Skip to main content

Coming Around (to liking) The Helter Skelter

I had to traipse across town this afternoon to another school. After a rather disastrous trip there (yes, thank you Tom Tom for adding an additional half an hour to my journey, by the way), I faced my journey home with a great degree trepidation and understandable apprehension.

What CD could I put on that would ease the torment (not to mention length) of the journey? Simple. The Beatles White Album.

I'll admit that I'm not one of those people who sees this album as being one of their greatest releases. I have always found it to be lumbering, lost and at times, rather pointless (Revolution 9 anyone?), but then again, to be fair, I don't remember the last time I listened to it in one sitting.

The one track that has always put me off is Helter Skelter, yet, after listening to most of the album, stuck in that interminable line of traffic, I find myself slightly (and I won't get more enthusiastic than that) warming to both the song and the album.

I finished the journey at Long, long, long, which if you think about it, was the most appropriate place to end the session. It had certainly been a long, long, long journey there and back but somehow, in our time together, The White Album had managed to burrow it's way into my affections. I still don't hold it up there with Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper or Revolver, but at least now, I don't feel that Helter Skelter is the spoiler it used to be.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Bomb Shelter

I'm feeling pretty down today. I don't know if its the shitty weather (grey skies and nothing but rain) or the fact that the alarm clock woke me up at the ungodly hour of 4.30 this morning - but I really don't feel happy. I'm pondering whether I'm finding my marriage or parenthood more challenging right now. My throat is raw from all the screaming I've done at the kids over the last few days and my T.Q (temper quotient) is at an all time low. You sneeze at the wrong volume and I'll bite your head off. I'm an absolute bastard to live with and I know it. I prefer not to engage in conversation with any of the family because I can't be bothered to be sociable. At least on my blog, I can let my emotions rip, without someone interrupting my rant. The underlying cause for it all? It could be a growing sense of panic that school is approaching and I really haven't done any preparation yet. When I sit down to start work, I get a feeling of total paralysis...
Heavenly Fires - Dvar Torah for Parshat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim She was the largest of her type and class. It is said that passengers on the LZ 129 Hindenburg Zeppelin Airship couldn’t tell when she had disembarked as her launches were so smooth. 80 years ago, on 6 th May 1937, she caught fire over Lakehurst, New Jersey and crashed into the ground in a coruscating ball of fire. 36 people, including 13 passengers, 22 crew and 1 member of the ground unit died. Among the dead was Captain Ernest Lehmann, highly respected and experienced in piloting German airships, but who was later criticized for often making reckless manoeuvres that compromised the airship’s safety. The explosion’s cause is still unknown, despite numerous theories propagated since. On the eighth day, dressed in his magnificent Priestly robes, he faced the throngs of people, staring in disbelief at the sight. The Mishkan (Tabernacle), gleamed in the hazy midday sun, a structure whose presence owed its being ...