John Lennon 70TH Birthday Bash

A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.
John Lennon

All we are saying is give peace a chance.
John Lennon

All you need is love.
John Lennon

As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.
John Lennon

Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - rock and roll or Christianity.
John Lennon

Everybody loves you when you're six foot in the ground.
John Lennon

Everything is clearer when you're in love.
John Lennon

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.
John Lennon

Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn't enough and you have to go and get shot or something.
John Lennon

He didn't come out of my belly, but my God, I've made his bones, because I've attended to every meal, and how he sleeps, and the fact that he swims like a fish because I took him to the ocean. I'm so proud of all those things. But he is my biggest pride.
John Lennon

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

I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong.
John Lennon

I don't believe in killing whatever the reason!
John Lennon

I don't know which will go first - rock 'n' roll or Christianity.
John Lennon

I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people.
John Lennon

If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that... I believe in what I do, and I'll say it.
John Lennon

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.
John Lennon

If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal.
John Lennon

If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'.
John Lennon

Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one.
John Lennon

Count me in...

Bummer when you find some one older than you and they are already dead...
Does not augur well...

nobody told me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBCdlBrgEmE&feature=related

cold turkey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BadOEZdKqrc&feature=related

"It Won't Be Long" live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bZxBLIjTu8

Happy Birthday John - wherever you are - you're timeless!
Some of my John favorites:

Lennon's song for his second son:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uldu_1-JCJE&feature=related

Lennon messing around in the studio with the old Everly Brothers classic "Cathy's Clown"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW7kAOi_Dp8

My favorite song by the Beetles is Eleanor Rigby. It is the most perfectly constructed music they wrote. It's cadence is wonderful and very different from their usual beat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Rigby

"Eleanor Rigby" does not have a standard pop backing; none of the Beatles played instruments on it, though John Lennon and George Harrison did contribute harmony vocals.[14] Instead, McCartney used a string octet of studio musicians, composed of four violins, two cellos, and two violas, all performing a score composed by producer George Martin.[14] For the most part, the instruments "double up"—that is, they serve as two string quartets with two instruments playing each part in the quartet. Microphones were placed close to the instruments to produce a more vivid and raw sound. George Martin asked musicians to play without vibrato and recorded two versions, one with and one without, the latter of which was used. McCartney's choice of a string backing may have been influenced by his interest in the composer Antonio Vivaldi. Lennon recalled in 1980 that "Eleanor Rigby" was "Paul's baby, and I helped with the education of the child ... The violin backing was Paul's idea. Jane Asher had turned him on to Vivaldi, and it was very good."[15] The octet was recorded on 28 April 1966, in Studio 2 at Abbey Road Studios and completed in Studio 3 on 29 April and on 6 June. Take 15 was selected as the master.[16]

George Martin, in his autobiography All You Need Is Ears, takes credit for combining two of the vocal parts, having noticed that they would work together contrapuntally. He cited the influence of Bernard Herrmann's work, particularly the score for the film Fahrenheit 451, on his string scoring.[17]

The original stereo mix had Paul's voice only in the right channel during the verses, with the string octet mixed to one channel, while the mono single and mono LP featured a more balanced mix. On the Yellow Submarine Songtrack and Love versions, McCartney's voice is centred and the string octet appears in stereo in an attempt to create a more "modern" sounding mix.

On the right side of this page, there is a short sample of Eleanor Rigby, which shows the cadence.

Music sample
"Eleanor Rigby"
Play sound
Revolver track listing

BBB

Eleanor Rigby lyrics
Songwriters: Mccartney, Paul; Lennon, John;

I'm Eleanor Rigby, I picked up the rice
In the church where the weddin's had been, yeah
I'm Eleanor Rigby, I'm keepin' my face in a jar by the door
You wanna know what is it for?

Well, all the lonely people
Where do they all come from? Yeah
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong now?

Father McKenzie, writin' a words to a sermon
That no one will hear, no one comes near
Look at him workin', darnin' his socks in the night
What does he care? Yeah

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong? Yeah

Hmm, yeah, hmm, yeah
Eleanor, yea e yea, hmm

Eleanor Rigby, died in the church
And was buried along with her name, nobody came
Father McKenzie wipin' the dirt from his hands
As he walked from the grave

Sayin' all the lonely people
Where do, where do they come from
All over the world, the lonely, lonely, lonely, people
Where do, where do they all belong

Lonely, only the lonely know
Ooh, lonely, only the lonely people know
Just like Eleanor Rigby, yeah
Eleanor, Eleanor Rigby

Only the lonely, yeah, the lonely
Yea e yea, God bless
Lonely, lonely

Eleanor Rigby Music:

http://vimeo.com/4195239

It doesn't matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I'm a woman or a man.
John Lennon

It was like being in the eye of a hurricane. You'd wake up in a concert and think, Wow, how did I get here?
John Lennon

Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.
John Lennon

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.
John Lennon

Love is the answer, and you know that for sure; Love is a flower, you've got to let it grow.
John Lennon

Love is the flower you've got to let grow.
John Lennon

Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it.
John Lennon

My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.
John Lennon

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.
John Lennon

Part of me suspects that I'm a loser, and the other part of me thinks I'm God Almighty.
John Lennon

Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law. It's nine-tenths of the problem.
John Lennon

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
John Lennon

Rituals are important. Nowadays it's hip not to be married. I'm not interested in being hip.
John Lennon

Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn't insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.
John Lennon

The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that's making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?
John Lennon

The cross of the Legion of Honor has been conferred on me. However, few escape that distinction.
John Lennon

The more I see the less I know for sure.
John Lennon

The postman wants an autograph. The cab driver wants a picture. The waitress wants a handshake. Everyone wants a piece of you.
John Lennon

The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.
John Lennon

There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
John Lennon

Thank you for sharing it does seem that he was a wise man