Rolling Stones or Beatles?

I'm on a mission: To like The Rolling Stones. 

It sounds ridiculous that this is even going through my head, but this ain't the first time. A little known secret about me, I'm a Beatle fan. And being a Beatle fan and wanting to join Camp Rolling Stones is akin to being a Red Sox fan and wanting to be a Yankee. 

There are vast differences between being a fan of the groups. Exhibit A:

Here's your typical Beatle fan. 

Here's your typical Stones' fan:

And then there is the matter of flaunting your love. A Stones fan wearing a shirt looks like Fergie:

A Beatles fan sporting a shirt sometimes looks like a really excited old man with high waisted pants:

So yes, sometimes I feel like the color-guard watching the cheerleaders at the high school football game. But what it boils down to, I suppose is that for one thing,  Beatles equal "SQUEEE" Stones equal "EEK!" and the other thing is that I've heard Stones songs for more than 20 years! and all I can say is that Paint It Black, Time Is On My Side and Ruby Tuesday are absolutely fab! and hearing Paint It Back 12 times in a row while the husband tried to learn Guitar Hero did not ruin it a bit... and that's it. Ooh, let's hear some Paint It Black, yes?

But there are songs like these and then... "Start Me Up?" and I don't know. I feel like I'm missing something. So okay, easy. Being a Beatle fan, I'll start there. Tell us, John.

And then there's this little bitty... CUTE. (John and Paul are singing background vocals)

So far, what it boils down to, I'm a Beatle fan. The Rolling Stones remain an odd enigma of which I have yet to break. I'm still in color-guard. But, I guess I don't feel so bad... Afterall, Mick's a fangirl too.

Totally accepting suggestions on the matter

Pattie Boyd

INTERVIEWER: "Pattie, how does it feel to be the one girl that all the others envy because she’s got George?"
GEORGE: "Why don’t you ask me what it feels like to be the fellow that all the others envy because he’s got Pattie?"

Pattie Boyd.
My fave of the Beatle wives at Beatle time, though now my favorite Beatle wife is Olivia which means, George had good taste in the ladies.

A recap for anyone who doesn't know, George met Pattie on the set of A Hard Day's Night. They were smitten.

And though they were cute then, a couple years later, they were ADORABLE!!

But, All Things Must Pass.

George it's said got too into the LSD and Hinduism and Pattie, having given up a modeling career for George began feeling very alone. A rumored, or not so rumored as Pattie spoke of it in her book, affair between her and John Lennon took place and she began spending a LOT of time with George's BFF, Eric Clapton. Clapton fell head over heels and wrote a song for her. In being the good friend that he was though, he didn't want George to think he was writing songs for Mrs. Harrison, he called that little ditty "Layla". Pattie fell for Eric, divorced George who then fell in love with an American girl who worked the front desk at his production company. She called herself, Olivia and they had a son Dhani. Pattie married Eric in 1979 at which, George was the best man. I told you BFFs.

And then Pattie divorced Eric in '89 I think 'cause he was drinking and druggin'. So let's take a listen, yes? to some of the coolest songs evs written to one person. Lucky.

And, I don't know what is is with those Boyd women, but in India, Donovan became smitten with Pattie's sis, Jenny.

And he penned a little number, himself.

YOU'RE LUCKY IT'S TUESDAY! (Stupid, bloody Tuesday...)

So there's a movement rollin' down the horizon called Don't Be A Jerk Tuesday. Much like McCartney's Meat-Free Monday, but it's on Tuesday and not really about meat, but more about not bein' a buttface.

The idea is that if for just one day a week everyone on the planet had to play nice or stay home, we may just achieve the ever elusive World Peace! Totally think it could work, too. If for no other reason, wouldn't it be nice to have one day that you could just chillax 'cause you knew people weren't likely to crap all over your day?!

Now I sound like a friggin' hippie. Whatevs. I like it.

"Peace and Love. Peace and Love" - Ringo Starr.

So, if you have the facebooks and you would like to be on the ground floor of this awesomeness, fan it. Love it. Live it. Don't Be A Jerk Tuesday facebook page. Soon there will be shirts available on Cafe Press maybe and they will say funny things like "You're friggin' lucky it's Tuesday" or something equally as side-splitting and other things and proceeds will go to charities that are non-jerk - i.e. battered women's shelters and child-abuse prevention, the ASPCA, things of this nature.




Oh, and speaking of peace and John Lennon and all that, the Imagine Peace Tower is up and going from October 9 through December 8. Read about it here.

Here's a live view of the tower in Iceland and go check out Yoko Ono's www.IMAGINEPEACE.com

And please take a second, or 5 minutes 15 seconds to watch this. It's called "I Met The Walrus" and it's really cool. And remember.





Be nice. It's Tuesday.

John Lennon. (And during the playoffs too. Humpf.)

"I make it a point not to get involved with a woman when the World Series is about to start, but for you I'll make an exception" -Lou Landsky Mermaids

It's Friday night. Here it is, a nail-biting BoSox/ Angels playoff game #2. A tie-scored, 7th inning playoff game (I'm all about Angles btw, if you needed to know. In this game anyway. Dodgers are who I'm screaming the loudest for). I wasn't going to, but how could I not. I love John Lennon. I really do and I was thinking about it today. I've gone back and forth about favorite Beatles, each one getting a chance at "Bee's Knees"- well, okay, not Ringo, but the other three, and I've come to this conclusion. It's totally John. Don't tell anyone though,  because it's suppose to be Paul otherwise, what kind of fangirl would I be?!

Paul is the cute, charming one. George was the funniest. Ringo drummed and John... I don't know what to say about John Lennon. I guess he was the walrus. *cues rimshot*.

I guess what it boils down to is not what I love about them, but what I don't like. Paul is plastic. Paul is a Barbie. I love Paul heart and soul, but I get why people, like my hubby, can't stand him. I get it. He's a product, he's no longer a person. He's afraid to fail. He's afraid to let anyone see him fail, and when he divorced Voldemort, even then he tried to put on "The Face". And in not lettin' 'em see him sweat, he looks a fool. I blame Linda (sorry Linda). I do because at least when he was with Jane Asher, he was the Swingin' 60s. He was hip and with it.

Then Linda comes along and makes him go all goody-two-shoes and grow a mullet. And then he became "mullet Paul". And then John dies, and he feels he has to right some wrong about his public image,  trying to be "hip and with it Paul" which doesn't work when you've been out of the game on your farm in Scotland with a sycophant as your only meter of self. (Writing that just broke my heart. I'm really sorry Paulie. I totally love you!)

And as much as I love George and Ringo, they were and are (increasingly) bitter old men, respectively.

And the fact that overly optimistic Paul is now forever coupled with cranky pants, Ringo till death do them part makes me sad for them both.

It has to be worse for Paul because he seems to want so much for Ringo to like him now. It's weird. He's Ringo. But for Ringo, it must totally be annoying, you know? It wasn't always bad with them though....

So on to John. You could argue that John Lennon would be just as much a stereotype of himself had he not been gunned down nearly 29 years ago, but he never bought into himself the way that Paul has and though he was a bit bitter, it was never to the extent of George or Ringo. And John wouldn't do another paid concert once he stepped off the stage at Candlestick in August of 1966 (Paul's tickets go for thousands of dollars, I'm just sayin') AND Lennon is said to have been the only ex- Beatle to treat every fan that came up to him with respect. The Only One. Mr. Perfect McCartney, I've seen video on TMZ of him being rude to a fan. Mr. Righteous Harrison, I've totally heard of him being rude. Aaaaaaand Ringo...?

And though that fan respect most definitely lead to his becoming dead, you can't say that John Lennon didn't care. Now, it must suck to really have been a Beatle and I can't say that I wouldn't be rude. I'd bust  out all Ringo Starr on you, but that just proves my point about John even more. He was awesome, he'd invite crazy fans into his house for tea!

John was vulnerable and so much more than the other three. Well, more than George and Ringo, anyway. John just chose to say, "Yo, this is me. Suck it" and Paul, well, Paul didn't. John was angry, and drunk and funny and mean and sweet and all those things and he just was. So happy birthday Johnny. You're my fave. Right now.

Harry Nilsson

Who's your favorite American Group? "Nilsson" 

-Paul McCartney 1968

Yes. That is indeed a picture of Harry Nilsson and John Lennon wrestling taken by May Pang in 1974 or 1975 during The Lost Weekend - arguably my favorite of all the weekends. Combined.

Two days from now is- would have been John Lennon's birthday. This makes me think of The Lost Weekend, which brings me to Harry Nilsson. And there is something about the name "Harry Nilsson" that amuses me. I immediately think of drunken debauchery. And I know that it stems from what I've read (truth debatable) from Goldman's book The Lives Of Lennon.

One such gem:  Nilsson and Lennon getting tossed from the Troubadour in Hollywood for heckling The Smothers Brothers and fisticuffin' on March 12, 1974. 

Click here for a big version of the Troubadour story from Rolling Stone and here for a large version of Lennon talking about putting a used (?!) Kotex on his head and rudely asking the waitress if she knew who he was. Classic!  

Lennon produced Nilsson's Pussy Cats album that was again filled with drunken debauchery. I love this stuff. Check out this blog for more on that.

I could go on and on about The Lost Weekend, however, I sat down and dedicated myself to Harry Nilsson blog post, not Lost Weekend blog post. Another day.

Moving on, I first heard of Harry Nilsson through The Monkees as he wrote "Cuddly Toy" and "Daddy's Song".  Which, FYI, "Cuddly Toy = one of my faves.

And from Head (which if you haven't seen, do so now) ALTHOUGH, for some reason completely unknown to me, the clip from Head totally doesn't exist. I looked. This clip does exist though and someone put the song to clips from Skidoo - which in an ironic twist contains songs by Nilsson. 

Harry Nilsson actually was one of the most prolific songwriters but his problem of not being able to stay in one genre actually threw him into a kind of obscurity.

What I didn't realize about Harry Nilsson is that not only was it his flat in London that both Mama Cass and Keith Moon died in (in the same bed it's told with flashlights under chins) but he wrote A LOT of songs!  Here's the Wiki of his discography.

Here's a couple shockers to me.

And if what you're itching for is more Harry Nilsson connecting to the Beatles, I know I always am, then guess what. You're in luck! You remember that movie Popeye? Bet ya can't guess you wrote all the songs... Okay, you got me, it was Harry. But here's my clincher - Klaus Voormann. Klausy played Von Schnitzel.

But dig a little deeper and you know what you'll find? Klaus and Harry? BFFs. Checky checky. You know you want to. http://www.iheartklaus.com/harry.html.  For those of you that are like, "Yeah? So? Who's that effin' guy?!" Well, Klaus Voormann is from North Berlin and later Hamburg, Germany. About and around 1960ish, Klaus had a fight with his then girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr (Early Beatle photographer and kind of, sort of the first "Yoko" as she did take Stuart Sutcliffe from the band) and their friend Jurgen Vollmer (gave Lennon and McCartney their first "Beatle Haircut" in Paris, 1961). Klaus wandered into The Reeperbahn and got his first taste of Rock N Roll. The Beatles. Only not the polished Beatles that we know and love today. The dirty, gritty Beatles. >__<

So in looking for stuff - aka "googling" I kept coming across this totally awesome blog on The Nilsson. Check it. For The Love Of Harry.

Birth Control Glasses.

In about, oh, 1994 maybe, I needed glasses. I got some weird, wire-rimmed numbers that dimmed in the light. GROSS.

Then I became obsessed with wanting to look like Marilyn Monroe in "How To Marry A Millionaire" and I wanted THOSE glasses.

I searched and searched. No luck. Although, today, they likely sell them at the local LensCrafters, but not the case 15 years ago, Ladies and Gents. I rummaged Denver through and through 'til I found myself in a little thrift store.

There they were. $6 for a pair of Army issued, blacked rimmed glasses. I loved them and though they weren't quite the Marilyn Monroes I'd been searching for, they were still geek enough to pass inspection.

I had my prescription lenses put in them and Viola! I was transformed from drabby nerd to Chic geek. Yay!!! Then weezer broke loose on the world and I found new love for the glasses.

<3 *fans self* I love Rivers Cuomo. *swoons*  Anyway, here comes a rock star with the same gogs as me?! And cute? OMG.

So I start thinking about it. I dig dudes in dark rimmed glasses. I do. Well, a few of them anyway. So a list, shall we? In no particular order, for if it were in order, Paul McCartney would SOOO not be 4th.

1. Rivers Cuomo. He's way cute without glasses, but let's look at him again with glasses just to be sure. ;)

2. Davy Jones. x) (The Monkee not the pirate / sailor/ locker-keeper dude).

3. This Jonas brother. That's all I know about him. How old is he? Is he old enough to think of as kinda cute? Whatevs, don't you dare judge me.

4. Paul McCartney - any list that involves "cute" I can guarantee will include Mr. James Paul McCartney. It's his fault for being the most adorable human to have walked the Earth.

5. John Lennon. I can't leave Johnny off this list.

6. Sean Lennon - *swoons*

7. Oh yeah, Stuart Sutcliffe. ?!

8. Jarvis Cocker

9. Johnny Depp

Oh lovely spect out boys, I HEART you.  Boy oh howdy!

One more for the road. <3 S'up JT?

Halloween

It's October 2nd already?! Holy Craps! What am I going to be for Halloween this year?

Davy Jones?

George Harrison?

Cousin Oliver?

Gold Lamae Elvis?

Kate Gosselin?

A ghost? 

So confused...