Sunday, October 27, 2013

Photograph by Ringo Starr

Earlier this year Ringo released a book called Photograph on digital edition for iPads. The book is filled with unseen pictures Ringo took of himself and the others throughout the eight years The Beatles were together. There are 2,500 copies of a hand-bound editions signed by Ringo himself that are being sold in the US for $550. The book contains 304 pages including 240 photos of the boys and himself. The book launching took place earlier this year with his wife, Barbara Bach, and Olivia Harrison. Previously in 2004, Starr released a book called Postcards from The Boys, filled with letters from the other Beatles. All profits made from these two books were and are being donated to the Lotus Foundation which helps with Social Welfare. After releasing Photograph he got many responses asking if Ringo will make an autobiography,
"I've been asked to do my autobiography, but they're really only interested in eight years," Starr says, "But i had a life before I joined The Beatles, and I've had one after I left. There would be five volumes before I got into The Beatles. I can't remember ever reading anyone's autobiography. It's just too much reading. I thought this was abetter way to do it."
While searching through his old photographs he came across a picture of a group of kids in a car outside of JFK Airport after The Beatles had landed on US soil on February 7, 1964. Ringo remembers taking the photo,
"They all put the windows down and I thought, 'Hey, I got me camera, I'll take them." and guess what? They really saw us and we saw them"
After launching the book Starr was curious to see who these kids  and who he called "The Mystery Man" in the background were so he let out a little hunt for them. All of them were found living on the East Coast. Starr does not want to reunite with them and says he just wants to have that one memory when everyone was having the time of their lives.

"I think it's a much better way because you'll tell the story and you have a page to write and then you have a picture, so this is the best way for me.
'- Ringo Starr on his book Photograph
 The following photographs are all taken by Ringo Starr or by using Ringo's camera.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon
George Harrison
Paul's Beatles girlfriend, Jane Asher

Paul McCartney


Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison
John Lennon

Self Portrait

Paul McCartney "Queenie Eye" Video




October 14, 2013 Paul McCartney released his NEW album in the UK and on the 15th released it in the US, find more information about this album here and here. Ten days later Paul has released his new music video for track number four, "Queenie Eye". The video was directed by Simon Aboud and shot at the beginning of the month in Studio 2 at Abbey Road Studios feautering celebrities like Kate Moss, Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep, Lily Cole, Tom Ford, Chris Pine, Jude Law, Sean Penn, and Alice Eve.




"Queenie Eye" was produced by Paul Epworth and was called "Jaw Dropping" by Q Magazine. Paul was inspired to write the song after a child hood chant from a street game, "Queenie Eye, Queenie Eye, who's got the ball? I haven't got it, it isn't in my pocket. O-U-T spells OUT"
"It came from a street game I used to play as a kid. Those kind of things always stick with you. I always liked the rhythm of the chant"- Paul McCartney


Paul's NEW album is placed #3 in Billboard Charts! All photos taken by Mary McCartney.


Saturday, October 26, 2013

The Beatles Meet The Queen and Recieve MBEs

1965 was a big year for The Beatles, they were filming their second motion picture "Help!", John and George had experienced LSD, played Shea Stadium, and had even met Queen Elizabeth the II and rewarded MBEs.
The group were at Twickenham Film Studios watching parts of "Help!" when manager, Brian Epstein, took them into the dressing room and told them that he had good news. He told the boys that the Prime Minister and Queen wants to appoint them as Members of the Order of The British Empire (MBE). All of them asking, "What's That?" and "What do we get?" and having Brian telling them it's a medal and a real honor. That they get £40 and get to go to St Paul's Whispering Gallery for nothing.
"He said, 'What do you think, boys?' I had no problem with it - none of us had any problems with it in the beginning. We all thought it was really thrilling.  We're going to meet the Queen and she's going to give us a badge. I thought, 'This is cool'" -Ringo Starr
 The Beatles arrived at Buckingham Palace at 11 o'clock in the morning, driving in John's Rolls Royce on October 26, 1965 (48 years ago today). 4,000 fans stood around the palace waiting for them as they walked in. They were met by guards who told them how to walk, don't speak to the queen unless spoken to and all of that.
"Every time he was reading out the names and he got to Ringo he kept cracking up."- John Lennon
 There were 189 people receiving awards that day, 6 of those  being knighted. Each person receiving an award would have their name called, step forward and bow. Ringo remembers it as,
"The queen was great. Obviously I'm a big Queen fan now. It was obvious she was doing her best to make everyone feel relax and not nervous. When she gave me my medal, she said, 'It's a pleasure to present you with this,' and I said, 'Thank You.'"-Ringo Starr
John remembers his as,
"I must have looked shattered. She said to me, 'Have you been working hard lately?' I couldn't think what we had been doing, so I said, 'No, we've been having a holiday.' We'd been recording, but I couldn't remember that."
On June 12, 1965 The Beatles were interviewed about their MBEs. John arrived at the conference 70 minutes late. Brian had came to his house in Weybridge to get him and take him to the conference.
"I set the alarm for 8 o'clock and then I just laid there. I thought, 'well, if anyone wants me, they'll phone me' The phone went lots of time, but that's the one I never answer. My own phone didn't go at all, so I just laid there." -John Lennon
 The Beatles were placed in front of 150 reporters at 1:30 in the afternoon and were asked many questions ranging from, "Do you think you deserve these medals?" where George replied,
"It's not up to us to say that. The queen must have thought so, or she wouldn't have given them to us, would she".
Others like  "Why would you be honored this way?", "Do you think Cliff Richard should have got an MBE too?', "What are you going to do with your medals?".
 "Hang it on the wall."-George Harrison
"Tuck it around my neck."-Ringo Starr
"Keep it in a safe place."- Paul McCartney
"I think I'll have mine made into a bell push so that people have to press it when they come to the house or I'll take it to an antique dealer and find out what it is."- John Lennon
 They were then asked how they found out about them getting the MBEs, were George explained that Paul was going through fan mail and saw an letter that read "From the Prime Minister". McCartney opened the envelope and saw that he was being honored by the queen and was asked to sign a form. The others were all looking around seeing if they got a letter too and sure enough they found theirs. The boys weren't sure what MBEs stood for and when they first read the letter and saw MBE they thought that it just meant, Mr. Brian Epstein.

In 1970 John made a comment that the group had smoked a joint in the palace bathrooms before the ceremony. George later came out denying the statement.
"We never smoked marijuana at the investiture. What happened was we were waiting to go through, standing in an enormous line with hundreds of people, and we were so nervous that we went to the toilet. And in there we smoked a cigarette - we were all smokers in those days.
Years later, I'm sure John was thinking back and remembering, 'Oh yes, we went in the toilet and smoked,' and it turned into a reefer. Because what could be the worst thing you could do before you meet the Queen? Smoke a reefer! But we never did."
On November 25, 1969 John Lennon had returned his medal in protest of the Vietnam War. He returned the medal in its original casing along with a hand written letter saying,
"Your Majesty,
I am returning my MBE as a protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against 'Cold Turkey' slipping down the charts.
With love. John Lennon of Bag"
Bag being a company he had just opened with Yoko Ono. He later states that he consulted with The Beatles before returning it and only took it because he was persuaded to by Brian. 
"It was hypocritical of me to accept it, but I"m glad, really, that I did - because it meant that four years later I could use it to make a gesture." -John Lennon, 1970
 The medals reappeared two years later, when The Beatles released Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, where you can clearly see Paul and George both wearing their awards on their suits. John wears six medals that he borrowed from Beatles original drummer, Pete Best's mother, Mona. The Beatles use to play the Casbah, a club in the basement of the Best's and asked Mona if he could borrow six military medals that were said to either be Pete's father and dated to World War II or to Major Thomas Shaw, Pete's grandfather, in which case the medals would not be dated to World War II. Ringo were six mini pins, very similar to John's.



Friday, October 18, 2013

Chuck Berry

"If you tried to give Rock and Roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'"- John Lennon
 Chuck Berry was born as Charles Edward Anderson Berry to a large family in St. Louis. Berry grew an interest to blues and poetry at a young age and won a high school contest with his rendition to Jay McShann's "Confessin' The Blue". Today marks Chuck Berry's 87th birthday and in honor of the father of Rock 'n' Roll I'd like to share about Chuck Berry's inspiration on The Beatles, especially John Lennon.

"... Chuck Berry is one of the all-time great poets; a rock poet, you could call him. He was well advanced of his time, lyric wise. We all owe a lot to him, including Dylan. He was in a different class from other performers. He was in the tradition of the great blues artist but he really wrote his own stuff - I know Little Richard did, but Berry really wrote stuff. The lyrics were fantastic, even though we didn't know what he was saying half of the time." -John Lennon

The fifties revolutionized when Bill Haley and his Comets came out with the first classified Rock 'n' Roll song, "Rock Around The Clock". From this era came great musicians like Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Dion and The Belmont's, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, Jerry Lee Lewis, and many others but no one impressed John Lennon like Chuck Berry did. Berry is known for his outstanding guitar and bluesy sound and for his 'rock poetry'.

"In the fifties, when people were virtually singing about nothing, Chuck Berry was writing social- comment songs, with incredible metre to the lyrics. When I hear rock, good rock of the calibre of Chuck Berry, I just fall apart and I have no other interest in life. The world could be ending if Rock 'n' Roll is playing. It's a disease of mine."- John Lennon

The Beatles covered several Chuck Berry songs from when their Live at The BBC sessions with, "Carol" (Berry's Version, Beatles Version) , "Sweet Little Sixteen"(Berry's Version, Beatles Version), "Memphis"(Berry's Version, Beatles Version), "Johnny B. Goode"(Berry's Version, Beatles Version), "Too Much Monkey Business"(Berry's Version, Beatles Version), and "I Gotta Find My Baby"(Berry's Version, Beatles Version). Also, on The Beatles second album, With The Beatles, it features George's vocals on Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven"(Berry's Version, Beatles Version). In 1964 The Beatles released their fourth album, Beatles For Sale, where John sings Berry's "Rock and Roll Music"(Berry's Version, Beatles Version).

In 1972 John and Yoko were co-host on the Mike Douglas Show for a week. During this week, various guest were appeared some chosen by the Lennon's and others not. Guest like, Jerry Rubin and Black panther Bobby Seale, Ralph Nader, Comedian George Carlin, filmmaker Barbara Loden, US surgeon General Jesse Steinfeld, comedian Louis Nye. On Day three Chuck Berry appeared on the show and sang two songs with the Lennon's, classic songs like "Johnny B. Goode" and "Memphis". Lennon once said that when he met Chuck Berry his reaction was to shout "Chuck Berry my hero!"


In 1986 Chuck Berry preformed with a number of musicians, from Keith Richards on guitar, to singing with musicians like Eric Clapton and many others at the the Fox Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri. One of the many artist he sang with on stage were no other than Julian Lennon. The two sang "Johnny B. Goode".

 "He's the greatest Rock 'n' Roll poet, and I really admire him" - John Lennon
 If you're a Chuck Berry fan and you haven't seen "Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll", a film made to celebrate the great rock 'n' rollers, sixtieth birthday of the concerts in 1986 and stories about Chuck Berry, please check it out. It's a great documentary.

Happy Birthday Chuck Berry!

Help!

Released Date: August 6, 1965 (UK)
August 13, 1965 (US)

Recording Dates: February 15, 1965- June 17, 1965

After recording Beatles For Sale (check out the history behind Beatles For Sale here) in 1964 The Beatles had returned to Studio 2 at Abbey Road Studios to record their fifth album, Help! Help! was recorded on and off through the months of February to June. It featured;
Ringo Starr: Vocals, drums, tambourine, maracas, cowbell, bongos, claves, percussion, hand claps, acoustic guitar percussion.
John Lennon: Vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, electric piano, Hammond organ, tambourine, and snare drum.
Paul McCartney: Vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, electric piano, piano, and bass guitar.
George Harrison: Vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, 12- string guitar, and güiro.
George Martin: Piano
Tony Gilbert: Violin
Sidney Sax: Violin
Kenneth Essex: Viola
Francisco Gabarro: Cello

The album was recorded for their second motion picture Help! which would appear in colour on July 29, 1965. The original names for the film were Beatles II or Eight Arms To Hold You. The film featured songs from their album like, "Help!", "You're Going To Lose That Girl", "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", "Ticket To Ride", "I Need You", "The Night Before", "She's A Women", "A Hard Days Night" (instrumental), "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" (instrumental), "Another Girl", "You Can't Do That" (instrumental). Just like The Beatles first film, A Hard Days Night, John took on the role of writing the title song where he wrote "Help!" at his home in Weybridge,
"When Help! came out, I was actually crying out for help. Most people think it's just a fast rock 'n' roll song. I didn't realise it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie. But later, I knew I really was crying out for help. So it was my fat Elvis period. You see the movie: he - I - is very fat, very insecure, and he's completely lost himself. And I ams singing about when I was so much younger and all the rest, looking back at how easy it was."- John Lennon
 In August of 1964 The Beatles met Bob Dylan who introduced them to marijuana which led to a drug phase for the group during this time,
"A hell of a lot of pot was being smoked while we were making the film. It was great. That helped make it a lot of fun." -Ringo Starr
Marijuana and other drugs like LSD later influenced the group in later albums like Rubber Soul and Revolver, which is nicknamed the "acid album".  Although Dylan turned the group onto drugs he also had influenced them in a number of ways with his poetic writing and hard-core folk sound. Lennon admits to his inspiration to write "I'm A Loser" in Beatles For Sale because of Bob Dylan. John also found the Dylan influence in his "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" which was featured on Help!

Help! is what I like to call the "transition album". I call it this because it was released in 1965, so Beatlemania had already hit it's climax, it was still strong but 1964 was the highest of Beatlemania. Also, during this time The Beatles had gotten into marijuana and experimenting with LSD which led to the acid album. Help! was when McCartney found himself as a song writer when he wrote "Yesterday", it showed the group maturing which is shown in the "grown up" album, Rubber Soul. This album has the Beatlemania aspect along with a new maturity level.

"We know all about 'Yesterday'. I have had so much accolade for 'Yesterday'. That's Paul's song and Paul's baby. Well done. Beautiful. And I never wished I'd written it." -John Lennon
"Yesterday" is one the number one song that has ever been covered. The song is said to have been covered 7 million times in the 20th century. During this time Paul was living in an upstairs, attic room at home of his girlfriend, Jane Asher's parents home. Paul managed to fit a piano in the small room at 57 Wimpole Street, London and placed it next to the bed. One morning Paul woke up with this tune stuck in his head, a jazzy, soft tune and questioned himself if he's heard the song before. 
"My dad used to know a lot of old jazz tunes, I thought maybe I'd just remembered it from the past."- Paul McCartney
 He quickly got to the piano and fooled around with it until he got the tune. McCartney then wrote some lyrics, just in case he forgot the tune. Being morning he sang 'Scrambled eggs, oh baby how I love your legs..". John Lennon said that "The song was around for months and months be fore we finally completed it." McCartney had to think of other lyrics for the song instead of having it called "Scrambled Eggs", although Lennon loved the title "Scrambled Eggs" and having a track being produced by George Martin with a title like that. Paul got to thinking and remembered that people like sad songs, something they can relate to and that's why the song is so soft and sad.

Paul recorded "Yesterday" on a high stool with his acoustic guitar and some string instruments. It was the first time that no other Beatles were featured on the track, just Paul.  George Martin remembers it as,
"Paul went down to No. 2 Studio at EMI, sat on a high stool with his acoustic guitar and sang 'Yesterday'. That was the master to begin with. Then I said, 'Well, what we can do with it? The only thing I can think of is adding strings, but I know what you think about that.' And Paul said, ' I don't want Mantovani.' I said, "what about a very small number of string players, a quartet?' He thought that was interesting, and I went and worked on it with him and made suggestions for the score. He had ideas too, and we booked a string quartet and over dubbed the strings - and that was the record" 
Paul calls "Yesterday" his most successful song,
"It was my most successful song. It's amazing that it just came to me in a dream. That's why I don't profess to know anything; I think music is all very mystical. You hear people saying, 'I'm a vehicle; it just passes through me.' Well,, you're dead lucky if something like that passes through you." 
Help! was released in the UK on August 6, 1965 and entered the charts at #1 on August 14, replacing "The Sound Of Music". The album spent 9 weeks as #1 but stayed in the charts for an additional 37 weeks.  There were over 250,000 copies ordered and just in the first week sales topped of over 270,000! The Beatles also released "Ticket To Ride" and "Help!" as singles which as no surprised topped charts and became million-sellers!
The Album features the following tracks;
  • Help! (Lennon- McCartney)
  • The Night Before (Lennon- McCartney)
  • You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (Lennon- McCartney)
  • I Need You (Harrison)
  • Another Girl (Lennon- McCartney)
  • You're Going To Lose That Girl (Lennon- McCartney)
  • Ticket To Ride (Lennon- McCartney)
  • Act Naturally (Morrison- Russell)
  • It's Only Love (Lennon- McCartney)
  • You Like Me Too Much (Harrison)
  • Tell Me What You See (Lennon- McCartney)
  • I've Just Seen A Face (Lennon- McCartney)
  • Yesterday (Lennon- McCartney)
  • Dizzy Miss Lizzy (Williams)

The album was released in the US in Capitol Records version on August 13,1965. There were 1 million copies ordered, which at one time was the largest initial order in history of the music industry! Although it seemed like a lot of copies, more orders were needed because the album immediately sold 3 million copies. Help! entered US charts as #1 for 9 weeks and stayed in charts for another 33.  The Capitol Record album includes the following tracks;
  • Help!
  • The Night Before
  • From Me To You Fantasy (instrumental) 
  • You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
  • I Need You
  • In The Tyro (instrumental)
  • Another Girl
  • Another Hard Days Night (instrumental)
  • Ticket To Ride
  • The Bitter End/ You Can't Do That (instrumental)
  • You're Going To Lost That Girl
  • The Chase (instrumental)
The album cover was shot by Robert Freeman who also had taken the With The Beatles, A Hard Days Night  and Beatles For Sale cover. The covered featured the group wearing skiing outfits from the film and having the cover spell "NUJV" in semaphore. 
"I had the idea of semaphore spelling out the letters HELP. But when we came to do the shot the arrangement of the arms with those letters didn't look good. So we decided to improvise and ended up with the best graphic positioning of the arms."- Robert Freeman

Help! Fun Facts:

  • The first session for the new album took place in Studio Two on February 15, 1965 where they started recording "Ticket To Ride", "I Need You", and "Another Girl"
  • Help! was were George first got interested in Indian music and sitar
  • The album features 10 songs credited to Lennon- McCartney, 2 to Harrison, and 2 covers
  • The Cover for the US version has the arms spelling "NVUJ" instead of "NUJV"
  • George Martin wanted to have "Yesterday" be credit to just McCartney but Brian Epstein wouldn't allow it because he wasn't going to 'break up' the band.

    Wednesday, October 9, 2013

    9 Days Of Lennon: Day 9 "In My Life"

    Today marks John Lennon's 73rd Birthday!

    For the short forty years John was with us he accomplished more than anyone could ask for from him. He was the perfect role model, disregard the drug uses and things like that, but John Lennon become successful by doing what he loved, music, and has honestly changed the world with his natural talent. He became a figure that people can look up to and someone who influenced everyone, without even realizing it.The last post of "9 Days Of Lennon" is based of tributes for John. From McCartney, Elton John, statues, parks, and more.

    "My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role is to try and express what we all feel. Not as a preacher, but as a reflection of us all."-John Lennon
    To fans John Lennon is an inspiration and an idol, he's someone we all want to be and means a lot to us even though we don't know him. Sir Paul McCartney falls under that category, saying he's the biggest John Lennon fan. John and Paul had a friendship like no other and really define the word music. Paul still misses The Beatles days;
     "Are you kidding? Of course I bloody miss it. I'm sitting in the room with John, him with me. Believe me, we're both pretty good editors. We were young turks. We were smartasses. And we did some amazing things. I would love him to be here now, saying, 'Don't bloody do that!' – or, more wonderfully, 'That's great!' So yeah, I really had the greatest writing partner."
     Paul McCartney shows his respect to his great friend in a tribute song, "Here Today". The lyrics consists of Paul telling John how much he loves him and at concerts, for example at this past Out There tour when Paul played Boston he started the song by saying something on the lines of, "Sometimes you don't have the opportunity to say you love someone and how much they mean to you and next thing you know they're gone. Here's to you John". Paul even tears up when singing his song.  One line in the song is "What about the night we cried, because there wasn't any reason left to keep it all inside" is from a story of The Beatles being in Key West due to a hurricane and they were stuck there. The two, Lennon and McCartney, had nothing better to do but get drunk and then eventually talking in depths and connecting on some deep personal feelings and just cried.
    "I seem to remember we had some time off in Key West, Florida, and it was because there was a hurricane, and we'd been diverted, I think, from Jacksonville.
    So we had to spend a night or two in Key West, is where we ended up, anyway. And at that age, with that much time on our hands, we really didn't know what to do with it except get drunk.
    And so that was what we did. And we stayed up all night talking, talking, talking like it was going out of style. And at some point early in the morning, I think we must have touched on some points that were really emotional, and we ended up crying, which was very unusual for us, because we - members of a band and young guys, we didn't do that kind of thing. So I always remembered it as a sort of important emotional landmark."- Paul McCartney, 2001 interview with Terry Gross (Read more of the interview here).

    "I can't tell you how much it hurts to lose him. His death is a bitter cruel blow. I really loved the guy."- Paul McCartney
    "I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people." -John Lennon

     George Harrison also pays respect to his band-mate with "All Those Years Ago". The song was originally written about Ringo but when John was assassinated he changed the lyrics to now say how much he looked up to John. Al Kooper remembers seeing George reacting to John's death,
    "George was in the kitchen, white as a sheet, real shook up. We all had breakfast. He took calls from Paul and Yoko, which actually seemed to help his spirit, and then we went into the studio and started the day's work. Ray and I kept George's wine glass full all day..."
    Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, and Denny Laine (from Moody Blues and was part of  McCartney's  Wings) played on the song.
    George also worked with Lennon on several other occasions after The Beatles, playing on John Lennon Plastic Ono Band's Imagine album for songs like "Crippled Inside. Also, for Lennon's "Oh My Love".
    "Interviewer: John wasn't an angel.
    George: He wasn't, but then again he was."
    Jim Keltner, drummer for Lennon and Harrison (later The Traveling Wilburys) had said;
    "George was very, very heavily influenced by John, all of John's thinking and the way John did things in the world, and the way he handled his Beatledom, you know. I think that George was very affected by that. I got to have the best of all of that by being friends with both of them, and it's just been a tremendous ride. I can't ever describe properly what it's like to have been so close with all those guys."
     "Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."- John Lennon
    After John's death Yoko had come up with some unfinished tapes of John and asked the remaining Beatles to do something with them. The three added music and backings to songs like "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love"-which was originally  "Girls and Boys".  Ringo remembers the event as difficult to not have John with them and calling the process very emotional.
    "And we came to the conclusion that, well, what we'll do is we'll just feel like - you know, we'll just sort of say, well, John's gone on holiday for a while, or he's gone for a cup of tea. And that's how we got into it. So it felt okay, you know."
    Ringo pays his respect to John at the end of his concerts. Every concert Ringo ends with John's "Give Peace A Chance" and even has John's vocals in 'Yellow Submarine" played instead of having his All-Star's sing Lennon's part.
    Ringo also released a song on his album "Ringo Rama" called 'Imagine Me There" written about John and even says in his lyrics, "When I find myself in frantic situations, I imagine you there" saying he thinks of John when things get rough and is able to go on.

    "My friends call me John, but you can call me 'Tonight'" -John Lennon
    Elton John was a big John Lennon fan and friend. John and Elton worked together in 1972 on each others songs and then later preformed a concert on Thanksgiving of 1972 (Read more about their friendship here).
    After the loss of his good friend Elton John went on to write "Empty Garden", a song about him walking to John's door and having no answer and just asking John to come out and talk to him. He even says that when he preforms the song in concert he can't look at the screen behind him, which is showing pictures of Lennon in fear of tearing up and not being able to carry on.
    “Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.”- John Lennon
      There are many tributes to the great musician like tribute bands, memorials, statues, and others. Some of the major John Lennon ones can be found in New York City and Mathew Street in Liverpool. One of the major tourist attractions in Central Park, New York is Strawberry Fields, a section dedicated to John Lennon named after The Beatles song "Strawberry Fields". The memorial is located directly across from


    the Dakota apartments where John and Yoko lived for several years and where John was assassinated outside of. The memorial  was originally 'Peace Garden" and is 5.3 acres dedicated to John.
    Yoko Ono started the creation of Strawberry Fields in 1981 and on John's birthday in 1985 the project was finished.
     If you're a Beatles fan you must know what is located on Mathew Street in Liverpool. The Cavern Club is said to be where The Beatles got their big break (read more about The Cavern here). On the corner of Mathew Street is a dark statue of a young John Lennon leaning against a building. 


    'If There's such a thing as genius - I am one. And if there isn't, I don't Care"- John Lennon
      
    Ten Songs by John Lennon that I like (Not my favorites because I can't choose only ten):
    Personally, John Lennon has effected my life in many ways and I wouldn't be who I am today without him. He had forty short years to make a name for himself and that's just what he did. Rest in Peace John Lennon. You're sorely missed and will never be forgotten.

    "Though I know I'll never lose affection
    For people and things that went before
    I know I'll often stop and think about them
    In my life I love you more"