by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Well I'd rather see you dead, little girl
Than to be with another man.
You better keep your head, little girl
Or I won't know where I am.
You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl.
Catch you with another man
That's the end, little girl.
Well you know that I'm a wicked guy
And I was born with a jealous mind
And I can't spend my whole life trying
Just to make you toe the line.
You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl.
Catch you with another man
That's the end, little girl.
Let this be a sermon
I mean everything I've said.
Baby, I'm determined
That I'd rather see you dead.
You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl.
Catch you with another man
That's the end, little girl.
I'd rather see you dead, little girl
Than to be with another man.
You better keep your head, little girl
Or you won't know where I am.
You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl.
Catch you with another man
That's the end, little girl.
Nah, nah, nah.
Nah, nah, nah.
Nah, nah, nah.
Nah, nah, nah.
Nah, nah, nah.
Friday, November 20, 2009
"Carnival of Light"
"Carnival of Light" is an unreleased experimental piece by The Beatles. It was recorded on 5 January 1967, after the vocal overdubbing sessions for the song "Penny Lane". The track was created for The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave, an event held at the Roundhouse Theatre on 28 January and 4 February 1967.
History
The genesis of the track came in December 1966 from designer David Vaughan (part of the designer trio Binder, Edwards & Vaughan), who had recently painted a psychedelic design on a piano owned by Paul McCartney. About the same time as he delivered the piano to McCartney's Cavendish Avenue address, he asked if McCartney would contribute a musical piece for the upcoming The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave. To Vaughan’s surprise McCartney agreed to make a contribution.
The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave (sometimes referred to as The Carnival of Light Rave) was an art festival organised by Binder, Edwards & Vaughan as a showcase for electronic music and light shows. It was held at the Chalk Farm Road Roundhouse Theatre and featured on the bill not only a public playing of 'Carnival of Light' but performances by Unit Delta Plus, whose members included early electronic music pioneers Delia Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and fellow electronic artist Peter Zinovieff. "Carnival of Light" was created for this event.
Recording and mix
Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn, who listened to the song in 1987 while compiling his book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, says the song included "distorted, hypnotic drum and organ sounds, a distorted lead guitar, the sound of a church organ, various effects (water gargling was one) and, perhaps most strange of all, John Lennon and McCartney screaming dementedly and bawling aloud random phrases like 'Are you alright?' and 'Barcelona!'"
Barry Miles, the official McCartney biographer, wrote in Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now that the song had "no rhythm, although a beat is sometimes established for a few bars by the percussion or a rhythmic pounding piano. There is no melody, although snatches of a tune sometimes threaten to break through."
"I said all I want you to do is just wander around all the stuff, bang it, shout, play it, it doesn't need to make any sense. Hit a drum, then wander onto the piano, hit a few notes and just wander around," said McCartney in November 2008.
The basic bed track of an organ playing bass notes and drums was recorded at a slow speed, giving them a deeper sound. There is also a huge amount of reverb used on the instruments and on Lennon's and McCartney's vocals (the only two voices on the track); Lennon and McCartney also recorded Native American war cries, whistling, close-miked gasping, genuine coughing and fragments of studio conversation. Other overdubs to the song include bursts of guitar feedback, schmaltzy cinema organ, snatches of jangling pub piano and electronic feedback with Lennon shouting 'Electricity!'. The track concludes with McCartney asking the studio engineer in an echo-soaked voice, "Can we hear it back now?"
Also, according to Barry Miles, musically it "resembles "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet" from Frank Zappa 's Freak Out! album, except there is no rhythm and the music ... is more fragmented, abstract and serious."
Dudley Edwards (one of the organizers of The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave and friend of McCartney's) said that an early take of "Fixing a Hole" (from Sgt. Pepper's) with a piano appeared during the song. It is unlikely that a sample of an early take was heard since the recording of "Fixing a Hole" did not commence until five days after the last The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave, but it is not impossible that McCartney played a few bars of the song on the track.
Some reports indicate that it is around fourteen minutes long and Paul McCartney has said it was around fifteen minutes. In The Complete Beatles Chronicle it is listed as lasting 13 minutes and 48 seconds.
Although Lewisohn's book says that a rough mono mix was given to Vaughan, Miles claims that the mix down “was made with full stereo separation, and is an exercise in musical layers and textures”. Whether a second mix was made after the event or Vaughan was in fact given a stereo mix which was not logged in Abbey Road’s records is unspecified. Edwards has said the tape was taken to America by one Ray Anderson (who was brought over from the U.S. to assist with the light show). The master session tapes of Carnival of Light are still at Abbey Road Studios.
Unreleased status
"Carnival of Light" has not yet appeared on any release, either official or a bootleg recording. In 1996 McCartney tried to release the track on the compilation album The Beatles Anthology 2, but George Harrison voted to reject it. According to McCartney, the reason was that "he didn't like avant garde music" and referred to avant garde as 'avant garde a clue' ("I haven't got a clue"). George Harrison had also created avant-garde music as a solo composer (in 1969 he released an experimental album using the then new Moog synthesizer called Electronic Sound), and dabbled in the avant-garde with a couple of his Beatles compositions.
In August 1996, McCartney claimed (in an interview for Mojo) that he was working on a photo collage film of the Beatles that was similar to a film made about the Grateful Dead in 1995 called Grateful Dead -- A Photo Film. He was planning to use "Carnival of Light" in the soundtrack, but this project has yet to be seen and McCartney has not commented on the film's status since 2002.
In November 2008, Paul McCartney confirmed he still owned the master tapes, adding that he suspected "the time has come for it to get its moment. I like it because it's the Beatles free, going off piste." McCartney would need the consent of Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison, as well as Ringo Starr to release the track.
Fake releases
A minute-long mp3 file of backwards, sped up electric guitar noises showed up on file-sharing networks under the title of "Carnival of Light." However, this track was a misnamed partial track (originally 1 minute 9 seconds long) by the Lord of Boothferry, a very keen Beatles-related music collector. It was recorded mid-2000, using a damaged Hondo guitar, on a digital eight-track machine, and was released under a pseudonym on Napster. The track was a response to misnamed files on file-sharing networks that made outrageous claims. Although not released as "Carnival of Light," once circulating the name of the file was changed by various fans to fit descriptions of this unreleased composition. A follow-up track named "Joker's Relief" did not gain such a "following" or misnaming.
Since then, particularly in the wake of McCartney's announcement that he would release the track, multiple other faked constructions of the song have surfaced on YouTube and other such sites; some use samples from The Beatles recordings to create a more realistic interpretation of the track.
Recorded: 5 January 1967
Genre: Psychedelic rock
Length: 13:48 (approximately)
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Producer: George Martin
Wikipedia
History
The genesis of the track came in December 1966 from designer David Vaughan (part of the designer trio Binder, Edwards & Vaughan), who had recently painted a psychedelic design on a piano owned by Paul McCartney. About the same time as he delivered the piano to McCartney's Cavendish Avenue address, he asked if McCartney would contribute a musical piece for the upcoming The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave. To Vaughan’s surprise McCartney agreed to make a contribution.
The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave (sometimes referred to as The Carnival of Light Rave) was an art festival organised by Binder, Edwards & Vaughan as a showcase for electronic music and light shows. It was held at the Chalk Farm Road Roundhouse Theatre and featured on the bill not only a public playing of 'Carnival of Light' but performances by Unit Delta Plus, whose members included early electronic music pioneers Delia Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and fellow electronic artist Peter Zinovieff. "Carnival of Light" was created for this event.
Recording and mix
Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn, who listened to the song in 1987 while compiling his book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, says the song included "distorted, hypnotic drum and organ sounds, a distorted lead guitar, the sound of a church organ, various effects (water gargling was one) and, perhaps most strange of all, John Lennon and McCartney screaming dementedly and bawling aloud random phrases like 'Are you alright?' and 'Barcelona!'"
Barry Miles, the official McCartney biographer, wrote in Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now that the song had "no rhythm, although a beat is sometimes established for a few bars by the percussion or a rhythmic pounding piano. There is no melody, although snatches of a tune sometimes threaten to break through."
"I said all I want you to do is just wander around all the stuff, bang it, shout, play it, it doesn't need to make any sense. Hit a drum, then wander onto the piano, hit a few notes and just wander around," said McCartney in November 2008.
The basic bed track of an organ playing bass notes and drums was recorded at a slow speed, giving them a deeper sound. There is also a huge amount of reverb used on the instruments and on Lennon's and McCartney's vocals (the only two voices on the track); Lennon and McCartney also recorded Native American war cries, whistling, close-miked gasping, genuine coughing and fragments of studio conversation. Other overdubs to the song include bursts of guitar feedback, schmaltzy cinema organ, snatches of jangling pub piano and electronic feedback with Lennon shouting 'Electricity!'. The track concludes with McCartney asking the studio engineer in an echo-soaked voice, "Can we hear it back now?"
Also, according to Barry Miles, musically it "resembles "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet" from Frank Zappa 's Freak Out! album, except there is no rhythm and the music ... is more fragmented, abstract and serious."
Dudley Edwards (one of the organizers of The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave and friend of McCartney's) said that an early take of "Fixing a Hole" (from Sgt. Pepper's) with a piano appeared during the song. It is unlikely that a sample of an early take was heard since the recording of "Fixing a Hole" did not commence until five days after the last The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave, but it is not impossible that McCartney played a few bars of the song on the track.
Some reports indicate that it is around fourteen minutes long and Paul McCartney has said it was around fifteen minutes. In The Complete Beatles Chronicle it is listed as lasting 13 minutes and 48 seconds.
Although Lewisohn's book says that a rough mono mix was given to Vaughan, Miles claims that the mix down “was made with full stereo separation, and is an exercise in musical layers and textures”. Whether a second mix was made after the event or Vaughan was in fact given a stereo mix which was not logged in Abbey Road’s records is unspecified. Edwards has said the tape was taken to America by one Ray Anderson (who was brought over from the U.S. to assist with the light show). The master session tapes of Carnival of Light are still at Abbey Road Studios.
Unreleased status
"Carnival of Light" has not yet appeared on any release, either official or a bootleg recording. In 1996 McCartney tried to release the track on the compilation album The Beatles Anthology 2, but George Harrison voted to reject it. According to McCartney, the reason was that "he didn't like avant garde music" and referred to avant garde as 'avant garde a clue' ("I haven't got a clue"). George Harrison had also created avant-garde music as a solo composer (in 1969 he released an experimental album using the then new Moog synthesizer called Electronic Sound), and dabbled in the avant-garde with a couple of his Beatles compositions.
In August 1996, McCartney claimed (in an interview for Mojo) that he was working on a photo collage film of the Beatles that was similar to a film made about the Grateful Dead in 1995 called Grateful Dead -- A Photo Film. He was planning to use "Carnival of Light" in the soundtrack, but this project has yet to be seen and McCartney has not commented on the film's status since 2002.
In November 2008, Paul McCartney confirmed he still owned the master tapes, adding that he suspected "the time has come for it to get its moment. I like it because it's the Beatles free, going off piste." McCartney would need the consent of Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison, as well as Ringo Starr to release the track.
Fake releases
A minute-long mp3 file of backwards, sped up electric guitar noises showed up on file-sharing networks under the title of "Carnival of Light." However, this track was a misnamed partial track (originally 1 minute 9 seconds long) by the Lord of Boothferry, a very keen Beatles-related music collector. It was recorded mid-2000, using a damaged Hondo guitar, on a digital eight-track machine, and was released under a pseudonym on Napster. The track was a response to misnamed files on file-sharing networks that made outrageous claims. Although not released as "Carnival of Light," once circulating the name of the file was changed by various fans to fit descriptions of this unreleased composition. A follow-up track named "Joker's Relief" did not gain such a "following" or misnaming.
Since then, particularly in the wake of McCartney's announcement that he would release the track, multiple other faked constructions of the song have surfaced on YouTube and other such sites; some use samples from The Beatles recordings to create a more realistic interpretation of the track.
Recorded: 5 January 1967
Genre: Psychedelic rock
Length: 13:48 (approximately)
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Producer: George Martin
Wikipedia
The Shirelles
The Shirelles were an American girl group in the early 1960s, and the first to have a number one single on the Billboard Hot 100. The members of the quartet were Shirley Owens (the main lead singer; later known as Shirley Alston, then Shirley Alston Reeves), Doris Coley (later known as Doris Coley Kenner, then Doris Kenner Jackson; she sang lead on "Dedicated to the One I Love", "Welcome Home Baby," "Blue Holiday" and a number of 'B' sides and album cuts), Beverly Lee, and Addie 'Micki' Harris. The quartet formed in New Jersey in 1958, and went on to release a string of hits including "Baby It's You" (written by Burt Bacharach/Hal David/Barney Williams), "Mama Said," "Foolish Little Girl," and the #1 Pop hits "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (Gerry Goffin/Carole King) and "Soldier Boy" (Florence Greenburg/Luther Dixon). Their "Sha La La" became an international hit when covered by the UK/British group Manfred Mann, giving them a Top 5 hit in 1965, and the song "Boys" was covered by The Beatles. The Beatles also covered "Baby It's You" on their album "Please, Please Me" in 1963. A year later, this same Burt Bacharach/ Hal David song was also a Top 30 hit in the UK for Sheffield-born singer Dave Berry.The Shirelles were the first major female vocal group of the rock and roll era, defining the so-called girl group sound with their soft, sweet harmonies and yearning innocence. Their music was a blend of pop and R&B, especially Doo-wop and smooth uptown soul that appealed to listeners across the board, before Motown became a crossover phenomenon with white audiences. Though The Chantels preceded them by several years, their international success was unprecedented, as they hit in England, too; their inviting musical blueprint had an enduring influence not just on their immediate followers, but on future generations of female pop singers, who often updated their songs without losing their initial appeal. In addition, they provided some of the earliest hits for important Brill Building songwriters like Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Burt Bacharach & Hal David, and Van McCoy.
History
The Shirelles were originally formed in 1958 in Passaic, New Jersey by four friends: Shirley Owens Alston Reeves, Doris Coley Kenner Jackson, Addie "Micki" Harris McPherson, and Beverly Lee. Students at Passaic High School, they christened themselves 'the Poquellos', wrote a song called "I Met Him on a Sunday," and entered their school talent show with it, singing it a cappella. A school friend had them audition for her mother, Florence Greenberg, who ran a small record label; she was impressed enough to become the group's manager, and changed their name to The Shirelles by combining frequent lead singer Shirley's first name with doo-woppers the Chantels. The Shirelles' recording of "I Met Him on a Sunday" was licensed by Decca and climbed into the national Top 50 in 1958. Two more singles flopped, however, and Decca passed on further releases. Greenberg instead signed them to her new label, Scepter Records, and brought in producer Luther Dixon, whose imaginative, sometimes string heavy arrangements would help shape the group's signature sound.
"Dedicated to the One I Love" (1959), a song they learned by heart after seeing The Five Royales perform in a show they did together and "Tonight's the Night" (1960) both failed to make much of an impact on the pop charts, although the latter was a Top 20 R&B hit and Top 40 Pop hit. However, they broke big time with the Goffin-King composition "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"; released in late 1960, it went all the way to number one pop, making them the first all-female group of the rock era to accomplish this feat; it also peaked at number two R&B. In the UK, this same song reached the Top 5 pop chart in 1961. Its success helped send a re-release of "Dedicated to the One I Love" into the Top 5 on both the pop and R&B charts in 1961 (US), and "Mama Said" did the same. A more R&B flavored outing, "Big John," also went to #2 that year. 1962 continued their run of success, most notably with "Soldier Boy," a Luther Dixon/Florence Greenberg tune that became their second pop #1; they also had a Top 10 pop and R&B hit with "Baby It's You". Dixon subsequently left the label; The Shirelles managed to score one more pop/R&B Top Ten with 1963's "Foolish Little Girl", which reached #4 on the pop chart and #9 R&B, but found it difficult to maintain their previous level of success. "Soldier Boy" also reached the Top 30 in the UK in 1962.
The group went on to record material for the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, headlined the first integrated concert show in Alabama, and helped a young Dionne Warwick get some of her first exposure (subbing for Reeves and Jackson when each took a leave of absence to get married). A money dispute with Scepter tied up their recording schedule for a while in 1964, and although it was eventually settled, The Shirelles were still bound to a label where their run was essentially over. This was also due in part to the British Invasion, whose bands were among the first to cover their songs; not only their hits, but lesser-known items like "Boys" (the Beatles) and "Sha La La" (a hit for Manfred Mann). Some of the classic covers of The Shirelles tunes, besides the ones mentioned above include: "Dedicated to the One I Love" by The Temprees, and later the Mamas & the Papas, "Baby It's You" by The Masqueraders, and "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" by Roberta Flack. Shortly after its release, Bertell Dache did a very interesting answer song to "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" entitled, "Not Just Tomorrow, But Always".
The Shirelles scraped the lower reaches of the charts a few more times, making their last appearance, ironically, with 1967's "Last Minute Miracle". Jackson left the group the following year to remarry and raise her family, and the remaining Shirelles continued as a trio, cutting singles for Bell Records as "Shirley and the Shirelles", United Artists, and RCA through 1971. The group continued to tour the oldies circuit, however, and appeared in the 1973 documentary "Let the Good Times Roll". Shirley Alston Reeves left for a solo career in 1975, upon which point Doris Jackson returned. Reeves recorded both as 'Lady Rose' (on the Scepter Strawberry subsidiary) and Shirley Alston for moonlighting Motown executive Barney Ales' Prodigal label until the label was purchased by Motown. That year, she recorded the album "With A Little Help From My Friends", in which such rock-and-roll luminaries as Shep and the Limelites, The Five Satins, Lala Brooks of The Crystals, Danny and the Juniors, The Flamingos, and The Drifters sang along with Reeves.
Doris took a leave of absence from 1979 to 1982 and was replaced by Louise Bethune. Shortly after Doris returned, Micki Harris died of a heart attack during a performance in Atlanta on June 10 1982. She was replaced by a returning Louie Bethune. By 1986, the group split, and the two originals formed their own groups: Coley fronting one group along with Fanita James and Gloria Jones of The Blossoms and occasionally, Carolyn Willis formerly of The Honey Cone; and Beverly Lee fronting the other (which featured Eloise Whittiker). Various groups claiming to be the Shirelles had been touring the oldies circuit in the '90s, so one group agreed to tour the West Coast while the other toured the East Coast. This meant that promoters would look for an authentic Shirelle to be featured in the group. They reunited briefly for a program honoring them at the high school they attended in Passaic, New Jersey and sang background on Dionne Warwick's 1983 recording of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?", found on her "How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye?" album. They had previously sung background for her on the song "Get Rid Of Him", an answer to their own "Foolish Little Girl", on Warwick's 'Make Way For Dionne Warwick' album.
The Shirelles made a special guest appearance on Bo Diddley's 1996 album A Man Amongst Men, singing background vocals on the tracks "Bo Diddley Is Crazy," "Hey Baby" and "Oops! Bo Diddley."
Beverly Lee eventually secured the official trademark for the group's name. The members of the group have also been lifelong activists in the fight for royalty reform, medical coverage, and fair treatment of and recognition for pioneering artists. They were officially inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked them #76 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" (#125) and "Tonight's the Night" (401) both made Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Doris Jackson died at the age of 58 from breast cancer in Sacramento, California, on February 4, 2000. Following her death, James and Jones reformed the Blossoms.
The Shirelles' hometown of Passaic recently (September 2008) honored the group by renaming a section of Paulison Avenue between Passaic and Pennington Avenues (the section where Passaic High School is located) "Shirelles Boulevard."
Discography
Studio albums
* 1961: Tonight's the Night
* 1961: The Shirelles Sing to Trumpets and Strings
* 1962: Baby It's You (US #59)
* 1962: The Shirelles and King Curtis Give a Twist Party (duets album with King Curtis)
* 1963: Foolish Little Girl (US #68)
* 1963: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
* 1967: Spontaneous Combustion (Live album)
* 1968: Eternally, Soul (duets album with King Curtis)
* 1972: Happy and in Love (RCA)
* 1973: The Shirelles (RCA)
* 1975: Shirley Alston: With a Little Help From My Friends (Prodigal)
* 1976: The Shirelles: Let's Give Each Other Love (RCA)
* 1977; Lady Rose (Shirley Alston) (Strawberry)
* 1977; Lady Rose Sings the Shirelles' Greatest Hits (Shirley Alston) (Strawberry)
Compilations
* 1963: Greatest Hits (US #19)
* 1964: The Shirelles Sing the Golden Oldies
* 1967: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
* 1972: Remember When
Singles
* 1958: "I Met Him on a Sunday (Ronde-Ronde)" (US #49)
* 1959: "Dedicated to the One I Love" (US #83)
* 1960: "Tonight's the Night" (US #39)
* 1961: "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (Gerry Goffin/Carole King) (US #1, UK #3)
* 1961: "Dedicated to the One I Love" (US #3; rerelease of 1959 hit)
* 1961: "Mama Said" (US #4)
* 1961: "What a Sweet Thing That Was" (US #54)
* 1961: "A Thing of the Past" (US #41)
* 1961: "Big John" (US #21)
* 1962: "Baby It's You" (Burt Bacharach/Mack David/Barney Williams) (US #8)
* 1962: "The Things I Want to Hear (Pretty Words)" (US #107)
* 1962: "Soldier Boy" (Luther Dixon/Florence Greenberg) (US #1, UK #23)
* 1962: "Welcome Home, Baby" (US #22)
* 1962: "Stop The Music" (US #36)
* 1962: "It's Love That Really Counts" (US #102)
* 1963: "Everybody Loves a Lover" (US #19)
* 1963: "Foolish Little Girl" (US #4, UK #38)
* 1963: "Don't Say Goodnight and Mean Goodbye" (US #26)
* 1963: "Not for All the Money in the World" (US #100)
* 1963: "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (US #92)
* 1963: "31 Flavors" (US #97)
* 1963: "What Does a Girl Do?" (US #53)
* 1964: "Tonight You're Gonna Fall in Love With Me" (US #57)
* 1964: "Sha-La-La" (US #69)
* 1964: "Thank You, Baby" (US #63)
* 1964: "Maybe Tonight" (US #88)
* 1965: "Are You Still My Baby" (US #91)
* 1967: "Last Minute Miracle" (US #99)
* 1969: "Go Away, Find Yourself" (Bell)
* 1970: "Strange, I Still Love You" (UA)
* 1970: "It's Gonna Take a Miracle" (UA)
* 1972: "No Sugar Tonight" (RCA)
* 1972: "Let's Give Each Other Love" (RCA)
* 1974: "I Hear Those Church Bells Ringing"/"Chapel of Love" (Shirley Alston) (Prodigal)
Wikipedia
Beatles News
- BlueBeat Beatles tracks gone for good after judge's beatdown (Ars Technica)
- Ringo, McCartney duet on Starr's latest solo album (Reuters)
- Paul McCartney To Receive Gershwin Prize (CDInsight)
- David Lynch Making Documentary About Beatles Guru (ChartAttack)
- Stella McCartney to play it again for GapKids (Los Angeles Times)
- New rules could put Beatles, Michael Jackson in Billboard 200 (Independent)
- Beatles fans twist and shout over tribute performance (Bethany Beach Wave)
- Website Selling Beatles Catalog Shut Down After Court Ruling (Rolling Stone)
- Beatles reunion on Ringo Starr's new album (NME.com)
- The Beatles Stick It to Us (New York Times)
John Lennon: 1980
By Jonathan Cott / December 5, 1980
"Welcome to the inner sanctum!" says John Lennon, greeting me with high-spirited, mock ceremoniousness in Yoko Ono's beautiful cloud-ceilinged office in their Dakota apartment. It's Friday evening, December 5, and Yoko has been telling me how their collaborative new album, Double Fantasy, came about: Last spring, John and their son, Sean, were vacationing in Bermuda while Yoko stayed home "sorting out business," as she puts it. She and John spoke on the phone every day and sang each other the songs they had composed in between calls.
"I was at a dance club one night in Bermuda," John interrupts as he sits down on a couch and Yoko gets up to bring coffee. "Upstairs, they were playing disco, and downstairs, I suddenly heard 'Rock Lobster' by the B-52's for the first time. Do you know it? It sounds just like Yoko's music, so I said to meself, 'It's time to get out the old axe and wake the wife up!' We wrote about twenty-five songs during those three weeks, and we've recorded enough for another album."
"I've been playing side two of Double Fantasy over and over," I say, getting ready to ply him with a question. John looks at me with a time and interview-stopping smile. "How are you?" he asks. "It's been like a reunion for us these last few weeks. We've seen Ethan Russell, who's doing a videotape of a couple of the new songs, and Annie Leibovitz was here. She took my first Rolling Stone cover photo. It's been fun seeing everyone we used to know and doing it all again - we've all survived. When did we first meet?"
"I met you and Yoko on September 17, 1968," I say, remembering the first of our several meetings. I was just a lucky guy, at the right place at the right time. John had decided to become more "public" and to demystify his Beatles persona. He and Yoko, whom he'd met in November 1966, were preparing for the Amsterdam and Montreal bed-ins for peace and were soon to release Two Virgins, the first of their experimental record collaborations. The album cover - the infamous frontal nude portrait of them - was to grace the pages of Rolling Stone's first anniversary issue. John had just discovered the then-impoverished, San Francisco-based magazine, and he'd agreed to give Rolling Stone the first of his "coming-out" interviews. As "European editor," I was asked to visit John and Yoko and to take along a photographer (Ethan Russell, who later took the photos for the Let It Be book that accompanied the album). So, nervous and excited, we met John and Yoko at their temporary basement flat in London.
First impressions are usually the most accurate, and John was graceful, gracious, charming, exuberant, direct, witty and playful; I remember noticing how he wrote little reminders to himself in the wonderfully absorbed way that a child paints the sun. He was due at a recording session in a half-hour to work on the White Album, so we agreed to meet the next day to do the interview, after which John and Yoko invited Ethan and me to attend the session for "Back in the U.S.S.R." at Abbey Road Studios. Only a performance of Shakespeare at the Globe Theatre might have made me feel as ecstatic and fortunate as I did at that moment.
Every new encounter with John brought a new perspective. Once, I ran into John and Yoko in 1971. A friend and I had gone to see Carnal Knowledge, and afterward we bumped into the Lennons in the lobby. Accompanied by Jerry Rubin and a friend of his, they invited us to drive down with them to Ratner's delicatessen in the East Village for blintzes, whereupon a beatific, long-haired young man approached our table and wordlessly handed John a card inscribed with a pithy saying of the inscrutable Meher Baba. Rubin drew a swastika on the back of the card, got up and gave it back to the man. When he returned, John admonished him gently, saying that that wasn't the way to change someone's consciousness. Acerbic and skeptical as he could often be, John Lennon never lost his sense of compassion.
"Welcome to the inner sanctum!" says John Lennon, greeting me with high-spirited, mock ceremoniousness in Yoko Ono's beautiful cloud-ceilinged office in their Dakota apartment. It's Friday evening, December 5, and Yoko has been telling me how their collaborative new album, Double Fantasy, came about: Last spring, John and their son, Sean, were vacationing in Bermuda while Yoko stayed home "sorting out business," as she puts it. She and John spoke on the phone every day and sang each other the songs they had composed in between calls.
"I was at a dance club one night in Bermuda," John interrupts as he sits down on a couch and Yoko gets up to bring coffee. "Upstairs, they were playing disco, and downstairs, I suddenly heard 'Rock Lobster' by the B-52's for the first time. Do you know it? It sounds just like Yoko's music, so I said to meself, 'It's time to get out the old axe and wake the wife up!' We wrote about twenty-five songs during those three weeks, and we've recorded enough for another album."
"I've been playing side two of Double Fantasy over and over," I say, getting ready to ply him with a question. John looks at me with a time and interview-stopping smile. "How are you?" he asks. "It's been like a reunion for us these last few weeks. We've seen Ethan Russell, who's doing a videotape of a couple of the new songs, and Annie Leibovitz was here. She took my first Rolling Stone cover photo. It's been fun seeing everyone we used to know and doing it all again - we've all survived. When did we first meet?"
"I met you and Yoko on September 17, 1968," I say, remembering the first of our several meetings. I was just a lucky guy, at the right place at the right time. John had decided to become more "public" and to demystify his Beatles persona. He and Yoko, whom he'd met in November 1966, were preparing for the Amsterdam and Montreal bed-ins for peace and were soon to release Two Virgins, the first of their experimental record collaborations. The album cover - the infamous frontal nude portrait of them - was to grace the pages of Rolling Stone's first anniversary issue. John had just discovered the then-impoverished, San Francisco-based magazine, and he'd agreed to give Rolling Stone the first of his "coming-out" interviews. As "European editor," I was asked to visit John and Yoko and to take along a photographer (Ethan Russell, who later took the photos for the Let It Be book that accompanied the album). So, nervous and excited, we met John and Yoko at their temporary basement flat in London.
First impressions are usually the most accurate, and John was graceful, gracious, charming, exuberant, direct, witty and playful; I remember noticing how he wrote little reminders to himself in the wonderfully absorbed way that a child paints the sun. He was due at a recording session in a half-hour to work on the White Album, so we agreed to meet the next day to do the interview, after which John and Yoko invited Ethan and me to attend the session for "Back in the U.S.S.R." at Abbey Road Studios. Only a performance of Shakespeare at the Globe Theatre might have made me feel as ecstatic and fortunate as I did at that moment.
Every new encounter with John brought a new perspective. Once, I ran into John and Yoko in 1971. A friend and I had gone to see Carnal Knowledge, and afterward we bumped into the Lennons in the lobby. Accompanied by Jerry Rubin and a friend of his, they invited us to drive down with them to Ratner's delicatessen in the East Village for blintzes, whereupon a beatific, long-haired young man approached our table and wordlessly handed John a card inscribed with a pithy saying of the inscrutable Meher Baba. Rubin drew a swastika on the back of the card, got up and gave it back to the man. When he returned, John admonished him gently, saying that that wasn't the way to change someone's consciousness. Acerbic and skeptical as he could often be, John Lennon never lost his sense of compassion.
John Lennon on "Not a Second Time"
"I wrote this for the second album and it was the one that William Mann wrote about in The Times. He went on about the flat sub-mediant key switches and the Aeolian cadence at the end being like Mahler's 'Song of the Earth.' Really it was just chords like any other chords. That was the first time anyone had written anything like that about us."
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Beatles News
- David Lynch Takes On The Beatles' Guru (BeatCrave.com)
- Paul McCartney biography is a 'Life' less special (USA Today)
- Jason Lee to Direct Beatles Love Triangle Comedy With Time-Travel Twist (Moviefone)
- Judge Calls Bull on 'Psycho-Acoustic' Beatles Covers (Wired News)
- Sir Paul McCartney To Receive Gershwin Prize (AHN)
- The Beatles reunite… sort of (Consequence of Sound)
- Rock on the Block | The Phillips de Pury Music Sale (New York Times)
- Beatles tribute band, writer David Sedaris slated for Palace Theatre in 2010 (WRGB)
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