Revolution

I was in Naples, Florida a few weeks ago. I was in an Irish pub, McCabe's and they had a singer/guitarist there. The audience requested a few Beatles songs but the musician wouldn't play most of the requests. Finally he settled on "Revolution." That was a great song, Revolution. John had been involved with Yoko Ono and he was really starting to come out as far as speaking his mind about politics. John had been chiding the late Beatle manager Brian Epstein about speaking out against the Vietnam War during their last tour. Brian told them not to comment on it. John was in enough trouble about his Jesus comments. "The Beatles are bigger than Jesus now." And then he said "Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary." The Ku Klux Klan sent the Beatles a death threat to their hotel. At a concert down South, Memphis I believe, John and George winced when a boy lit off a pack of firecrackers at a Beatle concert. They looked at each other to see if one of them had been shot. George said "America was mad. It had only been a few years since Kennedy was killed." Revolution was recorded in several forms. At George's home in Esher, a demo was recorded with John singing double tracked and playing on an acoustic guitar. George had a four track recorder so a few overdubs were done. For the most part, this first version of Revolution had a very homey feel to it like the Beatles were jamming in your living room. So cool. Later on the White Album "Revolution 1" was recorded. It first it was much longer. Yoko was reading a passage. John added in sound effects that he later transferred over on to "Revolution 9." He can be heard vomiting, having orgasms, doing primal screams, and all such audio avante garde influenced by Yoko Ono and her conceptual performance art. This extended version of Revolution was hated by the other Beatles. Paul was doing multiple takes of "Obla Di, Obla Da" as well as writing songs and producing demos for Mary Hopkin and a group he reformed called Badfinger. For Mary Hopkin, Paul produced a demo called "Goodbye." For Badfinger he produced "Come and Get It." The song writing credits were to Lennon and McCartney but Paul wrote and produced the songs for his new found talent.
John was not sure how he wanted go with the intention of his Revolution. He sang "don't you know that you can count me out-in!" He didn't know if he was for or against a Revolution. He was very much involved with Yoko at the time. He came back from India disillusioned from the Maharishi. He suspected the Indian guru of trying to seduce some women in the Beatles entourage. But if the truth be told, he was using that rumor as an excuse to get back to London to be with Yoko and take drugs. He had been experimenting with LSD and he missed the trips. Yoko was taking heroine and soon John would be showing up at Beatles recording sessions in a lethargic state. Paul would try in desperation to rally the Beatles to do the next take of Obladi Oblada and John would simply smile at him and laugh and as soon as he had the chance would go off with Yoko. Yoko would follow John into the bathroom. She never left him alone. She was sick and put a bed in the recording studio. The other Beatles were livid. Before Yoko, the Beatle wives and girlfriends were never allowed in the recording studio. Now here was Yoko, not only present in the studio, but sleeping in the studio and making critical comments. "Beatles do this. Paul play piano like this." Paul was shocked. Here was John's bird telling him how to play music.
Later on, when Paul recorded "Hey Jude" as a new Beatles single. John decided to re-record "Revolution" on the other side of the single making the disc a Double A single. Two hits on one disc. Paul's Hey Jude on one side. John's Revolution on the other side. He brought in Nicky Hopkins to play piano. Special care was taken to produce the lead guitar that was recorded directly into the mixing board. John overloaded the circuits and created a distinctive distortion sound. The opening machine gun sounding guitar riff is his signature. John Lennon was breaking the studio rules again. Many of the recording artists of that late 1960s time period were producing loud distorted guitar sounds. Eric Clapton. Jimi Hendrix. Now John was adding his own sound. He would produce a similar sound with "Cold Turkey" as a solo artist with Yoko and then aided by Eric Clapton, a friend of John and George. But here in "Revolution" the sound is John's sound. It is the machine gun of a Revolution, loud and violently abrasive. It was the perfect backdrop of student anti-war protests, LSD trips, hippies sleeping in city parks, people like John and Yoko living in sin and without a care in the world. The straight world was in shock. Who was this long haired freak wearing women's glasses sleeping with a Japanese woman? It was John Lennon. He was crazy and every kid loved him and every kid's parent hated him. He didn't need to say that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. Soon a man named Charles Manson would be telling his followers to listen to the Beatles albums and listen to Revolution. And Charlie Manson and his followers thought he was Jesus.

Try to See it My Way

In 1966, John Lennon was at odds with his manager Brian Epstein. He thought that maybe that tryst in Spain may have given him some leverage in the group. Alas, Brian remained in control and actually favored Paul although he was continuously growing unnerved by Paul's assertive behavior regarding the group.
The Vietnam War was in full swing. Action '65 had taken it's toll the world was soon growing discontent with America's involvement in Vietnam and was questioning why the US troops were there, what exactly they were defending in an independent nation thousands of miles away and why women and children, even infants where being shot and killed in villages for little or no reason. The Mi Li Incident left little doubt that the US involvement in Vietnam had little to do with keeping South East Asia safe for democracy.
There was also an incident in which the Beatles were in conflict with their American distributor, Capitol Records that would literally butcher their master recordings and splice one track on to one album and one track on to another. Tracks from Help, Rubber Soul, and as yet unreleased tracks from Revolver where hastily butchered from their sources and Capitol created its own Beatles album called Yesterday and Today to capitalize on the chart success of Paul's hit single "Yesterday."
In any event, whether it was in protest of the baby killing done by American troops in Vietnam, or the resentment of the Beatles against Capitol Records for butchering their recordings by creating it's own albums to market in the US, the Beatles chose to use a photo of themselves in butcher clothing with dismembered dolls and scraps of meat and bloody clothing.
As President Johnson talked about the Domino Theory and how important it was to maintain democracy in Southeast Asia, the Beatles lyrics ran against the status quo of the establishment.
"Try to see it my way. Life is very short for fussing and fighting, my friend."
As George Harrison later reflected "it had just been a few years since Kennedy was killed. America was mad."
In less than five years, another Kennedy would be killed, along with Martin Luther King. The Butcher Sleeve as banned but the Beatles had come out with a statement. Brian was furious and it was only the beginning of John Lennon's comments that would soon cause a great deal of stress for John Lennon, Brian Epstein and the entire Beatles entourage.
John said that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ. He went on to say that Christianity would fade, that Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary.
Shortly before a concert in the American Bible Belt, the Beatles had received a death threat from the Ku Klux Klan. A fan set off firecrackers at a concert, and John and George looked at each other to see if either one of them had been shot. In 1980, John Lennon would be shot and killed by a crazy fan.

The Winter of Our Discontent

That was what George Harrison said about the Get Back and Let It Be recording sessions and film. He had been working with Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton on various projects after completing the Beatles White Album and before the start of Get Back. George Harrison, outside of the Beatles inner sanctum, was being regarded as a musical celebrity, adorned and adored by the rock music community and the youth culture. But back in the Beatles group, he was simply George, the youngest member of the band and the lowest member on the pecking order. Despite his phenomenal talent as a guitarist, Paul would tell him how to play guitar on his songs and berate him.
"Whatever it is that would please you," George said to Paul when he asked him to play his guitar differently on one of Paul's songs for Get Back.
Later on, John Lennon said that he liked the fact that Get Back was showing the Beatles as they really were at that time with "warts and all." Yet, it was Lennon who called in the aid of famed pop music producer Phil Spector to liven up the Get Back recordings and repackage them as Let It Be with strings, an orchestra, and a choir.

The Beatles Continuing Influence on Other Musicians, Part 2

I have been checking the site for Fiomily and the Beatles stuff that they cover is just great. They are two British sisters living in Germany and both play guitars and sing and their brother plays drums and produces them. Fiomily's Beatles covers are fantastic.
I have also been seeing a lot of coffeehouse musicians playing Beatles songs as of late. On Friday night I heard a rendition of "Wait" off of the Rubber Soul LP that was decent hearing it with one acoustic and three part harmony.
I can't wait until the release of the movie "Nowhere Boy" which features the early life and teen years of John Lennon. The parts with John and Julia are terrific. Julia taught John how to play the guitar by using banjo chords which is nicely portrayed in this new movie coming out.

The Beatles Continuing Influence on other Musicians, Part 1

This is also one of the most talked about aspects of the Beatles, which is how they have inspired countless numbers of people to learn to play an instrument, write popular music of their own, and start music bands. I cannot believe the sheer volume of musicians who have posted material on the Internet covering the Beatles songs. The Beatles music has continued and goes on with musicians from later generations covering their material.
On YouTube, all a viewer has to do is enter a search for "Beatles on guitar" or "Beatles cover tunes" and a cache of material is brought forth.
I was doing a search a few months back and found this boy named Sungha Jung. Check out this kid's version of Paul McCartney's "Blackbird."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCT9xnlhldM&feature=fvw
I just found a related link to another musician covering Beatles material. This is Haley Legg covering John Lennon's "Dear Prudence."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmnzMsEBdyA&feature=rec-lis-watch-cur_emp-exp_r2
Here is a girl named Kiersten that did a cover of John Lennon's "Girl."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GClhrvtTzw&feature=related
Here is a duet act of two girls called Fiomily doing a cover version of John Lennon's "Help."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUVwbGdOKMU&feature=related
The material out there is an endless list. I could cull out about two dozen videos and line up a coffeehouse night of Beatles cover tunes.

Comments on Liverpool Part 1 John Lennon

For me, when I see how John lived his early life I can see how his music was affected by it. His father abandoned him, only later to reclaim him when he became a rich and famous Beatle. His mother also abandoned him, but he was not as bitter about her abandonment. John was very close with his mother. With John's Aunt Mimi taking over the role of adult guardian of John, Julia became more of a buddy for John than a parent. It must have been one of those situations in which Julia thought John would interfere with her relationship with Twitchy Dykins. Julia and Twitchy had children of their own, John's half sisters. There was a bonding of Julia and John around music. Julia played the banjo and was a very vivacious character who loved music and entertainment. John's father Freddie Lennon also was a fairly good amateur singer as a younger man. Although, by the time he tried to cash in on his "father of Beatle John Lennon" noteriety and recorded a record for himself, his missing teeth and age and years of hard living worked against him into becoming anything more than a novelty entertainer. I believe that Freddie had his teeth capped, and I think John referred him to the Beatles dentist who later gave John and George their first LSD trip.
There is a critical incident from John's childhood in which Freddie had returned and was bonding with John and asked John to choose between living with him or his mother. John chose Freddie, and then seeing at how broken hearted his mother was, ran back to his mother. John was torn between his mother and his father. Both parents abandoned John, but he forgave Julia. This is explored more in John's solo song "Mother." John explained this incident in a Rolling Stone interview in 1970.
(Jann Wenner, Lennon Remembers, Rolling Stone 1970).
John and Paul became friends because Paul also lost his mother as a teen. John was raised primarily by Julia's sister, John's Aunt Mimi and his uncle. Paul was raised by his widowed father Jim who was an amateur musician and regular contributor to local productions around Liverpool. Paul later said that Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was partly based upon his father's jazz band that performed for theater productions in and around Liverpool.

Liverpool Part 1 John Lennon

John Lennon was born October 9, 1940. His father, Alfred “Freddie” Lennon, had been married to Julia Stanley only a short time when John was born. He lived with John and Julia off and on, but eventually left to serve in the merchant marine as a cook. On one voyage during World War II, Freddie Lennon never returned. John’s mother began living with another man John Dykins, that John nicknamed “Twitchy.” At that point, Julia sent John from her home on Penny Lane to live with her sister Mimi on Menlove Avenue.(1)

(Here, insert story of John choosing between Fred and Julia. Sources Coleman’s Lennon, Rolling Stone’s Lennon Remembers, Beatles In Their Own Words, and Anthology.)

(1) John spent his early years with his mother and father near Penny Lane and Strawberry Field. Source- Neil Aspinall, editor. The Beatles Anthology: By the Beatles, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2000.