John Lennon/Beatles Mega Thread

[Nico]

Thought I would finally get around to it. I guess I'll do the best I can with this, and post them as videos in case anyone wants to check those out.

1. Without a question my favorite song of ALL TIME:


2. The chorus is one of the most moving, inspirational ever:


3.Sooooooo beautiful, especially this version:


4. John's vocals on this are sublime:


5. Honestly, this song...I could listen to it over and over without ever getting tired:


6. Fun, fun, fun!!!


7. Probably one of the most poetically perfect songs ever written:


8. I consider it the best peace anthem of all time.


9. One of the best qualities in John's music was his honesty.


10. It really should be number 1 of all time for any list, but I had such personal attachments to the others. THIS SONG is a masterpiece. Thank you Mr. Lennon.



Honestly, this list is so temporary. Although I personally believe number 1 will always be SFF I can't assure it. I think for any 10 "greatest" John songs there could be 10 completely different choices. That is just how incredible he was.

[3rd World Man]

Wow Nico, thank you so much for posting those essays! I'm sure many John fans who aren't able to get the box set (like moi will appreciate being able to read these essays. I love all the memories people have of John, and none more than those of Yoko, Julian & Sean. John has left such a wonderful legacy for his family, they can't help but be proud of what he accomplished in his short life. Thank you (& msLinds!) for keeping John front & center, right where he belongs

[msLinds]

Thanks Nico for posting your 10 favorite John Lennon songs and video's.I like your picks.Your welcome 3rd world man.I am glad to have been of help in this thread.I agree with you that John would be very proud of his sons Sean and Julian right now.


I have one update a interview with Sean Lennon and Charlotte and their band The Goastt

Clash Magazine.com
A Twist Of Lennon -The Ghost Of A saber tooth Tiger Interview Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl
December 20,2010
They say the family that plays together stays together. As The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger, Sean Lennon and his girlfriend,
Charlotte Kemp Muhl, do so much more than just play.
In an office high up Centre Point, the towering skyscraper in Central London, Sean and Charlotte gaze out over the magnificent view of the capital. “What is that big dome that looks like the White House?” That’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, Clash says. “What’s the one that looks like a suppository?” That’s the Gherkin. “It’s applaudable for its creativity,” Charlotte shrugs.
The architecture of London aside, Clash is surrounded by striking scenery. A successful model, Charlotte is a captivating presence; she speaks demurely of music and art with boundless enthusiasm. Sean, meanwhile, is disarmingly like his famous father - his heritage is in that long nose, and the thick glasses it holds up. Together they make the music of The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger, wistful duets of ethereal folk and avant-pop, and release it on their own label, Chimera Music.
“She and I had started this band and it just felt like I could either shop around for a deal, or just try to self-publish,” Sean says, on the genesis of Chimera. “I kind of always wanted to have my own label, because I started on the Beastie Boys’ label. They were such a cool group and they really supported their friends and they had a lot of cool bands. So the idea of having an artist-run label where it’s family-based and you put out your friends’ records, you put out music because you like it and because it’s interesting and not because you’re trying to find the next Jonas Brothers or something.”
Sean’s idealism is countered by Charlotte’s realism. “As soon as we started our own label, we realised, wow, we have this newfound respect for the big labels,” she admits, “because we were having distribution meetings at nine in the morning, and then running somewhere to design packaging and make business cards and then choose what kind of eco-friendly paper to print the CD package on, and then run over to this meeting over here and make T-shirts for the band,” she pants, tired at the thought of such a gruelling schedule. It’s a wonder then that close business relationships and being bandmates on tour hasn’t impacted on the romance between the pair - which blossomed after they first met backstage at Coachella.
“There’s a lot at stake in terms of your emotional state,” Sean says on the matter. “If you’re feeling unhappy or you’re quarreling, everything can start to slow down.” Fortunately for us, things are going very smoothly in the Lennon/Muhl union. Their debut album as The GOASTT, ‘Acoustic Sessions’, is a beguiling mix of trippy Gainsbourg-esque folk, with Sean on guitar, Charlotte on a range of instruments, and their voices sweetly wrapping around each other like two lovers under the sheets.
It’s Lennon’s fifth album, and goes to prove him as an artist in his own right, regardless of his surname. But what a legacy that must be. Was it always assumed he would be involved with music, Clash asks, or did he want to avoid doing so under the weight of expectations? “I don’t think anyone assumed it, but I always was doing it. I just was always playing music,” Sean says. “And I’m sure it was because my dad was a musician and then he passed away, so there was this big hole in my life and music was something I associated with him very strongly, so I think I was drawn to music in a way sort of searching for some connection with my father who wasn’t there. It was kind of a way for me to become intimate with him.”
As our interview ends, the pair make their way to the window again, enquiring after the names of London’s parks they can see. They are adorable together: wide-eyed, playful and utterly beautiful. That Lennon’s quest for intimacy led to this coupling confirms love really is all you need.

http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/tw...iger-interview

[elle]

thanks for posting all this, msLinds and Nico! love John, i'm old enough to remember dec 1980 happenings vividly, but haven't closely followed Julian and Sean's carriers lately... i used to own just Imagine and a few other albums from John, vinyl, and i'm seriously thinking of getting the box set, it would be such a nice thing to have.

[msLinds]

Your welcome Elle.I am glad to be of help. I do have one Sean Lennon update.This " You Tube " video has not been posted here yet.Of Sean and his band " The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger.That a fan took of a Performance of the band in Amsterdam this month in December 2010.

The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger (Sean Lennon & Charlotte Kemp Muhl) - " Last Call " - Live Paradiso, Amsterdam Holland. December 14, 2010


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5E9r...ayer_embedded#

[Nico]

Thanks Elle! It'd be cool if this thread kept going and going...John's musical legacy, imo, is simply incomparable and it's cool to share it with others who care.

MsLinds, thank you! Oh I also wanted to let you know I heard that the GOASTT will be on Jimmy Fallon on January 5th. I don't really watch that show so hopefully it'll be youtubed or something. But had to tell you because you'd probably enjoy that.

[Nico]

I read this a while ago. Maybe some of you had read it as well, but I'm always touched by it because Sean is an expressive writer.(In fact, the whole section in Phillip Norman's book, John Lennon: The Life, with Sean is really touching, so read it if you haven't!)

SEAN LENNON'S HOLIDAYS WITH HIS FATHER
16 January 2010
by Sean Lennon


I don’t belong to that group of people who keep their childhoods neatly folded and tucked away, seldom seen, in a dresser drawer. My memories are scattered about the room like dust mites floating in sunlight. I’m unable to climb aboard even the tiniest steam train of thought without running over old origami animals in the Wild West of my youth.

I never gasp in surprise on seeing myself through the flicker of old film, my pale plumpness negotiating clumsy limbs in a sandbox vast as the Sahara. I never wonder while looking through faded photos, who it is standing on tiny bow legs between my mother and father, not yet knowing how to smile for a camera, blissfully unaware of troubles to come.

Every moment leading up to my father’s death has been permanently etched on the insides of my eyelids, like haunted hieroglyphs on the walls of a sunken sarcophagus. The day my mother told me he’d been gunned down outside our house, I awoke as if from a dream and have been awake ever since.

Because my grandfather was a sailor, my father always felt an affinity with the sea. He bought a house in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, another in Palm Springs, Florida, and another on the beach in Bermuda – the place where he famously circumvented his writer’s block, producing all the songs for Double Fantasy in a final flurry of creativity.

It was in Bermuda that I learnt to swim the sidestroke. I remember splashing vigorously with one eye submerged, the other searching for my father’s approval, his slender frame obscured by blinking rivulets.

In Florida, the seagulls ate stale bread out of my hand; I caught lizards in paper cups and watched their discarded tails twitch cryptically on the warm terracotta terrace.

Most of our summers were spent on the bay in Long Island. We had an old stone house with a swimming pool shaded by rows of oak trees, a vast green lawn overlooking a private beach, and a rickety wooden dock sinking slowly into the sea. It was there that I learnt to skip stones, to make paper planes, to build a fire, to put a worm on a hook, to draw monkeys and to steer a sailing boat.

Tyler and Pam Coneys were an American couple who worked for my parents in the capacity that most of our employees did – that is to say, in whatever capacity was required of them at that moment. Pam, whose honeycomb hair was broomstick-thick, reminded me of Popeye’s wife, Olive: frail exterior with a steel constitution. (She was once ejected through the windscreen of Tyler’s van, and was found walking in a trance miles from where the accident had occurred. She lay in a coma for days – the first time I can remember feeling truly terrified.)

Tyler was as thin as his moustache was thick, and he had the unlikely appearance of a beach-bum Charlie Chaplin. He owned a yachting club on the bay, and it was under his guidance that my father purchased the small green fibreglass sailing boat we named Flower.

It is around Flower’s maiden voyage that one of my most vivid memories revolves. My father, Tyler, our assistant Fred Seaman and I boarded the tiny vessel and set out into the harbour. Tyler let each of us have a turn at steering the boat. My father went first. Then it was my turn. “See that ribbon?” Tyler pointed at a strand of red plastic tied to the mast. “When that ribbon is pointing that way, turn the wheel this way. When the ribbon changes direction, turn the other way.” Simple enough, even for a four-year-old.

The ship’s wheel was cold in my hands, and my father snapped photos furiously with his brown leather-bound Polaroid camera. It is difficult to describe the elation of commanding a sailing boat when you’re four years old, but as the wind swept violently through my bowl-cut bangs, I felt as though I were steering unstoppably into my own unfathomable adulthood.

Then came Fred’s turn. Again Tyler reminded us about the ribbon and the direction of the wind, but it seemed that either Fred had not listened, or that he had been misnamed Seaman. As soon as the ribbon flinched, Fred wrenched the wheel, toppling our boat, and sending us all hurtling headfirst into the turbulent tide. Only Tyler managed miraculously to position himself on the belly of our boat, a triumphant smirk peeking through his moist moustache, his hand outstretched holding a white-and-red life jacket.

As I wondered what my toes might look like to the fish below, I noticed my favourite pair of flip-flops floating swiftly out to sea.

It wasn’t until I considered losing them that I was overcome by a feeling of dread. “My flip-flops, my flip-flops!” I yelped. “Don’t worry,” my father said. “I’ll get you some new ones. Just grab Tyler’s hand.” It seemed that no one realised what a tragedy it was to lose those flip-flops, adorned as they were by my favourite superheroes; they had guarded my feet against sand and stone for the duration of the summer, and my stomach ached at the thought of losing them.

Perhaps it is just coincidence that the man who toppled our boat turned out years later to be the man to topple our family’s trust. For soon after my father died, we found that Fred had been hoarding stolen goods, including my father’s diaries, clothes and some still-missing guitars. I am not sure what happened to Flower, but I can scarcely look at the ocean without wondering where my favourite flip-flops might be.

Sean Lennon
January 2010

[elle]

Originally Posted by Nico

the GOASTT will be on Jimmy Fallon on January 5th. I don't really watch that show so hopefully it'll be youtubed or something.

thanks for the heads up. i watch fallon sometimes, i'll try on the 5th (if i don't fall asleep first)

[3rd World Man]

Thanks Nico for this enlightening memory from Sean. And he just so adorable in the video! (Sean, not John, lol!) Sean does such a wonderful job describing his memories, you feel like you were there with them. John was obviously a very loving and attentive father, and Sean is so fortunate to have spent so much time with him. It makes me want to go look for Sean's flip-flops!!

[3rd World Man]

OK, better late then never, right? Here are my favorite John songs at the moment: (in no particular order)

1. #9 Dream
2. Instant Karma
3. Working Class Hero
4. Isolation
5. Mother
6. In My Life
7. Norwegian Wood
8. Across The Universe
9. Watching The Wheels
10. Give Peace A Chance
11. Strawberry Fields Forever
12. Gimme Some Truth
13. Mind Games
14. Jealous Guy
15. Nobody Told Me
16. Cleanup Time
17. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
18. (Just Like) Starting Over
19. Don't Let Me Down
20. Julia

Of course, John's music is timeless and I'm always discovering something new and interesting he did. Long live John!!!

[msLinds]

Thanks Nico,for posting that story and photograph and video.Your welcome Elle.
Now for 2 a new updates

Mail Online UK
December 30.2010
I didn't break up the Beatles. My small hand could not have broken these men up': The world according to Yoko Ono Lennon.Already an acclaimed avant-garde artist and musician, Yoko Ono became infamous worldwide when she began a relationship with John Lennon.‘I had no idea when I met this man in my gallery how everything would change,’ she says. ‘Nothing was ever the same again.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/mosl...k-Beatles.html


Rock NYC
December 29, 2010
Looks A Lot Like Che Guevara: Sean Lennon's New Video -by Alyson Camus
For one minute I thought about naming my cat Schrödinger when I got it, but I though it was a too pompous look-at-me-I-know-about-quantum-physics kind of thing, so I did not.But any song entitled ‘Schrödinger’s cat’ is going to attract my attention, and that’s the case for a song by Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp-Muhl’s musical adventure aka Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger.

http://www.rocknycliveandrecorded.co...n-lennons.html

[msLinds]

First I want to wish happy new years to all our Ledgies their familys and friends.I hope everyone has a safe,healthy and happy new years. Now for a couple news articles.Plus one audio download some fan posted on another message board of a Concert in Amsterdam, Holland on December 14, 2010 of Sean Lennon and his band ' The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger '

Lennon’s Bermuda Inspired Salute To Women
December 30, 2010

Former Beatle John Lennon said when he was inspired to write “Woman” in Bermuda, he wanted to create not just a love song to his wife Yoko Ono but also as an anthem to the female presence in the world.

http://bernews.com/2010/12/lennons-b...lute-to-women/


Boston.com

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/artic...r_tooth_tiger/


" The Goast Of A Saber Tooth Tiger "- Paradiso Amsterdam, Holland. December 14, 2010
File size: 263.65 MB

File name: The Goast Of A Saber Tooth Tiger - Paradiso Ams..rar
File description: The Goast Of A Saber Tooth Tiger - Paradiso Amsterdam Dec 14, 2010
File size: 263.65 MB

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=13URO0PD

[Nico]

Thank MsLinds!

Re: the Yoko article:

I think it's crazy that Yoko Ono still has to explain herself about the Beatles breakup. This band has been broken up for more than 4 decades, her husband and George have both passed away, and people are still pissed at the lady? How ridiculous. Especially because she didn't break them up. These were 4 very powerful guys, especially John and Paul. John's personality was not conducive to being pushed around by a woman and I'm sure anyone can plainly see that by watching any interview or documentary on him. He adored Yoko but she didn't control him. And if anyone should really be responsible for the band's demise it would be themselves. It was John's band, he was bored and moving on to his next big thing. Paul was attempting to keep them together in vain and George was just getting sick of it all, especially John and Paul's egos. Ringo, I guess, could have gone either way.

But really, Yoko has been a scapegoat for too long. She doesn't deserve it. It's very hard for some people to accept that John loved this lady and they were soul mates. She never looked like the typical rock star wife and she was incredibly difficult to "get" so most people didn't bother. Yet all these years later, many others who are recognizing how deep their love and commitment to each other, and to art, music, and peace really was. They were the rock star romance of all time.

Thanks for the Sean links. I will check those out for sure. And don't forget the GOASTT will be on Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday!

[Nico]

Originally Posted by 3rd World Man

OK, better late then never, right? Here are my favorite John songs at the moment: (in no particular order)

1. #9 Dream
2. Instant Karma
3. Working Class Hero
4. Isolation
5. Mother
6. In My Life
7. Norwegian Wood
8. Across The Universe
9. Watching The Wheels
10. Give Peace A Chance
11. Strawberry Fields Forever
12. Gimme Some Truth
13. Mind Games
14. Jealous Guy
15. Nobody Told Me
16. Cleanup Time
17. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
18. (Just Like) Starting Over
19. Don't Let Me Down
20. Julia

Of course, John's music is timeless and I'm always discovering something new and interesting he did. Long live John!!!

Awesome list! I love all of those songs. He was soooo incredible, oh my gosh. I forgot about Don't Let Me Down and Isolation.

When I was 6 my favorite song ever was Watching the Wheels. True story.

[msLinds]

I agree Nico with your feeling about People blaming Yoko even still after all these years for the breakup of the Beatles.I have one update.


The GOASTT interview on WFUV Radio,January 4, 2011
You can listen to this interview on the radio stations web site

Tuesday, January 4th-Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl are The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger and they sit down with WFUV Music Director Rita Houston before their January 8th show at Rockwood Music Hall
Tuesday, January 4th 7:40 AM and 4:45 PM EST, Take Five: Sean Lennon’s project The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger speaks with Rita Houston.
9 PM EST, Words and Music from Studio A: The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger joins Rita Houston in Studio A.

http://www.wfuv.org/music/listings



The USA tour dates for Seans Lennons And Charlotte Kemp Muhl band "The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger " tour schedule for January 2011
'Acoustic Sessions' Album is out now out on Sean Lennon's own label, Chimera Music." The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger's "January 2011 US Tour Itinerary is below

Jan. 6: Great Scott, Boston
Jan. 7: Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia
Jan. 8: Rockwood Music Hall, New York City
Jan. 11: Iota, Arlington, Va.
Jan. 12: Local 506, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Jan. 13: The Evening Muse, Charlotte, N.C.
Jan. 14: The Melting Point, Athens, Ga.
Jan. 15: The Earl, Atlanta
Jan. 18: Dan's Silver Leaf, Denton, Tx.
Jan. 19: Cactus Café, Austin, Tx.
Jan. 21: Club Congress, Tucson, Ariz.
Jan. 22: Pappy & Harriets, Joshua Tree, Calif.
Jan. 25: Café du Nord, San Francisco
Jan. 28: The Woods, Portland, Ore.
Jan. 29: Crocodile Café, Seattle

http://www.thegoastt.com/

http://chimeramusic.com/goastt.html

http://chimeramusic.com/

http://chimeramusic.tumblr.com/