Let It Be

October Magazine

As I sat on the bus, the idea of another Bumbastories Magazine, this time for the month of October, ran through my mind, such as it is.

The recent news events have me in a whirl. This week’s shooting in Roseburg, Oregon is so troubling. I heard clips of President Obama’s speech. I share his anger, and I’m glad to see he’s finally showing some balls. It’s criminal what the NRA and Republicans have been doing to the United States. It’s screamingly obvious that the number of deaths and tragedies could be significantly reduced with some strong gun control legislation and better mental health services. The Second Amendment is obsolete; they exploit it. The right to bear arms, to defend yourself and to be free from arbitrary government searches should not extend to the right to possess assault weapons and to hunt deer with AK 47s. It’s unnerving that the weapons manufacturers have so much power.

The refugee crises, the goings-on in the U.N., the Pope’s magnificent visit to the U.S. There’s been a lot of news. There are occasional moments of grace and of hope (What a pope!), but overall, it don’t look good, sports fans.

Let’s move on.

Here’s a Sing Along, Let It Be

Next and lastly, a brief Report from Bumbastories Magazine Roving Reporter George Packard.

George Packard, roving reporter for Bumbastories was still out there roving, looking for a news scoop. He noticed that the price of gasoline had dropped to under three dollars for the first time in almost a year. No scoop there, thought George. Everybody can see the signs (see sign above). Except for the fact that the price of crude oil has fallen over 50% in the past few months! The math isn’t right, is it? You’d figure a 50% drop would cause a decrease larger than a fifteen or twenty, right? Still, it’s good that the price of oil is falling, mused George. For over the long run it will fall, as people learn to conserve a bit and as other clean energy sources are developed. Shell Oil abandonned their $5 billion Arctic drilling project. It just ain’t worth it for them. The price of oil is going down. That’s for sure, thought George. But the way the price gets fixed, that algorithm that gets slapped together on somebody’s calculator, or maybe in that plush conference room, yeah, that would be a scoop, thought George.

Monday Magazine —— September 15, 2014

This week’s Monday Magazine features a brief News update, a Special Report from the Beach from roving reporter George Packard, an Arts Report, and a sing-a-long song,

News Summary and Anaysis from the Bumbastories Team of Political Pundits, Puny Punsters, and Procrastinating Prognosticators

The “situations” in the Middle East remain unresolved. Achh! Achh again! The only discernible trend is that it just gets worse. “Worser and worser,” says one of our keen international pundits (who refuses to be identified for fear his seventh grade grammar teacher might come after him).

As every media story seems to be focused nowadays on President Obama’s incompetence, Bumbastories finds it interesting that no one is giving him credit for his foreign policy successes. For several years, Obama has been criticized for not being assertive enough in Syria and in Iraq. Well, give the guy credit. Imagine if he had armed the Syrian opposition early on! Imagine if American combat troops were back in Iraq! Obama was prudent, nay perspicacious. Or perhaps he just checked out the U.S. track record for Middle East military interventions. In any case, Kerry is trying to get the Arabian sheiks and moneybags to come to a behind-the-scenes accord, which is quite proper and admirable, but also kinda funny.

As for a full Bumbastories Weather break-down, it’s still real hot in L.A. Hottest year in history.

Report from George Packard, Roving Reporter

George Packard, hard-working reporter and ever-roving, made it to the beach again. On the look-out for Breaking News Stories, George found only breaking waves, and as for a news scoop, that’s right, he could only find a couple of plastic shovels (sorry ’bout that). Still, George Packard had a lovely time. In fact George had a lovely time any and every time he went to the beach.

“Nothing beats the beach,” said George.

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Arts Review
Bumbastories is proud to announce the release of Stephen Baum’s second and third novels.
In case you are not aware, Stephen Baum is the guy behind Bumba and George Packard and the rest of us, the guy pulling the strings – and I suspect he is pulling our legs too. Watch out he doesn’t pull yours. In any case, Baum has written three novels, which we at Bumbastories recommend. We have read all of Baum’s books and like them very much. But as we have already mentioned, we are not very objective since Baum is pulling our strings.

Links to purchase both of these books One Life of The Lives of Chester Knowles and The Phantom Speaks, as well as Baum’s first novel Up In The Bronx are found on the new Bumba Books Page. For more information about these books, reviews, and side stories, check out One Life and the The Phantom Speaks categories.

And now, The Bumbastories Sing Along. We suspect that many of you are not singing along. I believe that Bumbastories has made it abundantly clear to the public that singing along, playing along, tapping your feet along with these songs is very highly encouraged. This song, Let It Be, is rated 97 out of a possible 100 on the ‘you have to sing along with this one’ scale. So, no excuses. Join in.

When I find myself in times of trouble…….

Here (No pun intended with hear) this song of wisdom and elegance played by Bumba so you could sing along.

This is a

SING ALONG CHALLENGE.

And, believe me, once you hear the piano playing you’ll understand why I used the word challenge.

Click on either of the buttons below only if you’re going to sing along. Bumba has spared you the pleasure of his croakings and pretty much played an accompaniment for your vocal. Sort of a karaoke thing. The song Let It Be by Lennon&McCartney is a great rock/pop classic!

Click either one to sing Let It Be. Warning: the second one is kind of sad.

Often on this blog I’ve presented old songs that I consider classics and certainly one test of the quality of a work of art is its endurance over the passage of time. So we ponder here at Bumbastories (we do an awful lot of pondering here at Bumbastories), we ponder which of today’s songs are of classic quality, i.e., that people will still be singing them 50 or 100 years from now. Certainly the entire Beatle repertoire looks to be off to a good start in this respect. The Beatles are still extremely popular. But which of the Beatles songs -if any – will people be singing in 2113?

Let It Be is one of their most anthemic (Now, how many songwriters have written more than one song that was “anthemic”? Irving Berlin, Gerschwin?) Anyhow, hats off to the great Paul McCartney, and to John Lennon may he rest in peace, to George Harrison may he rest in peace as well, and Ringo, God love him. We hopes you sing along.

The song is a great one, in my opinion, because of the elegance of the chord progression. The words, the imagery of the lyrics are masterful as well. The song is playable by the beginner musician (which is why I play it, and why you can play it too).

The chords (in C) are: C then G, to the Am to the F. The C again. G. F..C.

and the chorus goes into the Am: Am then G, F, C. C, G,F..C

A very simple chord progression that no one had done before. Or since, except for when they play this song. Huh?