BLOG:
BEATLEJUICE
by Angel David
Some 84 years ago, on the birth of the Second World War, when Europe was in disarray, as the German heavy bombers levelled the port city of Liverpool, a baby was born. Named after the Prime Minister himself, Winston Churchill. His name was John Winston Lennon.
Childhood was never easy for little John. Like most artists, he had it rough. His father was a sea merchant, often away from home. His mother got herself pregnant by another man. At the age of 6, he was forced to choose between his mother and father. Like most boys, little John chose his mother. Eventually, it was his Aunt Mimi who took care of him from his childhood to adolescence. With his mother visiting him regularly, it was her who brought records of Elvis, which introduced the teenage John Lennon to the world of rock 'n' roll.
By the age of 16, John received a guitar from his mother, A Gallotone Champion. Then John formed his first band called "The Quarrymen." It was during these times that John met his future songbrother, Sir Paul McCartney. Soon after, Paul recommended a 14-year-old George Harrison to become their lead guitarist. Then there was Stuart Sutcliffe, who died early, and later, the unfortunate Pete Best, who was replaced by Ringo Starr as their drummer. This was the birth of the most influential rock 'n' roll band the world has ever seen, The Beatles.
The quartet would soon create magic in the studio. Conquering the world, one continent at a time, captivating the hearts of millions. Dictating the pace of an era, an era torn by the cold war, assassination, coups, and the rise of communism. The Beatles turned the world upside down by means of music.
But you already knew all of it; what you didn't know was that when I discovered The Beatles, I was just trying to look for porn through a pile of DVDs of my father. A relative died; I was all alone at the house just like you when you're a teenage boy. So, don't judge me. It was then when I saw this DVD, it says, "The Beatles Chronology." It was a green-covered DVD, with the cover of them singing Rain or Paperback Writer. You can picture it in your head. It contains all their number 1 songs, from Love Me Do to A Long and Winding Road. I watched and listened to it. I said to myself, If I could jerk off of these records, I would.
Days had passed, and I still couldn't get over the Fab Four. I soon found myself in a computer shop, digging their albums; this was pre-VEVO Youtube. Then I found it more intriguing. I figured that most of their best songs were on Side B. Songs like Baby You're A Rich Man, Day Tripper, Rain, I Am The Walrus, Don't Let Me Down, etc. But every time my old fart would sing in the karaoke, it's always Yesterday and Let It Be. It boggled my head. I was dumbfounded. That's when I became a Lennon guy. Especially when I first heard the record called "Tomorrow Never Knows," the last song in their album Revolver. When I first heard of it, it didn't sound like anything from the 1960s. It doesn't sound like anything from the 2000s either. It's almost as if the song can never be traced based on its year of release. It has its own time and space in between the future and the past. The guitars were played backwards, and Ringo's drumming was never-ending. It was loud. Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream. It is not dying. That's what the song says. Inspired by The Tibetan Book of the Dead. It's a kind of record that cannot be played or produced live with the same results. It was nuts. I was mindblown.
Then I read about their god-awful incident in the Philippines when they played a concert in Rizal Stadium. Afterwards, they were invited to a party hosted by a narcissist named imelda marcos. I don't want to even capitalise her name. Unaware of the invitation, John, Paul, George, and Ringo did not go to the party; soon the first family released a statement on the press that they were snubbed. Anyway, because of that snubbing incident, they were escorted back to the airport like they were criminals. The Fab Four never set foot in my homeland again. So fuck the marcoses. I'm not going to capitalise the name again.
Then there's the infamous, more popular than Jesus controversy. It was Lennon and his loud mouth that quoted, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first—rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." Because of this, thousands of their vinyl records were burnt from Amsterdam to the USA's bible belt. This incident and the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, stopped them from touring, which paved the way for the four-headed monster to lock themselves in Abbey Road studios for good and concentrate on making records. A testament to their genius that gave us their all-time greatest albums, from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to Abbey Road. All thanks to John Lennon's loud mouth.
But like all good things, as George Harrison said, all things must pass. The quartet disbanded in 1970. With their swan song saying, "The love you take is equal to the love you make." Yup, let's just ignore Her Majesty. I'm funny like that. Soon the four individuals would find themselves forming their own bands. John with his Plastic Ono Band, Paul with his Wings, George went solo too and finds himself with Bob Dylan in The Travelling Wilburys, and surprisingly, even Ringo. Although Ringo played drums for John and George's band. All four of them, of course, had number one hits of their own. Lennon and McCartney had the most #1 hits; George had his hit with “My Sweet Lord," and Ringo had his hit with “It Don't Come Easy” and “Photograph." They will never be seen together on one stage as The Beatles.
In 1980, a tragedy struck the world of music. John Lennon was murdered outside his apartment in New York. Murdered in cold blood as the perpetrator reads, "Catcher in the Rye," moments after he shot John. A coward. A nut-job. A mindless killing. Just like that, the man who sang songs about love and peace was taken away from the world. A gift to mankind. A trailblazer. An icon. A troubadour of his generation. Gone. He was survived by his wife, Yoko Ono, and his sons Julian and Sean.
Sometimes I listen to John Lennon's last album, Double Fantasy; it was supposed to be his comeback album. He still got it, and by the looks of it, he was happy doing it. John died at the age of 40. Too young and too rare to die. Although John was gone, there were some unfinished songs that he made that were agreed by the surviving members to make as a Beatles record. Alas, we had Free As A Bird and Real Love, and later on, Now and Then.
To this day, John Lennon continued to be a polarising figure, especially to the younger generation. His quirky attitude, his antics, and his flaws as a father were all documented all over the internet. For right-wingers, John has been reduced to a mere communist because some jack-off from the internet misinterpreted the song Imagine. On the woke culture side, the extreme left, my hero has been reduced to a wife-beating, egomaniac. You will even see some trying-hard-to-be-edgy-soft-boy-emotional-haemophiliac-abominations saying that the Beatles are overrated. Engaging in a discussion with this kind of person would be cancer-inducing. Your balls will start to hurt, your eyes will be sewn shut, and your hair will fall off from your scalp as soon as you hear them ramble in their nonsense. I guess leaving them alone with their fantastic music preference is good enough for a punishment.
I don't have to defend John Lennon's legacy or The Beatles'. Their influence will speak for themselves; it has been more than six decades since their debut album was released. Yet they're still here. Untouchable and more influential than ever.
I, myself, planted a Beatle seed in my daughter's ears. And I'm proud that she listens to some real music. Lumina Soiree David was named after the song Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds by The Beatles. John Lennon's son Julian inspired the song with a nursery school drawing that he called "Lucy—in the sky with diamonds." Shortly before the album's release, speculation arose that the first letter of each of the nouns in the title intentionally spelled "LSD" the initialism commonly used for the hallucinogenic drug lysergic acid diethylamide, a psychedelic drug. John Lennon later denied these claims. Who knows what is true? The 1960s were the golden era of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll. Certainly, the 1967 circa was the time when the Fab Four was "experimenting." To me it was just a happy coincidence.
Hey, but if you would ask me if I ever tried LSD... Well, all I can say is, I invoke my right against self-incrimination.
---
E-mail Angel David at angel@jamlemonrecords.com