Thoughts on The Anniversary of John Lennon's Death

December 8 is a day that usually sees me pretty melancholy. I recall when I was a mere 12 years old my dad coming into the family room and gently announcing that John Lennon had been shot and killed. I pretty much retired to my own room for the rest of the night. It was one of the first deaths, and for sure the first violent death, I had ever felt had hit home in any way. Was not sure how to process the emotions so I played some Beatles on guitar and cried a lot.

Big stars die all the time. They fall into one of two buckets for me. Either 1) most of their work had already taken place and they had been out of the spotlight for a long time, which somehow makes it easier to swallow or 2) they had been recently active (like Roy Orbison or Richard Wright) and are a bit of a gut punch. Lennon clearly falls into this latter category and much like with guys like Stevie Ray Vaughan I often wonder what Lennon would have done with the past few decades since his death.

Would he have reunited with the other Beatles for Anthology, or Live8? Would he have put out spotty albums in the 80s but then released scattered moments of brilliance like some other Beatles we know? Would he have had another good run of albums and tours and then retired, boring with the business again? Would I have ever been able to see him in concert or even meet him? Of course we’ll never know.

I saw Roger Waters live last night on the 69th anniversary of Pearl Harbor (the giant plane flying into the Wall in the first number was an interesting juxtaposition to this anniversary although I realize it happens every night – I will post a full review with photos soon). I am tempted to try and get a ticket for tonight’s show to see if he mentions Lennon.

Anyway, time to get muddling at work but wanted to get these thoughts out of my head.

Lennon we still miss you. Wish you were here.

Lucy In The Ground With Daisies - Buried Lennon LSD Stash Uncovered

I thought I had heard all of the Beatles' rumors and there was no more trivia to be discovered about the band who put out 12 studio albums, 13 EPs, 22 singles, four films and one really bad made for TV movie in just 8 years.

But I had never heard about John Lennon's secret LSD stash that according to rumor, he buried in his back yard in 1967, to completely forget about it. Classic Lennon.

But according to this Yahoo! Music story, this rumor may be true and workers may have the evidence to prove it. Here are the deets:

The rock legend is said to have dug a hole for a vast quantity of LSD at Kenwood, in Weybridge, Surrey only to then forget where he'd put them, leaving the illegal bounty hidden underground forever.

It has now emerged that a group of builders working at the estate, where Lennon lived between 1964 and 1968, have made an amazing and potentially decisive discovery while digging up the lawn. They are reported to have found a leather holdall containing several large, broken glass bottles, plus one that has not smashed.

An unofficial Lennon blogger has reportedly spoken to the foreman from the construction company and obtained photos of their findings, which you can see here. "The bottle that has been discovered intact is the only remaining one, and luckily I will look after that one safely now given the provenance... a leather bag with two clasp handles seems to have been what these items were buried in. The bag has almost completely rotted away," explained the builder.

So, can we expect that one vial to be auctioned off to someone who wants to take a trip down memory lane? If so, it probably would not work. According to Ask Erowid, "the primary catalysts for the decomposition of LSD are heat, light, oxygen, and moisture. LSD's shelf life can be significantly extended if exposure to these are minimized." I'd venture to guess that Lennon's stash has lost its potency. Still...

Book Review - Paul McCartney A Life - By Peter Ames Carlin

I got the book Paul McCartney – A Life, by Peter Ames Carlin for Christmas and just finished it last night. It’s a comprehensive book that looks at McCartney’s entire life and career up to present day. Carlin interviewed scores of people – old bandmates, employees, friends etc. The only people not interviewed are members of McCartney’s family, or any of the former Beatles/their families. Maybe he tried and they said no.

But what he got let him put together what reads like a facts-based account of McCartney’s career. He looks at all the angles – was McCartney an obsessed workaholic who disregarded the input of all but his closest collaborators (Lennon and Linda McCartney)? Or was he an insecure worry-wart, eager to ‘set the record straight’ by rewriting history of his contributions to The Beatles and the songs credited to “Lennon/McCartney?” Or was he a savant following his muse to greater and greater heights (but in the shadow of Lennon), anyone with an opinion be damned?

The cool thing about Carlin’s book is that unlike most writers, he does not take sides. This is not a “Paul is an insecure dick” book, nor is it a glowing re-writing of history putting forth that Paul for the most part drove The Beatles and Lennon was along for the ride. Most books take one of those two angles. Rather, Carlin lays out the facts and lets the reader decide.

Where did I land? Well, I have always seen McCartney as unnecessarily insecure. There is no reason why he needs to trumpet what he did in The Beatles. His vast catalog of amazing songs speaks for itself. Latter 70s Wings material and a few glowing spots in his solo career back up the notion that he is a master of the melody, an amazing songwriter who didn’t need anyone else to help him.

Of course he was rudderless in the early 70s. Unlike Lennon and especially Harrison, McCartney didn’t have a backlog of songs to draw from. Also he was the odd man out, shut out creatively and business-wise by his three best friends who at the moment despised him. It’s amazing the dude landed on his feet at all.

The book portrays Linda McCartney as the savior who helped him get on his feet when he was down and out. Carlin again reports the facts, that Linda was not a good musician (by her own account even), but that her presence in McCartney’s creative life helped drive him to the great success of Wings and his other endeavors. The fact that she could be a bit overbearing was offset by the fact that anyone not overbearing was pretty much ignored by McCartney!

Having read way too much about the Beatles already, I knew a lot of the subject matter. But there was a lot that was new to me as well. For example, the turmoil of the songwriting sessions for the Anthology series, where the three surviving Beatles were all concerned they would not be fairly represented in the mix of the new song Free As A Bird. And how they had a three hour ‘airing out’ session in Harrison’s back yard and seemed to come back happier and got back to work.

I appreciated the themes that Carlin kept coming back to, that 1) events in Paul’s childhood affected how he behaved through the rest of his life, and 2) because he was mega-successful from a very early age, McCartney has a very distorted sense of how things are supposed to be, and this frequently clouds his judgement across the board.

Another recurring theme in the book is all of the ‘what if’s’ and close calls regarding Beatle reunions. I didn’t know that Lennon and McCartney hung out several times in the 70s and even jammed in a studio one time, with McCartney on drums. I found the bootleg of that session and it’s interesting to say the least but not very magical. They are all pretty wasted and it’s during Lennon’s “Lost Weekend.” But damn, it's interesting!

There were even a few times in the 70s when three of the four Beatles played together and just for purely logistical reasons the fourth wasn’t there (not because he wasn’t invited or because there was bad blood). The recounting of these events in the book makes me believe that the Beatles absolutely would have reunited at some point if Lennon had not been killed in 1980, if even for a one-off.

Anyway, for the most part McCartney comes across as a positive if slightly bemused artist (in the purest sense of the word) who struggles with various insecurities and the inability to identify a really good idea from a really bad idea.

It’s a fascinating read and even if you think you know all there is to know about the Beatles or McCartney I promise you will learn something from this book. And Carlin does it in 340 pages, which is a feat in and of itself. There is a LOT to cover in those pages and he does a great job not glossing over anything but not hammering the reader to death with details. And to back up his facts, there is a much appreciated appendix that outlines where he got all of his quotes and info. Very nice.

29 Years Ago Today

I remember sitting in the family room in Cupertino - I was 12 years old - and my dad came into the room to tell me that John Lennon had been murdered. I was pretty upset. I think I went to my room, had a bit of a cry and played some Lennon/Beatles on my acoustic guitar (I was just learning to play and the Beatles were heavy in the rotation).

In the years that have passed I will think about it now and again. I always have the same emotion - that it was such a pity, a waste for him to be murdered by a lunatic, just as he was starting to make music again. All the "what could have's" play over and over in my mind.

Would he have toured? I think so. Seems like that was his intention. I may have been able to see him in concert. Would he have gotten back together with the other Beatles? I don't know about that one. I can see him being the one stand-out guy who said no, never. Sort of the David Byrne of the band.

But who knows? Maybe for LiveAid or some other charity, or maybe after many more years passed and he said oh what the hell. But again, we'll never know.

Would he have worked with Jeff Lynne? God I hope not. But seriously, I wonder if he would have given his blessing to all the Beatles reissues, anthology series etc.

Anyway, I always feel lousy when I remember that he had been shot. The good thing is, the guy made so much great music and left behind such a legacy that I still to this day uncover new songs, stories, photos that I had never seen before. In that way he does keep living. But of course it's the 'what music would he be making now,' that keeps me thinking.

29 years ago today it happened. Bleh. Time to crank some Lennon:

The Vatican Forgives John Lennon

In the last few weeks of the Bush regime, expect a series of pardons for Bush cronies who should be locked up for various crimes.

But hey, it's not just Bush. Clinton pushed through more last minute legislation and issued more pardons in the last few weeks of his presidency than most of his predecessors. It just comes with the smarmy territory of politics.

But with all of this happening in the States, a papal 'pardon' happened late last year and was not widely covered in the media.

The Vatican, via its L'Osservatore Romano newsletter finally forgave John Lennon for saying the Beatles were 'bigger than Jesus Christ' in 1966.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Lennon was talking off the record to a friend who also happened to be a reporter and in discussing the youth movement in the 60s, he said, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first -- rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

When these words hit America -- especially the Bible Belt states in the south -- it led to Beatles record burnings and bans against their performances. It was also one of the last straws among many that pushed the band to quit touring altogether.

Lennon apologized and said the quote was taken out of context, saying "Well, originally I pointed out that fact in reference to England. That we meant more to kids than Jesus did, or religion at that time. I wasn't knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it's true more for England than here. I'm not saying that we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it's all this."

According to the BBC report of the 'papal pardon' story from late November, "The [Vatican] paper dismissed Lennon's much-criticised remark that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ as a youthful joke. The paper described the remark as 'showing off, bragging by a young English working-class musician who had grown up in the age of Elvis Presley and rock and roll and had enjoyed unexpected success.'"

There are a number of links to others stories and observations here.

Well, since the church preaches forgiveness, I guess it's about time!

Oh, and Happy New Year, everyone!

1970 - What A Year for Beatles Fans

Between checking out the Lost Lennon Tapes, digging through years worth of Beatles bootlegs and re-buying early 70s Beatles solo albums Ram (McCartney), Plastic Ono Band and Imagine (Lennon) and All Things Must Pass (Harrison), I have to say, those of you who lived through 1970 had a hell of a year, musically.

Me, I turned two on the day that Jimi Hendrix died in 1970. (Oh and as a side story, according to the book The Beatles Complete Recording Sessions, the band recorded the song Birthday on the day I was born - no shit - look it up - 9-18-68).

Anyway, there was obvious uncertainty about the band's future in 1970. Let It Be the film and album were both issued in May. Anyone who has seen that movie can see that the writing was on the wall big time.

But in a bootleg interview with Harrison from 1970, he says the guys are all enjoying the freedom they have to record on their own (even giving McCartney's album a nice plug) and saying that he's sure they'll be back together soon to record a new group album. Of course that didn't happen.

Whatever the case, here is what people got in a 14-month period, full-length album wise, from the fab four:

--September 26, 1969 - Beatles - Abbey Road
--March 27, 1970 - Ringo Starr - Sentimental Journey
--April 17, 1970 - Paul McCartney - McCartney
--May 8, 1970 - Beatles - Let it Be
--May 20, 1970 - Beatles - Let it Be (the film)
--November 27, 1970 - George Harrison - All Things Must Pass (triple album)
--December 11, 1970 - John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band

Notable is how strong Lennon and Harrison's albums were. Lennon ripped the myth off of the Beatles and laid his soul bare on Plastic Ono, and Harrison had three albums worth of backlog to unleash on the world - and almost all of the non-jam songs are classic tunes.

McCartney's album is a surprising piece of crap. I have tried about ten times over the past 20 or so years to listen to it with fresh ears and the only two songs I can stand are Junk and Maybe I'm Amazed - and I prefer later versions of both to the originals.

In the Lost Lennon Tapes, Lennon tells Rolling Stone that he was surprised how bad Paul's album is, and how happy he is about that, as he is self-admittedly very, very competitive.

Ram from March 1971 is better, and I really like all the Wings albums from Band on the Run all the way to the end. I guess it took Paul some time to pick up steam while the others hit the ground running but then petered out later. Paul was for sure the 'bad guy' in the early 70s, and I am sure the pressure was rough, with three Beatles vs. one. He admits this in the truly excellent Wingspan DVD.

A very cool post sent to me by Nedmusic asks the question, what if the band HAD done one more album in 1970 or 1971? Given that the songs would have to be from the 1969-1971 period, the writer put together a pretty cool "lost album" and goes into great detail as to why he chose what he chose (and what he didn't!)

Check that out here.

Isorski Joins the 21st Century and Digs Podcasting

They may be old news for Internet savvy peeps, but I have recently discovered the coolness of podcasts, or in short, 30 - 60 minute audio programs downloaded to your iPod or whatever and listened to later.

They are like custom radio programs I can listen to while running, commuting, watering the flippin' plants, etc.

I get most of mine via iTunes, but there are tons of other sites that offer them. Some are set up as subscriptions - so every time I open iTunes, the program checks to see if there are new Podcasts in that series, and if so, automatically downloads them.

Two John Lennon related podcast series I have been digging are:

The Lost Lennon Tapes

I remember hearing these in the 80s when Westwood One first ran them - I think it was every Sunday night. I wasn't a big fan. Too many commercials and frankly a bit too much hype.

But I am enjoying them a lot now, without the commercials. There are lots of interviews, outtakes, studio run throughs and info I had never heard before (and I am a pretty big Beatles fanatic, so that's a tall order).

It covers everything from Lennon's childhood through the Beatles, and of course early and late solo eras. And - thankfully - when they play a song, you hear the whole thing. Not just a little snip with the host yapping over it. Most of the versions and outakes I had never heard before - not even on the Beatles Anthology series or the Lennon Anthology that has four discs of outakes and demos! Very cool.

If you Google the series, you learn that there were loads of episodes. Only the first 27 are available (free) from iTunes and I am trying to figure out how to get my hands on the rest. They are really fascinating if you are interested in Lennon and/or The Beatles.

The Rolling Stone Lennon Interviews

This is a five-part free series on iTunes, and is the complete audio from the legendary interview between Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner and Lennon in 1970, right before he put out his first solo album, Plastic Ono Band. This is Lennon's first true solo album, a raw release that smashed the Beatles myth with songs like Mother, God, I Found Out and Love. This album, along with 1971's Imagine, are his two must-have solo CDs until 1980's Double Fantasy.

The Wenner interview is really killer for a number of reasons. You hear a very pissed off Lennon, stinging from the trauma within The Beatles - they had only officially announced the breakup months earlier (and Paul did it, even though Lennon quit first).

Also, despite not wanting to 'play the game' anymore or be part of the big music business machine, he still is struggling over what song to issue as the single from the Plastic Ono Band album. Wenner thinks it ought to be Mother, and Lennon seems to agree. But the song is so intense, you can tell he is afraid of alienating people and is leaning towards the Beatle-esque and more positive song Love.

You hear what Lennon thinks about Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road (he doesn't like them) and how competitive he is with the other Beatles, Dylan and...well, pretty much anyone else. He says that The Beatles were pretty much finished as a group by the time they got signed. You can tell he doesn't really care for or about any Beatles tunes besides his own and even there he dislikes most of his work with the band.

You can also get the transcribed printed version at Amazon.com but it's more poignant to actually hear it.

Later, Lennon mellowed out and mended fences with the other Beatles but he is royally hurt, pissed and disillusioned in this interview, which by the way was a huge coup for Rolling Stone and Wenner and helped to put the magazine on the map.

There are other podcasts I am checking out and will post about them later. But these two will keep you busy for a week or two, and will fill in many, many gaps in your Beatles and Lennon knowledge if you want it...

McCartney Does A Day in the Life too

OK, so Neil isn't the only one doing A Day in the Life live right now.

According to Rolling Stone, Paul McCartney has dusted off this mostly Lennon tune from Sgt Pepper and is doing it live. At a June 1 concert in good old Liverpool, Paul and his band did a pretty good rendition (outside of Paul messing up the lines in his own piece of the song - not Lennon's!).

They keep flashing to Yoko in the audience. And yeah, Dave Grohl played with the band at this gig. I am not kidding - read about it here. He has now jammed with Queen, Zeppelin and McCartney that I know of - and his drummer Taylor Hawkins played with Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee from Rush as we know. WTF?

To see Paul do A Day in the Life, here ya go:

Movie Review: The U.S. vs. John Lennon

VH1 Classic ran the 2006 movie The U.S. vs. John Lennon, and I watched it last week with astounded fascination.

The two hour film documents how Lennon and Yoko Ono became vocal peace activists in the late 60s and early 70s, and by aligning themselves with radical revolutionary figures, drew the attention of the Nixon Administration.

Outside of his Ghandi-esque "Give Peace A Chance" efforts, Lennon met with and provided support and money to radicals Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Black Panther Party founder Bobby Seale, and this made Nixon and his cronies ramp up their paranoia towards Lennon and Ono.

They began to harass him - tapping his phone, following him, etc. The loudest shoe dropped when they revoked his temporary Visa and began motions to deport him.

A courageous lawyer took Lennon and Ono's case on and was able to string it out until the Nixon administration crumbled and they were finally granted permanent residence status in the mid 70s.

Not to get deep into politics on this blog, but the parallels between the power mongering and fear of freedom of speech between the Nixon administration and the current regime in the U.S. is shocking.

Lennon's OTHER Supergroup

Ok I swear after this one, I am done with The Beatles for a while.

But I just had to post this. From one of my new readers, 1938 Music, comes this absolute gem that I had never heard a thing about until two days ago. Seems that Ono, McCartney, Harrison and Starr were not the only ones to take a Lennon vocal and build a whole song around it, a la The Beatles Anthology songs Free As A Bird and Real Love.

One half of Cheap Trick and bassist Tony Levin got together in the late 90s to put out this kick ass little rave up of Lennon's I'm Losing You.

I dug Cheap Trick as a kid and still think they rock, and what can you say about Tony Levin? His work with King Crimson and Peter Gabriel alone rank him up at the top, top of my bass player list of greats.

These guys are a really weird combo, much less adding John flipping Lennon to the mix. But somehow, it works!

Enjoy.

Update: I guess this song, with this lineup, was recorded during the Milk and Honey sessions and came out on Lennon's Anthology set, which I own. D'uh! The liner notes credit Cheap Trick's Tom Peterssen on bass, but it's Levin for sure. The video, however, is indeed from the late 90s. I mean, look at Rick Nielsen's crazy goatee! Thanks to Bob K and Don Capone for straightening me out!

The Dirty Mac

In late 1968, The Rolling Stones decided to put on a concert event on a soundstage, invite a ton of the day's top musicians and film the whole thing for a movie. Jagger was the ringleader and of course The Stones closed the whole thing out with their own set. On paper, what a great idea! They called it The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.

The trouble is, their set stunk. They had been up for days, ingesting all sorts of recreational fuel, and when it came time to take the stage, they put in a mediocre performance.

Other performers were not so unlucky, and, for example, The Who blew everyone away with their blazing rendition of A Quick One. This is the highlight, for me, of the band's The Kids Are Alright film, and I know many others share my opinion.

Another top performance was the supergroup put together by John Lennon, just for the event. Here we had Lennon on guitar and vocals, Eric Clapton on lead guitar, Keith Richards on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums. He called the band "The Dirty Mac."

They did one song, "Yer Blues" from the White Album. As much as everyone loves The Beatles, this version totally slays the original. They did another little jam with Yoko but it's not really worth mention.

Lennon's live performances after The Beatles were pretty spotty. He put bands together very quickly for benefit concerts and did one off appearances, but I have never heard anything that really blew me away like the R&R Circus performance. He seems under rehearsed and even a bit nervous.

However, here he is fully confident. It's great to watch.

Needless to say, The Stones shelved the whole movie idea due to their lousy set, and none of this saw the light of day (except for the Who's Quick One) until The Stones decided to release the film on DVD almost 30 years later, in 1996.

The YouTube clip below starts with Lennon and Jagger having a pretty glazed chat. You can taste their huge egos here, and can sense their rivalry but also friendship. Then we get the full song. Enjoy.

CD Review - The Beatles "Love"

On the suggestion of fellow poster Ned Music, I picked up the new Beatles CD “Love.” The CD is the soundtrack to the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name, and it combines both familiar and unheard of snips from Beatles songs across their catalog and does a mash-up into new pieces of music.

It was created over a period of two years by original Beatles producer George Martin and his son, Miles. From the liner notes, Miles and George reveal that the idea for the show came from Harrison and a Cirque du Soleil industry friend.

When it was time to come up with the music for the show, the Martins were given full access to all Beatles studio tapes and were told to create about an hour and a half of music any way they wanted to, with the only rule that it had to be sourced from sounds The Beatles had already created.

What a fun project this must have been, and I have to say I am totally blown away by the result. Totally blown away.

Anyone who has been in love with The Beatles since childhood, like I have, has heard every Beatles song so many times that we turn off stuff like Hey Jude and While My Guitar Gently Weeps when it comes on the radio. We’ve just heard it so many times, it’s old.

The six CD Anthology series that was released in the 90s breathed new life into the catalog with outtakes, unreleased songs and alternate mixes. And the new soundtrack to Yellow Submarine that came out in 1999 is still a treat to my ears, because it offered re-mixed versions of fifteen classic tunes.

Not re-mastered versions of the same mixes, mind you – but RE-mixes. George Martin actually did new mixes from the original master tapes, so they are much fresher and you actually hear bits of music (like guitar parts, bass lines, etc) that were not audible in the original mixes. Much, much more than a soundtrack CD, pick that one up if you want fresh versions of the old warhorses.

Or get Love.

George and Miles created a masterpiece with this. Some of the more innovative songs are the combination of Tomorrow Never Knows with Within You Without You, where George Harrison sings his Indian mantra lyrics from Within You Without You over the hammering drum beat of Tomorrow Never Knows. Or how about Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, which seamlessly segues into the heavy chord outro of I Want You (She’s So Heavy) with McCartney screaming heavily distorted verses from Helter Skelter in the background.

I think my favorite cut by far, though, is the new version of Strawberry Fields Forever. As we learned in the Anthology Series volume 2, Lennon recorded a number of versions of this song, from a gentle acoustic ballad to the version that ends with thundering drums, crazy noises and electric guitar fills.

For the Love version, the producers created a seamless mashup of all the versions. The song starts with the gentle acoustic version and every verse switches to a new, more layered and intense cut. I am 100 percent convinced this is the version Lennon wanted to hear but technologically could not be pulled off in the 1960s.

And then there is just the cool factor of hearing the solo from Taxman in Drive My Car, the drum solo from The End meld into Get Back, or the chord progression of Dear Prudence over the end of Come Together. There are sounds on the CD I am having trouble placing, and that’s why it’s so fun to keep listening to it over and over again. For example, is that really Clapton’s solo from While My Guitar Gently Weeps isolated and pasted in the end freak out part of Strawberry Fields? I know I hear the Piggies piano solo in there too…

And finally, since The Martins were given free reign to ‘mess with’ The Beatles’ legacy, the remixed versions of songs that they didn’t really mess with that much, are worth the price of the CD alone. For example, this new mix of I Am The Walrus blows away any version I have ever heard. Miles in the liner notes said he expected the master tapes to be in dodgy shape and to have tons of hiss, but he said what he found were perfect. Add some modern mixing and engineering technology and what you get is vibrant and shimmering.

Funky mixes and mashups aside, this music leaps from your speakers. Walrus, Come Together and especially Revolution are pounding. These tracks sound like they were recorded yesterday instead of 40 years ago.

Have I said enough? Go buy the fricking CD.