\u201cThrummmmmm\u2026.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a hard day\u2019s night You can hear the chord, of course. But can you play it? Exactly?<\/p>\n Many have tried, all have failed, it seems, until now<\/a>:<\/p>\n The opening chord to \u201cA Hard Day\u2019s Night\u201d is also famous because, for 40 years, no one quite knew exactly what chord Harrison was playing. It worked, to a point: the frequencies he found didn\u2019t match the known instrumentation on the song. \u201cGeorge played a 12-string Rickenbacker, Lennon had his six string, Paul had his bass\u2026none of them quite fit what I found\u2026the solution hit me: it wasn\u2019t just those instruments. There was a piano in there as well, and that accounted for the problematic frequencies.\u201d If you\u2019d like to try comparing the studio chord to a live strike, here you go. I don\u2019t know if they prove anything, though, since mic set-ups, equipment, different timbres and so forth can all make subtle differences. And my goodness how young and beautiful they all were\u2026<\/p>\n Opening to the film AHard Day\u2019s Night<\/strong>, with the magic chord<\/em><\/p>\n Live performance in Paris, 1965, perhaps more notable for the audience and the spare stage<\/em> Such outpourings for a rock star \u2013 or a \u201crock star politician\u201d<\/a> \u2013 are not looked at as aberrant or psychologically questionably behavior, whereas the (by comparison) relatively staid cheering for a pope is looked at, by some, as embarrassing, oogedy-boogedy<\/a> weirdness. Cheering crowds are cheering crowds \u2013 but what we\u2019re cheering matters. Even a \u201crock-star pope\u201d is \u201cin\u201d the culture, but not \u201cof\u201d the culture \u2013 and as we see here, they tend to strike a different chord, altogether<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPraised be Jesus Christ! Dear brothers and sisters, we are still all very saddened by the death of the very dear Pope John Paul I. And now the most eminent cardinals have called a new bishop of Rome. They called him from a far-away country, \u2026 far, but always near in the communion of faith and the Christian tradition. I was afraid in receiving this nomination, but I did it in the spirit of obedience to Our Lord and with total trust in his Mother, the Most Holy Madonna.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if I can express myself well in your \u2013 in our \u2013 Italian language. But if I make a mistake, you will correct me. And so I introduce myself to you all, to confess our common faith, our hope, our trust in the mother of Christ and of the Church, and also to begin again on this path of history and of the Church with the help of God and with that of men.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And too, the crowds cheering for a pope<\/strong> are \u2013 often as not \u2013 cheering as much for the Office<\/a> as the man:<\/p>\n
\nand I been workin\u2019 like a dog\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u2026
\nFour years ago\u2026Jason Brown of Dalhousie\u2019s Department of Mathematics decided to try and see if he could apply a mathematical calculation known as Fourier transform to solve the Beatles\u2019 riddle. The process allowed him to decompose the sound into its original frequencies using computer software and parse out which notes were on the record.<\/p>\n
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\nDr. Brown deduces that another George\u2014George Martin, the Beatles producer\u2014also played on the chord, adding a piano chord that included an F note impossible to play with the other notes on the guitar. The resulting chord was completely different than anything found in the literature about the song to date\u201d
\n(H\/T to Jonah<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nThere is a mysterious alchemy in forming a band.<\/strong> Lennon-McCartney wrote great, fresh music \u2013 even when it got cynical, it was still fresh; George Harrison had a mystical bent, and Ringo, for all he is derided, was the perfect drummer for the Fab Four (think of how instinctively his heavy stomps and triplets make their solid mark, imperfect drumming perfectly suited to the band) but it has always seemed a question worth pondering, to me: would the Beatles have been anything like the phenomenon that was The Beatles<\/em>, without the quiet innovations of George Martin? Martin\u2019s contributions are largely unrealized (the calliope in \u201cMr. Kite\u201d was the result of Martin\u2019s random cuts and splices in the tape), but after the tracks were laid down, he seems to have performed a wizardry of his own.<\/p>\n
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\nRock and roll has changed a great deal.<\/strong> The world has, too. It is very interesting, indeed, to look back at the crowds. Funnily enough, we don\u2019t even consider their behavior odd, anymore. We\u2019ve become very used to the idea of mere mortals screaming for, adoring and idolizing other mere mortals.<\/p>\n
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\nPopes, like pop-musicians and pop-politicians, are also mere mortals<\/strong> \u2013 but it could be argued that their impact on the world is quite different<\/em> than the impact of what Flip Wilson used to call \u201cThe Church of What\u2019s Happening Now\u201d. Not greater or less, but profoundly different and, for the last 40 years or so, outright contradictory.<\/p>\n