Will You Still Need Me?

John Lennon would have been 64 years old this Saturday. In honor of this milestone he had sung about but tragically never reached, Yoko Ono has organized an exhibition of his drawings that opens in Soho tonight.

Here's an example:

Comments

[Navy Davy]

All I want is the truth, Eddie, just gimme some truth:)

[wilfred]

Edwards giving some truth. He ain't playing no mind games.

[carsick]

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope

[carsick]

change 'tricky Dicky' to "Georgie Porgy"

[Trickster]

Sorry to be the stickler here, but it was McCartney that sang "When I'm 64." (I think "We shall scrimp and save" in the background may have been Lennon's only line.)

Did Lennon ever sing it? I don't know, but given his and McCartney's relationship from app. 1968-on, I would guess not.

[Edward]

Yeah, but it was a Beatles song, and culturally come to represent all of them Trickster. There's a British artist who, upon Harrison's death, make buttons asking "Will any of the Beatles reach 64?" so there is a sense it applied to all of them.

[Josh]

All I have to say is that if you haven't heard A Perfect Circle's version of "Imagine", you need to.

[sidereal]

If you've never heard Beatallica's version of "Hey Dude", shame on you.

[John Thullen]

October 9

"Number 9. number 9. number 9.."

I'm a moldy, moldy man
I'm moldy thru and thru
I'm a moldy, moldy man
You would not think it true.
I'm moldy till my eyeballs
I'm moldy til my toe
I will not dance I shyballs
I'm such a humble Joe.

"..with Charles Haltry on the deafaids*, in which Doris gets her oats."

*Deafaids. The name of a band I engineer for and help produce. Play some guitar, sing, bang on the drums. We've had two Beatle covers "Lovely Rita" and Yes It Is" played on a Beatle show on a local radio station in recent months. We're doing a C.D. of original songs, which given the recent pace should be done on Lennon's 84th birthday, and we are very heavily influenced, obviously, by the Fab Four.

Goo-goo-goo-choo.

John and Yoko were, of course, absolutely correct that if everyone decided to stay in bed for a time, there would be peace. Except for the time out to pop Al Capp in the jaw. Then back to bed.

[kenB]

If you've never heard my in-the-shower version of "I Saw Her Standing There", you're lucky (much luckier than my wife).

[John Thullen]

Incidentally, Paul wrote "When I'm Sixty-four" at age 15 on the piano in the front room of his Dad's house.

[kenB]

D'oh! Blew that one -- I picked a Paul song. Edward, can you edit that comment to say "Across the Universe" instead?

[Slartibartfast]

I always thought that line was an underhanded jab at The Who.

[James Casey]

Did Lennon ever sing it? I don't know, but given his and McCartney's relationship from app. 1968-on, I would guess not.

Urban myth - let's put it to bed. The bulk of the animosity was over by the end of 1971. They were friends again in 1973. There's bootlegs of them together that year, sharing vocals at a jam session. Lennon favourably reviewed McCartney's "Band On The Run" later that year. The track "Let Me Roll It" on the same album is considered a tribute to the Plastic Ono Band's sound. McCartney and Lennon were watching Saturday Night Live round Lennon's when Lorne Michaels offered a few thousand to reunite the Beatles, in 1976. They called for a taxi but in the end couldn't be bothered. The producer and engineer of Lennon's 1980 sessions even say they were planning on writing together again.

[James Casey]

Two quick corrections from a Beatlemaniac:

1. "Charles Hawtrey AND the Deafaids - Phase One, in which Doris gets her oats"

2. Goo goo g'joob. Simon & Garfunkel sing coo coo c'hoo on Mrs. Robinson. John Lennon sings goo goo g'joob on I Am The Walrus.

I always thought that line was an underhanded jab at The Who.

Which line?

[Phil]

Great Moments in Beatles Connections: The DVD version of Monty Python & the Holy Grail actually begins with "the wrong film," which is a 1961 B&W British comedy called Dentist on the Job, which lists among its starring actors Charles Hawtrey. The first time I saw it, I immediately shouted, "And the Deafaids!"

I was just in NYC Tuesday. Wish this had been going on then, although I did see a similar exhibit in Cleveland several years ago.

[luap]

I am the Walrus.

[John Thullen]

James:

Yes, "g'joob", on I Am The Walrus. Semolina Pilchard and you are correct.

Actually (just checked my old vinyl)it's: I dig a pygmy, by Charles Hawtrey ON the deafaids, Phase I, in which Doris gets her oats."

I think we've got it now.

[Navy Davy]

Not to get too philosophical, but in the context of Beatlemania, let's examine my favorite Aristotelian concept: Cause and Effect.

1. Was Yoko the cause of breakin' up the Beatles -- a reviled outsider dividin' John's allegiance to the band?

or

2. Was Yoko the effect, -- a friendly new ally that John needed for comfort and solace to fill the vacuum, once the internecine musical warfare blew up the fabled foursome?

Cain't be both a cause and an effect. We demand an answer!:)

[John Thullen]

"the walrus is Paul"

But if John was wrong, then I get to be the walrus.

luap is third in line.

[Edward]

Cain't be both a cause and an effect. We demand an answer!:)

Can she be neither?

No one talks about the way Linda broke up the Beatles...if anything, if Yoko did play a part, it's John's fault for letting her. She didn't owe the group anything.

[Slartibartfast]

Which line?

Charles Hawltrey and the Deaf-aids

Roger Daltrey and The Who?

[John Thullen]

Attention Obsidians:

May we talk about the Beatles on every post and thread from now until November 3. It'll be like when the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan -- less crime, less violence, more love, more folks following posting rules of their own volition?

Please? Please Me.

[James Casey]

Interesting, Slartibartfast.

[Slartibartfast]

Interesting, Slartibartfast.

Hey, I'm not saying I'm right, just that I've believed it to be true for...well, an embarrassingly long period of time. Well, I'm not the first person ever to get song lyrics wrong.*

*Was going to link to the formerly nifty kissthisguy.com, but they seem to have hosed it up a bit.

[Jesurgislac]

Listen, do you want to know a secret,
Do you promise not to tell, Whoa . . . . .
Closer let me whisper in your ear,

[John Thullen]

It's Charles Hawtry, a British comedy actor from the 1940's on. He was in the "Carry On" series on the BBC.

Deafaids are the English/European term for hearing aids.

But the Who connection is interesting, and has a certain symmetry.

"Helter Skelter", on the White Album, was written after Paul heard a new Who song on the radio and wanted to emulate and top its loud, down, dirty, head-banging sound.

I forget which song it was.

[James Casey]

May we talk about the Beatles on every post and thread from now until November 3

Hey, why stop then?

[Navy Davy]

Cain't be both a cause and an effect. We demand an answer!:)

Can she be neither?

Yup, she can be neither. But, the default position would likely be "effect," which wouldn't be too controversial -- The band broke up, I still wanted make music, I fell in love with a singer, Yoko, we made beautiful music together, and posed naked for various artsy album covers -- it wuz groovy!

Eddie the contrarian, defends Yoko, blames Linda! Hah:) (I like it)

[John Thullen]

"Why stop then?"

Indeed.

On the Yoko/Linda thing; with the exception of John's unprofessional behavior (I thought it was cool back then) of bringing the wife and kids to the office every day during the Let It Be sessions, there are only two things I would change about the Beatles history:

John's murder and George's death. And maybe a rancorous business meeting or two in 1969.

No blame attaches to Linda and Yoko. The boys fell in love which is what the songs said we all should do sooner or later.

Of course, I don't toss a mattress on the floor of my wife's office and lay there and throw out suggestions about her work.

When I want to do that sort of thing, I come to Obsidian Wings. ;).

[sidereal]

Cause or effect?

Is not the entire fabric of existence conditioned by the twelve components of dependent origination?

[Phil]

I forget which song it was.

A vague recollection tells me it was "I Can See For Miles." Might have the check Lewisohn to confirm.

[Tom]

"No blame attaches to Linda and Yoko."

Has anyone else seen Yoko Ono's artistic work? She did some mindblowing conceptual art in the 1960s; SFMOMA had an exhibit of her work a few years back. After I saw it, it finally made sense why Lennon fell in love with her.

[John Thullen]

"It finally made sense why Lennon fell in love with her."

Yup, he climbed the ladder at the gallery and spied "Yes" on the ceiling. If it had been "No", he'd have walked out and history would have been a little different, but the Beatles would still have broken up.

"Yes" was the key Lennon word. Thus the Beatles.

And she would still be a name in the world of conceptual art. Lennon found somebody who could keep up with him; like Paul; like New York City. Plus the sex must have been conceptually extraordinary in the beginning.

[Edward]

Eddie the contrarian, defends Yoko, blames Linda! Hah:) (I like it)

I'm not a contrarian! ;-)

I did not blame Linda of anything...I asked why no one thought to. Big difference...

[John Thullen]

Hey, the beatles and the wives got past all of that long ago.

Yoko wrote an extraordinarily graceful obituary for Linda in Rolling Stone Magazine.

They all loved each other. Although Paul is bringing up the Lennon-McCartney copyright name-order thing. But that's business, which causes war, and just f---- up everything.

Then again, I have a substantial mutual fund portfolio; so there you go. And Yoko bought a cow.

[Jesurgislac]

I did not blame Linda of anything...I asked why no one thought to. Big difference...

People did blame Linda. Didn't you ever hear the nasty joke that was current in the 70s and got repeated (as I recall) every time a Beatles lover brought up Wings, the group Paul McCartney started after the Beatles split?

[James Casey]

Deafaids are the English/European term for hearing aids.

Also used by the Fabs to refer to guitar amplifiers, so he could have meant that...

[fobyoc]

"Doris gets her oats"

Getting one's oats is slang for having sex. Doris was Doris Archer, wife of Dan Archer and matriarch of "The Archers" a BBC radio sitcom about farming folk (or, as it used to be introduced "An everyday story of country folk") which been running every day for the last 50 years.

The idea of a raunchy seventy year old Doris Archer was thought rather risque at the time!

[John Thullen]

fobyoc:

Now that is a piece of information with which I can wow the local Beatles brain-trust.

Thank you!