George Martin – She Said She Said

It’s August 1965: The Beatles, touring America, are resting at 2850 Benedict Canyon Drive, Beverley Hills, where they are trapped by a beseiging army of fans. One day, they're visited by the Byrds and Peter Fonda. Everybody (except one goody-goody Beatle—yes, that one) drops acid. Discussing fear of death with George, Fonda starts talking about his near-fatal self-inflicted childhood gunshot accident, and how his heart stopping three times on the operating table. “I know what it’s like to be dead, man”.

The lysergically enhanced John Lennon finds this deeply disturbing: "Who put all that shit in your head?".

John deals with the trauma in his usual way: by turning it into music. It gets mentally chewed, torn, digested, reassembled, transformed and regurgitated, until it becomes a Beatles song: She Said She Said”, on arguably their best LP, Revolver (1966).

Then Fabs producer and Sixth Fifth Beatle* George Martin further transformed it in to this lush and swoony instrumental: from his 1966 LP of his interpretations of Lennon & McCartney songs: George Martin Instrumentally Salutes The Beatle Girls, using flute, strings, piano and bongos.

*After Stuart Sutcliffe, Pete Best, Brian Epstein, Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans, but before Jimmy Nichol and Billy Preston. Derek who?

Listen:

Download George Martin – She Said She Said MP3 (rapidshare)

Diana Dors – Roller Coaster Blues

She was a pal of the Kray Twins, had terrible taste in husbands, was (cliché alert) Britain’s Blonde Bombshell, famously wore a fur bikini in Venice, hid millions in bank accounts around Britain that have yet to be tracked down, could act well if she got the chance, was one of the few successful pupils at J. Arthur Rank’s Charm School, never quite conquered Hollywood, and had a surprisingly pleasant singing voice: light, tuneful, and an actress’s talent for phrasing.

Diana Dors has always had pop-culture kudos: she’s appeared on LP covers from both the Beatles (Pepper) and the Smiths (“Singles”), in Adam Ant’s “Look-at-me-I’m-so-big-I’m-about-to-loose-it-completely-and-isn’t-Marco-beefing-up-a-bit” video for Prince Charming, and in minor marvellous movies like Deep End, Theatre of Blood, and Steptoe & Son Ride Again.

...tender as the inside of a caterpiller’s thigh...

I first heard this song so far back (How far back was it?) it was so far back, it was on a mix tape a friend sent me (Hi Chunny!). Here she is, Diana Mary “Don’t Forget the L” Fluck, swinging along with Wally Stott’s Orchestra, in a lyrically oddball song from her only album, Swingin’ Dors.

Listen:

Download Diana Dors – Roller Coaster Blues MP3 (rapidshare)