The Story: Don't eat the fruit in the garden, Eden,, It wasn't in God's natural plan., You were only a rib,, And look at what you did,, To Adam, the father of Man.
The Story: You smell like goat, I'll see you in hell
Circa 1971 used to frequent one of the various "head shops" in Newark, NJ 07029 along Halsey Street- one in particular "Whatever Is Legal", 23 Halsey Street just right around the corner from Lafayette Radio Electronics on Central Avenue -& this song hit the charts- Paul's biggest hit so far (then) sans Beatles -& heard this one on the store's "Hi-Tech"(for then) AM/FM Multiplex tuner & laughed insanely along with my hooky playing co-conspirators (was 14 at the time, freshman year at HHS).
We really thought was a laugh/riot at the time because Mc Cartney was singing about "Admiral Halsey" & here we were getting rolling papers and 75W UV black light bulbs on Halsey Street, & then the "hands across the water (water), 'heads' across the sky", bit & then we lost it- totally surreal like the opening credits of the old "Twilight Zone", y'know?
So naturally when he sings the , "Live a little, etc., etc., ..." part it made sense (sinse?) to us that was singing abot "lids" which was counterculture slang for a unit of measurement imprompateau during a marijuana transaction utilising the lid of a Prince Albert tobacco can,
approximately 1 ounce depending on the honesty or generousity of your chosen dealer.
"Lid oh lid oh be a gypsy..."
It sounded like it to us stoned teens from right across the water, the Passaic River, from (gulp)- Harrison, NJ -but also intellectually it made sinse (sense).
Flash forward 15 years later,
Now working in Newark in the Downtown area near the old Halsey location, but no mo' head shops anymore, apparently gone the way of the dinosaur thanks to political correctness.
On way home decide to save some $$$ by taking direct bus from Newark's Market Street to JSQ Jersey City instead of the more expensive PaTh, first time never took that route before, so walk down the length of Halsey where it intersects Market Street, reminiscing about the 'good ol 'days' all the way, & wait for the "#1" bus that wends it way through Ironbound section of Newark before going across two trestle bridges in Kearney, before reaching Rt. 440 in JC where I lived at the time.
So my jaw dropped when the "#1" bus that I was told to wait for was the "#1 ALBERT Avenue" bus- on the corner of Halsey & Market!
This event renewed my interest in the "RAM" album LP & especially the track "Uncle ALBERT (Avenue)/Admiral HALSEY (Street)", but alas, listening to it as a (then) 29 year old man & with headphones I could clearly hear the correct lyrics.
Bummer.
As for the Q: "Do you think your version is better than the original?" the answer is a flat NO, but to us 14 year olds in 1971 & with the aforementioned circumstances mentioned- all TRUE I might add -it sure made serendipitous synchronistic sense (sinse) at the time...
Submitted by
Submitted on
8/1/2009 7:55 am
Age it happened
29
Better than original?
No
Convinced others you were right?
Yes
Was partying involved?
No
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Betelgeuse Feb 28, 2014 10:23 am
@marvinleejones - Mebbe it was a "little little lid", that the dealer shorted someone?
Betelgeuse Feb 28, 2014 10:15 am
Haha, I've always had it wrong also. I didn't hear it as "lid oh lid oh" but as "little little gypsy get around" which didn't make sense but it was the Beatles and they didn't have to make sense because they were the Beatles :)
jdreamer63 Feb 23, 2014 4:48 am
Haha, I've always had it wrong also. I didn't hear it as "lid oh lid oh" but as "little little gypsy get around" which didn't make sense but it was the Beatles and they didn't have to make sense because they were the Beatles :)
jdreamer63 Feb 23, 2014 4:48 am
Haha, I've always had it wrong also. I didn't hear it as "lid oh lid oh" but as "little little gypsy get around" which didn't make sense but it was the Beatles and they didn't have to make sense because they were the Beatles :)
jdreamer63 Feb 23, 2014 4:48 am
Okay, remember The Paperback Book Stall on corner of 575 Broad St. & Central Ave.? It was where had picked up a copy of Alan Aldridge's "Penguin Book Of Comics"—first US edition—which introduced me to the world of graphic arts, a world that I had taken for granted until then. That was initially the visit made by me and my pals first that afternoon to pick up the bO-Ok to add to my copy of "The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics" (also by Aldridge) on the way to "Whatever Is Legal"; just now remembered that 8 (∞) months earlier the Apollo 12 mission Moon ROCK was on display under a U.V. light, similar to 23 Halsey's a block away, at the Newark Museum 49 Washington Street, February 4 — March 28, 1971, lunar sample that Astronauts Bean & Conrad brought back to terra firma from Earth's companion satellite November of '69. Imagine a planetary fragment approximately 3.5 billion years old, 238,900 or so miles away, as far as we know undisturbed for aeons (aeon = 1 billion years!), then exhibited just 0.8 miles from where moi was space/timewise in 1971 A.D,, within walking distance across the Bridge Street Bridge o'er the Passaic River. That 2 block area around there has had many fond (and significant!) memories for me, to top it all off: 1971 was 'coincidentally' also (drum roll please)—42 years ago! BTW ☮¡*HⒶppY NэW YэⒶ℞ ②Ⓞ①④*!♥
Betelgeuse Dec 31, 2013 10:18 pm
Yes, the Columbus Homes projects on Sheffield Drive from 1962 to 1966, and surrounding vicinity.
C_G_Jungle Dec 30, 2013 8:28 am
By George, "C_G_Jungle"! Do you also listen to Beatles' recordings 'sdrawkcab'? Given your familiarity you must be from the Newark area too, right?
Betelgeuse Oct 24, 2013 12:05 pm
Read your serendipitous 'coincidences' and synchronicities in space/time with great interest and just wanted to add my two bits, in light of the fact that the McCartney film "Give My Regards To Broad Street" now nearly 30 years old: Newark's Broad Street runs parallel to Halsey Street, and if one boards the Olympia Bus #24 from just off of the Broad Street and Central Avenue corner, stays on past East Orange, it finally winds up at the corner of Main Street and 1 Scotland Road, Orange, NJ 07050, there you'll find the First Presbyterian Church (founded in 1719) where an ancient Revolutionary War era 1775-1783 churchyard cemetery lay, appearance not unlike the one where the 'real' Eleanor Rigby is buried in Liverpool. 'Coincidentally', Scotland Road is also the main route through Liverpool U.K., both the U.S. "War of Independence" and U.K. Scotland Road were commenced or founded on or about almost simultaneously in the 1770's, possibly in sympathy or solidarity with the Colonies' rebel forces, as Ireland just right across the river and with many Liverpudlians of Irish descent. Nobody interred there named Lennon, McCartney, Sutcliffe, Best or Starkey, but there are 6 Harrisons—Aaron Harrison, Abihah Harrison, Amos Harrison, Ichabod Harrison, Jotham Harrison, Moses Harrison, Stephen Harrison—no idea if they were ancestors or in any way genealogically related to the "serious Beatle". Eerie loop: in reverse order if one decides to take the #24 bus back to Newark and continue the trip to the final destination, Elizabeth NJ 07201, the Old First Presbyterian Church (founded 1662), cemetery is the state's largest existing Colonial-era graveyard at—42 Broad St. The number 24 is 42 reversed. The late Douglas Adams (who was a big Beatles and Lennon aficionado) in his book "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" defined the number "42" as the answer to "life, the universe, and everything".
C_G_Jungle Oct 11, 2013 10:27 am
I thought it was "get your feet up off the ground, there's a little kid around"...
sixgunkitty Aug 15, 2012 1:01 pm
Jeez. Is your real name Alex McCrae, by chance? (He's a gasbag who posts personal inanities to a Baltimore Sun blog. By sheer word count you have him beat.)
Bucinka Oct 11, 2011 11:07 pm
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Also another fact (?) is that during WWII the United States Navy was conducting invisibility ("cloaking") experiments at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, PA on or about October 28, 1943, with the U.S.N. destroyer escort USS Eldridge. From the Wikipedia: "The experiments were allegedly based on an aspect of the unified field theory, a term coined by Albert Einstein. The Unified Field Theory aimed to describe mathematically and physically the interrelated nature of the forces that comprise electromagnetic radiation and gravity, in other words uniting the fields of electromagnetism and gravity into one field. Consequently, if light were bent, then space-time would be bent, effectively creating an invisible time machine." Coincidentally Fleet Admiral William Frederick Halsey, Jr., (October 30, 1882 – August 16, 1959) commonly referred to as "Bill" or "Bull" Halsey—the same man McCartney mentions in song—was an American Fleet Admiral in the United States Navy. He commanded the South Pacific Area during the early stages of the Pacific War against Japan on his ship the U.S.S. Enterprise—which TV writer Gene Roddenberry (and ex-U.S.A.F. pilot in the Pacific Theatre with the "Bomber Barons" of the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group) honored by naming his space-faring vessel the same for STAR TREK. Halsey's U.S.S. Enterprise was launched in 1936 and was one of only three American carriers commissioned prior to World War II to survive the war (the others being Saratoga and Ranger). She was fortunate to have missed (ala TV's fictional BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) and consequently survived Pearl Harbor, and was one of the first ships to respond in relentlessly searching the waters and participated in more major actions of the war against Japan than any other US ship. "The Grey Ghost" Enterprise earned 20 battle stars, the most for any U.S. warship in World War II and became the most decorated US ship of World War II. As part of the WWII Navy "top-brass" Admiral "Bull" Halsey was certainly privy to these plans as it would, if successful, help to win the war, to pacify the Pacific, sparing many lives. Was McCartney aware that his silly "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" could also be a reference to Albert Einstein and Admiral "Bull" Halsey with their involvement in the so-called urban legend "myth" of The Philadelphia Experiment? If he wasn't aware, then definitely another amazing coincidence.
C_G_Jungle Apr 19, 2014 11:48 am