# Can anyone explain UNCLE ALBERT/ADMIRAL HALSEY to me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 21, 2007, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-uncle-albert-admiral-halsey-to-me/408904 "2007-06-21T20:53:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-uncle-albert-admiral-halsey-to-me/408904/21 "2007-06-22T19:14:54Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott] It’s typical of what he wrote in that part of his career. Some would say “in his entire solo career.” He’d write three or four unrelated riffs, and he’d duct-tape them together. Who cares if it makes no sense? People will buy what he cranks out. I personally think he’s doing more coherent work these days than _Uncle/Halsey_. [/QUOTE] From “Dance Tonight”, released June 2007: \*Everybody gonna dance tonight Everybody gonna feel alright Everybody gonna dance around tonight Everybody gonna dance around Everybody gonna hit the ground Everybody gonna dance around tonight\* It’s more coherent than “Uncle/Halsey”, and it’s undeniably catchy, but lyrically he’s in the same place he was when he wrote “Someone’s knockin’ on the door”. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-uncle-albert-admiral-halsey-to-me/408904/22 "2007-06-22T19:25:33Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] \*Everybody gonna dance tonight Everybody gonna feel alright Everybody gonna dance around tonight [/QUOTE] Actually, some of us were planning to wang chung tonight instead. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-uncle-albert-admiral-halsey-to-me/408904/23 "2007-06-22T19:25:38Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] From “Dance Tonight”, released June 2007: \*Everybody gonna dance tonight Everybody gonna feel alright Everybody gonna dance around tonight Everybody gonna dance around Everybody gonna hit the ground Everybody gonna dance around tonight\* [/QUOTE] Yes, but that’s the only disposable track on the album, IMO. When I heard the whole CD and my wife asked what I thought, my first reaction was “The single is piffle. But the rest is pretty good. I like it better than a lot of other albums he’s done in 20 years.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-uncle-albert-admiral-halsey-to-me/408904/24 "2007-06-22T21:07:31Z")
For the record [no pun intended], here’s the [lyrics](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/paul+mccartney/uncle+albertadmiral+halsey_20105860.html). I’ve always liked the song, if more for the music than the lyrics (but that’s how it is for most of the music I like). I’ve long assumed it was intended partly as reflection of Anglo-American friendship and culture, from WWII on (“hands across the water” being a reference to Lend-Lease and America’s eventual entry into the war, and using the UK as a massive staging ground). The “heads across the sky” is probably a reference to drugs, some spiritual insight, or both; it could also be an allusion to an [increasingly] unified Anglo-American youth culture, increasingly dominated by movies, music, fashion, and other mass-marketed diversions, filling our head-space, as it were. “Hands across the water” is an image that incorporates not just wartime alliance, but also friendships and free trade, as cemented by the handshake. Of course, I could be wrong about all of this. But there’s one manifestation of Anglo-American friendship that Beatle fans can’t ignore – the propensity for Beatles to pair up with American women! In 1971, when “UA/AH” came out, there were two such unions (John and Yoko, Paul and Linda), with George and Ringo still married to their English first wives. But in 1978, George married Mexican-American Olivia Arias, and in 1981, Ringo married Barbara Bach (formerly Barbara Goldbach, of Queens). If this was the type of Anglo-American union that Paul had in mind, then the “hands” could have been an allusion to hands joined in marriage. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Bongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Winston\_Bongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Bongo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-uncle-albert-admiral-halsey-to-me/408904/25 "2007-06-23T01:11:01Z")
_"He had to have a berth or he couldnt get to sea_"? Really? And here I always thought it was, “He had to have a bath or he couldn’t get to sleep.” Which I like better. Maybe I should head over to ye olde misunderstood lyrics thread . . . ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-uncle-albert-admiral-halsey-to-me/408904/26 "2007-06-23T15:30:03Z")
Reminds me of a very old joke (from National Lampoon magazine). Q: When did Paul McCartney write “Silly Love Songs”? A: Since 1963. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-explain-uncle-albert-admiral-halsey-to-me/408904.md?page=1)