Brad's Music Room

The longest-reigning monarch in British history turns 90 on Thursday, but Queen Elizabeth II is not planning a major, fireworks-filled celebration to mark the happy occasion.

Just a gentle stroll outside the grounds of Windsor Castle, the lighting of a beacon, and a night at home with family are all that are on the royal plate.

No, she’ll save the pomp and ceremony for her next birthday. The monarch is such an eminent figure in British life that she gets two birthdays each year, one on the actual date of her birth, April 21, and one official birthday in June, when there is at least a reasonable hope of dry, sunny parade weather.

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926) is, and has been since her accession in 1952, Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and Head of the Commonwealth. She is also Queen of 12 countries that have become independent since her accession: Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Editors note: I encourage you to click on a hyperlink to read more about a song and/or album.

“Her Majesty” is a song written by Paul McCartney (although credited to Lennon–McCartney) that appears on the Beatles’ album Abbey Road. It is a brief tongue-in-cheek music hall song.^[1] “Her Majesty” is the final track of the album and appears 14 seconds after the song “The End”, but was not listed on the original sleeve. As such, it is considered one of the first examples of a hidden track in rock music.

Abbey Road is the 11th studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969 in the United Kingdom and on 1 October 1969 in the United States. The recording sessions for the album were the last in which all four Beatles participated. Although Let It Be was the final album that the Beatles completed before the band’s dissolution in April 1970, most of the album had been recorded before the Abbey Road sessions began.  A double A-side single from the album, “Something”/”Come Together”, released in October, topped the Billboard chart in the US.

‘Twas a tale of two rooms. The first an elegant dining hall. Murals of the restauranteur’s homeland graced the walls.  White cotton linens with red napkins folded to look like peacock tails covered the tables. Vases with a single red carnation completed the look. Food was served on china. Traditional Chinese instrumental music filled the air. “My dad wanted the tea house to be authentic Cantonese cuisine,” Wing Yee Leong says. “There were white tablecloths, bus boys… The service was impeccable.”

On the other side of the swinging doors was the kitchen. Yin Wing (a.k.a. David) Leong, his wife and children were busy preparing meals for the patrons using traditional Cantonese recipes.

Demand for authentic Cantonese fare was limited in Springfield in the 1960s, and David needed a way to draw more customers into the restaurant. He looked for ways to blend Ozark flavors and traditions with those of his Cantonese heritage. The result was Springfield cashew chicken (chicken pieces lightly breaded and deep fried covered with a special sauce, green onions and cashews).

“When he started working on the dish, it was an unbreaded stir-fry,” Wing Yee says. “But he knew the style people here liked – lots of country-fried steak.” With his sleeves rolled up, David got to work deboning the meat, breading it and developing the signature sauce. It was an instant hit.

This recipe would spawn a cult following leading to a culinary revolution in Springfield and beyond. Locally, Chinese food carryout restaurants featuring “Springfield Cashew Chicken” are now perhaps as numerous as Starbucks. This dish can also be found on the menus of restaurants all around the world including New York, Seattle and Hong Kong.

My first job was a bus boy at Leong’s Tea House. The job paid $1.40 / hr plus all the cashew chicken you could eat.

“Here, There and Everywhere”  is a ballad written by McCartney and inspired by the Beach Boys’ song “God Only Knows”. The song’s opening lines are sung over shifts in time signature from 9/8 to 7/8 to 4/4;  according to Everett, “nowhere else does a Beatles introduction so well prepare a listener for the most striking and expressive tonal events that lie ahead.” Womack characterises the song as a romantic ballad “about living in the here and now” and “fully experiencing the conscious moment”. Riley describes “Here, There and Everywhere” as “the most perfect song” that McCartney has ever written.

Revolver is the seventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 5 August 1966 in the United Kingdom and three days later in the United States. The record spent 34 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, for seven of which it held the number one spot.^[1] Reduced to eleven songs for the North American market, Revolver was the last Beatles album to be subjected to Capitol Records’ policy of altering the band’s intended running order and content. In America, the album topped the Billboard Top LPs listings for six weeks.

John:  Five cents

Rick: Call

Jim:  Call

Brad:  I’ll see your five cents and raise you a nickel

Kerry:  I’ll see your 10 cents and raise you a dime

John:  I’m out

Rick:  Me too

Jim:  Fold

Brad:  Call (tossing a dime into the pot)

Kerry:  Straight, King high

Brad:  Flush

Kerry:  D*****, that’s it. I’m out of money.

Brad:  Do you want to borrow another $5?

Kerry:  No.  I owe you $10 and already spent this week’s paycheck.  I’ll have to pay you next week.

Rick:  Kerry do you have any Beatles albums?  We went to the pawnshops earlier today and came up empty.

Kerry:  I only have one.  It is called Yesterday and Today and I bought it about 10 years ago for $3.

Brad:  That is one I don’t have. I am willing to take that in lieu of the $10 dollars you owe me.

Kerry: Done.

Everyone chipped in and gave Kerry one dollar so we could continue our game. We departed friends, Kerry left debt free, and I was the proud owner of a new Beatles album. A few years later I determined that the album cover was actually a second state “butcher cover“.

“We Can Work I Out” is a song by the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. It was released as a “double A-sided” single with “Day Tripper”, the first time both sides of a single were so designated in an initial release. Both songs were recorded during the Rubber Soul sessions.

Yesterday and Today is the ninth Capitol Records album release by the Beatles and the eleventh overall American release. It was originally issued only in the Unitd States and Canada. In the 1970s it was issued in Japan. A later UK release (on Compact Disc) followed in 2014. The album is remembered primarily for the controversy surrounding its original cover image, the “butcher cover” featuring the band dressed in white smocks and covered with decapitated baby dolls and pieces of meat. The album’s title is based on the song “Yesterday”. Early album cover proofs show the word “Yesterday” in quotes.