Henry the Horse dances the waltz

It was 50 years ago today, Sgt Pepper taught the band to play. Actually, not quite today, but June 1 marks the golden anniversary of the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Goodness, does that make me feel ancient. The album came out at the height of the Swinging Sixties, when we all felt we would live forever. The boyish Paul McCartney singing When I’m Sixty-Four was regarded as really quirky as it seemed so far in the future. Scarily, McCartney reached that landmark 11 years ago.

The anniversary will inevitably spark in-depth analysis of the album Rolling Stone magazine calls “the most important rock & roll album ever made”. Some would disagree, but at the time it certainly sounded special, from the opening riffs of the title song to that thunderous final chord on A Day In The Life. That particular song also gave the town of Blackburn, Lancashire unexpected international fame with its splendid “4,000 holes” that John Lennon read about in the Daily Mail.

There are admittedly a couple of rather ordinary songs on the album, but that makes the good ones sound even better. Speaking of which, if you’re feeling a little down in the dumps, listen to Getting Better — that will get you bouncing around.

One of the most unusual songs on the album, and certainly not the most melodic, is Lennon’s Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite, inspired by a poster for a 19th century circus.

In one of those weird word association things, whenever I hear the name Henry, the lyrics “and of course Henry the Horse dances the waltz” immediately comes to mind. That’s what happens to your brain when you’ve been listening to the Beatles for half a century.

Beatles in Bangkok

The Beatles never performed in Thailand but experienced a brief stopover in 1964 en route to Australia. They ventured no further than the step of their BOAC plane to please a couple of hundred fans who had been allowed onto the tarmac at Don Mueang.

John, Paul and George looked a trifle bewildered as they stood on the steps, no doubt wilting from the heat.

Ringo was in London at the time having his tonsils taken out and had been replaced by Jimmy Nicol, drummer with the Swedish group, the Spotnicks. George was photographed clutching a Thai fiddle given to him by a local fan. Whether he ever used it, I don’t know, although George came up with a few Oriental sounds in the coming years.

The Bangkok Post headline the following morning read rather quaintly “It’s Fab, It’s Gear”. I haven’t heard those expressions for a while.

Green Dragon

The Beatles were hugely popular when I first arrived in Thailand. On the New Phetchaburi Road strip, at the Green Dragon bar, a band called the Apples performed many Sgt Pepper offerings.

The audience was almost entirely GIs on R&R from the Vietnam War and one of the most requested songs was A Day In The Life. When it came to the line “The English army had just won the war” the band would alter the lyrics to “Thailand army” which brought cheers (and laughter) from the bar staff.

Then, as a nod to their audience, the band would again change the line to “American army” which would prompt a roar of approval from the GIs, followed a flood of free beers for the band. However, I do remember one GI’s response being, “No way we’re going to win that war, man.”

Sounds of discord

As a teenager I used to tinkle about on the piano at home and when A Day in the Life came out I was determined to nail the song down. I battled for days just to get the opening chords right, a horribly complicated task for my limited skills.

You can imagine how painful it must have sounded to the people next door — thrashing around with all the wrong notes and miss-hit chords. Even my parents, who had always encouraged me to tickle the ivories, had their doubts. “Can’t you place something nice like Greensleeves,” I recall my mum suggesting.

Eventually I was only allowed on the piano if the neighbours had gone out. It was a pity because after weeks of pain I had just about cracked the middle bit where McCartney starts singing “Woke up, got out of bed …”. So ended Crutch’s brief, tragic career as a concert pianist, although it did bring much relief to anyone within earshot of our much abused piano.

A way with words

Lennon had a lot of fun with his lyrics, aware that highbrows would analyse them and come up with silly intellectual interpretations.

I recall being asked by a Thai student the meaning of the opening line to one of the Beatles’ more eccentric songs, I Am The Walrus. Well, how do you explain “I am he as you are he and you are me and we are all together”?

If the student had gone on to ask about the rest of the song, including “sitting on a cornflake waiting for the van to come” or “semolina pilchard climbing up the Eiffel tower”, I would have been really stuffed.

On that note, it seems only appropriate to sign off today with the closing words from Sgt Pepper, “we’re sorry but it’s time to go”.