TAGGED: Open Book

Traveller One has tagged me for this little meme, ‘Open Book’. These were the instructions:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open it at page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence/ phrase.
4. Blog the next four sentences/ phrases together with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig your shelves for that very special or intellectual book.
6. Pass it forward to six friends

My slight problem is that, sitting at my desk, I have mostly dictionaries, and books in Swedish behind me. I thought it be a bit unfair, and not particularly interesting to most people, to quote a book in a language spoken by a little over ten million people (taking into account the Swedish-speaking part of the Finnish population). So I stretched a little further along my books and picked the first one I could find in English. That book happened to be the first one my wife gave me after just having met thirteen years ago, so it holds a special place in my heart. (Was that too sentimental? Never mind.)

It is not exactly fiction, but a book you read through initially and then use like an encyclopaedia. It is called ‘Revolution In The Head’ (by Ian MacDonald), a detailed description of all the Beatles’ recordings. It tells you all the relevant facts, where and when, who, how etc. There is also a small chronology section at the end of the book with the columns: The Beatles – UK Pop – Current Affairs – Culture, useful source of reference when you cannot remember ‘when’.

Page 123 deals with ‘I’ve Just Seen A Face’ from the album ‘Help!’ (in the US ‘Rubber Soul’) released in 1965, with Paul McCartney doing the vocal.

So here are sentences 6-9:

Because his [Paul McCartney’s] Auntie Gin liked it, the tune was shortlisted as ‘Auntie Gin’s Theme’ until McCartney added the love-at-first-sight lyric which, with its tumbling internal rhymes and gasping lack of breathing spaces, complements the music perfectly. Taped in six takes, without frills or second thoughts, the song grabbed Capitol’s A&R department so firmly that they pulled it off the American version of Help! and turned it into the opening track of the American version of Rubber Soul, thus conspiring to give the US public the impression that the latter was ‘The Beatles’ Folk Rock Album’ (see [56]). As with [59] YESTERDAY, there is no doubt that had I’VE JUST SEEN A FACE been ready three months earlier, it would have featured in the film. As it was, it lifted the later stages of the Help! album with its quickfire freshness – a pop parallel to the fast-cutting impressionism of contemporary Swinging London movies like Richard Lester’s The Knack, John Schlesinger’s Darling, and John Borman’s Catch Us If You Can.

Let's play tag. The recipients of my tags will be these fortunate people:

1 Matthew
2 Green Haddock
3 Christina
4 Christina G
5 Rositta
6 Eric

It is supposedly a quick and easy one! What’s on YOUR shelf?