Julian imagines peace

 Have you heard Julian Lennon's version of Imagine?   I really enjoyed it and I think you will too. 

Beatles at the Breakfast table

 

50 Years of Imagine

 

Photo by Andy Warhol 

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Imagine album, I am posting these rejected album cover photographs of John that were taken by Andy Warhol 

Remember Phil Spector's work on John Lennon's Imagine album ?

 Music producer, Phil Spector passed away from Covid today.   Phil is a very strange individual, to say the least.  Most music fans admire his music production and the famous Wall of Sound.   At the same time, he was found guilty of murder and had been accused of holding people hostage, shooting guns to intimidate, and being emotionally abusive to his wife.   Phil Spector is one of those people that you have to attempt to separate his work from the actual person.    And even then, many Beatle fans do not like his work, saying that he ruined the original Let it Be album.  

At the announcement of his death, many people were unaffected.   He has been in prison for some time and we haven't heard from Phil besides Christmas time when the famous songs he produced are played nonstop.    

Nonetheless, Phil Spector is part of The Beatles story and part of John Lennon's life.   One thing that always stands out in my mind is John and Phil at the microphone singing "Oh Yoko."   The guy behind the board keeps playing the wrong verse of the song and John gets really annoyed at him and then Phil is supposed to sing the harmony on the chorus with John and he can't get it right.   John then is trying to teach Phil Spector the harmony.   That little part of Imagine always seemed funny to me.  John was just not having a good day.  

I am not sure how history will remember Phil Spector.  Somehow I don't think it will be for not being able to learn the harmony on Oh Yoko.   

Above Us Only Sky -- a movie review

This past weekend in the UK, a new documentary was shown on television called "John and Yoko:  Above Us Only Sky."    Once all of my Facebook friends saw the documentary, they jumped online and couldn't stop raving about it.   Luckily, the film has been "leaked" online to those of us outside of the U.K. and so tonight I sat down and watched it.


Above us Only Sky goes right along with the Imagine box set that was released earlier this year.  It shows the making of the entire Imagine album.     A lot of the footage is obviously taken from the film that John and Yoko were making called Imagine.  We have seen a lot of this footage before.  The 1988 Imagine documentary,  numerous videos Yoko made for John's songs over the years,  Gimme some Truth, etc.     However, countless hours of footage was recorded during that time in 1971, and we haven't seen it all.    Many of the things shown in this documentary are NEW to Lennon fans around the world!    It all starts with John teaching George the song "How."  John sitting at the piano and sharing with George this new song will make you smile.

 Most of this footage was shot in and on the grounds of Tittenhurst Park.   I enjoyed the footage of young Julian playing in the pool and in the gardens, mixed with him telling his memories of his time there.   However, Julian says something towards the end of the film that is just heartbreaking.

All of the footage from the recording sessions are great.  Klaus Voorman gives his memories, and so does Alan White, Jim Keltner, and others that were there.    The footage of Jealous Guy was my favorite.

I am sure all of you will enjoy learning more about Claudio, who is famous for being the hippie guy who meets John outside his house and then gets invited in for breakfast.   There is extended footage of that and a little background of who the young man is and why he was there.

The strangest part is when they show footage of John and Yoko doing this photo shoot:

They show May Pang watching John and Yoko passionately kiss each other while John's hand is on Yoko's breast.   It is just so bizarre to see May Pang during that time (even though we know she was working for them during this time) because, in just a few years, John would be photographed kissing her!

There is some film of them in New York in 1971, including shots of the infamous "clock" at the St. Regis Hotel.  I have the bootleg audio of "Clock" and always believed that none of the footage of it survived.  But there it was in this documentary!

Fair warning to those who love John Lennon -- this is an emotional film, and they don't even go into John's death.   I am not a huge Yoko fan, but I do appreciate the love John had for her, and it is shown in this documentary.  Yoko gives the reason why she believes she met John, and it is pretty amazing.

Look out for this film because it is one of the best John documentaries pertaining to his solo years I have seen since the NYC one from several years ago.

The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon where you can purchase/rent this film.   I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/49VF8kK

How do you sleep?

Love this photo from the newly released "How do you Sleep" video.   John and George getting their angry feelings about Paul out in the studio.   

September 12

Everyone remembers September 11, 2001 --- but do you remember September 12?    That was when everyone around the world were united.      We all experienced this terrible act of hate together and people were there or one another.     I just remember lot of love and kindness towards each other and a promise to never allow us to be filled with hate towards our fellow man again.       And I look at us in 2017 and I realize that many who made that September 12th promise have forgotten.    It is sad.


This billboard appeared in New York City shortly after 9-11.   I am not totally sure if Yoko Ono was behind it, although I think she was.     I have never been one to speculate what John Lennon would have done in certain situations, except for after the terrorist attacks.   I know that he would approve of this message and would have done something to help the people in his city.