‘He didn’t sail across the Atlantic in an ocean liner or a yellow submarine. He didn’t come in on a third-class ticket looking for a job in Hell’s Kitchen. He didn’t climb up out of steerage with all his potatoes in a single suitcase. But John Lennon was an immigrant all the same.’
The songs don’t quite interlock, but still they connect to the myth and then back away from it, it is Lennon as careerist and perhaps this is the one album you can really compare to mid-period McCartney. Say McCartney’s Pipes Of Peace and, yes I know I’m biased, but Lennon’s genius shines through: it is important stuff despite its intentions in ways Macca isn’t.
At the birth of rock nyc Helen Bach, Mike Nessing, and I did a lotta hi-jinx we don’t do now. Sometimes we would do 30 posts in a day. For awhile we wrote reviews of imaginary concerts. Here is a Lennon one from 2009, because everytime I put my finger on Walls And Bridges, it slips away
‘My mum came to me in a dream when she’d died years previously. I was in a bit of a state – it was the Sixties and I was overdoing it. In the dream she said, ‘Don’t worry it’s all going to be fine, just let it be.’ And I woke up and thought, ‘Woah’ and wrote the song.’ And this moving story really inspired Kanye, who said, ‘I’m going to write a song with my mum.’ Macca sat at the piano and they wrote ‘Only One’.
Lennon was not killed by Mark David Chapman as everyone thinks, but by bestseller author Stephen King, who was actually backed up by Nixon and Reagan. To be honest, it’s not the first time I hear about a government conspiracy related to Lennon’s murder, but what does King have to do with all this?
One of the saddest days in the year for me are Father’s Day, it is the one where it becomes clear that I have no children and nieces and nephew aren’t a substitute. It is a day dreamy concern (I don’t like the responsibility of a woman or a cat so it would be a form of hell…) but when you hear songs like this it triggers something. Less the urge to continue the Iman line and much more the urge to be loved
The negotiations for Lennon’s old guitar were complicated, it was said. The owner was a crusty old cob who knew the great value of his one prized possession. It took 15 back-and-forth exchanges, like the highest-stakes ping-pong match, to arrive at the final figure.
These artists died to defend our rights to speak against anything, to be able to criticize anything, even religion. Having the right to discuss and criticize any opinions is an essential human emancipation
What I am claiming, about all three songs, is they are death songs. It dreams of something that doesn’t exist and then ties the dream to our death. Good? More. Brilliant because it is instant nostalgia, we are missing what we are hearing, and dreaming of it happening as it happens.
Really, if that was all he had ever ever done, forget the Beatles, and forget Plastic Ono Band, or just being Lennon, if all there ever was was “Imagine” and “Give Peace A Chance” his position would be unassailable, unreachable
Now that Lennon is (mostly) on spotify we can look at all his albums and songs and stuff and thing: there should be so much more. what is worth noting for this song, and indeed all of the final period of his career, is that his songs improved with the right production. Stripped down they don’t hit so hard – A+
people have noticed that many musicians have a long ring finger, and hand casts of Anton Rubinstein, Beethoven and Franz Listz have effectively revealed a long ring finger in both hands. This has been studied by professor John Manning of the Liverpool University, who compared the index finger (second one) to the ring finge
You know that old song “Love is all around”? Well, the truth is what’s always is all around is death and it intrudes on your life and knocks on the door and is in permanent residence. You can ignore or or you can embrace it but you won’t see it coming and have no doubt it is coming for you.
wW here at rock nyc know the 1970s were the greatest decade in rock and roll history topped by punk and disco at the end but if you don’t believe us check out Steve Crawford’s 997 best songs of the decade. Though we will pass on “The Cover Of The Rolling Stone”,
The video helps of course, to take the edge off of it all but it not only is simply bad- its confusing. Since your brain can clearly point out the two songs it almost feels like you have too many windows open on your computer. There is no binding factor.
When you are a legend like John Lennon people are willing to sell a kidney to own a piece of you and so it goes as poshy auction house Sotheby dusts off original art, puts it on an easel and waits for the offers to roll in
I could have done without the montage of Sherman’s pre-8 years old childhood to Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy” (which probably cost them more bucks than all the voice talent in the movie combined) but the end result was a movie that honors at least some of the spirit of Ward and will make for a late Sunday afternoon HBO treat for years to come.
When you get past his agitprop and get closer to the pan-humanism of Imagine and Mind Games, this is what you find. The heart of Lennon, of Double Fantasy, is placing the love of one on an equal footing with the love of the many. Seeing one as part of the other.
Sachs Media Group, in collaboration with photo restoration and manipulation company Phojoe, has published a series of portraits of musicians who died young, trying to figure out how they would have aged. And the results are quite realistic
The pages come from a class detention book that was rescued from a bonfire by a teacher who spotted the name Lennon at the top of some of these pages!
Justice always matters but past the question of the LAPD either investigating or closing the file on Elliott, or punishing wrongdoers if indeed there are any, what does it matter whether Smith jumped or was pushed?
Watching The Wheels – John Lennon – This songs as a signpost and it reads the future of a great songwriter, able to turn the most personal aspects of his life and politics into a share . This is the acoustic demo featured on the end credits of “Funny People” – A
There is also an interactive element to the app in which the user can visit a disco. A freakin disco? We all know John was big in the dance scene so that makes perfect sense. I just find the entire project disturbing on every level. Even the charity aspect cannot lessen the sour on this one
