book, but expressed strong disapproval with the finished product. Lennon's two sons must feel that it has been long enough to start saying some pretty negative things about their dad. Julian had spoken negatively about his dad before, but Sean has only recently accused John of damaging his hearing.

This article contains damaging quotes from both Lennon sons.

Paul McCartney's numerous reactions to the tragedy were not completely understood by the public. Here are just a few:

1)"It's a drag." [His actual words were, "Drag, isn't it?"]
2)"Jerk of All Jerks" [Paul discusses the poem on the Larry King show (transcript)]
3)But I think the clearest indication of Paul's feelings regarding John's death can be seen in this heart wrenching clip of "Here Today."

Some videos have appeared on YouTube as a result of this anniversary. Most are tributes, but a few address one side or the other of the various conspiracy theories attached to John. This is a sampling of what is out there:


December 8 by YouKnowMyName231 takes a philosophical and emotional look at John's death.


December Dream by PaulTheRevelator takes a wistful Klaatu song and creates a tasteful tribute to John.

Merry Crimble (and a happy Goo Year)! by J0HNWINST0N0N0LENN0N appears to be at least inspired by the Mr. Pilgrim chapter of the Iamaphoney saga. I don't think it actually comes from the Iamaphoney camp, but there is no way to know for sure. It's just that someone seemed a little too anxious to plug it on this blog.

Tribute to John Lennon- 2008 by maccalennon uses homemade versions of "Working Class Hero" and "Love" as backing for a Lennon tribute.

Here Today by Sunsol features a remix of the song in support of a slide show.

There are many other video tributes out there. If you see any good ones, please leave them in the comments.

Liverpool Sound Collage

The Liverpool Sound College is another one of those Paul McCartney side projects. Musically, it doesn't go as far from the norm as one might think. It does share one characteristic with the first Fireman release, "Strawberries, Oceans, Ships, Forests" in that despite the fact that each track has a separate title and artist, the entire album could be considered several different mixes of the same song. What I mean is many of the same samples appear in different songs and the artist distinctions between tracks don't seem to make much sense.



I'm not sure how many people realize that the third Fireman Album is actually the fourth collaboration between Paul McCartney and Youth. Martin Glover, also known as Youth, was the original bass player in the band Killing Joke. Youth is one of those people who wants to take consciousness to the next level as a member of the "Society For The Reformation Of Ancient Enchantment." Youth gets full credit for the track entitled "real gone dub made in manifest in the vortex of the eternal now" on the Liverpool Sound Collage. If that doesn't take society to the next level, I don't know what will. The graphic below is from an animation on Youth's web site.



A central feature on most of the tracks is a snippet of dialog from a 1965 Beatles session for the George Harrison song "Think For Yourself." It reportedly was recorded by George Martin for possible inclusion on the Beatles Christmas disc, but nothing from the session saw the light of day until the brief portion of Yellow Submarine when Young Fred asks the Beatles to sing a snatch of a tune in order to wake the Lord Mayor who had been bonked.

The Liverpool Sound Collage project came about because Paul McCartney was asked to provide a musical piece for an exhibition of Peter Blake's works at the Tate Gallery in Liverpool. Blake of course was the artist who designed the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Another thing that Blake had in common with the Beatles was an apparent fascination with Lewis Carroll and "Alice in Wonderland." Blake did an entire collection based on Alice.



The fact that it was in tribute to an artist didn't stop Paul from designing his own cover for the CD. Owing a bit to his friend and artistic influence Richard Hamilton (creator of the White Album collage poster) Paul produced a simple collage for the front cover. The cover has been used in quite a few Rotten Apple videos. The most salient features are some photos and a drawing lined up in the form of a cross.



The bottom of the cross features a small photograph of a girl and a small version of the drawing on the back cover.



In the center of the cross are two very small photos. One appears to be a hallway with a light at the end and the other appears to be a person lying on the floor. If one was in a heightened state of suggestibility, I can see these pictures being interpreted as foreboding.



The left and right extensions of the cross include a horned animal on the left and a dog-like creature on the right. There is something odd about the dog's face. It could be covered with snow or there could be something projected on it.



There is a similar effect in a YouTube video called "The Mask" by BlllShepherd (a likely Iamaphoney alias).



At the top of the cross is a picture of a man making a funny face. I believe it is a picture of Jerry Lewis.



I don't know if the Beatles were Jerry Lewis fans or not, although both John and Ringo appeared on his Labor Day Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy. But I do know that the Beatles owe a debt to Jerry Lewis. Because before the Beatles used the technique on "Rain," Jerry Lewis used backwards recording in his 1962 movie, "The Errand Boy." Watch Kathleen Freeman's character when she comes out of a car wash in a convertible. When you play it backwards it sounds like Jerry had simply recorded a phone conversation and turned it around for this scene.

Follow this link for a video showing the scene with backwards speech as well as the animation from Youth's web site.



The most accessible track from the Liverpool Sound College is "Free Now." Iamaphoney fans will recognize some samples from Rotten Apple videos.

The Liverpool Sound Collage probably deserved more recognition than it got, if for no other reason than its accessible weirdness. (Thanks to the person who helped me complete this post)

Good News

Both of the surviving Beatles have been nominated for Grammy Awards this year. To call this a pleasant surprise would be an understatement. This must be the most unpredictable turn of events in Beatles history since Ferdinand Marcos said, "Let the plane take off."

Ringo Starr, who has had a disastrous few months welcomed the news about his nomination for Best Surround Sound Album with a press statement. According to the Abbey Road Beatles News Site, Starr said, "I am thrilled to be nominated." "Ringo 5.1 The Surround Sound Collection" contains some of the best tracks from the Mark Hudson era. Despite some glaring omissions (e.g. "Write One For Me") the album is a strong collection of tracks and the sound really is phenomenal. The sound is spacious and has none that overproduced or over-compressed feel.



[Note: Regarding the Apple Starr thread at Nothing Is Real...Yes, I checked...When Ringo makes a peace sign, his index finger is at a 12 degree angle.]

Hopefully this nomination will turn things around for Ringo who has suffered some severe setbacks recently. His announcement on his website promising to trash all fan mail after October 20, 2008 caused him to be savaged by the press. Shortly after that blunder, another incident occurred at an awards show in Monaco that was tacked on to the public relations downfall. Paul McCartney finally came to Ringo's defense last week. What took him so long?

Paul McCartney received not one but two nominations for two different songs on one of the most obscure things he ever released. "Amoeba's Secret" was recorded at his Amoeba Record Store concert in Hollywood, California on June 27, 2007. The vinyl only E.P. has only four songs, two of which have been nominated for Grammys. That's pretty good for a limited edition with a blurry cover that was designed to look like a bootleg. Copies of the E.P. are surprisingly available and affordable on Ebay and through various independent retailers linked to Amazon. The initial run available exclusively through Amoeba Records sold out quickly, so I suspect that either there was a quiet re-release or there are counterfeit copies floating around. That would explain why some copies are selling for around $100 and other sealed copies can be found under $20.

The cover art of the E.P. included a completed Wordsearch puzzle presumably done by Paul. The puzzle "answers" include the name of the artist, title of the E.P., and all of the song titles.



It is the rest of the puzzle grid that has raised some eyebrows. The top right area of the puzzle has three consecutive letters that spell "ABE." Abe Laboriel, Jr. of course, just happens to be Paul's drummer. The chances of three random letters spelling a name that happens to be one of the five musicians on the album are rather good. Coincidence right? Immediately under the three letters that spell "ABE" are the three letters "PID." Again three letters in a grid have a decent chance of spelling something relevant, so we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that "PID" stands for "Paul Is Dead." That would be silly. I realize that the odds against "ABE" and "PID" both lining up in the same corner of the same puzzle are considerably higher, but it's still just a coincidence right? The only objection to this discussion of meaningful randomness can be found in the bottom row of the puzzle where we find the consecutive letters "SURREAL." I can say no more.

According to AbbeyRd, "That Was Me" was nominated for for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance (For a solo vocal performance. Singles or Tracks only), and "I Saw Her Standing There was nominated for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance (For a solo vocal performance. Singles or Tracks only).

It's hard to explain how two products that sold in the dozens could be nominated for three grammy awards, but Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr deserve every bit of recognition they have gotten.

Another piece of good news is that the bigs have picked up on the "Carnival of Light" story. I don't think there is anything new here, but the buzz may put some pressure on the powers that be to actually release the thing.
MSNBC New mania for a long-buried Beatles track features comments from Bruce Spizer.
CNN 'Lost' Beatles track could finally be heard
The Wall Street Journal Paul McCartney's Latest Collaboration surprisingly begins with the "Carnival of Light" story.

There was good news also for the Fireman. "Electric Arguments" is the first Fireman album to chart, hitting the Billboard Top 200 at #67. [I don't think that was rounded up from 66.6] The fact that this was the first Fireman release on an indie label made it eligible for the Top Independent Albums chart, where it debuted at #1.

All this talk of Good News reminds me of that album by Attitudes. Ringo played drums on the title track. It was released on George's Dark Horse Label. And on the back cover, Danny Kootch proved that Paul McCartney is not the only guy to ever have a hand above his head.

Sing and See the Changes

Sometimes a bold move can be subtle. See the changes in Sing the Changes.



See "The Fireman - Sing The Changes - OFFICIAL VIDEO" for comparison.

Iamaphoney did something like this a while back and it was quite effective. But this is more subtle and less chilling. Still, it produced a little bit of a tingle in me. It may produce anger in some others, but I don't think it hurts the video or the song. (I don't think this hurts Mr. McCartney either)

This is the video from when Iamaphoney did something similar last year:

Percy Thrillington, Magritte & me

An excellent article appeared in the Guardian UK over the weekend. "Percy Thrillington, Magritte & me" by Michael Odell explored Paul McCartney's avant garde side. We all love it when Paul compares himself to that Paul McCartney guy:

Sometimes I am Sir Paul McCartney who got the Mega Lifetime Icon Award from Bono at the MTV Awards and was knighted by Her Maj," says the man with appealing crinkled eyes. "And I like that role. But I am also James Paul McCartney a school kid from Liverpool who got sort of ... elevated. Sometimes I have to let go of Sir Paul just to achieve creative freedom. That's when I become The Fireman."

But this article was sprinkled with delicious details, such as the decor of his Soho office that includes a two-foot Mutant Ninja Turtle made of plastic. [Some might call that a mock turtle.] There is a painting on the wall by McCartney friend and inspiration Willem de Kooning pictured below. [Find more at maccafan.net.]



The article also contained the obligatory Sgt. Pepper reference. Now remember, Ringo said he learned to play CHESS while recording Pepper, George said, "For me it was a bit boring," and John said he couldn't remember anything other than "A Day in the Life." But, Paul to this day continues to worship that album, as he tells O'Dell, "Youth and I approached The Fireman in the same way that John and I did Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

In one of the most interesting parts of the article, Paul explains the evolution of the Percy Thrillington character:

We took personal ads in Private Eye and the Evening Standard saying, "Percy Thrillington seeks the love of his life." People eventually began to ask, "Who is this Percy Thrillington who keeps taking out small ads?" And then on holiday in Ireland with Linda we decided to find an actual Percy. We found a lad working in a farmer's field. We went up to him and asked, "Would you mind doing a photo shoot?" And so for a modelling fee we persuaded him to put on a dinner jacket and Linda took some pictures. And this Irish farmhand became Percy Thrillington.

I don't know where that picture is, but you can listen to Thrillington at WFMU.

In a very unusual moment of introspection and humility, Paul says:

The common perception of me is that I did some good work in the Beatles, I may be doing some good work now, but there was a very bad patch full of rubbish in the middle. When I look back I think maybe I didn't work quite hard enough on that track as I could have. There is a period which maybe isn't as good as the other stuff.

I guess that explains why Wings fans feel short-changed at his concerts.

He also tells how he became "The Fireman." In addition to honoring his dad, who was a Fireman in World War II, he reminisced about chopping down trees to clear a path for Linda's Horseback Riding and then using the wood to make his own fires.

But the biggest revelation in the whole article comes at the end when Paul pulls out a present that Linda had given him on one of his many birthdays. It was a pair of paint spattered glasses that once belonged to surrealist painter Rene Magritte. Fans of the Beatles will remember that it was Magritte who invented the apple. Well, it was actually the devil who invented the apple according to John Milton. But Magritte's apple probably influenced Paul when he was thinking of a name and logo for the Beatles new company. [For a mind-blowing interpretation of the Apple logo and its relationship to another member of the fab four, see the "Apple Starr" thread at "Nothing is Real."]

Magritte's "Son of Man" painting can be seen in many YouTube videos.



Paul McCartney is as big of a fan of Magritte as I am of Paul McCartney. He owns many Magritte paintings. He expresses his view of the artist in the closing paragraph of the article:

What I love about Magritte is he turned the world upside down and inside out in terms of meaning and significance. Science and philosophy and religion are starting to converge on this idea that, whatever hat you put on, you are still you. Dickens writes Little Dorrit but he still comes through in her character. Burroughs and Ginsberg show through in their writing. Magritte's specs are a reminder: the world is a jungle of crazy interpretations.

"The world is a jungle of crazy interpretations." Have truer words ever been said?