George Harrison. =(

George Harrison.-- 
Feb. 25, 1943 - Nov. 29, 2001.
I have a problem with my dead Beatles. I love and respect them even more than the living ones and much more than I could ever put into words, or into a pointless blog. I love them for their beauty, their wit, their want to change the world. They both played a major role in sculpting the future of all things music and within a week and a half, the world has to mourn them both (albeit one will get a lot more attention than the other). A lot of people know December 8, 1980 as the date that a friggin' idiot, madman lunatic gunned down the outspoken John Lennon. Very few people realize that November 29, 2001 "The Quiet Beatle" George Harrison quietly slipped away to lung cancer in Los Angeles with his loved ones by his side, Paul McCartney holding his hand and laughing at his jokes. So Johnny, I'm going to deal with you next week. Georgie deserves his moment. But first...



George was, by far, funniest Beatle. That's definitely my favorite part about him. So let's get the biography stuff out of the way and start laughing (and then I'll probably start crying, 'cause I'm insane and even though I don't know him, I feel like I do. And he makes me cry.)

George was born. He met a chubby schoolboy named Paul McCartney on the bus when he was like 13 or so and then after Paul met a drunk John Lennon, Paul introduced John and George.

They formed some little band, fought a whole bunch, and then broke up. George then did some producing, he allegedly told BFF Eric Clapton to leave Cream 'cause they were holding him back. He made Ravi Shankar famous. He had a concert for Bangladesh to help the peeps there. He produced a couple movies like Monty Python's Life of Brian and that Sean Penn/ Madonna piece of crap Shanghai Surprise.

George got all into racecar-ing and in doing so, he met and became really tight with the main dude for Cirque du Soleil and developed the idea that would later become THE GREATEST CIRQUE SHOW THIS WORLD HAS EVER SEEN! Or that I've seen, anyway. Love.

FYI- If you've not see this show than you should really make it a priority in your life. AMAZING!!!! Sad part about all of that is, George died in 2001,  Love didn't become a reality until 2006.

So, if you want a good dousing of cry, go check out the Larry King interview clips on YouTube about the show's premiere.

Okay, one more sad from our man Ringo and then laughing, because high notes are way better to go out on.

That one with Olivia Harrison looking down on her late husband gets me EVERY TIME! And lastly receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

I love you George Harrison. Hare Krishna.

And Your Bird Can Sing?

Okay. I know. I am STILL not done with Here, There and Everywhere- hot and awesome Beatle book by Geoff Emerick (and Howard Massey). But this has been tickling my brain for quite some many years and yesterday I saw something that turned my casual intrigue into obsessive need to blog about it. About what, you ask?

Lennon, McCartney and birds.

Those Len/Macca boys wrote a couple songs about birds. One of my faves happens to be the Anthology  version of And Your Bird Can Sing because, let's face it, John and Paul laughing is the cutest thing EVER.

The thing that started me on this whole business in the first place comes from Anthology. Rumor has it that Paul, while recording Free as a Bird (bird?) saw John Lennon's ghost in the form of a white peacock.

Okay, let me back up and explain, if you aren't crazy and don't know the background. John Lennon told people that if he ever died, he would send a white feather to show that he was around or something. Julian Lennon even started the White Feather Foundation in the spirit of this to save the planet.

Dad once said to me that should he pass away, if there was some way of letting me know he was going to be ok - that we were all going to be ok - the message would come to me in the form a white feather. Then something happened to me about ten years ago when I was on tour in Australia. I was presented with a white feather by an Aboriginal tribal elder, which definitely took my breath away. One thing for sure is that the white feather has always represented peace to me.

Julian Lennon, 2009

So hearing all of this, I started noticing that there was a lot of birdness surrounding the Beatle boys. I also noticed that John tended to dress in white a lot and Yoko in black, yin and yang like. Guess what I also noticed.... so did John and Paul.

So in this theory, if John were a white bird wouldn't that make Paul a black bird? Singing in the dead of night? Perhaps?

ANYWAY, Paul's song "This One" from the album Flowers in the Dirt came across my YouTube stalking ways yesterday. And Lo and Friggin' Behold.....



Now, another thing strikes me about this video... the reference to India.

Then there's the whole eye thing that I'm not even going to get into, nor that Flowers in the Dirt seems to reference Sgt. Pepper because that'll just make me look crazy like I look too far into things *nervous laugh*... And if we are to assume that MAYBE Paul might have been referencing to John, then the lyrics... well...

THIS ONE Written and composed by Paul McCartney

THIS ONE, THIS ONE, THIS ONE, THIS ONE.

DID I EVER TAKE YOU IN MY ARMS,
LOOK YOU IN THE EYE, TELL YOU THAT I DO?
DID I EVER OPEN UP MY HEART,
LET YOU LOOK INSIDE?

IF I NEVER DID IT, I WAS ONLY WAITING
FOR A BETTER MOMENT THAT DIDN'T COME.
THERE NEVER COULD BE A BETTER MOMENT
THAN THIS ONE, THIS ONE.

THE SWAN IS GLIDING ABOVE THE OCEAN,
A GOD IS RIDING UPON HIS BACK.
HOW CALM THE WATER AND BRIGHT THE RAINBOW
FADE THIS ONE TO BLACK.

DID I EVER TOUCH YOU ON THE CHEEK,
SAY THAT YOU WERE MINE, THANK YOU FOR THE SMILE?
DID I EVER KNOCK UPON YOUR DOOR
AND TRY TO GET INSIDE?

IF I NEVER DID IT, I WAS ONLY WAITING
FOR A BETTER MOMENT THAT DIDN'T COME.
THERE NEVER COULD BE A BETTER MOMENT
THAN THIS ONE, THIS ONE.

THE SWAN IS GLIDING ABOVE THE OCEAN,
A GOD IS RIDING UPON HIS BACK.
HOW CALM THE WATER AND BRIGHT THE RAINBOW
FADE THIS SWAN TO BLACK.

WHAT OPPORTUNITIES DID WE ALLOW TO FLOW BY
FEELING LIKE THE TIMING WASN'T QUITE RIGHT?
WHAT KIND OF MAGIC MIGHT HAVE WORKED IF WE HAD STAYED CALM,
COULDN'T I HAVE GIVEN YOU A BETTER LIFE?

DID YOU EVER TAKE ME IN YOUR ARMS,
LOOK ME IN THE EYE, TELL ME THAT YOU DO?
DID I EVER OPEN UP MY HEART,
LET YOU LOOK INSIDE?

IF I NEVER DID IT, I WAS ONLY WAITING
FOR A BETTER MOMENT THAT DIDN'T COME.
THERE NEVER COULD BE A BETTER MOMENT
THAN THIS ONE, THIS ONE.

THE SWAN IS GLIDING (is gliding)
ABOVE THE OCEAN, (above the ocean)
A GOD IS RIDING (a god is riding
UPON HIS BACK. (on his back)
HOW CALM THE WATER (calm the water)
AND BRIGHT THE RAINBOW (bright the rainbow
FADE THIS SWAN TO BLACK.

THE SWAN IS GLIDING, OOH -
A GOD IS RIDING, OOH -
HOW CALM THE WATER,
BRIGHT, BRIGHT THE RAINBOW, OOH -.

Maybe he was only waiting for this moment to be free? As a bird? So who knows. Alls I'm saying is that John and Paul might've had a bird thing....

Now if I could only remember the name of that band that Paul started after The Beatles....

Jimmy Mac when are ya comin' back?

So I don't have a lot of time to fully concentrate my feelings on this, but I can tell you that I've been waiting for this for a week or two since I first heard about it. James McCartney. Live. OMG.

Boy of a Beatle, my radar is tuned in to you.

There's all this talk that he sounds like his dad, and with that kind of talk, how could I not be intrigued. Also, he's been this huge mystery - I know what Dhani and Sean sound like and I like what I hear.

Oh James. Well, first off--  if your sister was just awarded for being one of Glamour's 2009 Women of the Year or whatever, and she's a clothing designer, how you do not know that wearing that kind of v-neck with that kind of chest hair is bad news, I don't know. Anyway, he makes me want to hug him all shy up there, hair or not. Oh yeah, and lose the cross. What are you, goth circa 1992?

So then this talk that he sounds like Paul. Hogwash. He sounds like Sean. And that trips me out.

Some videos I found on YouTube.










Anyway, here are some things to check out.

The YouTube channel I stole these from.
An article on the show.
Check out a post on it at the McCartney Photo Blog.
And, you know, for research, the offish Sean Lennon YouTube page.

Here, There and Everywhere. But totally here. PART 1!

UPDATE!  I totally forgot to mention Howard Massey as co-author!  I don't know how or why I didn't mention him, but no offense, Mr. Massey, if you're still reading. =) 


This is the COOLEST book. Now, go figure, I'm readin' a book about Beatles. This one is called Here, There and Everywhere by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey. Holy Funtimes Batman!

Believe it or not, I've read somewhere around like one other book about this band and the thing that struck me about this book as HOLYCRAP-BRANDNEWINFO! was the angle. You always read "The Beatles Story" from either the Beatles perspective which  starts in Liverpool, Hamburg, London and then the world! OR you start in America after they've become OMGTHEBEATLES!!, ya know? And then there are all the books that concentrate on just one Beatle, which are great, but you kind of lose sight of the the group as a whole.

Well, our hero, Geoff Emerick was a mere 15 years old when he started at EMI Studios (later renamed Abbey Road Studios in 1970). FIFTEEN! in case you skimmed. I was painting my nails and thinking about Johnny Depp when I was 15.  Then on Dude's second day on the job, he's just sittin' in on The Beatles' first ever recording sesh. No bigs.

So, Geoff, first day new kid, is just getting to know this new job of his and all this buzz is swirling about this new pop group from up north (they spit on the Northerners in this London town) and there's one guy that works there that is STOKED on this group (but don't get too attached to him, he gets sacked in a minute). Everyone else is like, "alright, whatevs". Next night Geoff gets to sit in on the recording and is immediately swooned. He also develops a boy-crush on Paul. He never actually says this, but I can read between the lines. And besides, who doesn't have a crush on Paul, I mean seriously. Look at him.

Swoon. Where was I?... Oh yeah, Paul McCartney. Wasn't I? I think one of the most "What?! Dude! Yes, that makes sense!" bits in the book is this on page 43.

Though [Paul] didn't raise his voice like the lead singer did, I had the distinct impression that he was the leader of the group. When he spoke, the others listened intently and invariably nodded their heads in agreement, and before each take, he was the one urging them to give it their all. Looking back on it now, it's funny how most people thought of John Lennon-the hook-nosed lead singer on that first song-as the leader of The Beatles. It might have been his band in the beginning, and he might have assumed the leadership role in their press conferences and public appearances, but throughout all the years that I worked with them, it always seemed to me that Paul McCartney, the soft-spoken bass player, was the real leader of the group, and that nothing got done unless he approved of it. 

There are two things that excite me about this quote.  First off, it's this Lennon we see later on as being the whipping boy to Yoko which adds to the widely felt "Yoko is a witch!" opinion. Turns out, apparently Paul was cracking the whip, too. That's all for another post. It also goes to show that John's assertion that the band broke because Paul took over in 1967 after the death of manager, Brian Epstein is a load of crap. (I will get to the bottom of the Beatles one day. You'll see and will feel foolish for mocking me.)

I also dig seeing how they interacted with each other. In the beginning, it was Paul and John BFFs- but it seems that around '66 it was John and George pairing up and Paul and Ringo off to the other side in their own little huddle. (Oh that's sad and kind of prophetic seeing as how it all turned out...)

So anyway, I'm only half-way through the book so there will be a part 2 to this in a day or two. Stay tuned. And since I was curious, and you might be too, here's what ol' Geoff looked like, back in the day.

He's the one that's not Ringo. If you don't know which one is Ringo, then you need to go back to Cool School.


HEY! I have an idea! I'm gonna start my own Oprah! Book Club. Go get this book and read it. We'll re-convene in a couple of days and maybe somebody will win a car! And probably not from me!

facebook brings the crazy!

I'll make this quick because I'm not here to get all deep and talk smart stuff. I'm here to ogle and swoon. However, I feel like this whole business of the facebooks is busting my skull open and it causes.... angst and almost a hatred, to be quite honest. So rather than go off in a status update as I'm so wont to do, I've chose to blog it, 'cause that's much less passive-aggressive. =D


I never felt this hate and rage with myspace. I've felt lonely, but never passive-aggressive with the 'space. And twitter, no passive-aggressive feelings there either. That's more a glimpse into a person's window, stalker-like, and way encouraged- and if you start to get all annoyed with somebody and her egomaniacal self-adoration, you just stop following her. (Or him. Not that I have someone in mind at ALL ::evil smirk::) No hard feelings when you're no longer "a follower". Not so, my friends, with the facebooks.


The beauty in both myspace and twitter is that you're flying solo. "Nothing you can see that isn't shown". Facebook is some sort of All My Children meets Melrose Place- and peeps bring their game, believe you me. Now in that comes the other problem. Myspace, being so 3 years ago, I sign in over there maybe once every 12 or so days. I sign into twitter once every 12 or so hours. I sign into facebook once every 12 or so minutes. Or seconds.  So I am on constant bombardment of the drahms. It's my own fault, I do know, but I am not immune to the annoyance even so.


People post at will the insanity that runs through their mind, most of it HILARIOUS! and entertaining, some of it TMI. People post pictures of their parties or trips. I love that. People post pictures of their kids and pets. ADORE!!! People will post pictures of their food. That's disgusting. And in the case of one of my friends yesterday, there are people who will post a picture of a chef kissing the severed head of a pig that was once a pet, merely to get under the skins of some vegetarians that annoyed this person at a party. (And you think you're not a snob?) That kind of action is enough to get you "hidden", although, I don't hide people for fear that I might miss out on something awesome and spectacular. And that is, once again, my own fault, because apparently all the awesome and spectacular involve ... well... that. I also realize that the very mention of any of this is hypocritical because I status up about 14 times a day and I'm sure that my immature rantings and swoonings of all and everything Beatle drive people to drink. Or hide me. Or in the case of the sister of a girl that I've known since we were two years old, my BFF  all through elementary and Jr High, this BFF's sister, whom I've also had the pleasure to know for just as long, defriended me just as quick as she friended me with not so much as a "howdoyado?" AWESOME. I'm looking right at you, "Madame S". You know what you've done.

Perhaps I'm mad at "Madam S" because she had the guts to do what I'm here moaning about in this very blog, and it was done to me, let's not forget. And it probably didn't even take guts. She probably just read "BeatleRockBandPaulMcCartney" 50 times, rapid-fire and thought "And we're done here *defriend*". So is it right to shoot mind daggers at her? Yes, because, how dare you defriend me. I am Queen Of All and you should worship my unpolished toes! Or maybe not, but I'm really nice and I'm full of love and goodness, spices and sugars. And you hurt my feelings. :'(


Not to mention, I take EVERYTHING as a personal attack. I don't know why, exactly, but every negative, mean rant I take as a punch in the neck.  And it makes me want to punch you back. And then cry in the corner for a day. And then make up and forget it ever happened.


So what started this today was a stat-up I saw this morning when I woke up and hoped it wasn't directed at me (I'd like to think it was directed at the pig picture, but they're not friends).

Oh gawd! I'm this close to offing myself from facebook, some of you people make me want to puke. --sorry,just being real. 9 hours ago - anon facebook friend. 

OMG have I felt this way everyday, although I bite my fingers so as not to type it, but facebook friend, I'm with you!! There's talk of a friend culling though and I hope I pass the audition. I don't think the self-worth can take another round of dismissal. 

So what I've learned here today, though, facebook has made me love and respect many more people than it's made me hate, I feel contempt for a small portion of you that I never would've before simply because I can't take the complaining and over-confidence, the bragging or the "nobody loves me" crap any longer. But I do. I don't want to miss out on anything or make anyone feel inferior because I've culled and defriended. I just like knowing that I can.  (Oh, and fyi btw, I'm also totally annoyed by people who can't bother to respond back. You're RUDE.) 

I could NEVER have fit that into 140 characters. 

For some more pass-aggress laughs, 

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

Also, check Detta's Blog about the facebooks. 

Thank you and good day. 

Mad Day Out!

They don't look good, any of them. Their clothes are atrocious. George Harrison might be wearing a leather shirt- perhaps it's a jacket. Ringo Starr is in full-on Austin Powers gear. John Lennon can be seen in a HORRIBLE brown fur coat/pet bear thingy only to be switched out for an, if possible, even uglier oversized camouflage coat. Paul McCartney's wearing a pink suit and a lace shirt. Then comes a point where neither Lennon or McCartney are wearing shirts at all- and they're arm wrestling. And it's ugly. And you know it's cold, Ringo and George are bundled up and shivering.

It was July 28, 1968. The most well-known Beatle Photoshoot.

A Mad Day Out.

1968 was a weird time in Beatledom. In some sort of order, probably not the one below, they did the India thing in February in which Ringo and Paul left the ashram to return back to London, leaving John and George behind. (I believe that to be the straw that broke the Beatles' back, quite honestly.)  They swore off drugs, John became infatuated with Yoko, John and Yoko move in with Paul, Paul leaves nasty, passive-aggressive notes around the house about Yoko,  John and Paul fight, John and Yoko move out.  The group starts Apple. Paul and John went to New York to promote Apple Corps. and while there, Paul gets all tangled up with Linda Eastman (later McCartney) much to the surprise and annoyance of John. They record the White Album through all of this, during which Ringo quits for 3 weeks, Paul becomes obsessed with perfection, John brings Yoko into the sacred, Beatle-only recording studios, all the while still mourning the death of their beloved manager Brian Epstein who passed away in August of the previous year. All kinds of soap opera! They weren't exactly BFFs at this time. So I think that's what makes the Mad Day Out photo shoot so neat. They look so... at peace. Ugly, but at peace.

Rumor tells that Francie Schwartz, Paul's transitional (or same time as, or whatevs) lady between Jane Asher and Linda Eastman had the ideas for the locations. Anyway, I heart the photos very very much. Even though or, perhaps because they include... this.

So here are some of them, even though there are many, many more. I can't get enough!

Some Links!!

A blog I follow called Child Of Nature has some more on this here.

Another blog that I follow, In The Life of... The Beatles has an interesting paragraph/quote from Mal Evans. He says, well this on it.

Ian Kenny Limited - Some info on photographer Tom Murray and the shoot.

Match Game, anyone?

You know what sounds good right now (at 10 am on a Monday)? A martini, a cigarette and some sexual innuendo. Since I'm not Brett Somers, I'll just sit here with my coffee and dream, maybe laughing and hitting Charles Nelson Reilly who happens to really be the couch cushion to my left with a card that doesn't even exist outside my crazy.

What was it about the 60s and 70s that made drunk funny? It was swanky, it was cool. It was also HILARIOUS!


Now we know that all those fun times led to not so fun alcoholism and lung cancer, but there was a time when life just wasn't so serious. And it was very yellow and orange and olive green!

And then there was Richard Dawson.... (sigh)

Match Game. The coolest show on television. Still. And they would drink and smoke during the show! They would inappropriately grope each other. They would make rude jokes. They had cocktail lunches! Man that's cool!

And DUDE I want the "Brett Somers Fan Club" sweater. Staff that I don't have, get on that!

 

So many funny peeps sat in on that show. But my faves are:

 Brett Somers

 Charles Nelson Reilly

 Fannie Flagg

Richard Dawson

and Betty White.

Once Richard Dawson left the show in 1978,  and also the changing the set from awesome!Orange to dull blue and grey, blech with some kind of Confederate flag looking pattern at the back of the panelists, it lost spunk for me.

I want to live my life forever on the set of Match Game '76. I like the days of Brett and Gene Rayburn joking (...?) about taking each other to a motel in Encino. I like Charles being pretty outwardly gay for the '70s. I like. I like it all.

Match Game Wallpaper Factory
Match Game Facebook Page

Oh, and you know what I want for Christmas?

A Brett Somers Fan Club Shirt....