Thursday 17th April 2008 4.21pm
Listening to an excerpt from an interview with Julian Lennon for the Radio 1 series 'Lennon Remembered'. He recalls the experience of growing up with his father. A person who produces great art or success at sport has a special place in society. People come to believe they know this person vicariously. It always makes me cringe when you see a fan meet their idol and act over familiar. Then people wonder why the stars wish to separate themselves from the consumers of their art. I digress.
At a time when John Lennon looked and acted like Jesus, he had very little time for Julian who at the time was less than ten years old. Julian says that he went to stay with John and Yoko at Tittenhurst Park and was given a room well away from theirs. When he got freaked out in the night he ran to their room only to find the door locked, when he woke them he was told their was nothing to worry about and to go back to bed.
A few years later Julian traveled to LA to visit John whilst he was recording the album 'Walls and Bridges'. Julian used to laugh a lot apparently but this used to piss John off and he would tell him to shut up a lot.
On the one hand John and Yoko espoused a life where we focus on the fundamentals such as love for our fellow human but on the other it seems ironic that there wasn't too much going in the direction of Julian.
When John died, Yoko wouldn't allow Julian to have an instrument of John's that he chose but later he discovered Sean had been given that and many more. I want to believe that they were good people but some of the behaviour seems unnecessary and displays a lack of compassion and empathy with John's own son.
2nd April 2008
For us who’ve worn out the records and migrated to CD, we can but look back at the time we first heard each album. It seems hard to believe now that some of the music took a little time to get into just like the new music that I’ve bought over the years. It is hard to believe because the music is so darn good that you feel upon first listening it should be an instant old companion. The White Album was the last I got to hear. I saved up the money from my 50pence an hour gardening job and took the train into Norwich. It had been on release for eighteen years but as far as I was concerned it had been released that day. Glass Onion and Wild Honey Pie were certainly not instant favourites and I still struggle wading through the treacle of Goodnight but this for me was the definitive Beatles album, diverse in the extreme, raw, direct, fantastic.
The Beatles set the fashion and also mirrored the years. Rarely can two years have been so contrasted than 1967 and 1968. The former represented hope, that the world could be a better place if we only threw off the shackles of previous generations. The archives of 1968 show a torrid year of uprisings against Vietnam, the murders of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy and a toughening financial climate. The white embossed cover to ‘The Beatles’, perfect.
Paul McCartney often recalls buying records when he was young, sitting on the bus home consuming every last piece of information in anticipation of it’s first play. True, The White Album was sparsely populated in comparison to Sergeant Pepper but it did have the large portraits and lyric poster as extras. You can’t beat the promise of a double player, especially a Beatles double player.
1st April 2008: Virginity
Beatles virginity. All of us were born with it, some lose it young, some when they’re forty. If there is a Beatles song that you haven’t heard, then you are experiencing some level of Beatles virginity. On ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ recently, the question asked, ‘What Beatles song begins with the line ‘I think I’m gonna be sad, I think it’s today’?’. The circa late teen, twenty-ish chap didn’t know, so phoned a friend, his dad, who duly obliged. People of a certain age know this stuff regardless of they’re like or otherwise for the Beatles.
When do people first get to hear the Beatles these days?. For me, being born as the Beatles broke up, I can’t recall hearing too much of their stuff in the seventies, I won’t get started on that now but I definitely feel there was some kind of anti Beatles backlash in the oh so stylish decade following their demise. I certainly knew some kids stuff like Yellow Submarine. When John Lennon died there was a reason for radio and TV to go big on the Beatles again and for a whole new generation to think ‘bloody wars, this is good’.
But what about now? Sure they have legendry status but in an environment where there is so much choice of listening, passive exposure is on the wane.
20th March 2008: The Ad Revolution
I thought Beatles music wasn’t used in advertising. In the 80’s, ‘Revolution’ was used in a trainers ad and Michael Jackson got stick for allowing such a thing. I don’t think it’s happened since and there always seemed to be this unwritten rule that it shouldn’t be used. I was in the States recently and was shocked to hear ‘Hello Goodbye’ used in a Target ad. I guess Jackson must need the cash. The Beatles legacy should be protected from the cheap world of advertising. I always get pissed off when I see icons l like Einstein or Shakespeare invoked in advertising. Bugger off ad people.
The Beatles have always been a special case in music. When the albums were first released on cd in 1987 it signalled the coming of age for that medium. Similarly, the anticipation is building for the release on itunes. They should remaster and remix the albums before release. The way they were originally mixed for stereo doesn’t lend itself well to headphones which is how most people listen now. They shouldn’t add anything or take anything away, just use the technology available to make them sound their best. A few years ago they released a Yellow Submarine album, it wasn’t the same track listing as the original but all the tracks had been remixed and it sounded fantastic, Eleanor Rigby and Hey Bulldog among the best.
18th March 2008: The truth is out about Heather Mills
As a Beatles fan it's easy to kid yourself that everything they do is wonderful both personally and professionally. I don't think I've ever subscribed to that. If Paul makes crap music I admit to it, all too often in recent years, with a regret that he should know better. How can the man who wrote Eleanor Rigby accept this?. Even in their private lives I have winced. Anyone who has read Cynthia Lennon's account of her marriage to John cannot help but admit what a bastard he was.
There seems to be something quite nasty about Heather Mills. All the sympathy and admiration she quite rightly received for how she dealt with the adversity of losing her leg has been completely lost. She is overbearing and whining to the point of being obnoxious. I feel sad that their marriage ended like that, Paul McCartney deserves to be happy but he is certainly better off alone than with her. It is good that the judge in the case has made all details of the proceedings public and shown her up for what she is. Paul should have realised what he was getting in to when she dumped her previous fiancé for him.
