Yesterday – The Beatles
One morning in May 1965 Paul McCartney woke up with a “lovely tune” in his head. He got out of bed, sat down at the piano, and started playing chords to go with the melody he was hearing. But when he tried to write lyrics all he could come up with was, “scrambled eggs, oh, my baby, how I love your legs…” Despite his lack of lyrical inspiration, he continued to tinker with the melody over the next few weeks while The Beatles were recording their 5th album Help!, McCartney kept tinkering with the song. And then, while on a long drive he remembers, “suddenly getting these little one word openings to the verse. I started to develop the idea: Scrambled eggs, da-da da. I knew the syllables had to match the melody, obviously: da-da da, yes-ter-day, sudden-ly, fun-il-ly, mer-illy, and Yes-ter-day, that’s good. All my troubles seemed so far away. It’s easy to rhyme those ‘a’s: say, nay, today, away, play, stay, there’s a lot of rhymes and those fall in quite easily, so I gradually pieced it together from that journey. Sud-den-ly, and ‘b’ again, another easy rhyme: e, me, tree, flea, we, and I had the basis of it.” Yesterday went on to hit number 1 in the US (it wasn’t released as a single in the UK) and is regularly ranked as one of the greatest songs of all time. The writer Kevin Kelly talks about how important getting started is because, “where you start is not where you’re going to land.” If McCartney hadn’t been comfortable starting with “Scrambled Eggs” he would have never landed at “Yesterday.”

Music For Nine Post Cards – Hiroshi Yoshimura
In the 1970s this Japanese pianist and electronic music producer was heavily influenced by Brian Eno (the father of ambient music). After becoming established as a producer he was commissioned to create music for galleries, museums, building spaces and train stations. His work was eventually labeled “environmental music” or “music that’s made to supplement the environment in which it exists.” It’s exactly what Brian Eno aimed to do when he noticed the contrast between beautiful architecture and terrible music. This album seems to expand and fill the spaces in the room when I play it. It’s just Yoshimura’s electric piano, lots of droning noises, and empty space.

Somebody Else – The 1975
The author and playwright Oscar Wilde said that, “Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory.” Everytime I hear the 1975’s first album I’m transported to the mountains of Colorado in 2013 when the album was released. My family was on a trip there and my brother played the album front to back. I hadn’t heard anything like it before, an intense mixture of 80s pop and gritty rock. Music’s ability to tap into our memory and senses is strong and reliable. I’ve been listening to their second album recently, specifically this song. It’s more down tempo and showcases their ability to create interesting sonic palettes.

Listen to the playlist with all of these songs here.

Hope you listen to great music this week!
Dawson