Showing posts with label John Lennon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Lennon. Show all posts

Sunday, December 08, 2013

John Lennon's Death in NYC

By Jack Brummet, NYC Metro Ed.



On Dec 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot five times by 25 year old Mark Chapman outside the Dakota building in New York City where he lived with Yoko Ono and his son Sean. Chapman stalked Lennon for days outside the Dakota apartments.  

Keelin and I lived in his neighborhood on the upper west side, ten blocks north.  I could hear the sirens that night.  I was listening to the Vin Scelsa show on NYC's WNEW 102.7 when it happened.  Scelsa was a friend of Lennon's.  Sometime around 11:30, he broke in


Vin Scelsa:  "
I was playing Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Jungle Land.’  This long, 11 or 12, or 13 minute track about the city and about life on the streets.  And to a certain extent, about violence on the streets.  A very ironic thing.  I faded down the music and I read the bulletin. And we tried to downplay it.  John has been shot.  He’s been taken to the hospital.
"Many minutes later, the bulletin came across that he had died.  Marty came into the room, tears streaming down his face, totally shaken, and said; “He—he—he’s dead. He’s gone.” I kinda flipped out at that point.  I didn’t wanna go on the air and say this.  I had gone on the air other times in my life and announced that people had died.  John Lennon, I knew right away, that this was something that went beyond just a pop star murder or a pop star death.  That this was truly a significant moment in our cultural history.  I remember finally the song ending and my coming on the air and saying whatever it is I said.  I know that what I said is in the Museum of Television & Radio.  I’ve only listened to it two or three times over the years, cause I don’t really wanna listen to it.
"I know that I said something like, 'For the first time in my life I’m speechless.'"
---o0o---

Saturday, July 06, 2013

Poster for an early John Lennon gig with his band The Quarrymen (who evolved into The Beatles)

By Jack Brummet, Music Ed.

The Quarrymen were a Liverpool skiffle/rock band, formed by John Lennon in Liverpool in 1956.  By 1960, they had evolved into The Beatles. This poster is from one of their early gigs, playing at a garden show/dog display/costume parade.  Macca would join the band a few months after this show, and George Harrison joined in early 1958.  Ringo joined The Beatles in 1962, after they sacked their drummer Pete Best.


---o0o---

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day by David Peele and the lower east side

By Jack Brummet, 70's Music Ed.

A probably less than uplifting view of Mother's Day.  A couple years later, David Peele became friends with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and they performed together numerous times.


---o0o---

Friday, December 09, 2011

John Lennon's involuntary departure

By Jack Brummet, Rock Ed. and NYC/Metro Ed.



"Imagine no John Lennon."  December 8th is such a sad day.  I just read a piece about Lennon on The Norton Report. 

We lived a few blocks away from the Dakota and often caught glimpses of John and Yoko around the UWS. I remember Keelin was in a store on Columbus once, and they cleared the store because the Lennons were coming in to shop.

That night, December 8th. 1980,  we could hear the sirens from our place on W. 84th. I was listening to Vin Scelsa on WNEW-FM 102.7, when he got word that his friend had been assassinated. It was utterly devastating listening to Vin's reaction. There was such a pall over New York those next few days; it was heartbreaking. New York had bounced back a little bit from the lows of the mid-to late 70's.  And then, this.  In our town.  One of our flawed, but great heroes, eliminated. . .
---o0o---

Sunday, May 08, 2011

John Lennon sings "mother" live at MSG


Mother by John Lennon


Mother, you had me but I never had you,
I wanted you but you didn't want me,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Farther, you left me but I never left you,
I needed you but you didn't need me,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Children, don't do what I have done,
I couldn't walk and I tried to run,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home...
---o0o---

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

How Do You Sleep At Night (with lyrics): John Lennon's volley against Paul in their song war






How Do You Sleep At Night
By John Lennon

So Sgt. Pepper took you by suprise,
You better thru that mother's eyes,
Those freaks was right when they said you was dead,
The one mistake you made was in your head,
How do you sleep?
Ah how do you sleep at night?
You live with straights who tell you you was king,
Jump when your mamma tell you any thing,
The only thing you did was yesterday,
And since your gone you're just another day,
How do you sleep?
Ah how do you sleep at night?
A pretty face may last a year or two,
But pretty soon they'll see what you can do,
The sound you make is muzak to my ears,
You must have learnt something all thos years,
How do you Sleep?
Ah how do you sleep at night?
---o0o---

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day - John Lennon sings "Mother" live at MSG (with lyrics)


Mother by John Lennon


Mother, you had me but I never had you,
I wanted you but you didn't want me,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Farther, you left me but I never left you,
I needed you but you didn't need me,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Children, don't do what I have done,
I couldn't walk and I tried to run,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home...
---o0o---

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

I Met The Walrus: a film of Jerry Levitan's close encounter with John Lennon

This short animated film was a hit at last year's Brooklyn International Film Festival, and was an Academy Award short film nominee. I Met The Walrus takes a 1969 audio interview with John Lennon animated into a short film. According to the film blurb, 14-year-old Jerry Levitan nabbed this interview by sneaking into Lennon's Toronto hotel room during his "bed-in" phase.



I may be mixing him up with another girl who managed to get into the hotel, but I know many of the visitors actually participated in the taping of "Give Peace A Chance," which John and Yoko Ono recorded in the hotel room.

It's short, it's charming, and it's worth hearing just to hear John Lennon be interviewed by, and very respectfully respond to, a 14 year old fan...
---o0o---

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Transcends (with a video and lyric sheet for John Lennon's song Sexy Sadie & video on The Beatles in Risikesh)





Video clip from the maharishi mahesh yogi's ashram in rishikesh india, AKA the beatles's ashram because they visited the place in the summer of 1967. "Lennon became discouraged after the Maharishi had allegedly made a pass at one of the female members of their entourage." (wikipedia)"


Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles the Beach Boys' Mike Love, Mia Farrow, Donovan, and millions of others, died Tuesday at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman said. He was probably 91 years old.

When I was young, he was a huge cultural figure, with many people taking his transcendental meditation, and those of us who didn't felt like we should have...

"He died peacefully at about 7 p.m.," said Bob Roth, a spokesman for the Transcendental Meditation movement that the Maharishi founded. He said his death appeared to be due to "natural causes, his age."


The Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh (1968)

Once laughed out of the room as hippie mysticism, the Hindu practice of mind control that Maharishi taught, called transcendental meditation, gradually gained medical respectability and has been proved to help regulate blood pressure, anxiety, etc.

He may have been a teacher and holy man, but he also amassed a multi-multi=-million empire of transendental meditation centers, and a TM University in the middle west of the Unites States.

Cosmic Debris by Frank Zappa was probably written about him. Sexy Sadie by John Lennon (from The White Album) most certainly was.

Sex Sadie
By John Lennon/Paul McCartney

hoSexy Sadie what have you done
You made a fool of everyone
You made a fool of everyone
Sexy Sadie ooh what have you done.

Sexy Sadie you broke the rules
You layed it down for all to see
You layed it down for all to see
Sexy Sadie oooh you broke the rules.

One sunny day the world was waiting for a lover
She came along to turn on everyone
Sexy Sadie the greatest of them all.

Sexy Sadie how did you know
The world was waiting just for you
The world was waiting just for you
Sexy Sadie oooh how did you know.

Sexy Sadie you'll get yours yet
However big you think you are
However big you think you are
Sexy Sadie oooh you'll get yours yet.

We gave her everything we owned just to sit at her table
Just a smile would lighten everything
Sexy Sadie she's the latest and the greatest of them all.

She made a fool of everyone
Sexy Sadie.

However big you think you are
Sexy Sadie.


Cosmik Debris
Music and lyrics by Frank Zappa

The Mystery Man came over
An' he said: "I'm outa-site!"
He said, for a nominal service charge,
I could reach nervonna t'nite
If I was ready, willing 'n able
To pay him his regular fee
He would drop all the rest of his pressing affairs
And devote His Attention to me
But I said . . .
Look here brother,
Who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris?
(Now who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris?)
Look here brother,
Don't you waste your time on me

The Mystery Man got nervous
An' he fidget around a bit
He reached in the pocket of his Mystery Robe
An' he whipped out a shaving kit
Now, I thought it was a razor
An' a can of foamin' goo
But he told me right then when the top popped open
There was nothin' his box won't do
With the oil of Afro-dytee
An' the dust of the Grand Wazoo
He said:
"You might not believe this, little fella, but it'll cure your Asthma too!"
An' I said . . .
Look here brother,
Who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris?
(Now what kind of a geroo are you anyway?)
Look here brother,
Don't you waste your time on me
Don't waste yer time . . .

I've got troubles of my own, I said
An' you can't help me out
So take your meditations an' your preparations
An' ram it up yer snout
"BUT I GOT A KRISTL BOL!," he said
An' held it to the light
So I snatched it
All away from him
An' I showed him how to do it right
I wrapped a newspaper 'round my head
So I'd look like I was Deep
I said some Mumbo Jumbos then
An' told him he was goin' to sleep
I robbed his rings
An' pocket watch
An' everything else I found
I had that sucker hypnotized
He couldn't even make a sound
I proceeded to tell him his future then
As long as he was hanging around,
I said
"The price of meat has just gone up
An' yer ol' lady has just gone down . . . "
Look here brother,
Who you jivin' with that Cosmik Debris?
(Now is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?)
Don't you know,
You could make more money as a butcher,
So don't you waste your time on me
(Don't waste it, don't waste your time on me . . . )
Ohm shonty, ohm shonty, ohm shonty-ohm
SSHONTAY
---o0o---

Friday, January 11, 2008

The Beatle's Last Waltz

This is a video of the last time The Beatles played together, in 1970, on a London rooftop. I believe this is where John Lennon uttered his wonderful "Thank you Ladies and Gentlemen. On behalf of me and boys I hope we passed the audition!" (which was grafted onto the studio track of the Let It Be LP). On a personal note, I saw them in Seattle in 1966, on their final tour, one day before their final show in San Francisco.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Video: The Beatles perform She Loves You In Manchester in 1963

I will never forget the night when I was ten years old and The Beatles played this song on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was one of those extremely rare times when you think "nothing will be quite the same after this." And, for me at least, things never were. It led to a lifetime addiction, and their music and the people they inspired and competed with, and the next generation (now two generations!) took what they did, honored what they did, rebelled against what they did, and formed a soundtrack for a lifetime. I mean, yeah, I often cut away to other musical pleasures in the jazz, country, blues, bluegrass, classical modes. . . but The Beatles are the absolute Gold Standard. From them I learned about melody, sitars, flutes, strings, harmony, rhythm, ballads, suites, bridges, Aeolian cadences. . .you name it. For me, the music all springs from John Paul George and Ringo; even Beethoven!


---o0o---

Saturday, December 08, 2007

27 years ago today, John Lennon was assassinated



John Lennon was assassinated by a deranged fan outside his home 27 years ago today. We lived in the neighborhood at the time, and could hear the sirens. I was listening to Vin Skelsa that night on WNEW when he broke in in tears, to tell us the news about his friend. Lennon had just released Double Fantasy (his best record in years) two weeks earlier. It was an incredibly depressing time, especially in New York City. Hostages were being held in Tehran, Jimmy Carter had just been trounced in the election, and Ronald Regan would be sworn in as President in a few weeks. For months fans gathered across the street from The Dakota, in what would become Strawberry Fields in Central Park.
---o0o---

Monday, October 08, 2007

The Beatles: Please Mr. Postman video and lyrics

This is a very early Beatles tune...a cover of Please Mr. Postman, written by W. Garrett, B. Holland, F. Gorman, G. Dobbins & R. Bateman. The video is, naturally, an old American Bandstand style lip sync rendition, but still fun to watch nonetheless.






(Stop)
Oh yes, wait a minute Mister Postman
(Wait)
Wait Mister Postman

Please Mister Postman, look and see
(Oh yeah)
If there's a letter in your bag for me
(Please, Please Mister Postman)
Why's it takin' such a long time
(Oh yeah)
For me to hear from that boy of mine

There must be some word today
From my boyfriend so far away
Pleas Mister Postman, look and see
If there's a letter, a letter for me

I've been standin' here waitin' Mister Postman
So patiently
For just a card, or just a letter
Sayin' he's returnin' home to me

(Mister Postman)
Mister Postman, look and see
(Oh yeah)
If there's a letter in your bag for me
(Please, Please Mister Postman)
Why's it takin' such a long time
(Oh yeah)
For me to hear from that boy of mine

So many days you passed me by
See the tears standin' in my eyes
You didn't stop to make me feel better
By leavin' me a card or a letter

(Mister Postman)
Mister Postman, look and see
(Oh yeah)
If there's a letter in your bag for me
(Please, Please Mister Postman)
Why's it takin' such a long time

(Why don't you check it and see one more time for me, you gotta)
Wait a minute
Wait a minute
Wait a minute
Wait a minute
(Mister Postman)
Mister Postman, look and see

(C'mon deliver the letter, the sooner the better)
Mister Postman
---o0o---