So okay, as many of you have noticed, I do an awful lot of armchair psychoanalyzing of John Lennon, sometimes not to his advantage. But as I was browsing YouTube tonight, I saw this press conference (I think LA, 1966) which reminded me why he's my all-time favorite guy. Watch to the end. http://youtu.be/naV7T7qN80w
...just maybe not when you're thirty-five. [Update February 2015: Here's a mini-doc on the "bigger than Jesus" controversy:] http://youtu.be/ETFKXMdjbkU
ED PARK • Want to hear a really sloppy record? It's a good song, but the recording's a mess. The drums consistently drag the rhythm; the bass player isn't quite sure how his part is supposed to go...—Douglas Wolk, "The Death of Mistakes Means the Death of Rock" http://youtu.be/T3znOTuT4K8
"There are a lot of beetles." PLAYBOY: Why do you think rock 'n' roll has become such an international phenomenon? DYLAN: I can't really think that there is any rock 'n' roll. Actually, when you think about it, anything that has no real existence is bound to become an international phenomenon. Anyway, what does it mean, rock 'n' roll? Does it mean Beatles, does it mean John Lee Hooker, Bobby Vinton, Jerry Lewis' kid? What about Lawrence Welk? He must play a few rock-'n'-roll songs. Are all these people the same? Is Ricky Nelson like Otis Redding? Is Mick Jagger [...]
Kosher butcher cover? DEVIN McKINNEY • Yes, it's time once again to gather at the seder table, eat the ritual spices, set aside an empty chair for Elijah, watch as the kids search for hidden matzohs, and spin some Beatles tunes. (Anything but "Piggies.") My thoughts have gone all Semitic since being reminded today of this. (Thanks to Mickey Trester for the link—and the mitzvah.)
Yes, I think they made the right choice not using this one MOLLIE WILSON REILLY • Some follow-up on the news from Rome! After Ed posted here (thanks, Ed!), I brought the news to the Catholics at dotCommonweal. That has led me to some new and interesting details I thought you all might find interesting. First of all, it's fun but not accurate to say that the Vatican has "forgiven" Lennon. L'Osservatore Romano doesn't speak for the pope -- it's just the Vatican City daily. In any case, the article itself was an arts-section essay that, as far as I can [...]
Better late than never, right? A Vatican newspaper has forgiven the late English singer John Lennon for saying four decades ago that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus.In an article praising The Beatles, L'Osservatore Romano said Lennon had just been showing off.Lennon told a British newspaper in 1966 - at the height of Beatlemania - that he did not know which would die out first, Christianity or rock and roll.At the time, the comparison sparked controversy in the US.The semi-official Vatican newspaper marked the 40th anniversary of The Beatles' "White Album" with an article praising Lennon and the Fab [...]
DEVIN McKINNEY • The missing piece in the Beatles’ movie puzzle, the wild card in their deck, is Joe Orton. This enfant terrible of the British theater, in between epatering the ‘60s bourgeoisie with the likes of Entertaining Mr. Sloane and Loot, wrote a screenplay for the Beatles at the commission of producer Walter Shenson. Adapted from an early, unpublished novel and suggestively titled Up Against It (Brit-speak for “under the gun”), the script was violent, sexually transgressive, defiantly sui generis—part Fellini freakshow, part black Ealing Studios farce, part prophecy of every late ‘60s anti-establishment decadence-and-destruction fantasy from How I Won the [...]