Tim Hatfield's Beatles Tribute Now In Print: When We Find Ourselves in Times of Trouble

"When times are challenging we have to be intentional about being hopeful."
--Tim Hatfield

Just this past week I was in a discussion regarding our need for hope. The turbulence of these past 125 years has upended us in ways that have been unimaginable. 125 years ago the engine of progress seemed unstoppable. When Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900, he believed we were entering a new era of understanding about the mind. Modernism in every field of endeavor brought promises of hope, discovery and scientific progress. 

It wasn't long before the world's tectonic plates began trembling. Wars, pogroms, disease, revolutions, economic hardships, tyrants, famines, genocides and other kinds of devastation clawed our hearts and inflamed our fears. By the time the year of Covid hit, you might feel we were accustomed to surprises. But no, as we hunkered down, we really weren't ready yet again. 

It is within this context that Tim Hatfield began taking a deeper dive into the Beatles song catalog, uncovering messages of hope that he could share with friends via email. Each day, a new song, with personal insights and impressions. 

As he shared these, many of his friends shared them with other friends so that it became an ever-expanding circle. In the end, it became an eBook, with links to every song. Today is is now itself a book that you can hold in your hands, titled When We Find Ourselves in Times of Trouble: The Beatles (All their songs with encouraging words for challenging times)

Tim Hatfield is a lifelong Beatles fan. His book highlights all the songs of the Beatles, from their earliest demos to Abbey Road and 10 “Bonus Tracks.” 

A unique feature of the book is that readers can point and click a QR code to listen to each song and read the back story for each. The book was inspired by the author’s love of rock and roll and special love of the Beatles’ music, but specifically by his desire to help people cope with the uncertainty and anxiety of the Covid pandemic. 

What became clear during almost a year of notes to a large group of family and friends is that the music of the Beatles could be a potent gift to a person during any challenging time in their life -- a brief uplifting respite from stress and worry. Each song was accompanied by its back story, often some historical perspective with other artists, and a brief gentle reminder to persevere through a difficult time. The music of the Beatles can, indeed, be life-giving during a national crisis or any personally difficult time – our times of trouble.

One of the songs, "Flying," was a tribute to a mutual friend who has now passed. Though this link in the chain is missing, Tim and I are now connected.

 

HOW TO ORDER

Direct link to www.amazon.com

then search Tim Hatfield Beatles

Only $18.99. 

HERE’S WHAT YOU GET

* Hear every Beatles song with a simple point and click on a QR code

* Read the back story for each song

* Hear covers and related songs by other artists

* Watch videos of special performances

* Learn about Beatles connections with Dylan, Little Richard, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, The Byrds, the Beach Boys, and others

 

About the Author

Tim Hatfield, Ph. D, is a lifelong Beatles fan. Educated in the Norwood, Ohio, Public Schools, Harvard, and the University of Minnesota, he retired from a career as a school counselor in Illinois and Massachusetts and spent 30 years as a counselor educator at Winona State University. He lives in Minnesota with his spouse Susan. They have four children and four grandchildren.

Related Link 

A Visit with Tim Hatfield, Author of an Uplifting Book Featuring the Beatles Catalog in Its Entirety

Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? A Song About Hard Times

I still like to listen to my old vinyl records and one of the songs that really sticks with me from the Peter, Paul & Mary archive is "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" The Great Depression may have been an exceptionally challenging time for Americans (25% unemployment) but it did generate some heartrending folk songs, which demonstrates how the spirit continuously strives to rise above the mud, mulch and muck, by means of creative expression. Heartbreak unites us because we all share a common humanity.

According to Wikipedia, the lyrics were written by Yip Harburg and the tune by Jay Gorney for the 1932 musical revue Americana.* The melody is actually borrowed from a Russian-Jewish lullaby.

Though most Broadway musicals feature upbeat songs, this one was composed in a minor key. The tone of the lyrics required a similar aural treatment. Over time it has be recorded by a wide swath of performers.

Bing Crosby & Rudy Vallee made it popular in 1932, essentially a song about the impact of the Great Depression upon the common man. Try to imagine what we would be seeing if we had 25% unemployment today. That's what our grandparents (or great grandparents if you're younger) dealt with. I remember my mom telling us how her dad would carry home a 100 lb. bag of navy beans on Saturdays and "that's what we would eat all week."

Others who performed or recorded this song have included Al Jolson, George Michael, Jorma Koukonan, Tom Waits, Judy Collins, Peter Paul & Mary, Dr. John, Abbey Lincoln and dozens more.

The song was quite controversial in its day. There were business leaders who saw the song as "a dangerous attack on the American economic system," so they sought to have it banned from the radio. William Zinsser, who taught writing at Yale, wrote that radio stations banned it for being "sympathetic to the unemployed".  Hmmm.

Here are the lyrics:

Once I built a railroad, made it run
Made it race against time
Once I built a rairoad, now it's done
Brother can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower to the sun
Brick and rivet and lime
Once I built a tower, now it's done
Brother can you spare a dime?
Once in khaki suits
Gee, we looked swell
Full of that yankee Doodle De Dum
Half a million boots went slogging through hell
I was the kid with the drum
Say don't you remember, they called me Al
It was Al all the time
Say don't you remember, I'm your pal!
Brother can you spare a dime?
Once in khaki suits
Gee, we looked swell
Full of that yankee Doodle De Dum
Half a million boots went slogging through hell
I was the kid with the drum
Say don't you remember, they called me Al
It was Al all the time
Say don't you remember, I'm your pal!
Brother can you spare a dime?
Buddy can you spare a dime?

Here's Peter, Paul & Mary's version of the song.

* * * *  

EdNote: Information about this song's history came from a Wikipedia entry about the song.

Bob Dylan: Good As I Been To You Is Good

For some reason I took a pass on Dylan's early 90s albums, Good As I Been to You and World Gone Wrong. At the time, there must have been a bad review or maybe I was led to believe these weren't an essential part of one's collection, perhaps dismissing them because he recorded covers instead of writing new masterpieces like "Desolation Row" or "All Along the Watchtower."

So I decided to fill these two holes in my collection this past Christmas. 

Tonight, as I listen to Good As I Been To You yet another time, I'm surprised that we ever listen to other people instead of deciding for ourselves. People have different tastes and some of my favorite albums are lower on the various lists of "Best Dylan Albums." Good As I Been to You is a truly rewarding contribution to the Dylan catalog.

I'd bet that if you asked twenty fans what their favorite period was as far as his singing voice, not necessarily the songs, they'd likely identify a dozen different periods and agree on few. I, for one, have appreciated his voice at every stage of his career. I mean, his manner of delivering lyrics can vary, but he is continually distinctive and evocative. And that is part of what makes this album nice, his first acoustic solo album since, hmmm, must be Another Side of Bob Dylan.

In my first listens to Good As I Been to You I was enjoying the guitar work. It's an enjoyable album of finger-pickin' acoustic accompaniment. There is no backing band. It's Bob and his guitar, and occasionally a little harmonica. Something akin to Jorma Kaukonen's performance at The West Theater last week. 

This is Bob digging into a little music history. Classics like Blackjack Davy, Sittin' On Top of the World, and Hard Times are ever familiar. In this case Bob channels them with his own vibe, as is his custom. Others were uncovered from more obscure sources.

The vocals convey the hard times, sorrows, hopes, betrayals, and other emotions associated with the approach of later life. Dylan had passed the half century mark when this album was recorded.

If you're like me there are always a couple songs you connect with on the first listen. You connect enough to take a second listen and with familiarity other songs begin to speak to you. At some point you find that some of the songs you were unfamiliar with are now the ones that resonate most. You can miss that if you only listen once then toss it aside.

Stephen Foster, 1826-1864

For some reason I was unaware that "Hard Times" was a Stephen Foster song. It's definitely classic Americana. Ken Burns found it suitable for a few of his documentaries. Foster, one of the most famous songwriters of the 19th century, died in 1864 at age 37 (according to Wikipedia) after he fell in a Bowery hotel and cut his neck. He was found in a pool of blood and passed away at New York's Bellevue Hospital three days later. Most of us learned some of his songs when we were growing up... songs like "Camptown Races" and "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Beautiful Dreamer."  Years ago I remember the impression Paul Harvey's account made in his inimitable "Rest of the Story" radio tales, which you can listen to here.

The song going through me this past few days has been Canadee-I-O. Maybe it corresponds with the mood of this strange moment in time, even if it an entirely different story. It's a beautiful song with a somewhat haunting tune. Hear it here on YouTube. You can read the lyrics here.

"Black Jack Davey" is another favorite, though very different from the exuberant version recorded by the Incredible String Band. How interesting that these two versions can be so different yet infectious, each in its own way.  

Someone wrote that Dylan was "just going through the motions" on this album. I disagree. As I said in the beginning, it's much more intimate than putting on a show. We're sitting on the couch and he's sitting over here in that chair and a couple other friends are seated on a cushion leaning against the wall and we're just happy to be present. 

Enjoyment has much to do with one's expectations. A lot of things in life are that way. Our expectations can easily get in the way of appreciating something special that is right there in front of us. 

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears While we all sup sorrow with the poor. There's a song that will linger forever in our ears, Oh, hard times, come again no more. --Stephen Foster 

Puzzles and the Ambiguity of Bob Dylan

Puzzles by their nature imply solution. We don't buy an 800-piece puzzle and wonder if it'll go back together again. When I was a kid my dad used to bring home bent nail puzzles like these that we'd struggle over, having to take apart or put back together. It was assumed that they're going to resolve, whether it's taking these nail things apart or whatever.

So it is with mystery stories. Whether Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes, it's essentially a given at the outset that Hercule Poirot will learn whodunnit by the end of the story, or that Holmes will solve the mystery that has stumped Scotland Yard. The fun, for readers, is trying to take the clues one is being fed by the writer and "get it" before our hero does.

How about real life? A lot of situations we find ourselves in leave us feeling puzzled, and there appears to be no resolution. The puzzles of life are often more complicated than those bent nail puzzles. We're tested, fail and in the end left confused. It would be nice if everything we stumbled into were as neatly packaged as the crossword puzzles we find in our daily paper. The crosswords may be challenging, but I've yet to see our newspaper publish one in which there was no solution whatsoever. Real life problems, like finding employment, have no real assurances. At least the newspaper prints the answers to the Crypt-O-Gram and the Word Jumble and the daily crossword puzzle.

This is an intriguing feature of Bob Dylan's career as a songwriter. Because of our experiences as readers of Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and others of their ilk, we approach song interpretation much the same as we would a mystery. We search for clues, and we assume that there is a solution to the problem of interpretation.

What Dylan does in many of his songs is more like life. It doesn't come neatly packaged. It is not a math equation like 2 + 2 = 4. It is when we try to dissect his lyrics rationally that we at times run into problems, because occasionally the song is intended to be engaged emotionally, or on some deeper level. The composition intrigues the mind, but the texture of the images touches us in other ways than we ourselves can articulate. The effect of the lyrics is heightened by the musical accompaniment to create moods and sensations.

The direction modern art took with abstract expressionism and minimalism was off-putting to many people because when they attempted to engage the work intellectually and rationally. Kandinsky opened the door to alternative ways of viewing a painting, the emotional/aesthetic path. Dylan explored this as well as he strove to get the right sound to wrap his words and ideas around, words that did more to veil interpretations than to reveal them.

All this to say that Dylan's ambiguity is more like the puzzle that is life than it is the jigsaw puzzles we sometimes occupy our time with. The puzzle of life has pieces that don't always fit so neatly together.

* * * *
If you do like puzzles that have solutions, here's a cool site to try out: Jigsaw Planet. Or try out this British site with other varieties of puzzles.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Engage it.