Bloggerhythms

I'm one of the many music aficionados who have deservedly spewed venom on Yoko Ono over many decades for her awful music but never for breaking up The Beatles. She may have greatly annoyed three of them, but she isn't the reason they disbanded. Instead, you should blame most of the Liverpool four's internal friction on the death of Brian Epstein. Without him, the Fabs' business affairs became tangled in a fatal, downward spiral that caused hard feelings among them for a long time. But today, I'm willing to cut Ono a little bit of slack regarding her music. When she wasn't striving to be as musically outrageous and avant-garde as possible John Lennon 's muse sometimes wrote and recorded work that wasn't too far out of the mainstream. The primary criticism on most of her songs from Double Fantasy ,  Milk and Honey  and beyond comes from her completely unappealing singing voice, not from her songwriting. Every Man Has a Woman  isn'...

John Lennon recorded six albums with his wife, Yoko Ono.  Milk and Honey,  released in January 1984, was both his final one with her and his last record overall. The late, ex-Beatle's six songs on this set were largely recorded during his 1980 Double Fantasy sessions and were intended for later release, but because of his death - unlike the tracks on its predecessor - they remained unfinished when Ono delivered them to the public over three years later. Most of Ono's six tunes on the album were newly recorded in 1983 and were given all the polish Lennon's were orignally intended to receive. They were far more accessible and mainstream than any music the Japanese-American star ever released up to that point. Milk and Honey  made it to #11 in America. Of Lennon's three singles pulled from the disc, only "Nobody Told Me" (#5) reached the top forty. The other two were "I'm Stepping Out" (#55) and "Borrowed Time" (#1...

Sadly, John Lennon was assassinated forty years ago today and it was a shock to both music lovers and the rest of the world. It's true that the controversial Liverpool native was a massive contradiction. As a very young man he possessed a mile wide violent streak that he was able to suppress to a great extent as he got older. As Lennon matured he worked hard to promote world peace - frequently utilizing extremely eccentric public events - and outside of his great music that's how many people remember him. "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is a Christmas plea for peace during the war in Viet Nam that Lennon composed with Yoko Ono. On the classic record the couple was supported vocally by The Harlem Community Choir - a group that included thirty children. The original single has become a holiday standard. But now, there is an alternate version. It's a stripped down production featuring a crystal clear vocal by Ono without the choir backing her and - to the surprise of man...

I wanted to say something positive about the always controversial John Lennon because - if he had lived - today would have been his 80th birthday.  So much has been written about the man over the last sixty years that it is hard to produce anything that hasn't already been said. I tried, but this article is the best topic I could come up with for the occasion. This post is about the last song on Lennon's last album of new, original material, Milk and Honey . "Grow Old Along With Me" was written and recorded around the same time as the rest of that album along with Double Fantasy - the two LPs he made with Yoko Ono - shortly before he died. The romantic ballad proved that when he was inspired the Beatles' founder could write beautiful love songs that rivaled those of Paul McCartney.  "Grow Old Along With Me" was first recorded as a demo while Lennon was in Bermuda on a vacation without his wife. Ono phoned him to suggest he write a song in response to one...