How many Beatles compilation and/or tribute albums have been recorded, do you think?  I own several.  One of my favorites is from a group called "Pickin' On".  The group is a loosely-formed bunch of bluegrass musicians who convert the music of popular groups: rock, punk, country, hard rock, etc, into bluegrass format and sound.  The line-up varies from album to album but the music is always great.  They have done two albums on the Beatles, that I know of.  I really enjoy them.

I think my current favorite tribute to the Lads is from a Colorado group called Firefall titled: "From Colorado to Liverpool".   Firefall is a group that was pretty successful in the seventies and eighties, kind of an Eagles/CSN/America-sounding group.  The song selection for their tribute is one I might have made up myself.  I was listening to it this morning as I was trying to catch up on my chores, after having been on the road for more than a week and ignoring things for the weekend (catching up on sleep mostly) since we got back.  One of the songs is "I Need You".  From the first time I ever heard the song, it has always brought a little chuckle to my heart.  Here's why:

How's your Japanese?  Mine is a little rusty;  it never was what you would call "fluent" but it was passable.  I'm gonna teach you how to count in Japanese:  1 - ichi, 2 - ni (pronounced nee), 3 - san, 4 -shi, 5 - go, 6 - roku, 7 - sichi, 8 - hachi, 9 - ku, 10 - ju.

When you get to 11, you just say 10 (ju) and 1 (ichi) so 11 is ju-ichi...and you count on up to 19 (ju-ku) and 20 becomes 2 (ni) and 10 (ju).  Then 21 becomes ni-ju-ichi.  Get it?  On up to one hundred (99 is ku-ju-ku and 100 is hyaku, 200 niyaku)...and like that...I know you will probably never need this information...I haven't needed it in years.  But who knows, some day it may come in handy.

Did you get ahead of me on this?  In the chorus of the song "I Need You",  George kinda slurs (or maybe that is just Liverpoolian) the line and it sounds like "I neeju"....So for years I have pictured thousands of screaming Japanese fans (the Beatles were very big in Japan - as they were everywhere, I guess) with puzzled looks on their screaming faces wondering what "20" has to do with the song.  The word "Ai" in Japanese is an expression of the feeling akin to love (translations are so difficult at times) so the chorus would sound to them like "Loving 20"...I don't think the number 20 has any significance in Japanese culture other than it is considered the age of adulthood.  "Ai" spoken emphatically is like "ouch" in English...so "Ow..20!!"

So, many years after I first heard the Beatle song, along comes the group America with another song called "I Need You" and they sound even more like a Japanese group than the Beatles did.  

I know, misunderstood song lyrics have been the subject of blogs, books, and comedy routines for years ('Scuse me while I kiss this guy...There's a bathroom on the right...Canada Dry, the way my baby don't love me...and so on).  I have even written about it before, myself.  But this morning while I was chuckling along with Firefall, I thought it would be a good way to get back in the saddle.

Since we left on our trip, I have been sporadic and lazy with Blogster.  I owe many of you comments and responses and I may or may not get caught up, but I have lurked the last couple of weeks and actually posted from the road a couple of times.  Anyway...just thought I would share a chuckle and now it's back to the grind;  so much housework and laundry to catch up on...and oh yeah...Christmas is right around the dadgum corner!