Come sail away with John

 

I love how John just blends in with the group and he looks happy.  He looks relaxed.  

Strumming in the Sun

 

Sailing with John

 

The Painting

40 years ago this artwork of John and Sean was painted while they were in Burmuda.   The painting as far as I know, is still hanging in the Dakota.   Please don't comment on John's weight. Yes, he looks thin in these photos.   However --- I hate talking about people's weight.  I want John to be remembered for so much for than what he weighed the last year of his life.

Here is the story I found online from the artist the drew the painting.

John Lennon's arrival on the island was quite a shock for the American artist Nancy Gosnell, who ended up painting a portrait of John and Sean. John had seen her paintings at a house that he rented from her friend Rolf Luthi, she explained. "He said: 'John would like to have a portrait of Sean painted as a present for Yoko.' I said: 'Oh wonderful, I can do that.' Then I heard John wanted to have his portrait in the painting as well," says Gosnell, who was always fully booked.
Lennon and Sean – both wearing shorts and T-shirts – came to the door of the rented house. "They both sat down on the rug in the living room where I had set up my easel. Their house was on the water so I painted the scene [below] right outside their house so it looked like they were sitting on the beach. They had a big grand piano. John would call Yoko on the phone and play [songs on] the piano." These ended up on Double Fantasy.
"He spoke about his life and the Beatles and how Yoko had been his saviour, and he had been a mess and overweight and she had put him on a brown-rice diet. He did impersonations for me. I remember him doing Henry Kissinger, and he sang a little. One of the songs he sang was "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
John told her he "got tired of being a Beatle" because "he was writing music for teenagers", and now he wanted to "write for adults". He also asked for Gosnell's teacher's name in New York so that he could take lessons in portrait painting. Back home, the picture hung in his Dakota apartment, above his piano. "It almost seems like a fantasy in retrospect – John Lennon – probably the most famous person in the world," she says.

Bermuda June 1980

Photos by Fred Seaman 

These two photos taken the same day are beautiful and sad at the same time. 

Parade in Bermuda

Photos by Fred Seaman 

June 14, 1980

John Lennon The Bermuda Tapes Ap: A Review

If you are a John Lennon fan with an ipad and haven't done so already, it is well worth getting the "John Lennon Bermuda Tapes" app.   This interactive app tells the story of John Lennon's  June 1980 sailing trip to Bermuda and how he came to write the songs that appeared on his album, "Double Fantasy."

If you choose the "Tell the Story" portion, then you are part of the action, getting to swipe and move your finger along the screen to allow things to happy while you hear John and other insiders tell the story of sailing to Bermuda.    It moves onto hearing about John discovering the B-52's and how "Rock Lobster" sounded like Yoko and his reaction to the song and interviews with three members of the B-52's are included.    There is a section where you hear John talk about coming up with the name "Double Fantasy" and while he is telling the story, you can "plant" your own flower and take a snapshot of it.

Here is the snap of the flower I made on the ap

But the best part by far is the music of John Lennon.    The app has what looks like cassette tapes of John Lennon's Bermuda demos.  It is sort of neat because the cassette player feature can rewind, fast forward and when you are done listening, you hit "eject."    These songs won't be anything new to Lennon fans.   I heard them on bootlegs many years ago and I am pretty sure most of them have been commercially available.    However, they are still great to hear.   I think my favorite is the demo for "Watching the Wheels" that has Fred Seaman banging on a pot in the background.      There also are the hand-written lyrics to the songs for you to view, which I always love to see.

Overall this is a really amazing app and for $4.99 (all of which goes to a charity that fights hunger) it is well worth getting (if you have an ipad).   My #1 concern with the app is that there will be a day in the future when an ipad app will be obsolete and the interviews and package will be gone forever.  


To purchase "John Lennon the Bermuda Tapes" go to the Apple App Store and search for it.   Enjoy!

Out on the ocean.....sailing away....

This photo was just out to the masses today and I can't get enough of it!   John in 1980 sailing!!!  He is wearing a shirt that says Japan and that really cool hat that he wore a lot during this time.   Could this "new" photo be any  better????  

Bermuda 1980

In June of 1980, after John returned from South Africa, he and Sean did some sailing in Bermuda.  I hope Sean has some memory of this special time with his dad.  Here are some photos that are new to me of taken during that boating trip.  

Edit:  Fred Seaman contacted me to say that he took these photos and the man known in his book as "Mike Tree" is the other fellow in the photos.  Thanks to Fred for this extra information!