Mojo Magazine recently got its hands on some never before seen clips of John Lennon, writing some pretty strange lyrics to songs on The White Album.  If you wanna see the clip, go here.   This is so friggin cool!

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Ben and Jerry’s honors John Lennon with a new ice cream flavor - Imagine Whirled Peace. They are also asking people to go to their site and upload your peace message.

It looks good, I can’t wait to try it!

The last piano that John Lennon played in his life will be on display starting this November.  The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is set to open a museum in New York City and the “John Lennon Piano”, as it has been dubbed by the staff at The Record Plant, will be one of the items housed there.

On the last day of John’s life, he was in the mix room of The Record Plant recording studio with sound engineer Jack Douglas, working on “Walking On Thin Ice”.  John was playing that same piano shortly before he left the studio that horrible night back in December, 1980.

Among the other items that will be on display in the new museum will be Bruce Springsteen’s first car, Elvis’ biker jacket and, I love this one, a phone booth from the iconic punk NYC nightclub CBGB.  I love this little bit of trivia too…did you know that the “John Lennon Piano” was also used during the recording of Don McLean’s “American Pie”?  I’ll bet you didn’t!  See what happens when you read BlogMeanies?  Good things!

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For the fifth straight time, Mark David Chapman, the man who took the life of John Lennon in 1980, has been denied parole once again….thank God.  Parole officers at his hearing today, August 8, put to rest fears that the creep would be set free.  Even though authorities have said that he has maintained a clean disciplinary record since 1994, they said if Chapman were set free…

“it would not be in the best interest of the community,”

He was originally sentenced to 20 years at Attica State Prison in New York State.  Now 53 years old, Chapman must serve two more years before he becomes eligible for parole again.  Good.  Let’s hope he rots there.  As cited in my earlier post today, I’m sure Yoko Ono is satisfied with this outcome too.

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John Lennon’s childhood is to be the subject of a new film.

Lennon was raised by his Aunt Mimi in Liverpool, England after his parents split up.
He later poured out his anger at what he saw as their desertion of him in emotional songs such as Mother and My Mummy’s Dead.

Filmaker Matt Greenhalgh will examine Lennon’s formative years and the influence they had on his talent for music in the still-in-development movie ‘Nowhere Boy’.

Greenhalgh says his Lennon movie will be based on a book by the Beatle’s half-sister Julia Baird.
He says,

“His early life as told in Julia’s book took me into a world that illuminated so much about this legendary genius. I could see the drama and film immediately. The women in his life, the men who weren’t, the birth of rock ‘n’ roll; all imposing on a brilliantly complicated adolescent mind. The nagging questions, the icy secrets, the need for love. John’s angst and anger pouring out into his music, his thankful salvation. Without this story we would never have heard the Beatles - can you imagine that?”

Sounds interesting. I hope the filmaker does a good job with it.

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Handwritten lyrics to John Lennon’s Give Peace a Chance are expected to go for a whopping 300,000 pounds (600,000 US) at an auction later today in London. The lyrics were presented to a comedy writer named Gail Renard who visited John and Yoko during their bed-in in 1969. The writer ended up becoming life-long friends with the famous couple. She told the BBC that she didn’t regret putting the lyrics up for sale because they had become a “responsibility”. She also said:

“I really was getting nervous about it and they went to live in a vault for a little while but I thought, ‘well that’s ridiculous because nobody’s enjoying them now’.”

Repsonsibility? How quaint. The lyrics sat in a vault. It’s not like they had to be fed and watered every day. Anyone in their right mind who owned a piece of memorabilia such as this would never let it go. Of course, money does have a way of changing some peoples’ minds., doesn’t it?

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Wanna know the what’s, why’s and where’s of the above pictured iconic photograph of John Lennon?  The man behind the photo, rock photographer Bob Gruen, explains in his own words…

“I had actually bought that shirt a year earlier; I had given one of them to John. I used to wear them quite a bit; I had about 7 or 8 of them. I was very proud to be from New York, still am. And John wanted an album design that required a series of very similar photos of his face making all different expressions, and he wanted to do it very simply. He had a rooftop penthouse apartment on the East Side, and so we went out on the roof and took the pictures for the album cover. Then he suggested we take some more for the publicity pictures, and I said, “Would you still have that T-shirt I gave you last year? Because this is a perfect setting, with the skyline all around.” And he knew right where it was and went and put the T-shirt on and we took this photo. We had no idea when we were taking it that it would become such a well-known picture.”

Is that cool story or what?  Who knew that pic would become what it is today!

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Liverpool will be the scene this week as the art collection of John Lennon goes on display. The free exhibition will be shown until June 2, in what is thought to be the largest collection of John’s art ever to hit the UK. 15 original drawings as well as 3 exclusive new images will be part of it, with works dating back to 1968, and up until the time of his passing in 1980. Yoko’s company, Bag One, helped organize all of this loveliness.

I’m so excited to be able to see this next week. There’s going to be alot going on in Liverpool, that’s for sure! btw, some of John’s pieces will be for sale, with prices starting at approximately $800 USD, all the way up to $9,000 USD! Wow, I guess I’d better bring my checkbook and my brand new credit card, eh?

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Colin Hall, the man who tends to the care and upkeep of Mendips, John Lennon’s childhood home in Liverpool, has won a radio award.  Mr. Hall researched information for the radio show “The Day John Met Paul”.  The DJ who wrote this show, Bob Harris, got inspired after visiting Mendips in 2006.   Mr. Hall’s extensive research and interviews with Paul McCartney and The Quarrymen helped him to achieve this honor.

This must’ve been such an awesome project to work on!  Congratulations go out to Colin.

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The lyrics to “Give Peace A Chance”, written by John Lennon, along with some of his personal photos, are expected to go for up to 200,000 British pounds when they are auctioned off on July 10, experts have revealed.

It seems that a piece of paper the lyrics were written on by John were given by him, to a fan, back in 1969 as a gift after John and Yoko became fast friends with the fan. The piece of paper is now on dispaly at Christies in New York before being auctioned off this summer in London.

Now I don’t know about anyone else, but if John had give me that piece of paper, I would have never, ever parted company with it…ever!!!!!

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