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| Del Sarlette gets his last haircut from Dave Evenson. |
We're in quite the gender-neutral age now. Our community of Morris is losing its last barber. People my age can offer up several names of barbers we remember here. My high school friend Scott Reese was the son of Bob Reese.
As we speak there's one barber in ol' Motown and it's Dave Evenson. And he's retiring and moving to sunny California. It's imminent. I'm told there was a big recognition gesture for him Sunday morning at my church of First Lutheran. Dave was feted at "coffee hour." Coffee lubricates the social life of Scandinavia, of which Dave is a proud member in spirit, as he even uses the Norwegian tongue with people out and around. He'll share a cheery "good day" in Norwegian.
It is delicate to announce that we're losing the last of our barbers. I was asked to suggest text for a mayoral proclamation. Immediately I felt discomfort and it's for the reason I cited earlier: we live in a gender-neutral culture, so why should we view "barber Dave" as distinct from the females who are professional haircutters? In theory we should not.
So is it "politically incorrect" to talk about the town "losing its last barber?" I of course think it's harmless. Beware the P.C. police on this. Honoring Dave is not going to hurt the so-called "cosmetologists," a term that seems confined to females.
You might say we should all just "lighten up." Well, I don't know.
A personal hiatus from church
I should have been in church Sunday but I have stayed away because of some issues. Some people seem to think the church sanctuary is a nursery on Sunday morning. First Lutheran has gone through some decline spasms. Having two ELCA churches in town means you have to choose one over the other. Whichever one you choose, members of the other might feel some resentment. Why get into that?
Better yet, why don't we have just one ELCA church in town?
The ELCA became controversial because of the gay rights issue where our proud synod ended up choosing inclusiveness, love and bridging the gap. There is a whole new Lutheran church just outside of town that rejects those things.
I have an issue with Martin Luther having been such a terrible anti-Semite. You think Ilhan Omar is an anti-Semite? (Well, I don't view her that way.) Strange how we develop our attitudes. Some evangelicals are starting to talk about Donald Trump like they think he's sent by God. This might be enough to get me to reject Christianity for the rest of my life. Where will I go? Few people will care, I guess.
"A barber showing photographs"
So we have the great "Penny Lane" song from the Beatles when they were at the height of their powers. "Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs of every head he's had the pleasure to know." I was struck by that because I have always heard the line as ". . .pleasure to have known." The "to know" version seems most accepted, but I have found evidence that I am not alone. Listening carefully to the recording is confounding.
Song lyrics are often difficult to understand with precision. I have studied the craft of songwriting and learned that clarity is in fact important. Sometimes the pros don't seem to care as much.
The song continues, "And all the people that come and go, stop and say 'hello.' " With Dave it would be in Norwegian. The song continues with the most routine observations. Of course the melody was a real selling point.
Paul McCartney was sitting at a bus shelter when the seeds for the song were planted. He saw a barber shop with pictures of its clients. Penny Lane is a road in Liverpool, England. But the song specifically focuses on the Penny Lane bus station, now gone. The bus station was convenient for the Beatles when they were boys. It was a hub for getting around.
Ah, the trumpet part! That comes back to you readily, n'est-ce pas? You have noticed that it's not an ordinary-sounding trumpet. It's like the trumpet that used to open the William F. Buckley TV show "Firing Line." It's a piccolo trumpet! What a defining feature.
McCartney was watching the BBC when he saw "The New Philharmonica" perform a Bach work. McCartney decided he wanted to add the trumpet part. He approached the trumpet man, Dave Mason. George Martin had to get involved to musically "translate," as it were, and why was this? Mason "read music" the standard way while McCartney was on the pop side where the whole thing is more intuitive and instinctual. Mason needed his part written down as if it were a symphonic work. Martin was able to do this, and the rest is history.
John Lennon played piano and George Harrison the conga drum. There is no guitar. The lyrics include some "sexual slang" that I never picked up. Am I a rube?
In my own song, "When I'm at Target Field," on YouTube, my original version ended with a tag line that had the word "coaxed." My studio guy Frank Michels got back to me and shared concerns that the word would be heard as "cokes," I guess a drug reference. Sheesh. Within minutes I composed an alternate line, emailed it to him and he went to work.
I am probably more fascinated with the craft of songwriting than with journalism. Science cannot explain so much about what makes a song popular. It comes from a mysterious place.
"Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" were intended for the Sergeant Pepper album. However, in light of Lennon's controversy over the "more popular than Jesus" comment, Capitol Records released the two songs as a single to right the boat. Lennon's comment was misunderstood. He was exasperated over how the Beatles were so popular when churches seemed pale by comparison. (BTW I have always hated "Strawberry Fields Forever.")
Penny Lane in Liverpool is named after James Penney, an 18th Century slave ship owner. And we thought we had problems with Lake Calhoun? The barber in the song is James Bioletti who was the Beatles' barber when they were kids. And, "the banker in the motor car?" Guess what? This was developed by McCartney for no other reason than he needed a rhyme! I have done that type of thing myself. Songwriters' secret. Even classic songs can have a throwaway line because of the need for prosody or rhyming.
I wonder if our barber Dave Evenson ever cut a celebrity's hair. Would he keep the locks as a souvenir? Well, at any rate we wish him and Yvonne a wonderful retirement in a place far away from Minnesota winters.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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