john lennon
The Beatles and John Lennon music history collection to be auctioned as NFTs
John Lennon’s eldest son Julian is selling some of the rarest pieces of music history from his private collection. John Lennon’s coat from the “Magical Mystery Tour” film, his cape from “Help!,” three guitars and Paul McCartney’s handwritten arrangement notes for “Hey Jude” are some of the most sought after memorabilia from music history up for nonfungible token (NFT) auction. The NFT series, called “Lennon Connection: The NFT Collection,” has opened up for bidding on Monday and will commence on February 7 in collaboration with NFT marketplace YellowHeart and Julien’s Auctions. A portion of the sale from the NFT auction will be donated to Lennon’s White Feather Foundation. Registration and Bidding is now open for Lennon Connection: The NFT Collection. In...
The 100 Greatest Rock Stars Since That Was A Thing
Three of the 100 are in this picture! The Rolling Stones, in 1964, from left to right: Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Brian Jones. The problem with lists like this is they are invariably bullshit. So our prime objective was to make sure we didn’t do a bullshit list. I’m not saying we did a scientific one either. Because that isn’t possible — actually, it is, if you wanted some compilation of who sold the most records/concert tickets/has the most fans/got the most death threats, etc., and someone could come up with a bunch of very empirical metrics and create a “heat index” or something, and could deliver an actual scientific ranking! But we, um, didn’t do that. In fact we didn’t even, technically, do the “we...
The 50 Best Live Albums of the 1970s
The concert industry exploded in the 1970s, and the live album, a stopgap project once reserved for only the biggest artists, became a compulsory ritual and a pivotal moment for many artists. Live albums captured legendarily loud bands like The Who and The Ramones in their natural element. Once obscure regional acts like Bob Seger, KISS and Cheap Trick exploded into the mainstream with live albums. The Band, The Stooges, and Velvet Underground put their final gigs on vinyl. Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young (as his ongoing archive series shows), and Jackson Browne recorded entire sets of new songs onstage. The Grateful Dead released several official live albums (and continue to do so) that only made fans want to bootleg shows on their own more. With the 50th anniversary of a landmark live album, Th...
The Reissue Section: Spring 2021
A pair of classic comedy albums from a revolutionary standup, a previously unreleased live recording from one of Germany’s most influential bands, a new collection honoring a post-disco R&B queen and the “Ultimate” edition of a John Lennon masterpiece are just a few of the archival gold hitting retail this Spring. But first, we dive headlong into a box set that classic rock fans have been anticipating since the news broke of its existence. The Who, The Who Sell Out: Super Deluxe Edition (UMe) When you listen to The Who with a 21st-century mind, especially the 1967 concept album The Who Sell Out, it’s easiest to think of them in the context of a group like Van Halen or Aerosmith when it comes to their lusty feelings about young women. By the mid-60s, teenage girls across Ameri...
Watch Never-Before-Seen Demo of John Lennon, Yoko Ono Performing ‘Give Peace A Chance’
Nearly 50 years after John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded “Give Peace A Chance” at their Bed-In for Peace at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal on May 31, 1969, a new demo has arrived showing a glimpse of how that legendary moment came to be. Released and restored by the John Lennon Estate, the unearthed video shows the artists side-by-side in another bed, at the Sheraton Oceanus Hotel in the Bahamas, just days before the real thing, on May 25th 1969. It’s a playfully unvarnished version of the Lennons test-driving the anti-war anthem. Here, they genuinely seem at peace. Lennon mumbles unintelligibly (“Everybody’s talking about revolution, masturbation, hasturbation, constipation … uh … rasturbation, cake, chocolate cake … uh… fake, cake, glasses, passes”) while Ono shoots him looks as if...
John Lennon ‘Look At Me’ Video Features Unearthed 1968 Footage of John and Yoko
The John Lennon Estate has gifted a music video for the ultimate mix of “Look At Me” featuring never-before-seen footage — black and white and color, shot on 8 mm — of John Lennon and Yoko Ono from 1968. The married artists are captured in their home in Weybridge, Surrey. “Look At Me” is featured on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’s The Ultimate Collection due out on April 23 via Capitol/UMe. The release will commemorate 50 years since Lennon’s debut solo album. “With the Plastic Ono Band albums, John and I liked the idea of this really raw, basic, truthful reality that we were going to be giving to the world,” Ono says in the book that accompanies the Collection. “We were influencing other artists, giving them courage, giving dignity to a certain style of vulnerability and strength that was ...
Silence Is Golden
In 1959, University of Detroit staffers slipped three silent 45s into the student union jukebox, designed to allow the purchase of peace and quiet during Bobby Darin and Paul Anka barrages. The blanks soon became so popular that needle-burn replaced their hush with the sound of bacon cooking, leading Student Council President Mike McCann to promise undergrads “replacement 45s of ‘stereophonic silence,’ which are twice as silent as monaural disks.” Months later, to protest Elvis’ powers of teen arousal, Pennsylvania’s conservative Reading Eagle News announced the world’s first Silent Record Week, “a tribute to silent jukeboxes” that squares across the world still celebrate every January. Upon catching wind of the Eagle’s nothing-fest, McCann publicly committed his university’s 65-strong cho...
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band The Ultimate Collection Reissue Will Feature 87 Never-Before-Heard Recordings
Yoko Ono Lennon will celebrate 50 years of the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band — a record Lennon described as “the best thing I’ve ever done” — with the release of a massive eight-disc super-deluxe box set. The 159-track, 11-hour collection, which boasts 87 never-before-heard recordings, arrives April 16 via and Capitol/UMe. The ultimate mix of “Mother” launches the album as the first single. The box explores the album’s 1970 recording sessions at EMI Studios 2 & 3 and Abbey Road along with John’s post-Beatles singles “Give Peace A Chance,” “Cold Turkey” and “Instant Karma! (We All Shine On).” Tracks from inception to the final master are revealed via unreleased and rare demos, rehearsals, outtakes, jams and studio conversations. A variety of new listening ex...
The 50 Best Albums of 1971
It’s become a cliché, even for post-Baby Boomers, to look back wistfully on the early ’70s as some kind of untouchable golden age for popular music. But when you survey all the era’s best albums in list form, it’s hard not to trust that instinct. I mean…holy shit. In 1971, the psychedelic era hadn’t completely wilted; prog was nearing its popularity apex; Motown was still a revolutionizing soul music; the folk-rock movement was in full flight. The possibilities were limitless. You know it’s a banner year when 50 albums don’t begin to scratch the surface — when both John Lennon and Paul McCartney release definitive LPs and neither make the top 10. Was 1971 the greatest album year ever? We’ll save that debate for another time (or maybe another list). For now, we present 50 stone-cold cl...
David Bowie’s Birthday Celebrated With His Covers of John Lennon and Bob Dylan Songs
David Bowie’s birthday today would have been the Starman’s 74th, and to celebrate, two previously unreleased covers are being shared — Bowie’s version of John Lennon’s 1970 classic “Mother” along with Bob Dylan’s “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven.” The tunes come as limited-edition singles and are on streaming platforms now. The Lennon song was done in 1998 with longtime producer Tony Visconti for a Lennon tribute collection that never came out. Bowie recorded the Dylan tune in 1998 as well. It was originally on Dylan’s 1997’s Time Out of Mind album. Listen to “Mother” below. [embedded content] Listen to ‘Trying to Get to Heaven’ below. [embedded content] Many musical peers are paying homage to Bowie on his birthday today via “A Bowie Celebration,” and Duran Duran issued their cover of “...
Watch Chris Cornell’s Video for John Lennon Cover ‘Watching the Wheels’
Chris Cornell’s cover of the John Lennon classic “Watching the Wheels” received the lyric video treatment, and early viewers were able to join the Cornell family in the YouTube Chatroom to watch the clip with wife Vicky and their kids Toni and Christopher Cornell. The song is from Cornell’s first full posthumous album, No One Sings Like You Anymore, which sees the Soundgarden singer covering the Lennon chestnut along with songs by ELO, Prince, Terry Reid, Guns N’ Roses and more. SPIN spoke to Vicky Cornell about the album and you can read that here. Check out the “Watching the Wheels” video below. [embedded content] You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful...
David Bowie Covers John Lennon and Bob Dylan on New Vinyl Single
To celebrate what would have been David Bowie’s 74th birthday, on Jan. 8. 2020 two previously unreleased covers — John Lennon’s “Mother” and Bob Dylan’s “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven” — will be released as a limited-edition seven-inch single. Bowie’s version of “Mother” was produced by Tony Visconti in 1998 for a Lennon tribute that never came to fruition. It was originally recorded by the Beatle for his 1970 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album. Dylan’s “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven” was recorded by Bowie in February 1998 during the mixing sessions for the live album LiveAndWell.com. Dylan’s original was released on his multiple Grammy-winning 1997 album Time Out Of Mind. Guitarist Reeves Gabrels, who played with Bowie from 1987 to 1999 and has been a member of the Cure since...
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