Sex-Appeal Saturday!

Fretful Friday

The song "This Boy" has been a longtime favorite of mine. Though a lot of critics dismiss it as "early Beatles fluff", I think it was one of the first songs that showed us the magic of what was to come.

Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney in a hotel room, "This Boy" was the result of their desire to write a close-harmony song. Especially for John, a particular inspiration was the Smokey Robinson and the Miracles song “I’ve Been Good To You,” which has a similar chord pattern, melody and arrangement.

"This Boy" was the first song John and Paul wrote with a three-part harmony.
With John playing his now-iconic Gibson J160E, here they are performing it during their second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show:

Thought for Thursday

"Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King are great examples of fantastic nonviolents who died violently. I can never work that out. We're pacifists, but I'm not sure what it means when you're such a pacifist that you get shot. I can never understand that." ~John Lennon

Whatsoever Wednesday

According to a man who's been "on the case" since the death of John Lennon, Stephen King is really the man responsible for John's murder in 1980.

Steve Lightfoot, a California native, is convinced that Stephen King shot John Lennon. Not only that, but Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and various police departments were in on it too. Lightfoot even attended a Sarasota City Commission meeting in February of 2009 to rant about how King is "the worst criminal the state has ever harbored" - King owns a home in nearby Casey Key.



He swears he has the evidence to prove it if only people would listen. The evidence consists of "government codes" in magazines and the fact that he believes Mark David Chapman was really a hired lookalike to help King get away with the crime.

He once spent several months in Bangor, Maine hanging around the outside of King's main residence, gaining some media attention as a celebrity stalker.

King obviously was not the man who killed John Lennon, though he is a fan. His popular novel, The Shining, was inspired by the Lennon song "Intant Karma" and was originally titled "The Shine". When King learned that the term "the shine" was derogatory to black people, he changed it to "The Shining". We all shine on..

Testimonial Tuesday

Monday Minutiae

John Lennon helped make Rolling Stone history - twice.

The first issue of Rolling Stone magazine was published on November 9, 1967.
It featured John on the front page (there was no cover then) during filming of the black comedy How I Won The War, in which John played "Musketeer Gripweed", a soldier in a fictional regiment called the "4th Musketeers" in WW2.

John was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone many times, with and without the Beatles, but it was his last cover that would be most poignant.

Annie Leibovitz went to John and Yoko's apartment for a cover shoot on the morning of Dec 8, 1980. John insisted that Yoko be in the picture. Annie begrudgingly agreed. The photo that made the cover, featuring John nude and clinging to Yoko like a child, was breathtaking and is one of the most recognized John Lennon pictures today. John was killed in front of his apartment that night.

Sunday Silliness

John being a goober.
Paul too, but John takes the cake.

Sex-Appeal Saturday!

Fretful Friday

"You've Got To Hide Your Love Away is my Dylan period. It's one of those that you sing a bit sadly to yourself, 'Here I stand, head in hand...' I'd started thinking about my own emotions. I don't know when exactly it started, like I'm A Loser or Hide Your Love Away, those kind of things. Instead of projecting myself into a situation, I would try to express what I felt about myself, which I'd done in my books. I think it was Dylan who helped me realise that - not by any discussion or anything, but by hearing his work." ~ John Lennon

When recording the song, John messed up the lyrics, with the line in the first verse meant to be "feeling two foot tall". He sang it "feeling two foot small" by accident, but decided to leave it that way, saying "all the pseuds will love it".

The song was featured in the 1965 movie Help, and shows John playing his 12-string Framus "Hootenanny" guitar.




Recording You've Got to Hide Your Love Away- Anthology version:

Thought for Thursday

"Part of me suspects that I'm a loser, and the other part of me thinks I'm God Almighty." ~John Lennon

Whatsoever Wednesday

Here Comes the Son(s)..

John and Julian:

"Hey Jude" was a song that Paul wrote for Julian after John and Cynthia's divorce.

John and Sean:

John wrote the song "Beautiful Boy" for Sean, who was born on John's birthday.

Testimonial Tuesday

Monday Minutiae

Little-known fact: Phil Collins made his film debut in A Hard Day's Night. He was a schoolkid brought in as an extra for a TV performance scene.




It was said that John was never very happy with A Hard Day's Night because it wasn't a realistic representation of their lives. Fans at the time (1964) were led to believe that what they were seeing was really a glimpse into a day in the life of the Fab Four, when in reality the movie was more of a "mockumentary".


John snorting Coke in A Hard Day's Night.

Sunday Silliness

Sex-Appeal Saturday!

swoon.

Fretful Friday

John with his first guitar in 1957, a Gallotone Champion:




John bought this 3/4-sized guitar for about £10 after seeing an ad for it in a magazine. Knowing his Aunt Mimi (whom he lived with) would disapprove, he had it sent to his mother's house. She played banjo, so she showed John some songs. However, because a banjo has only 5 strings, John would play his guitar in the early days with his 6th string left slack.

This guitar currenly resides at the Boston Museum of Fine Art.

Thought for Thursday

It matters not
who you love,
where you love,
why you love,
when you love,
or how you love.
It matters only that you love.
~John Lennon





John and his Mom, Julia Lennon (nee Stanley) who died on this day in 1958.

Whatsoever Wednesday

Testimonial Tuesday

Monday Minutiae

With the song "Whatever Gets You Through The Night" John became (most surprisingly) the last Beatle to produce a #1 single post-Beatles.

Elton John sang backing vocals and also played piano on the recording. John (Lennon) didn't think it would be successful. Elton John bet him it would hit #1 and that if it did, he wanted John to perform it with him live on stage.

John honored the bet and made a guest appearance at an Elton John concert on Thanksgiving night, 1974, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It turned out to be Lennon's last live performance.





(about :35 seconds into this video, you can hear him play a snippet of "I Feel Fine" as he's tuning his guitar)

Sunday Silliness

Press: Does it bother you that you can't hear what you sing during concerts?
John: No, we don't mind. We've got the records at home.

Sex-Appeal Saturday!

Am I right, ladies?

Fretful Friday

John and his Epiphone.. it's a beautiful thing.

In the song The End (from the Abbey Road album) Paul, George and John perform a rotating sequence of three, two-bar guitar solos. The solos begin approximately 14 seconds into this video and end just before the piano comes in. The first two bars are played by Paul, the second two by George, and the third two by John, then the sequence repeats.

Thought for Thursday

“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.”
~John Lennon

Whatsoever Wednesday