December 2009
Monthly Archive
December 8, 2009
By Shelley Germeaux, Daytrippin’ West Coast Correspondent
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[Editor's note: This article, originally published on Daytrippin's site in 2006, is one of our most popular articles on John Lennon. We decided to re-post it today in remembrance of John Lennon on the anniversary of his death.]
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Now that the pay-per-view show entitled The Spirit of John Lennon has made its television debut, grossing over $8 million in one night, my in-box has been full of emails dismissing the show outright for its sensationalist production.
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The show claims to have contacted John’s spirit during seances, psychic readings, EVP’s (electronic voice phenomena) and through channeled music by an Indian guru. The manner in which this show was produced, through scary background music and a narrator who sounds like the guy from the Twilight Zone, shot down any chance of the show being taken seriously. The best part of the show was the Indian guru who channeled a beautiful song from John on a sitar. When translated into an American style, it did sound like something John might have written. But most of the show reminded me of an over-produced magic show.
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This tells me it is a good time to talk about the serious side of John’s spirit communications, for those having a penchant for the “other side.” To be honest, I’m a closet spiritualist myself and am definitely a believer in the paranormal because of my own experiences. Many years ago I began having profound dreams, strange coincidences and paranormal occurrences about John Lennon and I couldn‚Äôt deny his presence in my personal life.
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I haven’t really talked about it openly as of yet. But one thing I can say for sure is that the feeling of his presence with me caused me to do the writing and research I have done about his life and the Beatles, which led me to Daytrippin’ Magazine. So to that end, if I’ve done something positive for his memory, then perhaps I’m fulfilling a worthwhile purpose on his behalf.
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There are other people braver than I, who have published their experiences with John Lennon’s spirit, and this is the subject of this article.
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A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a friend of mine, Linda Keen, asking if Daytrippin’ readers would be interested in a review of her book, Across the Universe With John Lennon. First published in 1994, I had loved the book, and the similarity in my experiences inspired me to write to Linda and form a friendship that has lasted over 10 years. I remember reading it at that time with rapt interest, shocked into realizing that I had not been imagining John’s presence after all. There was a lot more going on here than any of us understood. It changed my life and helped me to accept the profound spiritual guidance that John seemed to be offering. But would fans take the information seriously?
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The same week that Linda wrote me, I had, coincidentally, just finished reading Jewelle St. James’ book called All You Need Is Love, about her discovery of a past life with John in England in the 1700s. I had assumed that this book would simply be a discussion of her dreams, past life regressions, and things like that, that wouldn’t necessarily prove anything. Imagine my surprise when I could not put the book down, reading into the wee hours of the morning until I had reached the very last word.
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She had actually backed up her dreams and psychic readings with genealogical type research, including traveling to England, finally uncovering documents that proved the existence of the lifetime in question. It provided an element of proof of reincarnation that was stunning.
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Later that week, the advertisement for the John Lennon seance on TV appeared, and I thought, well it’s time to separate the wheat from the chaff.
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Here is a discussion of the books that have already been out there, hiding on bookshelves and on Amazon all these years, without too much excitement or publicity. These authors have really compelling, truthful and loving stories to tell, without giving a hoot about their own fame. They just want to get their stories out there, and have had to go to considerable personal expense to do it. The courage to do this, as I have myself discovered, is hard to come by. One has to go beyond the fear of ridicule from others, but also their own doubts.
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Here are the books that are available should you want to pursue this subject:
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Peace At Last: The After-Death Experiences of John Lennon
by Jason Leen, (Illumination Arts Publishing Company, 1982, 1989)
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This was the first book that was published, from all I can tell, about John’s afterlife. Jason is a clairaudient who wrote The Death of the Prophet in 1979, the channeled works of Kahlil Gibran, who died in 1931. John came to Jason three nights after he died, only to say he was being kept strongly on the earth plane because of all the people who were grieving for him. He says he has a lot of adjustments to make to his new form, and that he needs to heal, but that he would be in contact.
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Throughout 1981, John related what he experienced when he died, and what he was seeing and feeling. Jason describes John’s reaction at seeing his mother Julia waiting for him, and all she tells him.
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After explaining the seven different heavenly realms, she explains that since John was such a powerful spokesman for the world, he is being asked to continue his work with humanity. She assures him that the world will listen. He learns that the earth is about to awaken, but that first, humanity must awaken and arise. He will be one of the spirit beings to interact with people on earth to get this message across.
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He describes the various dimensions he is introduced to, and the realization that his thought alone can take him to a different place. He learns that Heaven is what you imagine it to be, and is as good as you can allow it. He talks about his wish to stay on the earth plane to help humanity. That he will be here as the planet goes through immense shifts and changes in the coming years.
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The transmissions include many metaphysical terms about frequency changes, heightened awareness, and electromagnetic changes within our DNA that must occur in order to successfully accommodate the required growth.
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Across the Universe with John Lennonby Linda Keen
(Hampton Roads, 1999)
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First self-published under the name John Lennon in Heaven in 1994, it was reissued in 1999 under the new title, along with her 2nd book, Intuition Magic. Linda and her husband owned and operated an Intuition school in Holland, and before John came along, Linda was teaching many techniques to help people develop their psychic and intuition skills to better their own lives.
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When John suddenly appeared in a profound dream in 1986, her life began to change. Quoting from the introduction, where Linda describes the dream, she says, “I am visiting a woman who is planning to write a book entitled John Lennon in Heaven. She is going to converse with John about what it is like to exist after death, and apparently, he is very eager to participate–in fact, he has organized the whole thing himself . . .as I awaken, the quality of it lingers in my whole body and mind, leaving me inspired yet perplexed.”
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Despite her efforts to dismiss the dream, John began popping up in her mind regularly; laughing at something she said, or giving her some advice. She couldn’t get him out of her mind, and she began searching for anything having to do with John Lennon and the Beatles. She became a Beatle fan all over again. The dreams began to increase. One night she dreamt that she was lifting John out of a grave, whereupon he got up on his feet and put her jeans on. In March of 1987 she made the decision to try and contact him directly.
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From there on, the book describes her conversations with him, the spiritual lessons he taught her, the realizations about God, and the lessons he learned about his life. She helped him through his own grief, and he helped her through her doubts. He finally convinces her to get a computer (remember it was the early 90’s!) and begin writing a book, so she could communicate what he was teaching her to the world. It was a friendship based on spiritual guidance that grew and continues to this day.
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It is a fantastic journey through the soul’s growth and through spiritual teachings. As John always believed during his lifetime, he teaches her that reality extends way beyond what we can see. There is much more to the ultimate truth.
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Since the publication of her book in 1994, many people have contacted Linda to tell her about their own connection to John. Linda has a website at
www.keenintuition.com .
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All You Need is Love (second edition; May 2009)
by Jewelle St. James
(St. James Publishing, 2003)
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Published in 1995 as Imagine: A Past Life with John Lennon, this edition continues the story and adds photos. Jewelle was a Canadian housewife and begins her story with the morning after John was murdered, December 9, 1980. She had not been a Beatle fan at all. She hadn’t even listened to the album, Imagine. But for some reason unknown to her, news on the television of his death caused a tidal wave of grief she could not recover from or explain.
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Over the coming weeks, her embarrassment at the torrent of sadness and uncontrollable tears caused her to employ extreme efforts to get over it, to save face in front of her concerned family and friends, but it was futile. She would get in the car with the kids only to hear Starting Over on the radio, and suddenly burst into sobs. No one understood why she was obsessing over a dead rock star that she had never really cared for while he was alive. Neither did she. And now she was becoming a Beatle fan, collecting everything she could on John’s life.
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She had the luck of being born into a psychic family, and after about three years of struggling emotionally, she approached her mother and sister, at separate times, with her problem. She wanted an explanation that perhaps transcended current day reality. They told her such specific information about a lifetime that her and John shared, down to the names, that she began a search to discover whether any of it was true.
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From there Jewelle discovers that her grief in this lifetime was a result of unhealed grief from the prior lifetime. John, in a prior life as the love of her life, John Baron, had died suddenly of illness, and she herself had died of a broken heart soon after.
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She travels to England, where she eventually discovers records that actually document the existence of the two people she and John were. Soon she understands the unhealed emotions that needed to now be allowed expression. This is a story of karmic healing that is inspiring and fascinating, especially when it is realized that healing a prior lifetime also heals the current lifetime, and the soul for the rest of eternity.
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Crossing Over: The Stories Behind the StoriesBy John Edward
(Princess Books, 2002)
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John Edward is internationally acclaimed as a psychic medium. He has hosted his own television show Crossing Over with John Edward, been a frequent guest on Larry King Live and many other shows. He also was featured in the HBO documentary Life After Life.
When John Edward was in Seattle a few years ago, tickets to his show were selling like hotcakes so I decided to go see what he was all about. Coincidentally, the day I bought the tickets, I happened to see this book prominently displayed as I was walking through a discount bookstore.
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I immediately bought the book, and as I read through it I discovered a chapter called “Legends of Rock”. I turned to it instantly and began to read about how Carl Perkins’ daughter had wanted to have a reading with John Edward in 1998 after her dad died. A friend set the reading up, only saying what the daughter’s first name was. The reading was significant because John did not know who her father was, until, befuddled, he said “Elvis is with your dad..who was your dad?” Amazed, the daughter then admitted that Carl Perkins was her father and that he was the one who wrote Blue Suede Shoes.
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Following the full description of this reading, which is fully outlined in the book, to my surprise Mr. Edward then recounts a story about John Lennon that I had been familiar with in part, from the 1998 video (VHS) called Paul McCartney and Carl Perkins: My Old Friend. I had no idea the story was in the book, and I learned some details that had not been on the video.
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In 1981, just after John Lennon died, Paul and Linda invited Carl to stay with them in Montserrat. Paul wanted Carl’s help recording a song called Get It for his new album, Tug Of War. Carl spent eight days with them, and George and Ringo had been there to help out as well. It was a great time between old friends who had shared such a legendary musical past.
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The night before he left, a song came to Carl that summed up his warm feelings about the visit, and he couldn’t get it out of his mind. It was so strong that Carl didn’t even write it down, which was strange for him. He usually always wrote his songs down immediately.
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In the morning, Carl Perkins sang the song, which he named My Old Friend, for Linda and Paul, saying it was his gift for having him as a guest. Half way through the song, after singing “if we never meet again this side of life, in a little while, over yonder, where there’s peace and quiet, my old friend, won’t you think about me every now and then?” tears streamed down Paul’s face and he stood up and stepped outside.
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Not knowing what the matter was, Carl stopped and Linda put her arms around him, thanking him for helping Paul to connect with his grief over John Lennon’s death. Now this next part was not in the video, but according to the book, Linda explained that the last time Paul talked to John, he had said the same line to Paul, “think of me every now and then, my old friend.”
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Carl had no doubt that the song was from John Lennon, as a gift to Paul.
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The story doesn’t end there. The only reason this story is known publicly is because Carl told the story while being filmed in 1997 for what would later become part of the video I mentioned above. When he got done telling the story on camera, sitting in his studio, and sang the refrain, his wife buzzed in on the intercom, and said, “Carl, Paul McCartney just called.” Carl was so stunned at the coincidence he turned to the camera, speechless, and said “you tell me this boy has not got a connection to the spirit world!”
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Carl Perkins coincidentally died exactly one year to the day later, after suffering two strokes. If he had not been inspired to do a video in 1997 on his musical career, and recounted this experience, we would never have known the story.
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Shelley Germeaux is a John Lennon expert in her own right. She has done extensive research on Lennon including interviews with May Pang and Lennon’s half-sister, Julia Baird. Shelley is also an independent publishing consultant with Heritage Makers. Visit her website at www.shelleys-memory-books.com
December 8, 2009
By Shelley Germeaux, Daytrippin’ West Coast Correspondent
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[Editor's note: This review was originally published in January 2009 shortly after the hardcover edition was released. The paperback edition of John Lennon: The Life was released September 8, 2009]
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At 817 pages long, Philip Norman, author of the 1981 Beatles blockbuster, “Shout”, has created the new Lennon Bible in hardback. Incredibly well researched, Norman has encapsulated the details of John’s life, from his Irish ancestry to the moment of his death. However, Norman describes the events of John’s life as a detached observer, without commentary or opinion, leaving the reader to form their own conclusions throughout the book. The result is a fantastic, intimate account of John’s entire life, but without the warmth of a heartbeat. The book seems well balanced and objective until his solo years. The 150 pages devoted to John’s post Beatles life is relatively short, due no doubt, to the extensive reliance on Yoko’s memories, making this section about as myopic as John’s eyesight.
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The opening section on John’s ancestry and childhood was written beautifully. Norman gets an A+ for painting a whimsical picture of John’s namesake, his musical Irish grandfather. He uses the most up to date information from Julia Baird’s recent book, “Imagine This: Growing Up with My Brother John Lennon ” concerning Mimi’s strong-arming of John into her care, which debunks the familiar old myth that John’s mother Julia gave him up. He also weaves in the long covered-up story about John’s father Alf, from Alf’s autobiography, published by his wife Pauline in “Daddy Come Home.” After my own exhaustive research on John’s early life, this is the first time all of this has been told correctly in one place, which gives John’s childhood a whole new perspective, making previous biographies obsolete.
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Sometimes Norman, in an effort to include as many events as possible, loses some clarity on the big picture. For example while he refers to the grammar school pranks at Quarry Bank, some very funny, you’d have to read Pete Shotton’s book “John Lennon: In My Life” or Len Garry’s book “John, Paul and Me, Before the Beatles” for the full perspective of how they came to do such things. So much is crammed in, there is no sense of John’s personality, just a listing of incidents that give you the feeling that you “had to be there” to understand.
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Those who remember Cynthia Lennon’s intimate memories of her relationship with John in “A Twist of Lennon” and “John” will be a bit stunned to read the shocking but sweet account of John’s other girlfriend at the time Cynthia became pregnant with Julian.
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One disturbing and recurring theme is John’s backward glance at the relationship with his mother Julia, after she was so tragically killed. Norman refers to the infamous “diary tapes” that John recorded himself in 1979 (John was planning on doing his own autobiography) in which he mentions a sexual thought he had towards his mum at the age of 14 while taking a nap next to her one day. Far from being a new revelation, these tapes have been around for years, however Norman feels he needs to exploit this incident again, referring to it several times throughout the book and quoting Yoko Ono about it. I can think of more worthwhile subjects that the author could have covered in it’s place. This is supposedly one of the reasons that Yoko withdrew her support for the book before it was released, saying that she thought Norman was “being mean” to John. It is distracting at best in a book that is otherwise so well documented, and the sensationalism isn’t needed for this type of work.
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Norman handles the fast-paced, explosive nature of the rising fame of the Beatles well, but lacks the excitement I would have expected. If I didn’t know who the Beatles were, I would not pick up on the revolutionary impact the Beatles had on society and music, even though he describes the lines of fans waiting to get into the Cavern and the screaming girls, which he does quite matter-of-factly. He nicely navigates the confusing financial agreements, boiling down the tricky twists and turns of how percentages changed hands and money was made and lost.
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Stories about the songs John wrote are interspersed as one album after another was released, from 1964 till the group’s demise in 1970, with a nice comparison to what Paul was writing and how they differed. John’s technique for song writing is compared against Paul’s, showing the vast differences in their approach.
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Rather than just regurgitating everything everyone knows in one place, as some reviews have indicated, Norman weaves in enough new goodies in each section to make it impossible to skip through the chapters. There are many ah-ha moments that make a thorough reading of the book well worth the effort. Most fans are aware that John and Paul, while magical songwriting partners, could be acrimonious with each other at times. We even know that they quickly began writing songs independently of each other, while relying on the other’s creative spark for a catchy middle-8, or lyric that made the song great. But Norman makes it clear, almost in a passing comment, that Paul was not the Beatle that John ever “hung out with”, even in the early days. They were business partners, but never best of friends.
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The reader begins to see a different John than we might have known. I found it fascinating for example that John was extremely neat and tidy, always neatly stacking papers, hanging up towels properly, and lining shoes up straight. Mimi’s disciplined upbringing begins to show through John’s somewhat chaotic lifestyle. Heartwarming letters from Mimi to a devoted fan are included, which shed a humorous and interesting light on Mimi’s personality and her relationship with John during the Beatles years.
Another “ah-ha” moment was the account of the woman who inspired the song Norwegian Wood. Finally we can say without a doubt that it was not some mysterious journalist John was having an affair with, as previous rumors claimed, but the very married neighbor woman in London who claimed to have Norwegian roots and had wood paneling in her home downstairs; the wife of a Beatles photographer no less. Despite the clues that were right under her nose, it was lost on poor Cynthia.
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The question of whether John had any gay tendencies came up several times, and it was obvious that the author was trying to answer it once and for all. Each time, whether it be the trip to Spain with Brian Epstein, or his relationship with Stu Sutcliffe, or some other so called “faggy” incident, the conclusion each time is that John was as heterosexual as anyone can be. In fact, according to Norman, John may have “teased” Brian with fake sexual overtures in order to have the upper hand in Brian’s decisions. There are repeated assertions that John taunted Brian because he was Jewish, which, taken wrong, can lead the reader to mistakenly assume John was anti-Semitic, when in fact it was just John’s sarcastic and cruel humor.
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Just when you think the subject of non-homosexuality is finally settled, Norman drops an “H” bomb, indicating that John perhaps had a secret sexual fantasy about Paul. This is the other assertion in the book that has angered both Yoko and Paul, as they both claim this is nonsense. Again in such a well-documented book, it’s nothing more than an effort at salaciousness that detracts from the book’s credibility. Listening to Paul’s appearance on the Howard Stern show (January 2009), it was clear that Paul regarded this comment in the book, and all the “gay” assertions, as a joke. Upon Howard’s mention of it, Paul said (paraphrasing) “In all those years of getting drunk and crazy, if he was, there would have been some hint of it. But never, ever was there a single hint.” Later, when Howard mentioned John’s so called attraction to Paul as claimed in this book, Paul joked, “right, that was because he was in love with me”, to studio laughter. The idea that Norman included this paragraph in the book is like a fly in the soup or a fart at a Royal luncheon.
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As the Beatles break up, and the story of John’s life takes odd twists and turns, however, there are moments where it feels that even Norman is getting bored with his subject and some sense of tedium sets in as event after event is described with too much dryness. Maybe it’s the story itself; John’s departure from the Beatles world as he leaves his wife and child to fend for themselves, taking up with a strange avant-garde tiny Japanese artist with wild black hair, doing naked album covers, engaging in heroin use and staging bed-in’s for peace leaves you simply tired as you continue to read. Norman gives no analysis of the changes occurring within John. The only spark here was reading what John’s outspoken aunties in Scotland had to say about it all, and that is priceless. They were the voice of reason that perhaps John could have benefited from had he listened.
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Marital problems began to plague John and Yoko in New York after McGovern lost the presidential election, and Nixon was re-elected by a landslide in 1972. John dealt with it by getting drunk and screwing a girl at a party with Yoko present. This was around the same time that John’s protest album, Sometime in New York City bombed the charts and he realized that all his efforts to invoke change and get the youth to vote, failed. The government made unprecedented moves to covertly get him deported out of the United States because of his anti-war stance.
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The tension between John and Yoko led Yoko to suggest that John take up with May Pang and leave the house for awhile to give them some space. John thus began his “lost weekend” with May Pang in August of 1973 and this is where the story veers off track into the land of myth and fairy tales. This is frustrating from the aspect that so much of the book is indeed so well researched and so up to date, that many readers will just assume that this part of the book is, too. It is not. Norman ignores the latest information from May Pang’s latest book called “Instamatic Karma” as well as her previous book, “Loving John”, and even John’s own account in Larry Kane’s book, “Lennon Revealed” to document the time period from August of 1973 to January of 1975, when John was separated from Yoko. He relies exclusively on the accounts of Yoko Ono and her long time confidants Bob Gruen and Elliott Mintz, both of whom tend to comment at times on events that they were not witness to. For example, Bob Gruen was never in L.A. with John and May and yet portends to be an expert on John’s womanizing during that period, in order to discount May’s relationship with John. And Mintz seems to have blocked May out of his memory altogether when recalling various times with John. Somehow Norman neglects to question the accuracy of their accounts of that time period, while May Pang herself was not interviewed. This would explain the lack of storied detail that shortens the solo years section of the book.
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Norman then makes it appear that John and Yoko reunited at the Elton John concert in Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving of 1974. He fails to note that John and May remained together for two more eventful months, hosting Julian over Christmas and taking him to Disneyworld, even considering the purchase of a home in Montauk while on an outing with Mick and Bianca Jagger. He gives just scant reference to Paul and Linda’s visits, even though May and John were planning on visiting them in New Orleans while Paul was recording Venus and Mars, which could have led to a songwriting reunion. Instead, from here on out, we are given a seamless transition from Elton John to resumed life at the Dakota apartments without mention of any of those events.
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The Dakota years, from 1975 – 1980 are sweet and paint John as a new daddy with a newfound resolution to be a good husband and just hang around the house. From Yoko’s vantage point, John’s life is nicely encapsulated here, and a lot of this has not been shared before. The birth of Sean, John and Yoko’s house hunting in Long Island and Palm Beach for vacation homes, their trip to Japan to meet Yoko’s family, their purchase of farms and Holstein cows, Yoko’s penchant for psychics and tarot card readers, and Egyptian artifacts are happily discussed by Yoko.
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While these subjects have been described in prior books, (Fred Seaman in “The Last Days of John Lennon”, John Green’s “Dakota Days”) this is the first time Yoko has shared her version of events, which is interesting given her previous silence on the subjects. Fred describes in his book John’s frustration with Yoko’s empty promises to show up at family holidays. The confusion as to why this occurred is cleared up here in a stunning admission by Yoko, saying she had gone back on heroin and was trying to clean herself up while John was gone so he wouldn’t find out.
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John’s own state of mind is in fact all but ignored, along with other published accounts of his activities during this time, as the testimony of Yoko, Elliott and Gruen continue to paint the vague picture that John was healthy and happy, through snippets of memories, even though they were not around him as much as the book would lead you to think.
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This is a soft airbrushed view, though, when too many published accounts exist that describe John’s depressed state and weight loss that shocked so many people who knew him, as well as his continued relationship with May. Norman does a good job proving that John was “no Howard Hughes” but things weren’t exactly like a Norman Rockwell painting either. A good illustration of this is how Norman barely mentions John’s depression, quoting John as joking that one day he was so depressed he nearly “jumped out the window”, so he got hooked on an evangelical tv ministry in an effort to be saved by Jesus. As the reader is left a bit stunned by this revelation, Norman quickly moves on to a new topic as though he’d said John blew his nose. That such an alarming comment is dismissed so readily without further discussion is puzzling.
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The only other outside source quoted during this time period was the old sea dog, “Cap’n Hank” whom John sailed with on the ill-fated trip to Bermuda. The Captain was fully interviewed, making for a breathtaking account of John at the helm in stormy seas, on the brink of disaster, when everyone else was too sick or exhausted to help any more. The effect was to reinstate John’s manhood and his songwriting muse, which made for a wonderful vacation as he happily recorded demo after demo.
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John’s sudden inspiration to write songs in Bermuda, for what would become Double Fantasy, came after five years of not being able to write, Norman acknowledges; but he doesn’t connect the dots to the prior comment about John’s depression. So much has been written about this before that it’s odd that Norman gave it such short shrift.
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“
John Lennon: The Life” is aptly titled, as it literally ends at the moment of his death, without mention of the tributes, the sadness the world felt and his continued legacy, and the meaning his music and life gave to his fans. Factually it is quite accurate except for the failings in the solo era, probably due to the restrictions imposed for Yoko’s participation and approval, which she later withdrew anyway.
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Ray Coleman’s book, “Lennon: The Definitive Biography”, has always been the “gold standard” against which all future works would be compared. Norman’s book makes that work obsolete given the volume of information now available to him, but lacks a sense of empathy for Lennon. Only the length of it, and the title, reminds us of Albert Goldman’s sickening travesty, “The Lives of John Lennon.”
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I enjoyed the book a great deal, learning many little things about John that I had never heard before, sandwiched into every section. Norman obviously put a great deal of time and effort into meticulous research that is admirable. It is a great reference book in many respects, now that so much new information has been shared and discovered over the last few years, that is incorporated into the book. As nice as it is to have all this in one place, the lack of warmth or analysis of John’s personality and life events left me feeling flat throughout the book. The inordinate attention given to unfounded or unimportant sexual allegations, as well as the mythical approach given to John’s solo years, was disappointing and has the effect of somewhat reducing the book’s credibility.
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Shelley Germeaux is a John Lennon expert in her own right. She has done extensive research on Lennon including interviews with May Pang and Lennon’s half-sister, Julia Baird. Shelley is also an independent publishing consultant with Heritage Makers. Visit her website at www.shelleys-memory-books.com
December 3, 2009
by Trina Yannicos
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I remember playing Trivial Pursuit years ago and enjoying it, so I was very excited when I obtained a copy of the new
Beatles Trivial Pursuit game. However, playing the game was slightly disappointing to this lifelong Beatlemaniac. While any Beatles fan would welcome a chance to answer trivia questions on the Beatles, the official rules of the new Beatles Trivial Pursuit make things a little more complicated.
The whole emphasis of any Trivial Pursuit game should be on the questions. However, all the tedious guidelines for moving your pie piece as well as the bonus “twist” gamepiece around the board were frustrating and seemed to take away from the heart of the game — the questions. It took a group of five Beatlemaniacs at least an hour just to figure out how to move our gamepieces around the board (and there’s still uncertainty whether we were following the rules correctly). Frankly there are just too many rules to follow for moving your gamepiece – you may just want to make up your own rules for that, so you can get back to the trivia questions!
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As for the questions which were created by Beatles author and expert,
Bruce Spizer, they range from easy to medium to hard. However, the consensus with our group was that many of the easy questions were way too easy and many of the hard questions were way too hard. There seemed to be a lack of “medium” level questions. For example, a level 3 question (considered medium-level) under The Beatles in America category is: “The May 24, 1964 Ed Sullivan Show ran a clip of The Beatles performing what song at the Scala Theatre?” Huh??? That should be a level 6 for the hardest. (The answer is “You Can’t Do That” in case you were wondering)
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Bruce Spizer has written several books on the Beatles focusing on their US record releases and also their invasion of America. Hence, the six categories of questions include: Beatles History, Beatles Albums and Singles, The Beatles in America, Beatles Movies, Beatles Songs, and On Their Own. Many of the questions were obviously inspired by the research that Spizer did for his books.
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While I commend Spizer for the hard work he put into the game, some questions were downright frustrating for this lifelong second-generation Beatles fan — like a series of questions on the Beatles Washington DC press conference. First of all, I bet most fans are unaware that the Beatles ever did a press conference in Washington DC before their first US concert in 1964. I wonder if there is any footage of the press conference since I don’t recall seeing it anywhere. The New York/JFK airport press conference in 1964 is a much more well known press conference with widely viewed video footage.
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Another pet peeve is the category “Beatles Movies”. Is it really fair to ask extremely detailed questions about the Beatles movie “Let It Be” when the Beatles have still not officially released this movie for public consumption? The only way you will be able to answer Let It Be questions is if you have a bootleg copy of the movie. Maybe as a bonus The Beatles should have released “Let It Be” as a companion to this game!
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My feeling about the original Trivial Pursuit was that even if you were not an expert on the subject, you would still be able to participate in the game by using some common sense, and as a result, you wouldn’t feel left out of the whole experience. My feeling for the Beatles Trivial Pursuit is that only lifelong Beatles fans will enjoy playing this game. The casual fan or general music lover will be lost. While I applaud Bruce Spizer for his encyclopedic knowledge of The Beatles, I just wish the game was tested out on some regular Beatles fans first.
December 3, 2009
by Susan Fischer
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The Cambridge Companion to The Beatles (to be released December 31) is not your typical Beatles book. The book is a collection of essays written by professors, critics and Beatles experts alike. Its description touts the book as a tool for university courses as well as an essential part of the Beatles fan collection.
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The book is comprised of three parts: Background, Works and History and Influence. The Background tells of the boys’ childhoods and also talks about the historical influences of the time and how that played a role in their upbringing. We learn a bit about what went on in society during the time, not just what went on in the Beatles family lives. We also learn about their recording life. How primitive recording was when they recorded their first song to the advances made through to the end. It tells of some techniques and tricks used to make their sound as rich as they could get it.
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The second part, the Works, talks about recording. It analyzes each album, almost song by song. We learn about how the times changed the Lennon/McCartney writing styles — the influence of drugs and psychedelia to how they returned to their rock roots at the end.
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Concepts and influences are looked at in great detail. Almost too much detail. As I was reading this part of the book, the pulling apart of the lyrics, I thought to myself, “Wow, John and George (probably Paul and Ringo too) would get a kick out of this.”
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Lyrics that the Beatles claim to be nothing more than nonsense are given a breath of life that was unintended. It was almost laughable. In this reviewer’s opinion, “Norwegian Wood” was just a song, not intended for such in-depth analysis.
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The Works also goes into the Beatles as solo artists. It goes through some of their actions and albums released after the break-up. The Works ends with a look into the music of the Beatles examining their rhythm and phrases and patterns. Perfect for the music theory enthusiasts.
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The last section is History and Influence. This part looks back at the impact the Beatles had on music and culture. It also shows how powerful the Beatles are by examining the resurgence of the Beatles through the post break-up years. From the release of CD’s to the Beatles LOVE show, the Beatles still live on!
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All in all, this book is very informative, but I don’t think the avid Beatles bio reader will get much new information from this book. It’s well written and will be great for college classes. Just remember folks — a lot of the Beatles writings and actions weren’t meant for such serious contemplation. Nevertheless, The Beatles were a band of ordinary guys who managed to do extraordinary things and anything that highlights that is OK by me.
December 3, 2009
The Autism Research Institute is sponsoring a new Beatles “Art and Artifacts” exhibit to be held at the Edgeware Gallery in San Diego from December 26 through February 14, 2010. The exhibit will feature a range of Beatles artwork “from local San Diego artists (including a father whose son is on the autism spectrum), to artists from Canada and Germany,” according to Steve Edelson, director of the Autism Research Institute and Edgeware Gallery.
In addition to the art, Edgeware will display a variety of Beatles artifacts that most people probably haven’t seen before.
“We’re going to have an actual brick from the Liverpool Cavern Club, a piece of the stage from the Hamburg Star Club, and we’ll have pieces of sheets that the Beatles slept on. We even tracked down the TV producer who bought the sheets from the hotels in 1964, and came up with the idea – he’s coming down from LA for the opening. We’ll probably have a few dozen artifacts total,” says Edelson. “The idea is to create an exciting event, and leverage the huge fan base of the Beatles to support autism research.”
To add to the Beatles experience, the crowd will hear rare audio recordings of Beatles outtakes, bloopers, and alternate studio takes. There will also be a rare color video of the Beatles playing a complete concert in Japan in 1965, with lots of closeups of the “moptops.” And San Diego favorite, recording artist Gregory Page will perform a medley of acoustic Beatles songs in honor of the occasion.
The opening night reception for Beatles: Art and Artifacts will be held on Sunday, December 26 from 5-9 p.m. The Edgeware Gallery is located at 4182 Adams Ave, San Diego, CA 92116; phone 619.534.8120.
For more information, visit http://www.edgewaregallery.com
