{"id":2047,"date":"2019-10-18T21:01:59","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T21:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/?p=2047"},"modified":"2019-10-18T21:02:45","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T21:02:45","slug":"kapurs-fall-dive-into-abbey-road-and-elton-johns-masterpieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/2019\/10\/18\/kapurs-fall-dive-into-abbey-road-and-elton-johns-masterpieces\/","title":{"rendered":"Kapur\u2019s Fall Dive into Abbey Road and Elton John\u2019s Masterpieces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rhea Kapur (V)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though I dislike the mainstream, formulaic pop that constantly fills Spotify\u2019s \u201cToday\u2019s Top Hits\u201d Playlist, I keep an eye on the charts. Billboard Hot 100? The top 200 albums? Rolling Stone\u2019s Top 100? iTunes Top 100? You name it. Imagine my surprise when, just a few days into October, I saw not Taylor Swift\u2019s Lover<\/em> at the top of the Billboard 200, but The Beatles\u2019 Abbey Road<\/em>, as it was just past the album\u2019s 50th anniversary (Sept. 26th).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went through a brief Beatles phase this summer, after rediscovering Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off<\/em> and the \u201cTwist and Shout\u201d cameo – the song was on repeat for weeks, so much so that Spotify would start recommending it in every single one<\/em> of my personalized playlists. I mainly listened to their popular works – \u201cTwist and Shout,\u201d of course, \u201cHey Jude\u201d (the beautiful lyrics of which, by the way, were written by Paul McCartney to comfort John Lennon\u2019s son Julian during his parents\u2019 divorce), \u201cHere Comes The Sun,\u201d and \u201cBlackbird.\u201d But, last week, after noticing the Beatles\u2019 unusual appearance in the Billboard 200, and reminiscing about my summer obsession, I was intrigued. So I put in headphones, closed my doors, and blasted Abbey Road<\/em>, Remastered 2009. The Beatles\u2019 swan song. The famous last album. The goodbye. And I have to say – it was an experience<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My favorite song by far was \u201cCarry That Weight,\u201d one of the only songs on the album recorded with all four members. It\u2019s dark, it\u2019s deep, it\u2019s striking. A bit of history: recorded as one with \u201cGolden Slumbers,\u201d an eerily reassuring, hopeful, and vulnerable track in and of itself, the song was written by Paul McCartney but it interestingly featured vocals from all four Beatles. The sheer pressure the song conveys (heavy trumpets, \u201cweight\u201d being repeated, etc. – and that abrupt ending) mirrors the Beatles\u2019 own struggles at the time: inter-group rifts and management troubles with Apple plagued them. Fellow juniors, I bet you can relate to this pressure – I know I\u2019m already feeling it. Take comfort in knowing that the Beatles, too, went through seemingly hopeless times – but of course, theirs was probably much more significant, as the band ended up breaking up at the end. However, those times overall turned out to be great and remembered from today\u2019s perspective, and ours will too – have faith. The weight, in fact, will be \u201ccarried a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple more gems from Abbey Road<\/em> – \u201cYou Never Give Me Your Money,\u201d featuring a beautiful, poignant piano base, \u201cOh! Darling\u201d with McCartney\u2019s wrought, almost painful, but undeniably powerful vocals, and of course, \u201cCome Together\u201d with its unique instrumental backbone – quiet, but with all the more noticeable guitar and beats in the back. I highly recommend those. And check out the 2019 mix of Abbey Road<\/em> – it has come out in honor of the 50th Anniversary! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To continue my \u201cclassics~vibes\u201d music pattern, I was reminded of Elton John – another great artist I constantly listened to this summer after watching the movie in his honor, Rocketman<\/em>, with some friends. And what a movie that was. It was the first time I really listened to and recognized Elton John, and in theaters, too – the music was just all-encompassing and consuming in conjunction with the story of his eventful, bright-as-a-supernova life. Hearing the song \u201cRocketman\u201d blasted, I could sense the mixed feelings and, of course, the Ray Bradbury influence – he wrote a short story in the 1950s entitled \u201cThe Rocket Man\u201d upon which the song lyrics are heavily based. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elton John wrote about the most obscure things – the \u201cblue jean baby\u201d in his hands in \u201cTiny Dancer\u201d (a classic, by the way – simply a beautiful song), or \u201cSpanish Harlem\u201d in \u201cMona Lisas and Mad Hatters\u201d (one of my favorite songs of all time<\/em>, and one of Elton\u2019s own favorites, too. I mean, the emotion in it is unparalleled). Honky Chateau<\/em> is definitely a must-check-out album. But, I digress. Overall, Elton manages to make each and every one of his songs striking and beautiful. He\u2019s simply a genius – not only with the jazz piano, which backs almost all of his songs, but with the lyrics and the voice, too. I\u2019m eternally envious of those fortunate enough to have witnessed his genius in person, in his prime (Mr. Keating, looking at you!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I highly, highly recommend checking out Elton John and Abbey Road<\/em>. Listen to them alone, in a quiet space, or even on a rainy morning bus ride, but with the music blasting as loud as you can bear – and really feel <\/em>the music. Let it transport you away from the generic pop for a minute and take you back to the roaring 60s and 70s, when people, places, and music had unique character. Anyway, I\u2019ve been listening to these two as I write this column, and it\u2019s been the perfect vibe. I guarantee you, you\u2019ll be hooked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rhea Kapur (V) Even though I dislike the mainstream, formulaic pop that constantly fills Spotify\u2019s \u201cToday\u2019s Top Hits\u201d Playlist, I keep an eye on the charts. Billboard Hot 100? The top 200 albums? Rolling Stone\u2019s Top 100? iTunes Top 100? You name it. Imagine my surprise when, just a few days into October, I saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":2130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,23],"tags":[18,24],"class_list":["post-2047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-music","tag-columns","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2047"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2138,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions\/2138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}