Atomic Elroy

Life
Love
Health
Wealth
Family
Faith
Unspoken
Unimaginable

40 years ago today The Beatles was released, otherwise known as “The White Album” . This record changed my life in ways I never realized until recently. It contain one of the The Beatles biggest pop hits ( Birthday), and most bizarre and avant garde work ( Revolution #9). Truly musical soup to nuts.
I had just turned 14, and was either in the process of or had just moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, from Melrose, Massachusetts. I had been staying in Melrose with my uncle David Maher, while my Mom rented a apartment, etc. out in Colorado. At the time I was terrified, I had been living in a small town outside of Lowell Mass. named Tyngsboro. This was a bedroom community/suburb for Lowell, and what at the time was called the Route 128 Corridor, a string of electronics firms had sprung up between Boston and Lowell on Route 128 providing jobs for both areas. This is why we were moving to Colorado, my Mom had got a job with Raytheon and was being transfered to COS. Yet I though that moving anywhere, let alone some place out in the Wild Wild West was akin to a Cultural Death Sentence. I truly thought there were going to be clapboard sidewalks and General Stores.
Going through all this Teenage Trauma Turmoil had indeed fucked with my brain, then The Beatles was released. I was at the time quite a radio freak listening to WBZ AM or WBCN FM ( the underground station) in Boston constantly on my transistor radio, trying to glean any and all hip culture from the airwaves to save me from my fate. One has to realize that radio was the only electronic media link to any hip culture at the time, TV was quite square, and compared to today the youth market was under served media wise. I knew the album was about to be released as the Apple Corps press had released photos etc. So I waited, anticipating the release of what may very well be ‘just another Beatles album’ ( Magical Mystery Tour was kind of a let down after Sgt. Peppers). I remember being totally impressed with the solid white cover and the embossed title, it had a minimalism that was very arty and appealing. Upon listening I was mesmerised. I listened to it constantly, playing nothing else as it’s diversity in style and substance was near perfect. I could put on side one and listen to all four sides and then was ready for side one all over again.
My avant garde cherry had already been popped by Frank Zappa, but the first time I heard Revolution #9, I felt at one with the universe. The Beatles the most popular rock/pop band in the word was legitimizing the avant garde in ways no one actually realized at the time.
The music was a series of brilliant pop, rock, and art tunes. A lot were very narrative for The Beatles, lots of story telling going on. It has so many great compositions that naming the best of them seems futile, I URGE YOU TO GO PUT THE ALBUM ON AND LISTEN TO ALL 4 SIDES IN ORDER ( I am). The range of music presented in this work was incredible, love songs ( I Will, Julia), art songs ( Long, Long, Long), humor ( Bungalow Bill, Cry Baby Cry), hidden social commentary ( Piggies), not so hidden social commentary (Revolution), and of course what The Mop Top Lads From Liverpool were best at, innuendo, By now the innuendo was sometime not so subtle with an example being one of my favorites (Why Don’t We Do It In The Road), To close it all out a lullaby (Goodnight)!
This double album really had it all, an artistic feast for the mind.
I now realize how much this album colored my views of art and culture and politics. My absurdist, surrealist, and pop art sensibilities most likely spring from this erstwhile masterpiece.
The Beatles, remember life begins at 40!
“Now it’s your birthday well, Happy Birthday to You!”

I’m convinced of it, There is no Banksy, no single person who makes the art attributed to Banksy, Banksy is an elaborate post modern myth, a concept, not a person. It may be a team of people, or a collective. What ever it is, the brilliance of the art cannot be underestimated. The “free art” philosophy is quite unique and a threat to the modern art commercial system.Banksyart is art that cannot be purchased, cannot be sold, and cannot be posessed. It is time based conceptual painting. ( figure that out art academia) Banksy IS art!

So Banksydoesn’t exist, long live Banksy !

CHANGE HAPPENS!

YES WE CAN!

“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.” Frank Zappa.