VAUGHANS VOCABULARY Beatles inspiration...

December 28, 2010

My daughter gave me a Beatles calendar. Above each month’s calendar is a picture of the four Englishmen: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, all born in Liverpool. With each subsequent page is a picture in which they are older.
I have always been intrigued with why the group called itself “the Beatles.” McCartney revealed in an interview on KTXQ-FM in Dallas that it harkens back to the Crickets, Buddy Holly’s group from the late 1950s. The Beatles liked the Crickets’ double-meaning: the game and the insects. Rather than “Beetles,” the group chose “Beatles,” connoting both the insects and the good beat of their music.

1. Which word was part of their name before they were known as the Beatles?
A. lagniappe
B. quarry
C. superlative
D. blooming
E. ethereal
2. The title of one of their songs has the name of which animal? From which author’s work did the animal’s name come?
A. Bear – Karl Shapiro
B. Giraffe – Percy Bysshe Shelley
C. Walrus – Lewis Carroll
D. Orangutan – Edgar Allan Poe
E. Wolf – Rudyard Kipling

No. 1 is B. They were first known as “The Quarrymen.” No. 2 is C.

3. In the song “Something,” Harrison wrote, “Something in the way she ________.”
A. smiles.
B. sings.
C. moves.
D. walks.
E. looks.

The lyric is, “Something in the way she moves attracts me like no other lover.”

4. Which song contains the word juju?
A. Nowhere Man
B. Rain
C. Come Together
D. She’s A Woman

A fetish, charm, or amulet of West African peoples is a juju. C is the answer.

5. Mississippi blues guitarist and singer-songwriter Elmore James is mentioned in which Beatles song?
A. For You Blue
B. Get Back
C. The Long and Winding Road
D. I Saw Her Standing There

The number of people who listen to a radio station for five minutes in any one day is last week’s mystery word clue. You are right if you said “cume.”
This week’s mystery word to solve is a noun of four letters; if you were performing a medley of Beatles songs, you could call it a Beatles ________.

Contact Don Vaughan at dvaughan@eastms.edu