Like A Pomegranate

Here are two songs that pretty much anyone TigerBlog's age likes:

* "Something," by the Beatles
* "Something In The Way She Moves," by James Taylor

Here's something that TigerBlog learned Sunday that he never even considered, though it seems fairly obvious.

The first line of both songs is the same. 

"Something in the way she moves. Attracts me like no other lover." That's the song by the Beatles. "Something in the way she moves. Looks my way and calls my name." That's the song by James Taylor.

What TB learned Sunday is that it's no coincidence that the two songs have the same first line.

James Taylor wrote his song first. George Harrison, who wrote "Something," swiped it for his song. The version by the Beatles made it to No. 1 as a single. 

Here's what it says on Wikipedia (so it must be true):
Harrison had expanded the opening of this song to "Something in the way she moves / Attracts me like a pomegranate," using the word "pomegranate" simply as a place-holder until better words could be found. Taylor has stated that "I never thought for a second that George intended to do that. I don't think he intentionally ripped anything off, and all music is borrowed from other music. So completely I let it pass." Taylor also acknowledged that the ending of "Something in the Way She Moves" was taken from the Beatles' song "I Feel Fine." 

For the record, TB is not a fan of pomegranates.

James Taylor wrote his song in 1968. The Beatles recorded theirs a year later, on the "Abbey Road" album. 

James Taylor's song was on an album called "James Taylor," which is sort of like someone named TigerBlog who write a blog called "TigerBlog," or something like that. The album was released on Dec. 6, 1968, to be exact.

That was a Friday. The next day, the Princeton men's basketball team played Duke in the second game of a doubleheader at, of all places, Madison Square Garden. The opener, by the way, was Columbia against NYU (the Lions won 69-68 in case you were wondering, or even if you weren't). 

Columbia and Princeton had tied for the Ivy League championship the year before, and the Lions - led by the great Jim McMillian - won the playoff game to get to the NCAA tournament 92-74. The 1967-68 season was Pete Carril's first at Princeton.

The 1968-69 season saw Columbia go 20-4 overall, but two of those four losses were to Princeton. The Tigers, 19-7 overall, went 14-0 in the Ivy League, marking the first time any Tiger team had done so. Even the great Bill Bradley teams of the mid-1960s or the 1967 team that won two NCAA games weren't perfect in the league.

The first of Carril's 11 NCAA appearances ended with a 72-63 loss to St. John's in Raleigh, N.C.

The Tigers played a brutal non-league schedule in the 1968-69 season, with Villanova, Duke and Maryland right out of the gate and later on games against teams like UCLA and North Carolina. Also interestingly, the season didn't start until Dec. 3 back then.

The game against Duke on Dec. 7 was one of those tough non-league games, and one of the seven losses ultimately. The Blue Devils, ranked 16th heading into the game, knocked off Princeton 81-62 after the Tigers had led 35-31 at the half.

As for Carril, TB read a postgame story about the game, and he could almost hear the coach's saying his quotes, such as: 1) "I wish we had him" about a Duke guard, 2) "Every time they took out a 6-8 guy, they brought in a 6-10 guy to replace him," 3) "We had too many guys standing around" and 4) "He shot 7 for 18. We need him to be 12 for 18." 

It doesn't take too much imagination to see the grimaced expressions on his face during the game as well.

John Hummer and Geoff Petrie scored 19 each for Princeton, and Chris Thomforde had 12. 

All five Duke starters were in double figures., including 12 from a player named Fred Lind.

And why is that important?

Well, it just so happens that Fred Lind, who scored 12 points for Duke against Princeton in the 1968 game in the Garden, is the father of two-time Olympic gold medal rower Caroline Lind, one of the greatest - if not the greatest - female athlete in Princeton history. 

How do you like them pomegranates?