by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
As Released by the Beatles (1964)
Tell me why you cried
And why you lied to me
Tell me why you cried
And why you lied to me.
Well I gave you everything I had
But you left me sitting on my own
Did you have to treat me oh so bad
All I do is hang my head and moan.
Tell me why you cried
And why you lied to me
Tell me why you cried
And why you lied to me.
If it's something that I said or done
Tell me what and I'll apologise
If you don't I really can't go on
Holding back these tears in my eyes.
Tell me why you cried
And why you lied to me
Tell me why you cried
And why you lied to me.
Well I beg you on my bended knees
If you'll only listen to my pleas
If there's anything I can do
'cos I really can't stand it
I'm so in love with you.
Tell me why you cried
And why you lied to me
Tell me why you cried
And why you lied to me.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
"Chains"
"Chains" was composed by the Brill Building husband-and-wife songwriting team Gerry Goffin and Carole King and was a minor hit for Little Eva’s backing singers, the Cookies, and later covered by the the Beatles.
The Beatles version
"Chains" was a much-covered song by Liverpool groups during 1962, and was included in the Beatles' live sets. They recorded it on 11 February 1963 and it appeared on their first album in the UK, Please Please Me. It was the first of two songs on the album with lead vocals by George Harrison, and it features the early Beatles trademark harmonica introduction with backing vocal harmonies provided by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
The Beatles played the song live on a number of BBC radio shows, including Side By Side, Here We Go and Pop Go the Beatles.
Credits
* John Lennon – rhythm guitar, harmonica, harmony vocal
* Paul McCartney – bass guitar, harmony vocal
* George Harrison – lead guitar, lead vocal
* Ringo Starr – drums
Single by The Cookies
Released: 1962
Format: 7" single
Writer(s): Gerry Goffin/Carole King
Song by The Beatles
Album: Please Please Me
Released: March 22, 1963 (mono), April 26, 1963 (stereo)
Recorded: February 11, 1963
Genre: Rock and roll
Length: 2:23
Label: Parlophone
Writer: Gerry Goffin/Carole King
Producer: George Martin
Wikipedia
The Beatles version
"Chains" was a much-covered song by Liverpool groups during 1962, and was included in the Beatles' live sets. They recorded it on 11 February 1963 and it appeared on their first album in the UK, Please Please Me. It was the first of two songs on the album with lead vocals by George Harrison, and it features the early Beatles trademark harmonica introduction with backing vocal harmonies provided by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
The Beatles played the song live on a number of BBC radio shows, including Side By Side, Here We Go and Pop Go the Beatles.
Credits
* John Lennon – rhythm guitar, harmonica, harmony vocal
* Paul McCartney – bass guitar, harmony vocal
* George Harrison – lead guitar, lead vocal
* Ringo Starr – drums
Single by The Cookies
Released: 1962
Format: 7" single
Writer(s): Gerry Goffin/Carole King
Song by The Beatles
Album: Please Please Me
Released: March 22, 1963 (mono), April 26, 1963 (stereo)
Recorded: February 11, 1963
Genre: Rock and roll
Length: 2:23
Label: Parlophone
Writer: Gerry Goffin/Carole King
Producer: George Martin
Wikipedia
Beatles News
- Beatles fans meet in Connecticut this weekend (BeatlesNews.com)
- Game Review Roundup Fall 09: Music Games (Newsarama)
- Color photos from early Tokyo to the Beatles and beyond (Los Angeles Times)
- Casting call to play the Fab Four draws aspiring actors (The Hour)
- Christopher Eccleston to play Lennon in Beatles film (The Bolton News)
- Bidding by phone now available for Beatles auction tomorrow (BeatlesNews.com)
John Lennon on "Any Time At All"
"Another of those songs we wrote about the time of A Hard Day's Night. I don't write in the same way anymore, but I suppose I could if I tried."
Treasures of the Beatles
by Terry Burrows
“The impact of the Beatles - not only on rock & roll but on all of Western culture - is simply incalculable.” – Rolling Stone magazine
You know they caused a revolution! The Beatles transformed the face of music, youth, and popular culture. Here is their story, from the backstreets of Liverpool to the rough clubs of Hamburg to worldwide pandemonium. Featuring 15 pieces of unique, removable facsimile memorabilia, beautiful photographs, and superb commentary, Treasures of the Beatles captures the thrill of it all: sold-out concerts at Shea, half of America’s population tuning in to see them on The Ed Sullivan Show, 400 million TV viewers watching them record “All You Need Is Love.” A treat for Beatles fanatics and ordinary music lovers alike. Facsimile memorabilia includes:
- 1960 contract for their Hamburg gigs
- Signed flyer for Parlophone records, 1963
- Handwritten set list, 1963
- Concert poster for The Beatles and Roy Obison, 1963
- Poster from New Zealand Tour, 1964
- signed postcard from set of Help!, 1965
- Invitation to Magical Mystery Tour party, 1967
- and more!
Terry Burrows is a musician of experimental pop music responsible for roughly 30 commercial releases under such guises as Yukio Yung and the Chrysanthemums. His is also a prolific author and contributor to books and CD-ROMS on subjects as diverse as popular psychology, business and management, history, computer software, and music. Previous publications include the KISS Guide to Playing the Guitar, which sold over 100,000 copies, The Complete Illustrated Story of the Beatles, and a Courtney Love biography, to name a few.
“The impact of the Beatles - not only on rock & roll but on all of Western culture - is simply incalculable.” – Rolling Stone magazine
You know they caused a revolution! The Beatles transformed the face of music, youth, and popular culture. Here is their story, from the backstreets of Liverpool to the rough clubs of Hamburg to worldwide pandemonium. Featuring 15 pieces of unique, removable facsimile memorabilia, beautiful photographs, and superb commentary, Treasures of the Beatles captures the thrill of it all: sold-out concerts at Shea, half of America’s population tuning in to see them on The Ed Sullivan Show, 400 million TV viewers watching them record “All You Need Is Love.” A treat for Beatles fanatics and ordinary music lovers alike. Facsimile memorabilia includes:
- 1960 contract for their Hamburg gigs
- Signed flyer for Parlophone records, 1963
- Handwritten set list, 1963
- Concert poster for The Beatles and Roy Obison, 1963
- Poster from New Zealand Tour, 1964
- signed postcard from set of Help!, 1965
- Invitation to Magical Mystery Tour party, 1967
- and more!
Terry Burrows is a musician of experimental pop music responsible for roughly 30 commercial releases under such guises as Yukio Yung and the Chrysanthemums. His is also a prolific author and contributor to books and CD-ROMS on subjects as diverse as popular psychology, business and management, history, computer software, and music. Previous publications include the KISS Guide to Playing the Guitar, which sold over 100,000 copies, The Complete Illustrated Story of the Beatles, and a Courtney Love biography, to name a few.
Friday, November 27, 2009
"Tell Me What You See" Lyrics
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
As Released by the Beatles (1965)
If you let me take your heart
I will prove to you
We will never be apart
If I'm part of you
Open up your eyes now
Tell me what you see
It is no surprise now
What you see is me
Big and black the clouds may be
Time will pass away
If you put your trust in me
I'll make bright your day
Look into these eyes now
Tell me what you see
Don't you realise now
What you see is me
Tell me what you see
Listen to me one more time
How can I get through
Can't you try to see that I'm
Trying to get to you
Open up your eyes now
Tell me what you see
It is no surprise now
What you see is me
Tell me what you see
Listen to me one more time
How can I get through
Can't you try to see that I'm
Trying to get to you
Open up your eyes now
Tell me what you see
It is no surprise now
What you see is me
Mmm-mmm - mmm-mmm-mmm.
As Released by the Beatles (1965)
If you let me take your heart
I will prove to you
We will never be apart
If I'm part of you
Open up your eyes now
Tell me what you see
It is no surprise now
What you see is me
Big and black the clouds may be
Time will pass away
If you put your trust in me
I'll make bright your day
Look into these eyes now
Tell me what you see
Don't you realise now
What you see is me
Tell me what you see
Listen to me one more time
How can I get through
Can't you try to see that I'm
Trying to get to you
Open up your eyes now
Tell me what you see
It is no surprise now
What you see is me
Tell me what you see
Listen to me one more time
How can I get through
Can't you try to see that I'm
Trying to get to you
Open up your eyes now
Tell me what you see
It is no surprise now
What you see is me
Mmm-mmm - mmm-mmm-mmm.
Beatles News
- Beatles items on exhibition in HK (Xinhua)
- Paul McCartney Has Spoken About Revisiting The Beatles Through Song (AHN)
- VH1 will premier the making of The Beatles: Rock Band tomorrow (Examiner.com)
- Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston to play Lennon (BBC News)
- Portsmouth and Southampton we love you, yeah, yeah, yeah! (Portsmouth News)
John Lennon on "Thank You Girl"
"Paul and I wrote this as a B-side for one of our first records. In the old days we used to write and write all the time, but nowadays I only do it if I'm particularly inspired."
Thursday, November 26, 2009
"Sun King" Lyrics
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
As Released by the Beatles (1969)
Aah - here come the Sun King
Here come the Sun King.
Everybody's laughing
Everybody's happy.
Here come the Sun King.
Quando paramucho mi amore defeliche carathon
Mundo paparatsi mi amore chicka ferde parasol
Questo obrigado tanto mucho cake and eat it carousel.
As Released by the Beatles (1969)
Aah - here come the Sun King
Here come the Sun King.
Everybody's laughing
Everybody's happy.
Here come the Sun King.
Quando paramucho mi amore defeliche carathon
Mundo paparatsi mi amore chicka ferde parasol
Questo obrigado tanto mucho cake and eat it carousel.
"Cayenne"
"Cayenne" is an instrumental track by The Beatles on the 1995 album Anthology 1. Unlike most songs by Paul McCartney while he was in the Beatles, it wasn't credited to Lennon/McCartney, but just McCartney. The track was recorded at a jam at McCartney's house in 1960. Stuart Sutcliffe plays bass. On bootlegs, it has been misnamed "Looking Glass" and "Thinking of Linking" (which is known not to be the real title, as it is well known that The Beatles did another unrelated track by that name). The version on the Anthology is shorter than the uncut version, which is two minutes and twenty-four seconds long. In Many Years From Now, Paul refers to the song's title as "Cayenne Pepper."
Album: Anthology 1
Released: November 20, 1995 (UK), November 21, 1995 (US)
Recorded: April 1960
Genre: Rock
Length: 1:13
Writer: Paul McCartney
Wikipedia
Album: Anthology 1
Released: November 20, 1995 (UK), November 21, 1995 (US)
Recorded: April 1960
Genre: Rock
Length: 1:13
Writer: Paul McCartney
Wikipedia
Beatles News
- McCartney says he 'revisits' Beatles members in songs (AFP)
- Hey, Hey, a Monkee Brings Beatles to Connecticut (NBC Connecticut)
- A very Beatle-ful Christmas -- holiday suggestions for fans on your list (or even you) (Examiner.com)
- tveye: 'The Jazz Baroness,' 'The Beatles on Record' (Hartford Courant)
- Ah, zombies! Home for the holidays, with a little help from the Beatles (Canada.com)
- A Hard-to-Beatle Benefit! (Palisadian-Post)
- Former Beatle Opens Up on Celebrated Career, Love for New York City in ABC Special (ABC News)
- Beatles Rock Band for Xbox 360: GameStop Black Friday Sales (In Entertainment)
- Local resident self-publishes book about The Beatles (Houma Courier)
John Lennon on "I'll Cry Instead"
"We were going to do this in A Hard Day's Night but the director Dick Lester didn't like it, so we put it on the flip side of the album. I like it."
The Cynical Idealist: A Spiritual Biography of John Lennon
by Gary Tillery
"It’s quite possible to do anything, but not if you put it on the leaders. You have to do it yourself. That’s what the great masters and mistresses have been saying since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books—the instructions are all there for all to see. I can’t wake you up; you can wake you up. I can’t cure you; you can cure you." —John Lennon
In The Cynical Idealist: A Spiritual Biography of John Lennon, author Gary Tillery brings readers the first spiritual and intellectual biography of this seminal musical and cultural figure. Much has been said about John Lennon the Beatle—his rock star evolution and tragic fate. More than a mundane, temporal biography covering Lennon’s life, music, and death, The Cynical Idealist is a soulful portrait of John Lennon’s very being, illuminating the spiritual transformation of a man who influenced the world in a way few others had during the course of the twentieth century. The world could not ignore something extraordinary in Lennon. What was it that set Lennon apart from his fellow bandmates, causing the media to label him the "intellectual" of the group?
At just 23 years old, at the height of Beatlemania, the brash and young Lennon was on top of the world, even declaring the band’s popularity had eclipsed that of Jesus Christ. Despite his fame, internally, Lennon was experiencing a dark night of the soul. The turning point came for Lennon, locked in a bathroom during the winter of 1966. As he knelt at the pinnacle of his self-alienation, held hostage by his own existential and emotional breakdown, Lennon pleaded with God to show him the way. Lennon’s unrequited appeal proved to be the catalyst for his emergence as an iconoclast, albeit, altruistic leader. Tillery walks us through Lennon’s personal spiritual journey; his experimentation with drugs; his encounters with the Maharishi; his undertaking of primal scream therapy; and his relationship with Yoko Ono.
John Lennon’s spiritual death and rebirth crystallized a global anthem of planetary peace and love that transcends labels, dogma, and social expectations, offering the gift of hope for the coming generation. Praised and ridiculed in equal measure, investigated by the FBI, hounded by the media and ultimately assassinated, Britain’s “Man of the Decade” ignited a revolution of our consciousness. This extraordinary figure deserves an extraordinary book and, in The Cynical Idealist, Tillery provides readers with a new and fascinating framework for assessing Lennon’s life and works.
"It’s quite possible to do anything, but not if you put it on the leaders. You have to do it yourself. That’s what the great masters and mistresses have been saying since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books—the instructions are all there for all to see. I can’t wake you up; you can wake you up. I can’t cure you; you can cure you." —John Lennon
In The Cynical Idealist: A Spiritual Biography of John Lennon, author Gary Tillery brings readers the first spiritual and intellectual biography of this seminal musical and cultural figure. Much has been said about John Lennon the Beatle—his rock star evolution and tragic fate. More than a mundane, temporal biography covering Lennon’s life, music, and death, The Cynical Idealist is a soulful portrait of John Lennon’s very being, illuminating the spiritual transformation of a man who influenced the world in a way few others had during the course of the twentieth century. The world could not ignore something extraordinary in Lennon. What was it that set Lennon apart from his fellow bandmates, causing the media to label him the "intellectual" of the group?
At just 23 years old, at the height of Beatlemania, the brash and young Lennon was on top of the world, even declaring the band’s popularity had eclipsed that of Jesus Christ. Despite his fame, internally, Lennon was experiencing a dark night of the soul. The turning point came for Lennon, locked in a bathroom during the winter of 1966. As he knelt at the pinnacle of his self-alienation, held hostage by his own existential and emotional breakdown, Lennon pleaded with God to show him the way. Lennon’s unrequited appeal proved to be the catalyst for his emergence as an iconoclast, albeit, altruistic leader. Tillery walks us through Lennon’s personal spiritual journey; his experimentation with drugs; his encounters with the Maharishi; his undertaking of primal scream therapy; and his relationship with Yoko Ono.
John Lennon’s spiritual death and rebirth crystallized a global anthem of planetary peace and love that transcends labels, dogma, and social expectations, offering the gift of hope for the coming generation. Praised and ridiculed in equal measure, investigated by the FBI, hounded by the media and ultimately assassinated, Britain’s “Man of the Decade” ignited a revolution of our consciousness. This extraordinary figure deserves an extraordinary book and, in The Cynical Idealist, Tillery provides readers with a new and fascinating framework for assessing Lennon’s life and works.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
"She's Leaving Home" Lyrics
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
As Released by the Beatles (1967)
Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins
Silently closing her bedroom door
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more.
She goes downstairs to the kitchen
Clutching her handkerchief
Quietly turning the backdoor key
Stepping outside she is free.
She (we gave her most of our lives)
Is leaving (sacrificed most of our lives)
Home. (we gave her everything money could buy)
She's leaving home after living alone
For so many years. (('bye, 'bye))
Father snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown
Picks up the letter that's lying there
Standing alone at the top of the stairs
She breaks down and cries to her husband
Daddy, our baby's gone.
Why would she treat us so thoughtlessly?
How could she do this to me?
She (we never thought of ourselves)
Is leaving (never a thought for ourselves)
Home. (we struggled hard all our lives to get by)
She's leaving home after living alone
For so many years. (('bye, 'bye))
Friday morning at nine o'clock she is far away
Waiting to keep the appointment she made
Meeting a man from the motor trade.
She (what did we do that was wrong?)
Is having (we didn't know it was wrong)
Fun. (fun is the one thing that money can't buy)
Something inside that was always denied
For so many years. (('bye, 'bye))
She's leaving home. ('bye, 'bye)
As Released by the Beatles (1967)
Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins
Silently closing her bedroom door
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more.
She goes downstairs to the kitchen
Clutching her handkerchief
Quietly turning the backdoor key
Stepping outside she is free.
She (we gave her most of our lives)
Is leaving (sacrificed most of our lives)
Home. (we gave her everything money could buy)
She's leaving home after living alone
For so many years. (('bye, 'bye))
Father snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown
Picks up the letter that's lying there
Standing alone at the top of the stairs
She breaks down and cries to her husband
Daddy, our baby's gone.
Why would she treat us so thoughtlessly?
How could she do this to me?
She (we never thought of ourselves)
Is leaving (never a thought for ourselves)
Home. (we struggled hard all our lives to get by)
She's leaving home after living alone
For so many years. (('bye, 'bye))
Friday morning at nine o'clock she is far away
Waiting to keep the appointment she made
Meeting a man from the motor trade.
She (what did we do that was wrong?)
Is having (we didn't know it was wrong)
Fun. (fun is the one thing that money can't buy)
Something inside that was always denied
For so many years. (('bye, 'bye))
She's leaving home. ('bye, 'bye)
Beatles News
- Big Beatles Birthday: Farmer Bob turns sixty-four (64)! (Seattle Post Intelligencer)
- The Beatles Go On Record in New History Channel Special (Wired News)
- Mumbai, Monk and the Beatles (South Coast Today)
- The Beatles: A Retrospective From The Year 3000 (VIDEO) (Huffington Post)
- Comme des Garcons team up with The Beatles (Independent)
Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is noted for being one of the primary figures associated with Motown Records, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy. Robinson's countless hits, and consistent contributions to the Motown label earned him the title of the "King of Motown." As both a member of Motown group The Miracles and a solo artist, Robinson recorded thirty-seven Top 40 hits for Motown between 1960 and 1987, and also served as the company's vice president from 1961 to 1988.Early years and formation of the Miracles
Robinson was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan's North End neighborhood. When he was a child, he was nicknamed "Smokey Joe" by an uncle because of his love of cowboy movies. In his teens, this was shortened to "Smokey." In an interview, Robinson claims he has been friends with Diana Ross since they were eleven years old. In 1955, Robinson founded a group he called the Five Chimes with his best friend Ronald White, and Northern High School classmates Pete Moore , Clarence Dawson, and James Grice. By 1957, the group was called the Matadors and included cousins Emerson and Bobby Rogers in place of Dawson and Grice. Later Emerson was replaced by his sister Claudette Rogers who later married Robinson, and guitarist Marv Tarplin joined the group in 1958.
With Robinson as lead singer, the Matadors began touring the local Detroit venues. In 1958, Robinson met songwriter Berry Gordy, who co-wrote for them the single "Got a Job", an answer song to the Silhouettes' hit single "Get a Job." The group renamed itself the Miracles, and issued singles on both End Records and Chess Records before Robinson suggested to Gordy that he start a label of his own.
In 1959, Gordy founded Tamla Records, which he soon reincorporated as Motown. The Miracles were among the label's first signees. Gordy and Robinson had a synergistic relationship, with Robinson providing a foundation for Motown's hit-making success and Gordy acting as a mentor for the budding singer and songwriter. By 1961, Gordy had appointed Robinson vice-president of Motown Records, a title Robinson held for as long as Gordy remained with the company.
Motown and The Miracles
The 1960 single "Shop Around" was Motown's first number one hit on the R&B singles chart, and the first big hit for The Miracles.The song was also Motown's first million-selling hit single. They scored many more hits over the years, including the much-covered "Who's Loving You" (1960), "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" (1962), "What's So Good About Goodbye" (1962),"I'll Try Something New" (1962), "Mickey's Monkey" (1963),"I Like It Like That" (1964), "Ooo Baby Baby (1965), "The Tracks of My Tears" (1965), "Going to a Go-Go" (1965),"My Girl Has Gone" (1965), (Come Round Here) I'm The One You Need" (1966), "More Love" (1967), "I Second That Emotion" (1967), "If You Can Want" (1968}, "Baby, Baby Don't Cry" (1969), and the international # 1 smash, "The Tears of a Clown" (1970).
Besides penning hits for his own group, Robinson (often assisted by the other Miracles ), also wrote and produced hits and album tracks for other Motown artists. Mary Wells had a big hit with the Robinson-penned "My Guy" (1964), and Robinson served as The Temptations' primary songwriter and producer from 1963 to 1966, penning hits such as "The Way You Do the Things You Do", "My Girl", "Since I Lost My Baby", and "Get Ready". Among Robinson's numerous other Motown compositions are "Still Water (Love)" by The Four Tops, "Don't Mess With Bill" and "My Baby Must Be a Magician" by The Marvelettes, "When I'm Gone" by Brenda Holloway, "Ain't That Peculiar" and "I'll Be Doggone" by Marvin Gaye, and "First I Look at the Purse" by The Contours.
His hit songs also earned him the title "America's poet laureate of love". During the course of his 50-year career in music, Robinson has accumulated more than 4,000 songs to his credit. John Lennon of The Beatles made countless remarks regarding Robinson's influence on his music. In a 1969 interview, Lennon stated that one of his favorite songs was The Miracles' "I've Been Good To You," which has similar lyrics to Lennon's "Sexy Sadie." George Harrison also greatly admired Robinson and paid tribute to him in his 1976 song "Pure Smokey." (The Beatles had recorded Robinson and The Miracles' "You've Really Got A Hold On Me" in 1963.) Bob Dylan said of Robinson, that he was "America's greatest living poet."
After marrying Claudette Rogers, Robinson started a family, and named both of his children after Motown: his son was named Berry after the company's founder, and his daughter Tamla after the Motown imprint for which Robinson and The Miracles recorded.
The Miracles remained a premier Motown act through most of the 1960s. Albums were released as "Smokey Robinson & the Miracles" after 1965. By 1969, the group's fortunes began to falter, and Robinson decided to quit The Miracles so that he could remain at home with his family and concentrate on his duties as vice president. The group stopped recording and Robinson prepared to leave the group. Unexpectedly, however, their 1969 recording "Baby Baby Don't Cry" hit the national Billboard Pop Top 10, and when their 1966 recording of "The Tears of a Clown" was released as a single in 1970, it became a number-one hit in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
With the surprise success of "The Tears of a Clown", Robinson was convinced to remain with The Miracles for a few more years. In 1972, however, he followed through on his original plans to leave the group, and The Miracles began a six-month farewell tour. On July 16, 1972, Smokey and Claudette Robinson gave their final performances as Miracles at the Carter Barron Amphitheater in Washington, DC, and Robinson introduced the group's new lead singer, Billy Griffin. The Miracles went on for a while, even having another number one hit, "Love Machine", in 1976.
Successful solo career
Smokey Robinson began a low-key solo career while concentrating on his duties as vice president of Motown, releasing his first solo LP, Smokey, in 1973. His first hit single, "Sweet Harmony" (1973), was dedicated to The Miracles.
In 1975, Robinson's solo career went into full-drive after the success of the number one R&B hit "Baby That's Backatcha". Robinson's 1976 single "Quiet Storm" and its accompanying album typified a genre of smooth, slow R&B that has spawned late-night radio shows called "quiet storm." Other Robinson solo hits include "Cruisin'" (1979), "Being With You" (a U.K. number-one hit) (1981), "Tell Me Tomorrow" (1982), and "Ebony Eyes", a duet with labelmate Rick James (1983). He also recorded the soundtrack to the film Big Time (1977).
Later years, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Controversy, and Awards and Accolades
During the mid-1980s, Robinson fell victim to cocaine addiction. His recording slowed, and his marriage to Claudette faltered; the two were divorced in 1986. With the help of friend Leon Kennedy (as described in Robinson's autobiography "Smokey"), Robinson was dramatically healed of his addiction at a religious service. He eventually revitalized his career, scoring hits in 1987 with the Grammy Award-winning "Just to See Her" (a U.S. #8 hit) and "One Heartbeat" (U.S. #10). Also in 1987, British band ABC scored a U.S. and U.K. hit with their tribute to Robinson entitled "When Smokey Sings." In 1988, Robinson published his autobiography, Smokey, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. However, in a decision that has since sparked much controversy, the other original members of his group, The Miracles, Bobby Rogers, Ronnie White, Pete Moore, Marv Tarplin, and Claudette Robinson, were not.
Upon Motown's sale to MCA in 1988, Robinson resigned from his position as vice president. After one last album for Motown, Love, Smokey (1990), Robinson departed the company. He released one record for SBK Records, Double Good Everything (1991), the same year he won a Soul Train Music Award for Career Achievement. Eight years later, he returned to Motown, which by then was a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, and released Intimate (1999). The same year, Robinson received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Since then, Smokey has continued to periodically perform and tour. In 2003, Robinson served as a guest judge for American Idol during "Billy Joel Week." He issued a gospel LP, Food for the Spirit in 2004. A new album of pop standards from the early 20th century, Timeless Love, was released in June 2006. It was originally recorded with a jazz combo, but strings were added after the fact, giving the album more of a lush sound but removing much of the jazz feeling of the disc. In a recent interview (late 2008), Robinson spoke of an upcoming CD of new original songs (except for a cover of Norah Jones' 'Don't Know Why'), due out in May of 2009 called 'Time flies when you're having fun.' Special guests on the CD are said to include India Arie, Carlos Santana, and Joss Stone.
In 2004, Robinson's company, SFGL Foods, launched a special brand of gumbo called "Smokey Robinson's 'The Soul is in the Bowl' Gumbo." Smokey Robinson is the spokesman of the Great American Smokeout, which takes place annually one week before Thanksgiving. It is a day when smokers quit smoking for at least a day.
Robinson has appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, the NBC daytime drama Days of our Lives, and on The Rachael Ray Show. He is scheduled to appear on Duets on Fox with Clint Black, Michael Bolton, Macy Gray, Chaka Khan, Patti Labelle, Cyndi Lauper, Kenny Loggins, Richard Marx, Brian McKnight, Aaron Neville, Randy Travis, and Dionne Warwick. David Foster will be a judge.
At its 138th Commencement Convocation in May 2006, Howard University conferred on Robinson the degree of Doctor of Music, honoris causa. In December 2006 Robinson was one of five Kennedy Center honorees, along with Dolly Parton (with whom Robinson had recorded a 1987 duet, "I Know You By Heart"), Zubin Mehta, Steven Spielberg and Andrew Lloyd Webber. The ceremony was held on December 3, 2006, and broadcast on CBS on December 26, 2006.
Robinson sang "The Tracks Of My Tears" as a cameo in the 2006 film Last Holiday. Also in late 2006, Robinson reunited with fellow Miracles Bobby Rogers and Pete Moore for the group's first extended interview. This interview forms the basis of the Universal Music DVD release Smokey Robinson and The Miracles: The Definitive Performances, a video retrospective of the group's music and career.
On February 11, 2007 Robinson sang "Tracks Of My Tears" at the 49th annual Grammy Awards, as part of a tribute to R&B music which included Motown labelmate Lionel Richie and current R&B star Chris Brown. Robinson performed on the finale of American Idol (season 6) on May 23, 2007. Robinson and the top six male contestants performed a medley of his hits.
In November 2007, Robinson toured Australia and performed with Australian band Human Nature on the set of local television programme Dancing With The Stars. On 22 November 2007, Robinson was interviewed by Bob Rogers (not to be confused with Bobby Rogers of The Miracles) on Sydney radio station 2CH.
On August 6, 2008, Robinson appeared at Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater with English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello to record a television special combining on-stage interview and performance segments.
On March 25, 2009, Robinson appeared as a mentor on the popular television show American Idol. He coached the top 10 contestants of Season 8, who performed classic Motown songs. He also premiered the first single, "You're the One For Me", which features Joss Stone. The song also became available on iTunes and Amazon, March 26, 2009. The song is an updated version of the song "You're The One For Me Bobby," which he wrote and produced for The Marvelettes in 1968 for their album "Sophisticated Soul." On March 20th 2009, The Miracles were finally honored as a group with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Smokey was present with original Miracles members Bobby Rogers, Pete Moore, ex-wife (and Bobby's cousin) Claudette Robinson, and Gloria White, accepting for her husband, the late Ronnie White. Smokey's replacement, 70's Miracles lead singer, Billy Griffin was also honored.
Smokey Robinson in popular culture
* ABC recorded a tribute song called "When Smokey Sings" that referenced his influence on the music industry. The single peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. For the week of October 3, 1987, it dropped to #8 as Smokey Robinson's single "One Heartbeat" was peaking at #10. That instance of having a tributor and tributee in the Billboard top 10 at the same time was a rarity if not a unique event.
* Smokey's rendition of the National Anthem before Game 5 of the 1986 World Series at Fenway Park is generally considered one of the greatest renditions of the Anthem at a sporting event ever along with Marvin Gaye at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game and Whitney Houston before the 1991 Super Bowl.
* George Harrison wrote a song called "Pure Smokey," a tribute to Smokey Robinson. The song was on Harrison's 1976 album Thirty-Three and 1/3.
* The character C.C. White, a budding songwriter who finds success as an R&B label's main creative force in the 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls, is based upon Smokey Robinson. In the 2006 film adaptation of Dreamgirls, C.C. is portrayed by Keith Robinson.
* Several years ago, Smokey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On March 20th 2009 , The Miracles as a group where so honored, which then made him one of the few artists in recording history to become a double Walk of Fame honoree.
* The 1999 novel An Ocean Apart by Robin Pilcher the central character David is a committed Motown fan and one of Smokey Robinson's in particular, and is always moved by the song Tracks of My Tears. The song's first stanza lyrics are also featured in the book.
* Smokey appears in a classic Sesame Street sketch in a parody of "You've Really Got a Hold on Me", grappling with the letter U... which really has a hold on him.
* Smokey was mentioned in the Tom Tom Club's dance classic "Genius of Love" for his inimitable singing.
* Smokey was guest artist on American Idol March 25th and March 26th 2009.
Solo discography
Albums
Tamla (Motown) releases
* 1973: Smokey
* 1974: Pure Smokey
* 1975: A Quiet Storm
* 1976: Smokey's Family Robinson
* 1977: Deep in My Soul
* 1977: Big Time Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
* 1978: Love Breeze
* 1978: Smokin'
* 1979: Where There's Smoke...
* 1980: Warm Thoughts
* 1981: Being With You
* 1982: Yes It's You Lady
* 1983: Touch the Sky
* 1984: Essar
* 1986: Smoke Signals
Motown releases
* 1987: One Heartbeat
* 1990: Love, Smokey
* 1999: Intimate
Later releases
* 1991: Double Good Everything (SBK Records)
* 1999: Our Very Best Christmas (Universal Records)
* 2004: Food for the Spirit (Liquid 8 Records)
* 2006: Timeless Love (Universal Records)
* 2009: Time Flies When You're Having Fun (Robso Records)
Wikipedia
John Lennon: 1980
By Jonathan Cott / December 5, 1980
Almost ten years later, I am again talking to John, and he is as gracious and witty as the first time I met him. "I guess I should describe to the readers what you're wearing, John," I say. "Let me help you out," he offers, then intones wryly: "You can see the glasses he's wearing. They're normal plastic blue-frame glasses. Nothing like the famous wire-rimmed Lennon glasses that he stopped using in 1973. He's wearing needle-cord pants, the same black cowboy boots he'd had made in Nudie's in 1973, a Calvin Klein sweater and a torn Mick Jagger T-shirt that he got when the Stones toured in 1970 or so. And around his neck is a small, three-part diamond heart necklace that he bought as a make-up present after an argument with Yoko many years ago and that she later gave back to him in a kind of ritual. Will that do?
"I know you've got a Monday deadline," he adds," he adds, "but Yoko and I have to go to the Record Plant now to remix a few of Yoko's songs for a possible disco record. So why don't you come along and we'll talk in the studio."
"You're not putting any of your songs on this record?" I ask as we get into the waiting car. "No, because I don't make that stuff." He laughs and we drive off. "I've heard that in England some people are appreciating Yoko's songs on the new album and are asking why I was doing that 'straight old Beatles stuff,' and I didn't know about punk and what's going on - 'You were great then; "Walrus" was hip, but this isn't hip, John!' I'm really pleased for Yoko. She deserves the praise. It's been a long haul. I'd love her to have the A side of a hit record and me the B side. I'd settle for it any day."
"It's interesting," I say, "that no rock & roll star I can think of has made a record with his wife or whomever and given her fifty percent of the disc."
"It's the first time we've done it this way," John says. "It's a dialogue, and we have resurrected ourselves, in a way, as John and Yoko - not as John ex-Beatle and Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band. It's just the two of us, and our position was that, if the record didn't sell, it meant people didn't want to know about John and Yoko - either they didn't want John anymore or they didn't want John with Yoko or maybe they just wanted Yoko, whatever. But if they didn't want the two of us, we weren't interested. Throughout my career, I've selected to work with - for more than a one-night stand, say, with David Bowie or Elton John - only two people: Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono. I brought Paul into the original group, the Quarrymen; he brought George in and George brought Ringo in. And the second person who interested me as an artist and somebody I could work with was Yoko Ono. That ain't bad picking."
When we arrive at the studio, the engineers being playing tapes of Yoko's "Kiss Kiss Kiss," "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him" (both from Double Fantasy) and a powerful new disco song (not on the album) called "Walking on Thin Ice," which features a growling guitar lick by Lennon, based on Sanford Clark's 1956 song, "The Fool."
Which way could I come back into this game?" John asks as we settle down. "I came back from the place I know best - as unpretentiously as possible - not to prove anything but just to enjoy it."
"I've heard that you've had a guitar on the wall behind your bed for the past five or six years, and that you've only taken it down and played it for Double Fantasy. Is that true?"
"I bought this beautiful electric guitar, round about the period I got back with Yoko and had the baby," John explains. "It's not a normal guitar; it doesn't have a body; it's just an arm and this tubelike, toboggan-looking thing, and you can lengthen the top for the balance of it if you're sitting or standing up. I played it a little, then just hung it up behind the bed, but I'd look at it every now and then, because it had never done a professional thing, it had never really been played. I didn't want to hide it the way one would hide an instrument because it was too painful to look at - like, Artie Shaw went through a big thing and never played again. But I used to look at it and think, 'Will I ever pull it down?'
"Next to it on the wall I'd placed the number 9 and a dagger Yoko had given me - a dagger made out of a bread knife from the American Civil War to cut away the bad vibes, to cut away the past symbolically. It was just like a picture that hangs there but you never really see, and then recently I realized, 'Oh, goody! I can finally find out what this guitar is all about,' and I took it down and used it in making Double Fantasy.
"All through the taping of 'Starting Over,' I was calling what I was doing 'Elvis Orbison': 'I want you I need only the lonely.' I'm a born-again rocker, I feel that refreshed, and I'm going right back to my roots. It's like Dylan doing Nashville Skyline, except I don't have any Nashville, you know, being from Liverpool. So I go back to the records I know - Elvis and Roy Orbison and Gene Vincent and Jerry Lee Lewis. I occasionally get ripped off into 'Walruses' or 'Revolution 9,' but my far-out side has been completely encompassed by Yoko.
"The first show we did together was at Cambridge University in 1968 or '69, when she had been booked to do a concert with some jazz musicians. That was the first time I had appeared un-Beatled. I just hung around and played feedback, and people got very upset because they recognized me: 'What's he doing here?' It's always: 'Stay in your bag.' So, when she tried to rock, they said, 'What's she doing here?' And when I went with her and tried to be the instrument and not project - to just be her band, like a sort of like Turner to her Tina, only her Tina was a different, avant-garde Tina - well, even some of the jazz guys got upset.
"Everybody has pictures they want you to live up to. But that's the same as living up to your parents' expectations, or to society's expectations, or to so-called critics who are just guys with a typewriter in a little room, smoking and drinking beer and having their dreams and nightmares, too, but somehow pretending that they're living in a different, separate world. That's all right. But there are people who break out of their bags."
"I remember years ago," I say, "when you and Yoko appeared in bags at a Vienna press conference."
"Right. We sang a Japanese folk song in the bags. 'Das ist really you, John? John Lennon in zee bag?' Yeah, it's me. 'But how do we know ist you?' Because I'm telling you. 'Vy don't you come out from this bag?' Because I don't want to come out of the bag. 'Don't you realize this is the Hapsburg palace?' I thought it was a hotel. 'Vell, it is now a hotel.' They had great chocolate cake in that Viennese hotel, I remember that. Anyway, who wants to be locked in a bag? You have to break out of your bag to keep alive."
"In 'Beautiful Boys,' " I add, "Yoko sings: 'Please never be afraid to cry . . . / Don't ever be afraid to fly . . . / Don't be afraid to be afraid.' "
"Yes, it's beautiful. I'm often afraid, and I'm not afraid to be afraid, though it's always scary. But it's more painful to try not to be yourself. People spend a lot of time trying to be somebody else, and I think it leads to terrible diseases. Maybe you get cancer or something. A lot of tough guys die of cancer, have you noticed? Wayne, McQueen. I think it has something to do - I don't know, I'm not an expert - with constantly living or getting trapped in an image or an illusion of themselves, suppressing some part of themselves, whether it's the feminine side or the fearful side.
"I'm well aware of that, because I come from the macho school of pretense. I was never really a street kid or a tough guy. I used to dress like a Teddy boy and identify with Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley, but I was never really in any street fights or down-home gangs. I was just a suburban kid, imitating the rockers. But it was a big part of one's life to look tough. I spent the whole of my childhood with shoulders up around the top of me head and me glasses off because glasses were sissy, and walking in complete fear, but with the toughest-looking little face you've ever seen. I'd get into trouble just because of the way I looked; I wanted to be this tough James Dean all the time. It took a lot of wrestling to stop doing that. I still fall into it when I get insecure. I still drop into that I'm-a-street-kid stance, but I have to keep remembering that I never really was one."
"Carl Jung once suggested that people are made up of a thinking side, a feeling side, an intuitive side and a sensual side," I mention. "Most people never really develop their weaker sides and concentrate on the stronger ones, but you seem to have done the former."
"I think that's what feminism is all about," John replies. "That's what Yoko has taught me. I couldn't have done it alone; it had to be a female to teach me. That's it. Yoko has been telling me all the time, 'It's all right, it's all right.' I look at early pictures of meself, and I was torn between being Marlon Brando and being the sensitive poet - the Oscar Wilde part of me with the velvet, feminine side. I was always torn between the two, mainly opting for the macho side, because if you showed the other side, you were dead."
"On Double Fantasy," I say, "your song 'Woman' sounds a bit like a troubadour poem written to a medieval lady."
" 'Woman' came about because, one sunny afternoon in Bermuda, it suddenly hit me. I saw what women do for us. Not just what my Yoko does for me, although I was thinking in those personal terms. Any truth is universal. If we'd made our album in the third person and called it Freda and Ada or Tommy and had dressed up in clown suits with lipstick and created characters other than us, maybe a Ziggy Stardust, would it be more acceptable? It's not our style of art; our life is our art. . . . Anyway, in Bermuda, what suddenly dawned on me was everything I was taking for granted. Women really are the other half of the sky, as I whisper at the beginning of the song. And it just sort of hit me like a flood, and it came out like that. The song reminds me of a Beatles track, but I wasn't trying to make it sound like that. I did it as I did 'Girl' many years ago. So this is the grown-up version of 'Girl.'
"People are always judging you, or criticizing what you're trying to say on one little album, on one little song, but to me it's a lifetime's work. From the boyhood paintings and poetry to when I die - it's all part of one big production. And I don't have to announce that this album is part of a larger work; if it isn't obvious, then forget it. But I did put a little clue on the beginning of the record - the bells . . . the bells on 'Starting Over.' The head of the album, if anybody is interested, is a wishing bell of Yoko's. And it's like the beginning of 'Mother' on the Plastic Ono album, which had a very slow death bell. So it's taken a long time to get from a slow church death bell to this sweet little wishing bell. And that's the connection. To me, my work is one piece."
Almost ten years later, I am again talking to John, and he is as gracious and witty as the first time I met him. "I guess I should describe to the readers what you're wearing, John," I say. "Let me help you out," he offers, then intones wryly: "You can see the glasses he's wearing. They're normal plastic blue-frame glasses. Nothing like the famous wire-rimmed Lennon glasses that he stopped using in 1973. He's wearing needle-cord pants, the same black cowboy boots he'd had made in Nudie's in 1973, a Calvin Klein sweater and a torn Mick Jagger T-shirt that he got when the Stones toured in 1970 or so. And around his neck is a small, three-part diamond heart necklace that he bought as a make-up present after an argument with Yoko many years ago and that she later gave back to him in a kind of ritual. Will that do?
"I know you've got a Monday deadline," he adds," he adds, "but Yoko and I have to go to the Record Plant now to remix a few of Yoko's songs for a possible disco record. So why don't you come along and we'll talk in the studio."
"You're not putting any of your songs on this record?" I ask as we get into the waiting car. "No, because I don't make that stuff." He laughs and we drive off. "I've heard that in England some people are appreciating Yoko's songs on the new album and are asking why I was doing that 'straight old Beatles stuff,' and I didn't know about punk and what's going on - 'You were great then; "Walrus" was hip, but this isn't hip, John!' I'm really pleased for Yoko. She deserves the praise. It's been a long haul. I'd love her to have the A side of a hit record and me the B side. I'd settle for it any day."
"It's interesting," I say, "that no rock & roll star I can think of has made a record with his wife or whomever and given her fifty percent of the disc."
"It's the first time we've done it this way," John says. "It's a dialogue, and we have resurrected ourselves, in a way, as John and Yoko - not as John ex-Beatle and Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band. It's just the two of us, and our position was that, if the record didn't sell, it meant people didn't want to know about John and Yoko - either they didn't want John anymore or they didn't want John with Yoko or maybe they just wanted Yoko, whatever. But if they didn't want the two of us, we weren't interested. Throughout my career, I've selected to work with - for more than a one-night stand, say, with David Bowie or Elton John - only two people: Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono. I brought Paul into the original group, the Quarrymen; he brought George in and George brought Ringo in. And the second person who interested me as an artist and somebody I could work with was Yoko Ono. That ain't bad picking."
When we arrive at the studio, the engineers being playing tapes of Yoko's "Kiss Kiss Kiss," "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him" (both from Double Fantasy) and a powerful new disco song (not on the album) called "Walking on Thin Ice," which features a growling guitar lick by Lennon, based on Sanford Clark's 1956 song, "The Fool."
Which way could I come back into this game?" John asks as we settle down. "I came back from the place I know best - as unpretentiously as possible - not to prove anything but just to enjoy it."
"I've heard that you've had a guitar on the wall behind your bed for the past five or six years, and that you've only taken it down and played it for Double Fantasy. Is that true?"
"I bought this beautiful electric guitar, round about the period I got back with Yoko and had the baby," John explains. "It's not a normal guitar; it doesn't have a body; it's just an arm and this tubelike, toboggan-looking thing, and you can lengthen the top for the balance of it if you're sitting or standing up. I played it a little, then just hung it up behind the bed, but I'd look at it every now and then, because it had never done a professional thing, it had never really been played. I didn't want to hide it the way one would hide an instrument because it was too painful to look at - like, Artie Shaw went through a big thing and never played again. But I used to look at it and think, 'Will I ever pull it down?'
"Next to it on the wall I'd placed the number 9 and a dagger Yoko had given me - a dagger made out of a bread knife from the American Civil War to cut away the bad vibes, to cut away the past symbolically. It was just like a picture that hangs there but you never really see, and then recently I realized, 'Oh, goody! I can finally find out what this guitar is all about,' and I took it down and used it in making Double Fantasy.
"All through the taping of 'Starting Over,' I was calling what I was doing 'Elvis Orbison': 'I want you I need only the lonely.' I'm a born-again rocker, I feel that refreshed, and I'm going right back to my roots. It's like Dylan doing Nashville Skyline, except I don't have any Nashville, you know, being from Liverpool. So I go back to the records I know - Elvis and Roy Orbison and Gene Vincent and Jerry Lee Lewis. I occasionally get ripped off into 'Walruses' or 'Revolution 9,' but my far-out side has been completely encompassed by Yoko.
"The first show we did together was at Cambridge University in 1968 or '69, when she had been booked to do a concert with some jazz musicians. That was the first time I had appeared un-Beatled. I just hung around and played feedback, and people got very upset because they recognized me: 'What's he doing here?' It's always: 'Stay in your bag.' So, when she tried to rock, they said, 'What's she doing here?' And when I went with her and tried to be the instrument and not project - to just be her band, like a sort of like Turner to her Tina, only her Tina was a different, avant-garde Tina - well, even some of the jazz guys got upset.
"Everybody has pictures they want you to live up to. But that's the same as living up to your parents' expectations, or to society's expectations, or to so-called critics who are just guys with a typewriter in a little room, smoking and drinking beer and having their dreams and nightmares, too, but somehow pretending that they're living in a different, separate world. That's all right. But there are people who break out of their bags."
"I remember years ago," I say, "when you and Yoko appeared in bags at a Vienna press conference."
"Right. We sang a Japanese folk song in the bags. 'Das ist really you, John? John Lennon in zee bag?' Yeah, it's me. 'But how do we know ist you?' Because I'm telling you. 'Vy don't you come out from this bag?' Because I don't want to come out of the bag. 'Don't you realize this is the Hapsburg palace?' I thought it was a hotel. 'Vell, it is now a hotel.' They had great chocolate cake in that Viennese hotel, I remember that. Anyway, who wants to be locked in a bag? You have to break out of your bag to keep alive."
"In 'Beautiful Boys,' " I add, "Yoko sings: 'Please never be afraid to cry . . . / Don't ever be afraid to fly . . . / Don't be afraid to be afraid.' "
"Yes, it's beautiful. I'm often afraid, and I'm not afraid to be afraid, though it's always scary. But it's more painful to try not to be yourself. People spend a lot of time trying to be somebody else, and I think it leads to terrible diseases. Maybe you get cancer or something. A lot of tough guys die of cancer, have you noticed? Wayne, McQueen. I think it has something to do - I don't know, I'm not an expert - with constantly living or getting trapped in an image or an illusion of themselves, suppressing some part of themselves, whether it's the feminine side or the fearful side.
"I'm well aware of that, because I come from the macho school of pretense. I was never really a street kid or a tough guy. I used to dress like a Teddy boy and identify with Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley, but I was never really in any street fights or down-home gangs. I was just a suburban kid, imitating the rockers. But it was a big part of one's life to look tough. I spent the whole of my childhood with shoulders up around the top of me head and me glasses off because glasses were sissy, and walking in complete fear, but with the toughest-looking little face you've ever seen. I'd get into trouble just because of the way I looked; I wanted to be this tough James Dean all the time. It took a lot of wrestling to stop doing that. I still fall into it when I get insecure. I still drop into that I'm-a-street-kid stance, but I have to keep remembering that I never really was one."
"Carl Jung once suggested that people are made up of a thinking side, a feeling side, an intuitive side and a sensual side," I mention. "Most people never really develop their weaker sides and concentrate on the stronger ones, but you seem to have done the former."
"I think that's what feminism is all about," John replies. "That's what Yoko has taught me. I couldn't have done it alone; it had to be a female to teach me. That's it. Yoko has been telling me all the time, 'It's all right, it's all right.' I look at early pictures of meself, and I was torn between being Marlon Brando and being the sensitive poet - the Oscar Wilde part of me with the velvet, feminine side. I was always torn between the two, mainly opting for the macho side, because if you showed the other side, you were dead."
"On Double Fantasy," I say, "your song 'Woman' sounds a bit like a troubadour poem written to a medieval lady."
" 'Woman' came about because, one sunny afternoon in Bermuda, it suddenly hit me. I saw what women do for us. Not just what my Yoko does for me, although I was thinking in those personal terms. Any truth is universal. If we'd made our album in the third person and called it Freda and Ada or Tommy and had dressed up in clown suits with lipstick and created characters other than us, maybe a Ziggy Stardust, would it be more acceptable? It's not our style of art; our life is our art. . . . Anyway, in Bermuda, what suddenly dawned on me was everything I was taking for granted. Women really are the other half of the sky, as I whisper at the beginning of the song. And it just sort of hit me like a flood, and it came out like that. The song reminds me of a Beatles track, but I wasn't trying to make it sound like that. I did it as I did 'Girl' many years ago. So this is the grown-up version of 'Girl.'
"People are always judging you, or criticizing what you're trying to say on one little album, on one little song, but to me it's a lifetime's work. From the boyhood paintings and poetry to when I die - it's all part of one big production. And I don't have to announce that this album is part of a larger work; if it isn't obvious, then forget it. But I did put a little clue on the beginning of the record - the bells . . . the bells on 'Starting Over.' The head of the album, if anybody is interested, is a wishing bell of Yoko's. And it's like the beginning of 'Mother' on the Plastic Ono album, which had a very slow death bell. So it's taken a long time to get from a slow church death bell to this sweet little wishing bell. And that's the connection. To me, my work is one piece."
John Lennon on "From Me to You"
"Paul and I wrote this when we were on tour. We nearly didn't record it because we thought it was too bluesy at first, but when we'd finished it and George Martin had scored it with harmonica it was all right."
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
"She's a Woman" Lyrics
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
As Released by the Beatles (1964)
My love don't give me presents
I know that she's no peasant
Only ever has to give me love forever and forever
My love don't give me presents
Turn me on when I get lonely
People tell me that she's only fooling
I know she isn't
She don't give boys the eye
She hates to see me cry
She is happy just to hear me say that
I will never leave her
She don't give boys the eye
She will never make me jealous
Gives me all her time as well as loving
Don't ask me why
She's a woman who understands
She's a woman who loves her man
My love don't give me presents
I know that she's no peasant
Only ever has to give me love forever and forever
My love don't give me presents
Turn me on when I get lonely
People tell me that she's only fooling
I know she isn't
(Wuh)
She's a woman who understands
She's a woman who loves her man
My love don't give me presents
I know that she's no peasant
Only ever has to give me love forever and forever
My love don't give me presents
Turn me on when I get lonely
People tell me that she's only fooling
I know she isn't
She's a woman, she's a woman, she's a woman.
As Released by the Beatles (1964)
My love don't give me presents
I know that she's no peasant
Only ever has to give me love forever and forever
My love don't give me presents
Turn me on when I get lonely
People tell me that she's only fooling
I know she isn't
She don't give boys the eye
She hates to see me cry
She is happy just to hear me say that
I will never leave her
She don't give boys the eye
She will never make me jealous
Gives me all her time as well as loving
Don't ask me why
She's a woman who understands
She's a woman who loves her man
My love don't give me presents
I know that she's no peasant
Only ever has to give me love forever and forever
My love don't give me presents
Turn me on when I get lonely
People tell me that she's only fooling
I know she isn't
(Wuh)
She's a woman who understands
She's a woman who loves her man
My love don't give me presents
I know that she's no peasant
Only ever has to give me love forever and forever
My love don't give me presents
Turn me on when I get lonely
People tell me that she's only fooling
I know she isn't
She's a woman, she's a woman, she's a woman.
"Carry That Weight"
"Carry That Weight" is a song by The Beatles. Released on Abbey Road and part of the long, climactic medley that closes the album, it features vocals from all four of The Beatles (a rarity in their songs). It is preceded by "Golden Slumbers," and segues into "The End."
The middle bridge, featuring brass instruments, electric guitar and vocals, reprises the beginning of "You Never Give Me Your Money", but with different lyrics. The ending also reprises the arpeggiated guitar motif from the end of that track, similar to the figure featured prominently in the George Harrison written tracks "Here Comes the Sun" and "Badge" (co-written by Harrison and Eric Clapton).
Interpretation
In his book Revolution in the Head, Ian McDonald interprets this lyric as an acknowledgment by the group that nothing they would do as individual artists in the future would ever equal what they had achieved together as The Beatles. In other words, that they would always carry the weight of their Beatle past. In the film Imagine: John Lennon, Lennon says that McCartney was "singing about all of us."
Recording
The Beatles began recording "Golden Slumbers"/"Carry That Weight" as one on 2 July 1969. McCartney, Harrison and Starr recorded 15 takes of the two songs while Lennon was in hospital recovering from a car accident in Scotland.
The rhythm tracks featured McCartney on piano, Harrison on bass guitar and Starr on drums. The best were takes 13 and 15, which were edited together on 3 July. That day and the next, McCartney overdubbed his lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Harrison added lead guitar, and all three sang the chorus.
On 30 July, Lennon rejoined the group and all added more vocals. The following day more vocals were recorded, and Starr overdubbed timpani and extra drums. The orchestra was recorded on 15 August.
Credits
* Paul McCartney: lead and background vocals, piano, rhythm guitar.
* George Harrison: lead guitar, bass guitar, background vocals.
* Ringo Starr: drums, timpani, background vocals.
* John Lennon: background vocals.
* Orchestra arranged and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)
Cover versions
* In 1976, The Bee Gees covered the song for the transitory musical documentary All This and World War II. Two years later, they did the same for the movie version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
* Les Fradkin has an instrumental version included in his 2005 release While My Guitar Only Plays.
* Orange Bicycle covered this song interloping it with "You Never Give Me Your Money."
Cultural references
* The last line of the anime Cowboy Bebop is "You're gonna carry that weight," in homage to this song.
* In 2006 a video began circulating the internet featuring comedian Chris Bliss juggling to "Golden Slumbers," "Carry That Weight," and "The End."
Album: Abbey Road
Released: 26 September 1969
Recorded: 2 July-15 August 1969
Genre: Rock
Length: 1:36
Label: Apple Records
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Producer: George Martin
Wikipedia
The middle bridge, featuring brass instruments, electric guitar and vocals, reprises the beginning of "You Never Give Me Your Money", but with different lyrics. The ending also reprises the arpeggiated guitar motif from the end of that track, similar to the figure featured prominently in the George Harrison written tracks "Here Comes the Sun" and "Badge" (co-written by Harrison and Eric Clapton).
Interpretation
In his book Revolution in the Head, Ian McDonald interprets this lyric as an acknowledgment by the group that nothing they would do as individual artists in the future would ever equal what they had achieved together as The Beatles. In other words, that they would always carry the weight of their Beatle past. In the film Imagine: John Lennon, Lennon says that McCartney was "singing about all of us."
Recording
The Beatles began recording "Golden Slumbers"/"Carry That Weight" as one on 2 July 1969. McCartney, Harrison and Starr recorded 15 takes of the two songs while Lennon was in hospital recovering from a car accident in Scotland.
The rhythm tracks featured McCartney on piano, Harrison on bass guitar and Starr on drums. The best were takes 13 and 15, which were edited together on 3 July. That day and the next, McCartney overdubbed his lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Harrison added lead guitar, and all three sang the chorus.
On 30 July, Lennon rejoined the group and all added more vocals. The following day more vocals were recorded, and Starr overdubbed timpani and extra drums. The orchestra was recorded on 15 August.
Credits
* Paul McCartney: lead and background vocals, piano, rhythm guitar.
* George Harrison: lead guitar, bass guitar, background vocals.
* Ringo Starr: drums, timpani, background vocals.
* John Lennon: background vocals.
* Orchestra arranged and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)
Cover versions
* In 1976, The Bee Gees covered the song for the transitory musical documentary All This and World War II. Two years later, they did the same for the movie version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
* Les Fradkin has an instrumental version included in his 2005 release While My Guitar Only Plays.
* Orange Bicycle covered this song interloping it with "You Never Give Me Your Money."
Cultural references
* The last line of the anime Cowboy Bebop is "You're gonna carry that weight," in homage to this song.
* In 2006 a video began circulating the internet featuring comedian Chris Bliss juggling to "Golden Slumbers," "Carry That Weight," and "The End."
Album: Abbey Road
Released: 26 September 1969
Recorded: 2 July-15 August 1969
Genre: Rock
Length: 1:36
Label: Apple Records
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Producer: George Martin
Wikipedia
Beatles News
- Big Beatles bash back in Stamford (Danbury News Times)
- New Beatles Gear Released Just in Time for the Holidays (Cleveland Leader)
- Novice, die-hard Beatles fans will love new History documentary 'On Record' (New York Daily News)
- Open Auditions for Robert Zemeckis' Animated Beatles Film (TwentyFourBit)
- EMI Shuts Down Beatles Download Website (Paste Magazine)
- Dwight Yoakam Wants to Do It Like the Beatles (The Boot)
- Scottie Pippen Founded The Beatles (NBC Chicago)
- Dhani Harrison's groupthink (Los Angeles Times)
John Lennon on "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You"
"I wrote this for George to sing. I'm always reading how Paul and I used to make him invisible or keep him out, but it isn't true. I encouraged him like mad."
Monday, November 23, 2009
"She Loves You" Lyrics
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
As Released by the Beatles (1963)
She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You think you've lost your love
Well I saw her yesterday
It's you she's thinking of
And she told me what to say.
She said she loves you
And you know that can't be bad
Yeah, she loves you
And you know you should be glad.
She said you hurt her so
She almost lost her mind
But now she says she knows
You're not the hurting kind.
She said she loves you
And you know that can't be bad
Yeah, she loves you
And you know you should be glad - ooo!
She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
With a love like that
You know you should be glad.
You know it's up to you
I think it's only fair
Pride can hurt you too
Apologise to her.
Because she loves you
And you know that can't be bad
Yeah, she loves you
And you know you should be glad - ooo!
She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
With a love like that
You know you should be glad
With a love like that
You know you should be glad
With a love like that
You know you should be glad
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
As Released by the Beatles (1963)
She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You think you've lost your love
Well I saw her yesterday
It's you she's thinking of
And she told me what to say.
She said she loves you
And you know that can't be bad
Yeah, she loves you
And you know you should be glad.
She said you hurt her so
She almost lost her mind
But now she says she knows
You're not the hurting kind.
She said she loves you
And you know that can't be bad
Yeah, she loves you
And you know you should be glad - ooo!
She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
With a love like that
You know you should be glad.
You know it's up to you
I think it's only fair
Pride can hurt you too
Apologise to her.
Because she loves you
And you know that can't be bad
Yeah, she loves you
And you know you should be glad - ooo!
She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
With a love like that
You know you should be glad
With a love like that
You know you should be glad
With a love like that
You know you should be glad
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Beatles News
Autographed Beatles original “Please Please Me” album (1963) (Rockaway.com)- Autographed Beatles cover of Newsweek dated February 24, 1964 (Rockaway.com)
- Autographed Beatles “Yesterday and Today” (1966) – the infamous “butcher” cover (Rockaway.com)
- Separate Beatles autograph set, from an autograph book (Rockaway.com)
- Site shut down for selling Beatles catalogue (CDInsight)
- Author Peter Ames Carlin talks about the life of Paul McCartney (Examiner.com)
- Beatles piracy fixation gets stranger with huge FLAC release (Ars Technica)
- 20 Beatles Buried Treasures (PopMatters)
- If Beatles catalog comes to iTunes, Apple Records wants recompensation for every illegally downloaded song (Geek.com)
- Beatles in Tokyo... Paris Mayor Honors Elbaz... Big Haul at YSL Auction (Women's Wear Daily)
John Lennon on "Do You Want to Know a Secret"
"I wrote this one. I remember getting the idea from a Walt Disney film--Cinderella or Fantasia. It went something like: 'Do you wanna know a secret, promise not to tell, standing by a wishing well.'"
Sunday, November 22, 2009
"She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" Lyrics
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
As Released by the Beatles (1969)
Come on now.
Heh heh heh.
Oh look out!
She came in through the bathroom window
Protected by a silver spoon
But now she sucks her thumb and wanders
By the banks of her own lagoon.
Didn't anybody tell her?
Didn't anybody see?
Sundays on the phone to Monday
Tuesdays on the phone to me.
She said she'd always been a dancer
She worked at fifteen clubs a day
And though she thought I knew the answer
Well I knew but I could not say.
And so I quit the police department
And got myself a steady job
And though she tried her best to help me
She could steal but she could not rob.
Didn't anybody tell her?
Didn't anybody see?
Sundays on the phone to Monday
Tuesdays on the phone to me.
Oh yeah.
As Released by the Beatles (1969)
Come on now.
Heh heh heh.
Oh look out!
She came in through the bathroom window
Protected by a silver spoon
But now she sucks her thumb and wanders
By the banks of her own lagoon.
Didn't anybody tell her?
Didn't anybody see?
Sundays on the phone to Monday
Tuesdays on the phone to me.
She said she'd always been a dancer
She worked at fifteen clubs a day
And though she thought I knew the answer
Well I knew but I could not say.
And so I quit the police department
And got myself a steady job
And though she tried her best to help me
She could steal but she could not rob.
Didn't anybody tell her?
Didn't anybody see?
Sundays on the phone to Monday
Tuesdays on the phone to me.
Oh yeah.
"Carol"
"Carol" is a song written by Chuck Berry, first released in 1958. It was later covered by The Beatles for a live BBC performance during 1963, this version was released on the 1994 compilation album Live at the BBC. It was also recorded by The Rolling Stones during 1964, and released on their first album.
Commercial Success
Along with being a hit single for Chuck Berry, The Beatles version has been heard by millions of people, due to its inclusion on their Live at the BBC album.
Covers
Along with being covered by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, several other artists have covered the song, including:
* The Bill Black Combo
* Blue Fuller
* The Count Bishops
* Link Cromwell & the Zoo
* Charlie Daniels
* The Dimensions
* The Doors
* The Flamin' Groovies
* Peter Gammons
* The Groovie Ghoulies
* Hello
* The Milkshakes
* Jim Miller
* Tommy Roe
* Doug Sahm
* Status Quo
* Sonny Vincent
Wikipedia
Commercial Success
Along with being a hit single for Chuck Berry, The Beatles version has been heard by millions of people, due to its inclusion on their Live at the BBC album.
Covers
Along with being covered by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, several other artists have covered the song, including:
* The Bill Black Combo
* Blue Fuller
* The Count Bishops
* Link Cromwell & the Zoo
* Charlie Daniels
* The Dimensions
* The Doors
* The Flamin' Groovies
* Peter Gammons
* The Groovie Ghoulies
* Hello
* The Milkshakes
* Jim Miller
* Tommy Roe
* Doug Sahm
* Status Quo
* Sonny Vincent
Wikipedia
John Lennon on "I Call Your Name"
"I like this one. I wrote it very early on when I was in Liverpool and added the middle eight when we came down to London."
John Lennon: The Essential Interviews
by John Luerssen
JOHN LENNON: The Essential Interviews collects the pop music legend's most candid and inspirational interactions with the media.
Beginning in the heyday of the Beatles and tracing Lennon over the span of the next fifteen years until his tragic murder in December 1980, this book pays tribute to the iconic musician.
Compiled by pop music journalist John D. Luerssen specifically for Rock Reader Books, JOHN LENNON: The Essential Interviews finds the genius behind the Beatles delivering memorable, newsworthy sentiments like:
"Part of me suspects that I'm a loser, and the other part of me thinks I'm God Almighty."
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it."
"Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."
"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace."
JOHN LENNON: The Essential Interviews collects the pop music legend's most candid and inspirational interactions with the media.
Beginning in the heyday of the Beatles and tracing Lennon over the span of the next fifteen years until his tragic murder in December 1980, this book pays tribute to the iconic musician.
Compiled by pop music journalist John D. Luerssen specifically for Rock Reader Books, JOHN LENNON: The Essential Interviews finds the genius behind the Beatles delivering memorable, newsworthy sentiments like:
"Part of me suspects that I'm a loser, and the other part of me thinks I'm God Almighty."
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it."
"Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."
"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace."
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