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Oct 16, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
My daughter was born in 1989, twenty years after the breakup of history’s most phenomenal music band, the Beatles. The Beatles was a nuanced group though it was confined to a particular genre in music. Like so many other songwriters before them, the members of the Beatles gave us unforgettable love songs (of which “Yesterday” has taken its place high up among all the classics of great love songs) but the Beatles stood out for some powerfully driven, philosophical lyrics which were saliently missing in other songwriters including Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and the extraordinarily brilliant Burt Bacharach.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote some deeply moving, philosophically infused lyrics. Songs like “Nowhere Man,” “The Fool on the Hill,” and “Let it Be,” will remain powerful influences on the western mind for a long time to come. Perhaps their most influential philosophical composition is “Eleanor Rigby.” This will remain one of the greatest melodies for me because of its philosophical base. It is my favourite Beatles tune (President Bill Clinton said it is his too).
I wanted my daughter to like those particular songs from the Beatles repertoire and I succeeded. She loves “Eleanor Rigby.” Her Christmas gift to me last year was a compilation of Beatles tunes that she likes.
“Eleanor Rigby” (one of the most covered songs in history; the most is “Yesterday.”) tells the tragic story of a lonely woman whose dream had come to an end and she died a sad soul. She lived by the window just waiting and watching, watching and waiting. At her funeral, no one came.
In the lyrics, it was put that as the priest, Father MacKenzie, wiped the dirt from his hand; he knew that Eleanor could not have been saved. In the song, Father MacKenzie was a pessimist too, and that didn’t help Eleanor. Eleanor Rigby wanted to belong. She dreamt of belonging but she didn’t have the courage to persist. Life is about a sempiternal dream in our heart and the rage to persist with what we believe in.
I was moved to write this essay after I stood next to Tacuma Ogenseye in the picket line outside NCN on Homestretch Avenue last Tuesday evening. The purpose was to demand equal election coverage for the views of all opposition parties on a station owned by the people of this country. I shared a long, enduring friendship with Tacuma during the reign of President Forbes Burnham. I will always remember him as one of the bravest freedom fighters and human rights activists the English-speaking Caribbean produced.
I looked at him and saw the passing of the years on his expressions. We all grow older but I saw the persistence on his face and I saw the imprint of the dream we both shared when we were younger. This is what makes Tacuma go on, this is what makes me go on – the dream in our heart.
I sense the years have taken its toll on the spontaneity of energy. Tacuma is not the robust man he was in the seventies. During that time, I saw him fight off five (yes five) police officers in the compound of the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court. They had come to arrest him. That is one of the scenes from the Burnham era that is indelibly imprinted on my psyche.
I see the dream in Tacuma. And I suspect that makes him go on and that keeps him from being an Eleanor Rigby. I will say the same for myself.
If anything should happen to me, I have left the meaning of “Eleanor Rigby” with my daughter and I know she has emblazoned her dream in her heart. We have to dream. We must dream. We must dream to live and live to dream. Eleanor Rigby stopped dreaming and her life became a tragedy.
The election campaign is on, and I rather suspect it will once more bring Tacuma and me together. I don’t know what will happen or become of Guyana after the election, but I am glad Tacuma is in the struggle with me.
When our mutual friend, and Guyanese freedom fighter, Dr. Josh Ramsammy died, I dedicated a lovely international hit song to him; a song that influenced me when I was young. I now dedicate this song to Tacuma. Titled, “Those were the Days,” by Mary Hopkin. Here are some lines;
Those were the days my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d sing and dance forever and a day
We’d lived the life we choose
We’d fight and never lose
For we were young
And sure to have our way
Then the busy years went rushing by us
We lost our starry notions on the way
I saw your face and heard you call my name
Oh my friend, we’re older and but no wiser
For in our hearts the dreams are still the same.
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THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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Freddie – the Beatles were influenced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – a himalayan monk