And we all shine on...

"I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?"

- John Lennon

Dear John...

Today is the 70th birthday of John Lennon, my favorite Beatle.

John Lennon: poet, singer, songwriter and rebel.

So, how does he celebrate his big day on the other side?

By rockin' and rollin' of course.

John Lennon: Come Together from Andy Cafa on Vimeo.

Mark David Chapman's denied parole again

This month, nearly 30 years after killing John Lennon, Mark David Chapman's sixth parole application was denied by a three- member Parole Board and thus will remain at the Attica Correctional Facility in New York. He is eligible again for parole in 2012.

The saga of the Walrus and the Chapman continues...

Meanwhile here's a clip of John Lennon, George Harrison, Yoko Ono et al while having a creative session on the song, Oh My Love; a painting of how these geniuses were at work and how their creativity was able to churn out those beautiful lyrics and melodies that we became so familiar with.

Come Together

Dear Abbey,

“You say it’s your birthday. Well, Happy Birthday to You!”

Yes, the iconic cover of The Beatles’ "final" album Abbey Road wherein the Fab Four were seen crossing the zebra-striped asphalt on Abbey Road turns 40 today.

No album cover in the history of music has been scrutinized like the Abbey Road photo. What with rumors then that Paul McCartney had died in a car accident earlier and that the plate number of the VW Beetle parked on the left side of the road was actually a code that confirms his death.

Abbey Road went on to become one of the most successful albums in the Fab Four’s short but great career as a group. It was not only laden with beautiful songs written by the most prolific songwriters of all time but also a revolutionary one not only in their approach and arrangement but the use of technology that was available at that time that set the bar high for other bands to imitate or follow.

Hundreds of Beatlemaniacs trooped to Abbey Road today to celebrate the iconic photo’s 40th anniversary and if we are to believe the saying that life really begins at 40, we can be sure then that the legendary status of the Beatles as a pop culture icon will continue to grow in years to come…


If you want to see a live video of the famous Abbey Road Crossing in real time, click
HERE


Here's a rockin' treat from my fave Beatle, John-

The Silver Beatle

I was supposed to re-post this here last December 8, the 27th Anniversary of the death of the Working Class Hero. This article was my very first entry in my regular blog, Bill Blahs and was originally published December 8, 2005.

I considered this piece important since this marked my return to writing after years of self-imposed hiatus. Now, please indulge me and bear with me while I take you on my very own Strawberry Fields experience.

So, read on...

Dear John
Yesterday

And today

While roaming

Strawberry fields

I closed my eyes and saw the light

A hundred and one slivers that cut the night

I, Me, Mine

The Ballad of John and Yoko

And a thousand rays of silky black brightness that enveloped my soul

Commencing a Magical Mystery Tour

The rush and thrill never bores my hallucinogenic mind

In my heart

I knew the reason behind the man and the music

The diluted laughter and obscure Helter Skelter views

The lifeless grace and red orbs, the purpled words and gray sincerity

That coated your kaleidoscopic world!

I understand the dark gestures and the complexities of your answers

As well as the hues of your inactions that were subtly painted by your pale palette in the canvas of life

while aboard the Yellow Submarine

behind the blues and beneath the shades

I saw Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds!

John Lennon...

the prolific singer-songwriter, the war-activist, the Peacenik, the former Beatle, the Dreamer, the Working Class Hero -- was shot and killed on the evening of December 8, 1980 by Mark David Chapman just outside the Dakota Building near Central Park, NYC.

The music died twenty- five years ago today?

Let me take you down to Strawberry Fields…

I remember watching him lying in an open casket on black & white TV half a world away in the Philippines. I was ten and my attention was caught when a playmate blurted out what he heard on TV: “John Lemon is dead!”, which her aunt, a certified member of the flower-power generation promptly corrected him that it was “John Lennon, not John Lemon, who was killed by a deranged fan,” which elicited laughter among us.

In my young mind then, I only knew him to be the leader of the Fab Four, The Beatles, whose vinyl records dominated my Dad’s Radiowealth Stereo Phonograph's playing time, and I couldn’t comprehend the extent of his death to music fans around the world. It was only years later, as I grew older, when I was exposed to a lot of Beatles’ articles and materials, that I began to understand the man.

When I was thirteen, I purchased a cassette tape of his album "The JOHN LENNON COLLECTION" for PHP 35.00 (which was part of the prize money I won in an essay writing contest sponsored by the Mayon (Albay) Chapter of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP) during a Provincial Jamboree that I attended in the summer of 1983) from a local record store. It reigned on my Sony Cassette players for years until the time when a CD of his songs finally replaced it. I began to study the guitar and the first songs I learned were his signature songs -- Imagine, followed by the other Beatles Classics like Revolution, In My Life, Across the Universe and A Day in the Life, just to name a few.

As I went further into my journey into the deep recesses of the Beatleslandia and the Kaleidoscopic Lennonscape, I was transformed into a certified Lennon Fanatic, that finally culminated to a visit to Strawberry Fields this year, the Garden of Peace in New York City’s Central Park named in honor of John in 1981, which was said to be his favorite oasis in the park.

John Lennon, so much has been written and said about him: critics tried to paint him in a different light. Chapman tried to silence him forever but failed miserably.

His songs are easy to understand and people can relate easily to his lyrics. His voice is one-of-a-kind; it has a distinct sound that people could feel all his angst and feelings. He sang from the bottom of his heart and bared his soul in his music.

Most of all, he is his own Man.

As long as there are people who love real music, his memory will not be forgotten, his relevance will continue and his music will live forever...

No Virginia, the music did not die that day…

IN MEMORIAM: John Winston Lennon (Oct. 9, 1940- Dec. 8, 1980)



Listen to John Lennon in his last interview talking about his Double Fantasy Album just hours before he was murdered by Chapman--

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