Apenas unos días después de que saltara la noticia de que McCartney rechazó trabajar con “el príncipe de la oscuridad” (Ozzy Osborne de Black Sabbath) por considerar que no podía mejorar su línea de bajos, sabemos que con quien sí ha querido trabajar ha sido con su ex-compañero de The Beatles, Ringo Star.

Ringo Starr va a lanzar el primer disco que ha producido por sí mismo (“Y not”) y, en él cuenta, entre muchas colaboraciones, con McCartney. Todo comenzó siendo una colaboración para un dueto en la canción “Walk With You” que será incluida en el álbum, pero finalmente McCartney acabó ayudándole también con los bajos de otras canciones como en el tema “Peace Dream”.

Ringo considera que las voces de McCartney hacen a la canción “más grande y llena”. Según el batería, McCartney tuvo la idea de convertir la canción en una especie de conversación donde McCartney hace su parte un tiempo detrás del de Ringo.

La canción ha sido compuesta por Van Dyke Parks, quien ha ayudado al ex-batería de The Beatles a escribir las letras de este trabajo y espera recuperar la esencia que la madurez les ha otorgado.

En el disco, que sale a la venta el 12 de Enero, encontraremos también colaboraciones como la de Joss Stone, Ben Harper o Richard Marx. Mas allá de las voces también cuenta con la colaboración de músicos y compositores que han ayudado a encontrar un sonido excelente. Véase como ejemplos la colaboración de Joe Walsh (The Eagles), Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) o Glen Ballard.

El disco contará, además, con una canción autobiográfica “The Other Side Of Liverpool”, donde Ringo cuenta cómo era su vida antes de que la legendaria banda le lanzara al estrellato y al éxito, de la pobreza y la violencia que había donde vivía antes de lanzarse a la fama. El disco también incluirá la canción “Fill In The Blanks”, compuesta y cantada por Starr y Joe Walsh.

RINGO STARR DECLARES “Y NOT”!

For the first time ever, Starr produces himself on his most personal
album yet. Ringo is joined on Y Not by old and new friends including
Paul McCartney, with whom Starr sings on Y Not’s stunning first
single, “Walk With You,” a moving new song about the power of
friendship. Ringo meets Hip-O on Starr’s latest solo effort released
January 12th on Hip-O Records/UMe

Throughout recorded history, great artists across the universe have
dared to ask “Why?” On January 12, 2010, one brave man named Ringo
finally boldly declares the ultimate answer — Y Not.

For the first time in one of popular music’s most enduring and
illustrious careers, Ringo Starr has decided to take charge and
produce himself. The result is perhaps the most personal and
impressive album of this rock legend’s entire solo career. How on
earth did Starr finally locate the absolutely perfect producer to work
with him? “Well, I looked in the mirror,” Ringo says with a smile.
“And I was looking real groovy that day.”

Starr’s decision to take a stronger role in the recording of his
latest and greatest solo album was a significant and fortuitous one.
“I didn’t do it at the start,” Starr says. “I was the least involved
in the production of the Beatle records. And then with my solo
records, I worked with some other great producers like Richard Perry,
Arif Mardin, and Don Was. So it just seemed like that’s the way that
it goes. Then suddenly, it’s another point in your life, and you say,
`I’m going do this now.’ So I’ll be producing anything I make from now
on. That’s the good news. It’s a confidence thing, I suppose. And Y
Not is really another way of me saying, “Yes, I can.”

The joyous result of Starr looking in the mirror is Y Not, a groovy
and deeply felt song cycle that finds Ringo leading a smaller core
group of old and new friends including longtime pal and recent
brother-in-law Joe Walsh, Dave Stewart and longtime Roundheads member
Steve Dudas on guitar, Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers on keyboards, Don Was and Mike Bradford on bass. The
album also features Starr’s engineer and co-producer Bruce Sugar on
keyboards, as well as some special guests like Joss Stone, Ben Harper
and Richard Marx on vocals, Ann Marie Calhoun on violin and Tina
Sugandh — aka Tina The Tabla Girl – on tabla and chanting. Starr’s
songwriting collaborators on Y Not also include familiar and new names
like Joe Walsh, Dave Stewart. Joss Stone, Glen Ballard, Richard Marx,
Van Dyke Parks, Gary Nicholson plus Gary Wright and his former
Roundhead band member, Gary Burr.

Yet no collaborator featured on Y Not is likely to receive as much
attention as Starr’s former bandmate and longstanding mate Paul
McCartney, who adds a characteristically brilliant bass part to the
inspiring “Peace Dream” — Starr’s latest heartfelt plea for peace and
love — and even more notably provides his unmistakably fabulous
vocals to “Walk With You,” an exquisite new composition by Starr and
Van Dyke Parks.

“Walk With You” is a moving, even spiritual meditation about the
lasting power of friendship, and McCartney’s inspired participation on
the track was a testament to McCartney’s generosity of spirit and
musical talent. “Paul was doing the Grammys, so he came over to the
house and was playing bass on `Peace Dream.” So I played him this
other track and Paul said, `Give me the headphones. Give me a pair of
cans.’ And he went to the mike and he just invented that part where he
follows on my vocal. That was all Paul McCartney, and there could be
nothing better. He makes it bigger and he makes it fuller. It makes
the song like a conversation between us, and that was Paul’s idea to
do his part one beat behind me. That’s why he’s a gen-i-us and an
incredible bass player.”

Indeed, there’s a whole lot of genius on display throughout Y Not.
Highpoints here include “Fill In The Blanks,” the album’s rocking
opening track written, played and sung only by Starr and Walsh. Then
there’s “The Other Side Of Liverpool,” a revealing autobiographical
song that explores Starr’s earliest and darkest days. “People believe
I was born, was a Beatle and lived in a big house,” Starr explains.
“And where I come from was a very dark, damp, violent neighborhood. I
wanted to write another little snapshot of my life, and I’m going to
do this every album. It’s better for me than doing it in a book. In
two lines I can say what would take five pages. Like the song says,
“The other side of Liverpool is cold and damp/Only way out of
there/drums, guitar and amp.”

Starr was already particularly thrilled with one early review for the
first album he produced that came from someone he helped produce too.
“I just played it for my son Zak,” Starr explains. “And Zak was so
great. He said, “Dad, it’s great. This rocks! You should have been
doing this forever. It’s nice coming from your boy, especially since
he’s a really good drummer.”

Listen for yourself. And hear Ringo Starr – also a really good drummer
– doing exactly what he should be doing today and forever.

Why?

Y Not.

So today, or rather, yesterday, my friends and I wandered into Crossroads Trading Company to try to rid our blues. I bought three dresses, a beautiful print knit bolero, and a bright blue peacoat. (I’m satisfactorily happier now.) On the way out, I spotted Red Marc Jacobs Wedges and a stunning pair of Gray Stella McCartney Boots. (Thank the lawd they weren’t my size, or i’d probably be out $250 by now.) But they were pretty reasonably priced at $100 (MJ) and $150 (SM). So if ever you are in the vicinity of a Crossroads, go check it out in all its glory.

Speaking of two of my favorite designers in the history of HUMANKIND, below are some of my favorite looks from their Spring 2010 runway shows. Stella McCartney’s collection was magnificent and by gods, I swear I will be there one day! Marc Jacobs’ collections (both Marc by March Jacobs and Marc Jacobs) were BOTH marvelous, although I tend to shy away from the more (dare I say it?) young-y looks of Marc by Marc Jacobs. Still beautiful to behold, however. Onward maties!

Stella McCartney;

Marc by Marc Jacobs;

Pretty much enthralled by this blouse and pair of shorts. Aren’t they just so cute?

Marc Jacobs;

Ahh, not only am I thankful for wonderful thrift stores, I’m thankful for the likes of you, Stella McCartney and Marc Jacobs. (Really! Your designs make me so excited I probably would pee my pants if I saw them in person!) Your dominance in the fashion world is only evidence of your brilliant minds and ongoing greatness. I cut my Turkey in honor of you! (OK maybe not true, I don’t eat Turkey. Or meat for that matter… hm I should get that checked out. ) Have a great Thanksgiving, peoples! And don’t forget to be thankful for your bestest designers. (:

Yours truly,

Lili Darling

Stella McCartney is doing more for Gap besides making fashionable clothes for precocious tots. She has also created a PRODUCT (RED) tee that features a crimson chain on a simple white tee. At $28, this tee is a graphic statement in the fight to find a cure for AIDS. Make this purchase and help make a change.

Click here to purchase.

The say, “write what you know”. While I’m sure I’m not the first, I tend to agree. On the surface – of course – this seems quite obvious as writing about something you know nothing about would be a tremendously difficult task. But as with any great pearl of wisdom, the true meaning is tucked away.

For me, “what you know” is not necessarily what you know, but rather what you feel and who you are. To me, if you’re not writing – or less specifically, creating – “what you know”, then you don’t stand a chance of creating anything of great meaning. It is from this “what you know” that great art is spawned and that unique voices are born.

And it doesn’t matter what you’re creating: music, sculpture, dance, math and advertising all require that unique voice to be heard. What sets the masters apart in any of these fields is that at one point it was like they were speaking their own language.

Sometime in the ’60s, (I say sometimes because it’s nearly impossible to get exact times with this guy, but I digress) Jim Morrison wrote:

I wanna tell you about Texas Radio and the Big Beat
Soft-driven, slow and mad, like some new language

These words have stuck with me since I first heard the songs, but it wasn’t until I read Ignore Everybody, by Hugh MacLeod, that I really found the right context for them. One of the many topics that MacLeod explores in this brilliant book is the idea of a new a language from the point of view of the young artist, creating, without pressure or expectation, and establishing “a new language that other people could also speak to the world with”.

What Morrison is describing is a feeling that I’m sure most of us have experienced. That feeling when you hear a song for the first time and something about it stops you in your tracks. It’s happened to me countless times, but one of the most vivid was hearing Kurt Cobain perform “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” on Nirvana’s Unplugged record (see below for the clip). It was a tape at the time, so I had to stop and rewind again and again because I couldn’t get enough. There was intensity and pain in his voice that I’d never before encountered. His somewhat-flawed vocals spoke to me and yet I couldn’t really understand them. It was truly like as if he was speaking a different language.

And in a sense, he was. Like him or not, Cobain changed the way the language of music is spoken. Just like Lennon & McCartney and many others did before him. And the way the Simpsons writers changed comedy, the Google guys chaged search algortihms and Lee Clow changed advertising.

They didn’t, necessarily, do it by being better than their competition. They did it by writing what they knew in a language that was all their own, but would soon become the language that the audience – and the world – spoke with them.

Please, take the time to check out this clip of Nirvana’s performance, as you can watch the transformation occur in Cobain. Pay close attention at around 4:46. It’s as if he slips out of the trance for a second. When he opens his eyes, either he’s looking at your soul or you’re seeing his. Either way it’s a very intense moment.

Click Away

Jobbade hela dagen i går. Sedan blev det 50-årsfest hemma hos en arbetskamrat. Det blev ganska sent i natt.

Mitt förslag:

Vågrätt:
1. Malmkvist
5. Caroline
7. Restaurang
9. Nanne
11. Hand
13. Yesterday

Lodrätt:
1. McCartney
2. Larsson
3. Källare
4. Sue
6. Norah
8. Nancy
10. Not
12. År

Paul McCartney, lodrätt 1: McCartney

Reunion der Beatles-Rhythm-Section: Paul McCartney hat seinem Kumpel Ringo einen Gefallen getan. Für sein neues Album hat der frühere Beatles-Schlagzeuger Ringo Starr seinen alten Bandkollegen Paul McCartney (67) ins Boot geholt. Wie die Zeitschrift “NME” in ihrer Onlineausgabe berichtet, half Cartney bei den Stücken “Walk With Me” und “Peace Dream” aus.
Nachdem der 69-Jährige ihm eines der Stücke vorgespielt hatte, sei Paul sehr begeistert gewesen und wollte gleich loslegen. Ringo erzählte: “Er ging zum Mikrofon und dachte sich den Teil aus, wo er auf meinen Gesang folgt. Das war alles Paul McCartney, und an der Stelle könnte es nichts Besseres geben. Er ist ein Genie.” Starrs Album “Y Not”, auf dem beide Songs zu hören sein werden, soll im Januar 2010 erscheinen.
The Guardian: “Ringo Starr’s forthcoming solo album will feature bass and backing vocals from an old, mop-topped pal from Liverpool. Paul McCartney appears on two tracks on Y Not, Starr’s fifteenth solo record and the first he has produced himself.
“Paul was doing the Grammys, so he came over to the house and was playing bass on [new song] Peace Dream,” Starr explained. “I played him this other track and Paul said, ‘Give me the headphones. Give me a pair of cans’. And he went to the mic and he just invented that part where he follows on my vocal. That was all Paul McCartney, and there could be nothing better.”
The song, Walk With Me, was co-written by Starr and Van Dyke Parks, the 66-year-old arranger who has worked with everyone from the Beach Boys to Joanna Newsom. McCartney’s vocals “make it bigger and … fuller”, Starr said. “It makes the song like a conversation between us, and that was Paul’s idea to do his part one beat behind me. That’s why he’s a gen-i-us and an incredible bass player.”
McCartney last teamed up with Starr for his 1998 album, Vertical Man, which also featured George Harrison and George Martin. More recently, they appeared together at a transcendental meditation benefit in New York earlier this year. Besides the former Beatle, Y Not’s other “gen-i-uses” include Joss Stone, Ben Harper, All Starr bandmate Richard Marx and Ringo’s brother-in-law, Joe Walsh. Still, the Fab Four drummer hasn’t turned this into a grotesque comedy of cameos. Starr runs the show, also making his debut as producer.
“I was the least involved in the production of the Beatles’ records. And then [the same] with my solo records,” he said. “Then suddenly it’s another point in your life, and you say, ‘I’m going to do this now’. So I’ll be producing everything I make from now on. That’s the good news. It’s a confidence thing, I suppose. And Y Not is really another way of me saying, ‘Yes I Can.’” Slogan aside, there is no sign of Barack Obama on Starr’s new record.- Y Not will be released on 12 January 2010.”

Hello Friends!

This week’s Motivational Essay is posted, Embracing the “No Way” Factor.

Here’s an excerpt:
*********************************************
“Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away… Now it looks as though they’re here to stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday…” (Lennon/McCartney)

With all due respect to Paul McCartney, I prefer to believe in Today. Even better, I want to believe in Tomorrow. Every word I type in the present is transported into a magical future, which is still yet a dream. The essay I’m
composing will be read tomorrow or Monday or maybe next Friday. A new WIP will take months to finish and weeks more to edit. We can forget in the tedium of the effort involved how miraculous tomorrow can and will be, especially if we lose sight of the magic in our words. There’s something to be said for introducing Optimism to Risk-Taking and discovering how amazing this collaboration can be.

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” –André Gide

Every writer goes through it. A manic-depressive swing depending on where the story is at. When we’re in the zone, the words fly, the ideas are so thick they infiltrate our dreams and we can’t type fast enough. When we’re stuck with a
plot point or drowning with too many choices, we can unfortunately be quite unbearable. My favorite image (which I’m embarrassed to say is only slightly exaggerated) is of me dashing through the house, hands waving in the air, while I shriek, “I’m a hack!”

Ups and downs. Highs and lows. Welcome to the wonderful world of writing.

“You can do anything you think you can. This knowledge is literally the gift of the gods, for through it you can solve every human problem. It should make of you an incurable optimist. It is the open door.” –Robert Collier
***************************************************
Jump to The Write Soul: www.chironokeefe.blogspot.com    for  the complete essay!

Wishing us all a productive and inspired week. Keep writing!

–Chiron O’Keefe

Dezember 2005: Zusammen mit Robbi Williams waren wir zu Gast bei Wetten dass… Wir gingen natürlich als Wettkönige!!!!!

Und weils so schön war, hier noch einmal die Wette zu reinschauen:

Stella McCartney is putting her chic touch on duds for the miniature mavens in our lives. With dark denim, cozy knits, and an absolutely adorable trenches for girls and boys, it shouldn’t be hard for you to find something fantastic for your little style celebrity to wear as the temperatures drop. Oh, the joys of childhood!

Click here to shop the collection.

August 8^th – Could I of asked for a better day? Film is in the camera; I have 10 minutes to shoot. “O.K. So John, if you lead; Ringo, Paul and George follow and just walk across the zebra crossing”. This is great, there is even a white VW parked on the side of the road and if you think of the association with the band a little further, you’ve got the registration plate reading ‘Linda McCartney Weeps’. Brilliant.

“I’m gonna’ take my shoe’s off. Is that O.K?”. John is wearing this all white suite – very smart, looks a bit like a priest. Ringo; all black, McCartney has no shoes on like a ghost and George… well he looks a bit like a grave digger come to think of it, wearing his all denim attire. I hope this comes out ok, It’s like Sgt. Pepper I guess… being able to read into it. But who would do that?

Buddhists talk about  “monkey mind” to describe the way thoughts in our heads never seem to stop.  They may come from the past, the future, or nowhere in particular; it really doesn’t matter.  What matters is that they just keep coming, and they can wear you out.   My practice has been giving my monkey mind a rest from time to time over the years.  Maybe it’s time to try living in the present moment.

The trouble is that my monkeys are full of boundless energy.  From the moment I open my eyes in the morning, the party is going full blast, and seems likely to go out of control at any moment.   Long before I began to meditate, I developed a eries of routines to cope with the monkeys, and they help me get myself going in the morning.  Basically, I operate on automatic pilot to keep the monkeys under control.

I have a morning routine down pat and it works to the extent that I do get up and get to work everyday, but it is far from an ideal approach to life.  It’s as if I have taken the ropes that the monkeys like to swing on and tied them in knots.  So underneath the efficiency, I am uptight and vulnerable to something, I am not sure what.  Would missing the train once in a while be such a bad thing?

I am reminded of my favorite verse from my favorite Beatles song, A Day In the Life:

Woke up, got out of bed,

Dragged a comb across my head

Found my way downstairs, and had a cup

Looking up, I noticed I was late.

Grabbed my coat, found my hat,

Caught the bus in seconds flat…

Found my way upstairs and had a smoke,

Somebody spoke and I went into a dream…

Ah…Ah…Ah…

Remember how the song ends?  That rising cacaphony of sounds and dissonant violins explodes and reverberates the way a life lived unconsciously is bound to crash sooner or latter.  I relieved that the last line of the verse doesn’t apply to me anymore.  Now I meditate.  It is true that meditation is another routine,  but it’s a routine that is wakes you up from the dream,  slowly but surely.  Besides, meditation is not a stopping point, it’s a stepping stone.  Allow me to take the liberty of updating the last 2 lines of the verse:

Found a seat and caught my breath,

Closed my eyes, and I went inside my mind…

Ah… Ah…. Ah…

Finally, I realize that to be more mindful, I can’t just wait for it to happen as a by-product of my meditation.  I will have to work on it.   So here’s my to do list:

1. Build mindfulness – focused on morning.
2. Find techniques to do that – make list
3. Do it.
4. See if I can make enough progress to rewrite the first 3 lines of the above verse
5. Apologize to Lennon and McCartney

Like my parents I grew up listening to a lot of the Jackson 5. Dad and the Beatles had a big influence on me keeping onto the oldie stations in Dallas. Even then though I was never a big fan of their Mo Town sound. It always seemed a little obnoxious, constantly typical and their sound was reproduced and tenderized through like the same cars being recycled back into the same cars! When I was in the last half of my teen years I only stayed loyal with a few oldies, though I also added some to the list when I discovered Johnny Cash and George Jones. Roy Oberson and Buddy Holly and Elvis, Fats Domino and Chuck Berry I still cherish. None more than the Beatles though. Yet, punk, bluegrass, classical, country, and even black metal replaced most of the pop music of my parents I liked when I was young.
But I never bought a Jackson 5 or solo album of his. I only owned one of his songs in my life. On my Paul McCartney All the Best CD is “Say, Say, Say,” a damn goofy ballad and a McCartney-Jackson duet.
You see now, I’m not going to pretend I was ever his fan or that I became one because of his death (a fair amount of the population probably falls in this direction. From pedophile to legend).

Here are some things that I think of some of the time:

Why does a world celebrate the life of someone who was very obviously self-indulgent and had focused so much of public image and the illusion that appearances are what matters. As far as physical appearance goes, I think it isn’t wrong when we have standards against dating people that are unaturally fat or do not take care of their bodies. (I think everyone has their own beauty to show off when a person decides to have an active outdoors routine everyday. Whatever style one might choose can bea beautiful with good hygene).
Implants and botox and litho suckers or fake tans or unnatural blonde hair disfigure the woman’s true beauty the same way an unhealthy and inactive lifestyle might. Slough or pride is unattractive when it defines how you appear.

I have a belief that being outdoors more and being active there not only makes a person loose weight but will feel great. Plants are not the only lifeforms that depend on the substance of a bright sun’s energy. There should be no excuse why someone can’t walk under the moon too, if they have legs. In the country! The cities, like LA or New York, the biggest media centers, that have their own little atmospheres of smog and oceans of pressure from steel and noise are usually the places where beauty is twisted to pieces. Even the places they vacation to like Walt Disney World, Gettysburg, Gatlinburg, Aspen, or Yosemite is landscapes noticeably dominated by human development. We country folk have a better chances at being beautiful! (Although in Damnyankeedom, it is centuries old heritage of cabin fever and not the cities that keep people from being outside in the fresh air nights and days to benefit).

I am not talking about going out and laying on the beach or by the pool like slices of bread. No, more like cakes in the oven. It’s fine sometimes but it is a fine waste of the sun’s energy for only your skin tone. And what of the night? A good outdoors routine is going out at night or day for the same reasons. Walking (it doesn’t matter which way you go) is definitely the easiest way to do this.

And then there is just taking care of yourself, staying clean, giving first impressions that you look for in others, but most importantly, a style ultimately your own.

Michael Jackson, to me, represented one of the narrowest minded and egotistical victim of insecurity of our time. Do most people just feel sorry for him? If on the other hand, hundreds of millions of people truly ever did see him as some kind of inspiration, a role model for life, youth, and beauty, then I think it’s a little clearer what might be wrong today.

Yes, I went there.

His memorial service brought in more expensive ad time than even his sister’s wardrobe malfunction Super Bowl. An all star prime time line up was there. There is debate whether Jackson’s body (having already been embalmed countless times before) was even at the big show.
You had the best-paid civil rights leaders mixed right along with the celebrities. Who didn’t have makeup check before his or her emotional peformance? The big deal about racial pride or black and white relations being some sort of legacy of Jackson’s life seemed seemgly odd, eh? I mean, come on, with how he always dressed and what every plastic surgery suggested, Jackson hated being black.

People keep bringing up his skin conditions as if there was actually such a thing as symtoms causing African noses to thin out to white ones, dark skin to albino white, and African afros into a hair type of someone with two white parents rather than two black parents.

Does anyone else notice that the primary focus of his physical changes were usually thosevery features that distungished him as an African American? Not only did he alter these features but years of patient and determined surgeries attempted to make them appear as much like those on an Anglo Saxton as possible. And from every photo and video taken of Michael since the 70s does it not also seem obvious that the black guy who wanted to be a white guy had actually wanted to be a white lady?

Look at Jackson in the past thirty years and tell me with a strait face what condition turns a black man into a white lady.

The memorial service might have been a historical event. This was the first time in history you had Jesse Jackson Al Sharpton, and the King’s children all attending together for a white lady’s memorial service.

Lastly, as if the Memorial Service couldn’t become a sicker stage show for those celebrities, civil rights leaders, and most notoriously, his family who truly do feel that appearance is everything, they put a shocked and grieving girl on center stage. She was the grand finely, the only pure emotion the event coordinators were able to count on during the service. Oh, but that’s okay. It’s all fine. Everybody was touched. It gave people a good cry so they could somehow convince their conscience that they would choose Michael Jackson being alive over a star studded once in a life time prime time television event.

If the Jackson family (or any of us) were concerned over the sufferings of Paris Jackson, they would not be railing her into a very public and publicized custody prime time event.

I’ll end this hash by saying I just wish people would not be so hypocritical in telling the youth not to be slaves to their insecurities while at the same time idolizing a man that spent more on material possessions and plastic surgery and legal but no less lethal drugs that what a whole community of families might spend in their life times. Families, like most, that can’t afford to change their skin colors.

My heart and prayers go out to the true innocent victims of the madness of Jackson and his family. His children. Ignored cept for the tabloids, hung over a three story balcony, and now becoming dragged across the coals of the Jackson family’s greed not a month after they lost their father, I do not feel any grief but for them.

And for a society that lets a young daughter crying for her father stand like the season’s hottest topic on the stage in front of millions or for a world that has found so much inspiration and history in a man that rejected both his gender and his race in the most extreme ways, I feel grief for as well.

Even if nobody misses you when your alive somebody will when your dead.

Todos sabemos que durante o decorrer de 2009, os Beatles foram muito mais citados do que anos anteriores.
Os Beatles apostaram em grande no ano de 2009. Primeiro o Beatles Rock Band, um vídeo game onde podemos sentir na pela o que é ser um Beatle, com replicas dos instrumentos originais o jogo consiste em poder desfrutar como seria ser o John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, ou até mesmo Ringo Starr.
Logo em seguida saiu toda a coletânea dos Beatles remasterizada, é impressionante acharmos que não estivesse ainda, mas é verdade, somente este ano foi que saiu.
E aqui, finalmente e com certeza para fechar o ano, o mais novo lançamento dos Beatles, um USB em forma de maça, com todas as suas musicas e álbuns e até mesmo alguns vídeos.
“A Apple Corps e a EMI irão lançar um drive-maçã USB em edição limitada contendo todas as músicas e artes originais dos álbuns remasterizados dos Beatles. Inclui ainda 13 mini-documentários sobre cada disco.”
Mas você deve se estar perguntando, o que isto tem a ver com o tema do meu blog? Mas parece engraçado, mas não é. Os Beatles todos sabemos, eles terminaram de fazer musica a mais de 20 anos, e quando um menos espera eles surgem de novo com o que menos esperamos. Este ano, com todos os novos produtos lançados, eles conseguiram aproveitar o que fizeram a mais de 20 anos e utilizar-lo com a tecnologia de hoje em dia, por isso que os Beatles parecem mais vivos que nunca. Obrigado ao Blog brainstorm9 por me manter, e nos manter informados no mundo da publicidade, eu como Beatlemaniaco gostei muito de ler essaa notícia em seu blog.

John Lennon

John Lennon:
Die Biographie von Philip Norman
Droemer Knaur Verlag

Ein Muss für alle Beatles-Fans: das biographische Meisterwerk über die größte Legende der Popmusik – John Lennon.

Philip Norman liefert ein facettenreiches Porträt des Gründers der Beatles, der mit seinen genialen Songs Musikgeschichte schrieb. Eine grandiose Hommage an die Pop-Ikone…
Buchperlen-Bewertung: *****

John Winston Lennon (später John Winston Ono Lennon), MBE (* 9. Oktober 1940 in Liverpool, England; † 8. Dezember 1980 in New York, USA) war ein englischer Musiker, Komponist und Autor.

Weltweit berühmt wurde er als Mitgründer, Sänger und Gitarrist der britischen Musikgruppe The Beatles, für die er neben Paul McCartney die meisten Stücke schrieb. Die Komponistenpartnerschaft Lennon / McCartney gilt als eine der bekanntesten und erfolgreichsten in der Geschichte der Popmusik.

Gemeinsam mit seiner zweiten Ehefrau Yoko Ono veranstaltete Lennon ab Ende der 1960er-Jahre verschiedene Aktionen für den Weltfrieden und widmete sich auch zunehmend künstlerisch neuen Gebieten.

Nach der Trennung der Beatles startete Lennon eine erfolgreiche Solokarriere mit Alben wie John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band (1970) und Imagine (1971).

Als erste Single der Beatles wurde 1962 die Lennon/McCartney-Komposition Love Me Do veröffentlicht. Bereits die zweite Single Please Please Me, hauptsächlich aus der Feder Lennons, erreichte Spitzenplätze in der britischen Hitparade. Das gleichnamige Album aus dem Jahr 1963 war ebenso erfolgreich.

Mit I Want to Hold Your Hand (Januar 1964) gelang es den Beatles, auch die USA musikalisch zu „erobern“. Am 7. Februar reisten sie erstmals nach New York und wurden überschwänglich empfangen.

Nach dem Erfolg des Spielfilms A Hard Day’s Night und dem gleichnamigen Soundtrack im Sommer 1964 widmete sich Lennon zunehmend den Texten seiner Stücke. Angeregt von Bob Dylan, versuchte er, sich als ernsthafter Songwriter zu etablieren. So finden sich auf dem Album Beatles for Sale (Dezember 1964) vermehrt auch nachdenklichere Stücke Lennons, wie I’m a Loser oder No Reply.

Auch künstlerisch entwickelten sich die Beatles weiter. Rubber Soul enthält herausragende Lennon-Stücke wie Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), Nowhere Man und Girl. Das Stück In My Life wurde vom britischen Musikmagazin Mojo zum besten Song aller Zeiten gewählt.

Lennons Kontakt mit der halluzinogenen Droge LSD schlug sich in dem Nachfolge-Album Revolver (August 1966) nieder. Es enthält psychedelische Stücke wie Tomorrow Never Knows und gilt als eines der stärksten der Gruppe.

Eine erneute Welttournee der Beatles begann im Juni 1966 mit drei Konzerten in Deutschland. Auf den Philippinen wurde die Gruppe bei ihrer Abreise von der aufgebrachten Menge attackiert, da sie sich geweigert hatte, einer Einladung von Imelda Marcos zu folgen.

In den USA sorgte ein Interview für Aufregung, das Lennon im März der britischen Journalistin Maureen Cleave für den Evening Standard gegeben hatte. Darin äußerte sich Lennon unter anderem zum Christentum.

In Großbritannien fanden diese Äußerungen wenig Beachtung. Als das Interview allerdings vier Monate nach seinem Erscheinen in den Vereinigten Staaten veröffentlicht wurde, trat es eine Welle der Entrüstung los.

Mehrere Radiosender boykottierten Beatles-Lieder, und es gab sogar organisierte Verbrennungen ihrer Schallplatten. Auf Anraten Brian Epsteins entschuldigte sich John Lennon ausführlich bei einer Pressekonferenz in Chicago. Dennoch wurden die Auftritte der Beatles von Aufmärschen des Ku-Klux-Klans überschattet, und Lennon fürchtete um sein Leben. Am 29. August gaben die Beatles ihr letztes Konzert in San Francisco und beschlossen, nicht mehr auf Tournee zu gehen.

Nach dem Ende der Tourneen widmeten sich die Beatles gänzlich der Arbeit im Studio. Lennon komponierte in dieser Zeit das Stück Strawberry Fields Forever, das im Februar 1967 mit McCartneys Penny Lane als Single veröffentlicht wurde.

Mit seinem nachdenklichen Text, den aufwendigen Studioeffekten und der komplexen musikalischen Umsetzung gilt das Stück als Meisterwerk Lennons und markiert den Weg der Beatles vom Pop zur Kunst.

Zum Erfolg des Konzeptalbums Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band trug Lennon maßgeblich mit Stücken wie Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds und A Day in the Life bei. Für die erste weltweit ausgestrahlte Fernsehsendung Our World schrieb Lennon All You Need Is Love, die Hymne des „Summer of Love“ 1967.

Unfinished Music No.1

Am 29. November 1968 veröffentlichte Lennon zusammen mit der japanischen Avantgarde-Künstlerin Yoko Ono, die er 1966 kennen gelernt hatte, das Album Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins. Das erste gemeinsame Werk des Paars erregte viel Aufsehen, allerdings weniger wegen der avantgardistischen Klangcollagen, sondern auf Grund des Covers – es zeigte John Lennon und Yoko Ono nackt.

Onos künstlerischer Einfluss schlug sich auch auf das Weiße Album der Beatles nieder. So findet sich dort die experimentelle Klangcollage Revolution 9. Mit Revolution 1 nahm Lennon auch politisch Stellung und bezog sich auf die Pariser Maiunruhen.

1969 gründete das Paar die Plastic Ono Band, deren erste Single, das während des Bed-Ins in Montreal aufgenommene Give Peace a Chance, es im Juli des Jahres weltweit unter die Top 20 der Hitparaden schaffte. Im November folgte die Single Cold Turkey (Kalter Entzug), die sich allerdings vergleichsweise schlecht verkaufte.

Im Zuge dieser Projekte mit Yoko Ono entfernte sich Lennon zunehmend von den Beatles. Das Projekt eines Dokumentarfilms über die Beatles unter dem Titel „Get Back“ war geprägt von der Zerstrittenheit der Gruppe und wurde erst 1970 unter dem Titel Let It Be veröffentlicht.

Das letzte gemeinsame Projekt der Beatles war ihr Album Abbey Road, das im September 1969 auf den Markt kam. Lennon kritisierte das Album später oft in Interviews. Trotzdem wurde es eines der erfolgreichsten der Gruppe überhaupt.

Am 8. Dezember 1980 wurde John Lennon von dem geistig verwirrten Attentäter Mark David Chapman in New York vor dem Dakota Building erschossen. Lennons Tod erzeugte einen Sturm der Entrüstung. Noch in der Nacht des Mords versammelten sich mehrere tausend Menschen vor dem Dakota Building, um gemeinsam die Lieder Lennons zu singen.

Philip Norman begann in den siebziger Jahren als Journalist bei der “Sunday Times”. Mit seinen Kolumnen über Stars des Kulturlebens wurde er schnell berühmt. 1981 veröffentlichte er die bahnbrechende Biographie der Beatles “Shout!” – ein großer Bestseller. Es folgten Werke über die Rolling Stones (Droemer 1984), Elton John und Buddy Holly. Er lebt mit seiner Frau und seinem Kind in London.

John Lennon: wikipedia
The Beatles: wikipedia

John Lennon. Die Biographie. Das biographische Meisterwerk über die grösste Legende der Popmusik und Diskografie-Übersicht. Bezugs-Quellen für alle John Lennon und Beatles-Bücher, DVDs und CDs – auch gebrauchte Ausgaben bzw. Sonderausgaben zu reduzierten Preisen. Bitte klicken Sie hier für ausführliche Informationen und Bestellmöglichkeiten.

So here are my questions for the hour:

Who decided Humpty Dumpty was an egg? How and when did this become associated with a brand of potato chips (notice how they aren’t egg chips)? When you eat Humpty Dumpty chips, are you eating the bits of Humpty Dumpty they couldn’t put back together again? If he’s not really an egg, but a man, does that make it cannibalism? More importantly, does that make him the egg-man? And, if he’s the egg-man, does that make him the walrus?

And as we all know, the walrus is Paul.

And Paul is dead.

But still – don’t eat Paul McCartney.

¿Quién no los ha escuchado?  No creo que haya alguien en el mundo que no haya tarareado alguna vez “Yellow Submarine”, que no se haya emocionado con “Hey Jude” , que se haya preguntado que significan las iniciales de Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds o que simplemente haya querido hacerse una foto como ellos en Abbey Road (en su defecto en cualquier paso de zebra)
Hoy me centraré en una de sus canciones más versionadas “Yesterday” incluída en el album de Help.  La canción fue escrita y compuesta por Paul McCartney, pero firmada como siempre por Lennon-McCArntney, en 1964. Junto a “Blackbird” y “Her Majesty” son las tres únicas canciones en las que sólo canta un miembro del grupo. La historia de cómo se hizo la canción o de cómo se le ocurrió la idea a Paul McCartney es muy curiosa. Paul soñó la canción y en cuanto se despertó fue corriendo a tocarla en el piano para no olvidarla. Al resultarle tan raro haber soñado esto, se preguntó si no la habría plagiado o si no se habría inspirado en alguna canción que ya existía, pero no, Yesterday era una creación propia y podía seguir adelante con ella. En un principio y mientras encontraba un buen título la canción se llamó “Scrambled Eggs”. Fue finalmente después de la grabación de Help y de cercionarse de que nadie reclamaba su canción (soñada) que terminó por llamarla Yesterday en Junio de 1965.  Lennon afirmó que le dio mucha pena que McCartney encontrará el título y la terminará porque habían pasado muy buenos momentos intentando encontrar un buen título y riéndose a su costa.

Más de 3000 versiones en todo el mundo, además de ser una de las canciones más emitidas en las radios mundiales ha llevado a que grandes artistas hayan hecho una versión, aunque siempre incluyendo su propio toque.
Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles son (quitando la original) unas de las que más me gustan.

Bob Dylan en 1970

Elvis Presley del album On Stage, en 1970

En Vogue (a capella)

Incluso una chirigota (de Cádiz) ganadora en el Teatro Falla y dirigida por Juan Carlos Aragón hizo alusión a este grupo y a este canción llamándose “Los yesterday” y disfrazados de “Los Beatles”

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away.
Now it looks as though they’re here to stay.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Charlotte Pichon Muñoz

Paul McCartney geht, einer Ankündigung auf seiner Webseite nach, im Dezember mit seiner Oldieband auf Europatournee. Schwerpunkt von Paul’s Live-Aktivitäten ist Deutschland mit vier Gigs. Paul wird dabei erstmals in den 02-Arenen in Berlin, Dublin und London auftreten. Einen von Pauls legendären Auftritten sollte man einmal im Leben besucht haben, so heißt es in der Mitteilung weiter. „Das Publikum wird die größten Momente aus 50 Jahren Musikgeschichte wiedererleben, für einige ist das der Soundtrack ihres Lebens.“
Paul startet seine Tour in Hamburg – einer Stadt, die er nur zu gut kennt. 49 Jahre ist es her, dass er dort zum ersten Mal mit den Beatles auftrat. Zuletzt war er 2003 anlässlich seiner „Back In The World“-Tour dort live zu hören und zu sehen. Das gilt auch für Köln. Die Berliner werden McCartney erstmals seit 1993 wiedersehen.
Paul sagt auf seiner Webseite: „Das ist meine Chance die aktuelle Show nach Hause zu bringen – dorthin wo alles begann. Angefangen mit Hamburg, zum Schluss dann London und mittendrin rocken wir in Europa ab. Ich freue mich, dieses Jahr mit einem Höhepunkt abschließen zu können.“
Das Motto der Tour „Good Evening Europe“ bezieht sich auf die bevorstehende Veröffentlichung der Multidisc „Good Evening New York“ (CD/DVD), eines Mitschnitts seiner Konzerte in der New Yorker Citi-Field-Arena (Neubau auf dem Areal des früheren Shea-Stadions) anlässlich seiner „Summer Live ‘09″-Tournee in Nord-Amerika.
Der Vorverkauf für Deutschland begann am 24. Oktober. Die Ticketpreise für Hamburg liegen laut Veranstalter Karsten Jahnke zwischen 59,10 EUR und 159,60 EUR.

Die Tourneedaten:
2. Dezember – Hamburg, Color Line Arena
3. Dezember – Berlin, O2 World
9. Dezember – Arnhem, Gelredome
10. Dezember – Paris, Bercy
16. Dezember – Köln, Lanxess Arena
17. Dezember – Köln, Lanxess Arena
20. Dezember – Dublin, The O2
22. Dezember – London,The O2 Arena

Sir Paul McCartney, who doesn’t know who he is, has said he can understand why the Beatles weren’t signed early on in and interview with Xfm radio. Simply because the Fab Four weren’t very good.

Paul told DJ Ian Camfield ‘We obviously weren’t that good. We were formulating it all. You wouldn’t have thought we were that great. You’d have turned us down if you were a record company. And they did — Decca turned us down!’

The Beatles were initially denied a record contract until they were signed to EMI’s Parlophone Records with the help of producer George Martin.

Before recording, the band moved to Germany to play in a club in Hamburg. Paul said about this: ‘When we first went to Hamburg, and there’d be no-one in the club. You’d see a couple of students, maybe a guy and his girlfriend, and they’d look in a bit tentatively, look up at the price of the beer, see it was too much and start walking out. So we’d go, ‘Come on, everybody, get back in here! It’s all happening!’ So we’d learned to attract an audience. After a few weeks, we’d be really packing those clubs.’

Aah well, he didn’t say that they were total crap, right?

Here are three short audio clips explaining the recording sessions for The Beatles’ songs A Day In The Life, Come Together, and She’s Leaving Home.

Highlights include a great clip of Lennon singing his FACE off in studio, creating a raw, punchy guide track in order to give the orchestra some extra energy. There are also some guitar licks that never made it into the final tracks, and lots of insights about how to record onto a four-track. Fascinating stuff; a great listen. ~9 minutes total running time.
Via Waxy.