"The footnotes for my nineteenth book. This is my standard procedure for doing it. And while I compose it, I'm also reviewing it"-Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D
Yes, you read it correctly, the moment most of us Spotify listeners have been waiting for, John Lennon joins the other Beatles by coming to the music media site with a catalogue of his solo albums - Paul and Ringo who has already had their full discographies and George who has a few selected songs available.
A week ago today we celebrated what would of been John Lennon's 74th birthday, and what better way to remember the inspirational musician than having eight, yes eight of your favorite John Lennon and Plaistic Ono Band, albums streaming from your very own phone or computer. As part of the Spotify movement the following albums were added;
Albums;
Milk and Honey
Plastic Ono Band
Rock 'N' Roll
Imagine
Mind Games
Sometime In New York City
Walls and Bridges
Double Fantasy
Compilations;
Gimme Some Truth
Signature Box
Power To The People: The Hits
Although eight of John Lennon's albums starting from the 1970s to 1980 are available to stream, his work while experimenting with Yoko Ono in Unfinished Music No 1: Two Virgins, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With The Lions and Wedding Album are not yet part of the Spotify collection.
The following was post via Twitter by John Lennon verified account (@JohnLennon) on 7 October, 2014.
St Luke's Church stands proudly at 41 meters (133 feet) tall, 18 meters (60 feet) wide, and 54 meters (177 feet 6 inches) long on the corner of Berry Street and Leece Street in the heart of Liverpool. Designed by John Foster Sr and John Foster Jr in the early 1800s, the building was complete in 1832 becoming an Anglican Parish church becoming known as "the doctor's church", being near Rodney Street, home of many local doctors. Through 1832 St Luke's was not only used for religious purposes but as a venue of celebrations as well as a concert hall until 1849 when the Philhamronic Hall opened on Hope Street. To many Liverpudlians this church is known as 'The Bombed Out Church', due to the Liverpool Blitz on 6 May, 1941. During this brutal bombings St. Luke's suffered from an incendiary device causing a rapid fire. As fire spread, the interior turned to ash while the exterior and shell still stand today. In 1952 the church became known as a Grade II building, being defined as "particularly important buildings of more than special interest" (English Heritage,Listed Buildings).
Yes, yes, I know, the name of this website is "The Fab Four Blog", so why am I telling you about a church?
Two days ago, Sunday 5 October, 2014, it was announced that Sir James Paul McCartney is helping the Bombed Out Church's Crowdfunder campaign and Club Freeze to preserve this "international legend" (says Curator of St Luke's, Ambrose Reynolds). After Crowdfunder raised over £20,000 towards the church, Club Freeze dance music promoter's turned to one of Liverpool's most iconic productions, Paul McCartney, who was delighted to help;
"St Luke's Church - better known as 'The Bombed - Out Church' to the people of Liverpool- is a place that encourages people to express themselves. The people of Liverpool should do everything possible to keep this venue open for the use of the people and run by the people. It is a place that is regularly staffed by students from LIPA and every-day people of all ages, religions and backgrounds. It would be a terrible shame if we lost this cultural icon." -Sir James Paul McCartney via PaulMcCartney.com
Not only has Paul McCartney taken a step towards helping a Liverpool treasure, but John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, who had taken a keen interest in the church, even making it part of her "Skyladder" art work this past March. As part of her work she stated that the idea was for her husband John, Lennon that is, who was "very proud of Liverpool". After her husbands passing she had the urge to visit Liverpool and start a public art display of stepping ladders inside The Bombed-Out church for anyone to bring a ladder that "takes you a bit closer to the sky." (Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono: Skyladders ).
Skyladders
Along with her art display Yoko Ono takes her own part in spreading awareness to raise money for the struggling church via Twitter where she wrote
Last night, 26 January, 2014, the 56th annual Grammy award ceremony was held at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California; The show broadcasted on CBS at 8 pm EST being filmed live at 5 pm PST. LL Cool J made his way back to the front, hosting the ceremony for his third time (previously hosting the 54th and 55th awards). Amongst the many talented artist and collaborators at the Grammys sat seven very important people, Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison, Barbara Starkey (Bach), Nancy McCartney (Shevell), Ringo Starr, and Sir Paul McCartney!
As the night went on with many awards and preformances from numerous artist, mixing from older generations to new the fourteenth award, "Best Rock Song" was award to Dave Grohl, Paul McCartney, Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear for their song "Cut Me Some Slack" from Sound City- Real to Reel, a music documentary produced by Dave Grohl. See The boys receiving the award below;
Picture taken By Sean Lennon which he captioned "Homies"
The previous day the award for "Life Time Achievement" was given to the Fab Four (finally!). Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, and Olivia Harrison were there to accept the award, Paul was busy with the band rehearsing.
"It's a Lifetime Achievement Award, but I feel like we've all got a lot more life left in us," Starr says on receiving this award"It's a great afternoon; it's all about music. . . . The Beatles' music is still out there and that's what I'm most proud of."
Yoko Ono said ,
"I'm here today because I think John would have wanted
me to be here"
And Ronald Isley even spoke about the award,
"Me and Paul talk about that all the time," he continues,"And we
talked about that all night, and he said, you know, if it wasn't for our
group, they would probably still be in Liverpool."
After the award for "Best Rock Song" was presented and a few others Ringo Starr took the stage to sing an obvious crowds favorite, 'Photograph', and ended it with his signature "Peace and Love" saying.
Not only did Ringo preform but Paul's rainbow piano was rolled on stage to play one of his new songs from his NEW album, 'Queenie Eye'. It was everything a Beatlemaniac could ask for when Ringo Starr was shown playing with Paul McCartney. The two remaining Beatles reunited on stage, one of the best performances in Grammy history! Video below;
Besides the "Best Rock Song" Paul had received three more awards last night,
• 'Best Rock Song' for 'Cut Me Some Slack' along with Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear
• 'Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package' for 'Wings Over America'
• 'Best Surround Sound Album' and 'Best Music Film' for 'Live Kisses'
"This coming February to honor The Beatles 50th year anniversary of being
on The Ed Sullivan Show The Grammys are presenting "The Night That
Changed America: A GRAMMY Salute To The Beatles." It will be a 2- hour
showing and brodcasted on the CBS Television Network on Sunday February
9, 2014 ( the exact date The Beatles first played Ed Sullivan, read more
about their performances here) from 9-10 p.m ET/PT.
Read more about the Ed Sullivan Grammy event on their website, here " -Taken from an old post about All Things Must Pass being iducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, check it out here.
"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
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.
In 1969 the Vietnam War was still strong and was effecting everyone world wide, even The Beatles. Also in March of that year John Lennon had wed his second wife Yoko Ono and started their eleven year marriage, up to the death of John in 1980.
To protest the war the Lennon's had decided to grow their hair long and stay in bed for a week and promote the peace message. The couple were married on March 20 after having failed to get married in Paris days before. Apple employee, Peter Brown, told the couple to go to Gibraltar, a British colony near Spain and were married there. The couple liked Gibraltar because it was quiet and British. They originally set out to get married on the car ferry heading to France and by the time they arrived in France they'd already be married, but people wouldn't allow it due to the law that you had to be a three week residence to get married in Germany and two weeks to be married in France.
"So we were in Paris and we were calling Peter Brown, and said, 'We want
to get married. Where can we go?' And he called back and said,
'Gibraltar's the only place.' So - 'OK, let's go!' And we went there and
it was beautiful. It's the Pillar of Hercules, and also symbolically
they called it the End of the World at one period. There's some name
besides Pillar of Hercules - but they thought the world outside was a
mystery from there, so it was like the Gateway to the World. So we liked
it in the symbolic sense, and the Rock foundation of our relationship."- John Lennon
Finally made the plane into Paris
Honeymooning down by the Seine
Peter Brown called to say
You can make it OK
You can get married in Gibraltar near Spain
On their honeymoon the couple headed from Paris to Amsterdam and checked into the Hilton Hotel on March 25. Another line from "The Ballad of John and Yoko",
Drove from Paris to the Amsterdam Hilton
Talking in our beds for a week
The newspapers said, say what you doing in bed?
I said, were only trying to get us some peace
John and Yoko were aware that their marriage would be covered by the press so they decided to take this opportunity to spread peace. The two spent a week in bed in the presidential suite, room 902.
"The first bed-in was held in Amsterdam on our honeymoon. We sent out a card: 'Come to John and Yoke's honeymoon: a bed-in, Amsterdam Hotel.'
You should have seen the faces on the reporters and the cameramen
fighting their way through the door! Because whatever it is, is in
people's minds - their minds were full of what they thought was going to
happen. They fought their way in, and their faces dropped. There were
we like two angels in bed, with flowers all around us, and peace and
love on our heads. We were fully clothed; the bed was just an accessory.
We were wearing pyjamas, but they don't look much different from day
clothes - nothing showing."- John Lennon
Reporters had thought that since the couple had released the "Two Virgins" album cover, featuring the two naked that any thing goes and two find the Lennon's having sex in bed. But to their surprise the two were fully clothed, sitting in bed with signs on the windows that read "Hair Peace" and "Bed Peace". This event was filmed in colour and produced by Peter Goessens featuring the couple talking, sleeping, waking up, reading the paper and things like that.
The room in the Hilton is now room number 702 and is marked as the John and Yoko Honeymoon Suite. Couples are now able to get married in the room in a civil ceremony.
A few months later the couple found themselves back with long hair in the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal on May 26. Canada was not the ideal location for the bed-in, they wanted to promote peace in New York but couldn't because John was banned from the US on half of cannabis possession the previous year. The couple then had the idea for the Bahamas and stay at a hotel where Beatles new manager, Allen Klein's nephew had his honeymoon. But the hotel was awful with twin beds cemented to the floor and blocks of concrete between them. John then said to have the bed-in in Canada, it's the closest place to the United States.
During the Montreal stay they gave up to 150 interviews each day and then recorded one of the great songs in Lennon's career and probably the best song to spread the message of peace, "Give Peace A Chance". The song was recorded on June 1 in the hotel room with special guest like; Yoko's daughter, Kyoko; US black civil rights advocate, Dick Gregory; Quebec separatist, Jacques Larue-Langlous, Timothy Leary; Toronto Rabbi Abraham Feinberg; musician, Petula Clark; members of the Canadian Radha Krishna Temple; and Al Capp, and American cartoonist.
In the United States their bed-ins were reported on 350 radio stations
where they spread the peace message and the protests against the Vietnam
War.
"It
is very difficult for us to know we love somebody because it is an
insecure position to be in. But in the end, it is important to be honest
about your love because life is not that long."- Yoko Ono
We all know Yoko Ono, the avant- garde artist who stole
John's heart in the mid 60s and would later become an inspiration to his songs like "oh, Yoko!", "Dear Yoko" and others. She would also be the one who would have John's second child, Sean and who he would marry in 1969. Many people blame Yoko for The Beatles break up, which in my opinion isn't completely true. She took part in many events like the Bed In's for Peace and even had a band named after her, The Plastic Ono Band. Yoko Ono had made a profound impact in John Lennon's life and here's the story of how they met.
Yoko Ono was born on February 18,1933 in Tokyo, she was an only child and lived with her mother, Isoko Yasuda, who was granddaughter to Zenijiro Yasuda, founder of Yasuda Bank. She didn't meet her father, Eisuke Ono, who was a decedent of the 9th century Emperor of Japan, till she was two years old in California. She shortly headed back to Japan before World War II and survived the bombing over Tokyo in 1945. Yoko went to the same school as Emperor Hirohito's sons, although the girls and boys were separated she and Emperor Hirohito's son, Yoshi would visit each other.
In the early 50s the Ono's moved to New York and Yoko attended Sarah Lawrence College studying and singing music where she might a Julliard student, Toshi Ichiyanagi and would later marry him. The two moved to Manhattan where Yoko found herself becoming interested in the arts from inspirations like Fraz Kafka, Vincent Van Gogh, and Arnold Schonberg. During these times she worked as a waitress, apartment manager, and a music teacher in public schools in New York. Her parents didn't say much but Yoko always knew they were disappointed.
"It was
all right for me to be an artist or a musician, but they were thinking of a
more conservative route."
In 1962 she separated Toshi and moved back to Japan with her parents, there she found herself clinical depressed and was put into a mental hospital. Once released she married an art promoter from the United States, Tony Cox. She later had a child with Tony Cox, named Kyoko. In 1964 Tony had left Japan and headed back to New York where Yoko and Kyoko would follow. Tony had became Yoko's art assistant during their marriage. The two stayed married up until Tony had found out that Yoko had been seeing the great John Lennon.
During late October or early November of 1966 John Lennon was talking to John Dunbar, an owner of an art gallery in London. Dunbar told John that there was some Japanese women who was having an art show at his gallery and was going to literally be in a black bag. When Lennon heard this he thought it was some crazy sex thing and went to the gallery on November 9 just to see what it was all about. To his surprise there was no woman in the black bag, she was just walking around the gallery fixing little pieces of art. When John first saw Yoko and her work he dismissed her as a "crazy artist". He saw a fresh apple just sitting there that was priced for £200 and a bag of nails priced for £100.
"I thought this was a con; what the hell is this," John told BBC interviewer Andy Peebles.
Approaching John, Yoko handed him a card that just said "Breathe". John was then distracted by a ladder and a canvas on the wall. He climbed the ladder up to the top where in fine print the canvas just read "YES".
"You're on the ladder -- you feel like a fool, you could fall any minute -- and you look through and it just says "YES". Well, All the so- called avant - garde art at the time, and everything that was supposedly interesting was all negative; the smash-the-piano-with-a-hammer, break-the-sculpture, boring, negative crap. It was all anti-, anti-, anti-, anti-art. Anti- establishment. And just that "YES" made me stay in a gallery full of apples and nails, instead of just walking out. Saying, 'I'm not gonna by any of this crap."- John Lennnon
After he stepped down from the ladder he headed to a board with a chain and a hammer at the end. Underneath the board was a bag of nails and John asked if he could nail one in, Ono replied no. Dunbar was the one who told Yoko that that's not the way you treat a Beatle. Yoko told John that he can nail one for 5 shillings. John looked at her and told her he'd pay her an imaginary shilling for an imaginary nail and there he hammered his imaginary nail.
"And that's when we really met. That's when we locked eyes and she got it and I got it, and that was it."
"It's The Beatles with their suits off."-John Lennon
Some say "Let It Be" is the 'Break-up' album, and they are right. For four decades Howard Smith, a journalist of Village Voice, has had an audio interview with John Lennon. The Interview was in 1969 around the time The Beatles finished or were finishing recording Their last recording as a group for "Let It Be", released on May 8, 1970. To no surprise the interview was held with Smith himself, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were John said,
"We were going through hell. We often do. It's torture every time we
produce anything. The Beatles haven't got any magic you haven't got. We
suffer like hell anytime we make anything, and we got each other to
contend with. Imagine working with The Beatles, it's tough."
He later claims,
"We never really finished it. We didn't really want to do it. Paul was
hustling for us to do it. It's The Beatles with their suits off."
During this time The Beatles were making a film with the name that followed the album, "Let It Be". The album was really to be the soundtrack for the film and made Rolling Stone Magazines top 500 Greatest Albums. In the late 60's The Beatles were already falling apart. Their manager, Brian Epstein passed away and they later searched for a new manager, Allen Klein who they all favored except Paul, it was one of the first major things The Beatles didn't agree on as a group. On September 20,1969 John told Paul he wanted a 'divorce' and Ringo had already left the band for a little bit during "The Beatles (White Album)" recordings and George walked on a few sessions too. All Beatles claiming McCartney taking charge, they all show anger towards Paul in solo songs, John's "How Do You Sleep", which he later claims he wrote about himself, Ringo's "Back Off Boogaloo" and George's "Run Of The Mill".
With Howard Smith, John States about The Beatles touring and working,
"It was complete madness from morning to night without a moments peace." and going on saying "And of course there were great moments and when we talk about it it's all laugh but when you get down to the physical reality it was all pain."
John's interview with Howard Smith will be for sale by RP Auction in mid September.
"It's a frank and honest interview from one
of the most revered musicians and activists of all time,"-Bobby
Livingston, Vice President of RP Auction
Livingston estimates the tape will sell for a minimum bid of $300 and could potentially reach $5,000 and $10,000.
Find a the interview of John and Yoko here, Part 1 and Part 2
Find an interview of Howard Smith talking on the interview and about John and Yoko here, Part 1 and Part 2
"My ultimate goal in film-making is to make a film which includes a smiling face snap of every single human being in the world. Of course, I cannot go around the world and take the shots myself. I need cooperation from something like the post offices of the world. if everybody would drop a snapshot of themselves and their families to the post office of their town, or allow themselves to be photographed by the nearest photographic studio, this would be soon accomplished." -Yoko Ono 1967
In 1967 Yoko Ono had been inspired to get a smiling picture of every human being on the planet, a worldwide project that is now, decades later being fulfilled. With help from today's technology she is able to get picture sent from all the world by using websites like Instagram and Twitter
Yoko Ono and David Frost 1967
"And when you are born, you will know that if you wanted to, you will have in your life time to communicate with the whole world. That is more than most of us could ask for." -Yoko Ono 1967
To participate in her project you can:
Take or upload a picture to Instagram or Twitter to @SmilesFilm
When adding the picture hashtag #smilesfilm
Add you location to appear on the map at Smiles Film's website
#SmilesFilm has already been showing since June 21 in London's Serpentine Gallery as part of Yoko's show To The Light, it will be running until this coming September 9.
Yoko Ono first talking about her project can be found here
"Very soon, the age may come where we would not need photographs to communicate, like ESP, etc. It will happen soon, but that will be "After The Film Age." -Yoko Ono 1967
Yes, you read it correctly, the moment most of us Spotify listeners have been waiting for, John Lennon joins the other Beatles by coming to the music media site with a catalogue of his solo albums - Paul and Ringo who has already had their full discographies and George who has a few selected songs available.
John Lennon
