Beatlesobit: Fred Arnold

Really, this is just a plug for an article over at The Arkansas Times, recording the death of Fred Arnold. The story starts as an everyday tragedy - homeless man becomes the 467th person to die in a car accident in the state in 2015 - but becomes much more:

[His friend Walter Durst] said that Arnold, who often went by the nickname Billy, had once owned a set of iconic record stores in Charleston, S.C., where he had also been a radio show host and an active promoter of punk bands in the 1980s. He said he'd visited London, Cuba and Russia (that his politics "bordered on Communist") and had also briefly lived in Colorado, as he preferred a colder climate. He said that Arnold had suffered a number of strokes in recent years, exacerbating many of his other problems. The letter, though, grew stranger as it went on. Durst claimed, for instance, that Arnold had known all the members of The Beatles, and had been particularly good friends with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. That after Lennon's death, Arnold and Ono had continued to correspond and had remained close friends. "It was one of the hardest things I have ever done," he wrote, "when I had to write to Yoko to tell her of Fred's death."

I collect, I reject: A fool and his money are soon centre-parted

Someone's just splashed 24 thousand quid on a lock of John Lennon's hair.

Imagine no possessions, eh? Whatever would we have to put into auctions.

Madonna finds a way to make her terrorism comments worse

For Madonna, it's not enough merely to compare the leaking of so-so music a little early as terrorism; oh no, she's gone a step further:

Madonna is defending herself against criticism after she posted Instagram photos of Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela that were altered to look like her own image on her new album.

Madonna’s cover for the album Rebel Heart is a closeup of her face with black string on it. Her social media posts show the faces of King and Mandela doctored to make it appear as though they have similar string on their faces. Some considered the posts offensive.

That's right, she's taken an image of a man who was assassinated, and another who spent decades in prison for his political beliefs, drawn on their faces, and is using to promote her "terrorism-victimised" record.

(That's leaving aside Mandela having actually committed what the State saw as a genuine acts of terrorism - proper terrorism, like blowing things up, rather than merely taping a few songs off the radio.)

“When I repost these images i am saying YES! These people are all Rebel Hearts in one way or another from Martin Luther King to Jesus to Nelson Mandela to John Lennon. YES! Lets [sic] celebrate them! The world needs more people like them. I hope to one day accomplish. 1 100th of what these Rebel Hearts have accomplished.

“As I Said in a previous post “I walk in the footsteps of Giants” and i will continue to do so G*D willing. They are my guiding light. #rebelheart #livingforlove.”

Now, obviously including John Lennon on the list is delightful in its own way - bracketing 'man who sat in a mansion writing songs about not having anything' with Martin Luther King makes it clear this is 'history' of the sort that Nike does sometimes to sell its plimsolls; that Madonna would include a man who was killed by a fan makes her overwrought wailing about victimisation ever more ridiculous.

Harry Styles as Lennon, with Lennon as Jesus

If you're ever in need of a working example of "the second time as farce", you can now reach for the outrage that has greeted Harry Styles turning up in America and saying One Direction are, right now, bigger than The Beatles.

A spokesperson for Jesus giggled and said "now Lennon knows how Jesus felt when he was throwing round the comparisons in our direction. Stings, doesn't it, John?"

Macca chats to Lennon

Apparently Paul McCartney tries to talk to John Lennon when writing new songs. Which is more than he tried to do when John Lennon was alive, so that's the healing started, then.

"If I'm at a point where I go, 'I'm not sure about this,' I'll throw it across the room to John," he says. "He'll say, 'You can't go there, man.' And I'll say, 'You're quite right. How about this?' 'Yeah, that's better.' We'll have a conversation. I don't want to lose that."

It's possibly true. You could imagine a ghostly Lennon nodding earnestly as Paul showed him, say, Dance Around, encouraging Macca to rush down to the studio and record the thing.

And then turning and laughing his spectral heart out at persuading Paul to chip further away at his reputation by pumping out more subpar twaddle.

On the other hand, maybe McCartney's head his post-1980 output, and is simply trying to blame Lennon for making him do it.

Robin Thicke attempts to rig Amazon's 'other fans of this artist might like' recommendations

Robin Thicke has decided who he should best be compared to.

Surprisingly, it's not Paul Raymond and Peter Stringfellow:

''A lot of good white soul singers, like Hall & Oates and Michael McDonald, did soul music for a while then had their pop breakthrough. That's what's happening to me.
''But I think John Lennon is blue-eyed soul. Bob Dylan is blue-eyed soul, Bruce Springsteen is blue-eyed soul.''

This was in a piece in Vanity Fair. More like a sodding carnival of vanity.

Lennon musical plans coagulate together

Could there be any idea worse than a musical based on multimillionaire ascetic John Lennon's life?

Apparently, yes:

Cast frontman John Power is to portray John Lennon in a new musical

Contactmusic looks on the bright side:

Power is a great choice to play the rock legend - he went to the same Liverpool schools as Lennon.

David Cameron went to the same school as George Orwell. Not entirely sure this means Cameron would be the obvious person to play Orwell in a dramatisation of Down And Out In Paris And London.

Bookmarks: Jarvis Cocker

Jarvis reviews the Hunter Davis collection of John Lennon's letters for Guardian Review. In the course of it, he explains why Britpop trying to be The Beatles was a bad idea, and worries about the way everything any Beatle touches becomes an artefact:

To be fair to Davies, he does admit in his introduction that he has "rather expanded the definition of the word 'letter'". This still does not quite prepare the reader for gems such as "Degs, No Fucking George, Yer Cunt, Jack" (letter 238: Memo to Derek) or "Fred, Lights in kitchen (bulbs), Honey Candy, Kitchen Air Con is 'On Heat' (Something Wrong), Cabbage, Grape-oil (ask where), Onions, Peas (NB the Korean Shop Shells Them!), Sesame Oil, Tomatoes, Berries, Yoghurt, Hamburger Meat (for the cat!)" (letter 255: Domestic list for Fred). The Post-It Notes of John Lennon, anyone? I like mundane reality – you could say it's my specialist subject – but there's no getting away from the fact that the second of those two examples is a shopping list. Are we really so bereft of new ideas that we now wish to study the equivalent of someone's Ocado profile?

[Buy: The John Lennon letters]

Fifteen million pounds buys a lot of imagination

Ding ding ding dingy ding
Imagine no possessions

A rare opportunity to purchase a luxuriously finished family home, formerly owned by John Lennon, set in about 1.5 acres of exquisite gardens within the renowned St George’s Hill Estate.

I wonder if you can?

Kenwood is situated at the heart of the exclusive St George’s Hill Estate, acknowledged as one of the UK’s premier private residential addresses. The house occupies a superb plateau position set around St George’s Hill’s renowned golf course, tennis club and leisure amenities.

No need for greed or hunger

Kenwood overlooks magnificent landscaped gardens and grounds and enjoys uninterrupted views of the Surrey Hills. At the bottom of the garden there is a wonderful addition in the form of an indoor swimming pool complex offering a heated pool, shower and changing facilities along with further sauna.

A brotherhood of man

The mature landscaped gardens and grounds feature attractive York stone, split level entertaining terraces, low box hedging, specimen plants and herbaceous borders extending to approximately 1.5 acres (0.6 ha).

Imagine all the people sharing all the world

This unique house boasts substantial entertaining and family accommodation incorporating many original features alongside a luxury finish.

6 bedrooms
6 reception rooms
6 bathrooms
1110.41 sqm
Garden
Land
Secondary accommodation
Swimming Pool
Private Parking
1.50 acres (0.6 hectares)
Freehold

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one...
Knight Frank is selling Lennon's old ascetic home.

The closing ceremony: London Pride has been force-fed down to us

I keep thinking 'bits of that weren't so bad, were they?'. And then I remember Russell Brand bellowing The Beatles through a megaphone.

The most successful bit was the Slim-J-Tempah sequence, which bubbled with energy, and was stuffed with shots of athletes bouncing about and singing along. Maybe it was a bit T4 On The Beach, but better that than the large swathes of a 1984 Radio One Roadshow beamed from a sleet-skittered Grimsby that made much of the rest of the event. It felt like the party the thing was supposed to be.

But what of the rest? Muse finally disappearing behind the self-pardoy horizon was only to be expected; the Kaiser Chiefs turning up in 2012 was a bit of a surprise. If the deal was George Michael had to do the new single to be persuaded to turn up, he should have been asked to stay at home.

Emeli Sande has been rather over-promoted: she can carry a tune, but not an entire ceremony. That Kate Bush was only on tape was a bit of a disappointment.

And The Spice Girls getting together for what felt like the first time in a couple of weeks wasn't the treat it was meant to be - the slow trundling of taxis for their entry seemed to last longer than the two half-songs they trotted out.

The London theme was quite weak - a couple of cars made out of newspaper, a Michael Caine voiceover and a bit of Only Fools And Horses. Why that one TV series? Why not, say, Barbara Windsor ringing a bell crying 'that's yer lot, ain't you got 'omes to go to?'; or Cumberbutch-as-Sherlock; or Grace Brothers; or Howman and Davidson finally doing a Babes In The Wood/Up The Elephant And Round The Castle crossover. Maybe not the last one.

Hang about, I've just remembered Churchill popping out of the Big Ben bell tower like a grumpy jack-in-the-box. Oh, god.

On Twitter, there were some voices going 'why are people being cynical? Can't we be like we've been for the last fortnight?'

But that's the point. If there's a point to the Olympics, it's about celebrating the extraordinary and superlative. If you applaud Mo Farah's triumph in the same way you applaud whoever went 'we could get some supermodels in and - hey, didn't Derek Bowie do a song about Fashion?', then you're really just watering down praise for Farah.

Not everyone at the Olympics gets a gold medal; in fact, that's the kind of point. Doing a closing ceremony is always going to be a thankless task - who wants to be the guy ushering in the hangover? - and coming in the wake of the opening extravanganza set the bar at a pole-vault height for a high-jump event. But nobody made anyone start a parade of plodding would-be secular hymns. No event will thrive when it drags on the film of Lennon doing Imagine, the national anthem of the Independent State Of Hypocrisy.

There were bits that were pretty good - the phoenix; the all-too-brief visit of The Pet Shop Boys. There was an exciting one hour event struggling to fight out of a three hour one.

But Russell Brand came on, singing through a megaphone.

Daily Mail has extraordinary new theory about the death of John Lennon

Tony Rennell's bit in this morning's Mail poses a big question:

Was John Lennon's murderer Mark Chapman a CIA hitman?

No. Of course he wasn't.

Rennell's article is effectively a long advert for a book by Phil Strongman that drags up the old "of course, it was the CIA what did it" barroom theory and attempts to construct some sort of proof.

And somewhere along the line his mind was infiltrated. With Chapman, the CIA could have drawn on its long experience of using mind-controlling drugs and techniques such as hypnosis to produce assassins who would eliminate trouble-makers, and ‘patsies’, the fall guys on whom such killings could be blamed.

Strongman claims: ‘Catcher In The Rye was part of Chapman’s hypnotic programming, a trigger that could be “fired” at him by a few simple keywords [via] a
cassette tape message, telex or telegram or even a mere telephone call.

’It’s certainly true that conspiracy theorists have long suspected both the Americans and their communist foes of using such techniques to activate ‘sleeper’ assassins — as fictionalised in the film The Manchurian Candidate.

Well, let's go with this theory for a while. The CIA - and the FBI, too, of course - have gone to all the trouble of turning Mark Chapman into a cross between Cuddles The Monkey and Oddjob.

And they use him to assassinate John Lennon?

Why on earth would the CIA want Lennon dead? Double Fantasy wasn't so bad it called for extrajudicial execution.

Strongman can explain the motive:

He had, it seems, rattled the cages of America’s powerful Right wing, first with his opposition to the Vietnam War and then with his campaign of pacifism.

Even the Mail's Rennell, who is regurgitating the book more-or-less verbatim, is unable to stop himself from squirting milk out his nose at that one:

It is here that those of us who lived through the period must pause for breath. Lennon was a mad and maddening genius, a showman and a show-off. But he was a dreamer, not a doer.

He wrote songs, he played the guitar, he had some funny ideas. He made us laugh. He was irreverent.

But he wasn’t about to bring down capitalism. He was doing much too well out of it himself for that.

Irreverent? By the time the CIA was supposedly having no choice but to have Lennon killed, Lennon was pretty much irrelevant.

You know that last big interview Lennon did with Andy Peebles that gets rolled out every anniversary? It was with Andy Peebles. And if the decision to send the bloke with the all-important Friday evening sports-preview show to interview Lennon isn't enough to remind you that Lennon was gently, but clearly, heading towards silhouetted-appearance-on-Denis-Norden-panel-game oblivion, let's look at this week's Creamguide:

One thing that Lennon page did point out was a moment on Nationwide when Frank Bough looked at a picture of a bearded, bed-in era Lennon and asked his guest Hunter Davies whether he still looked like that in his last days, emphasising that before he died people didn’t really know what Lennon looked like anymore, as he had been very much a recluse, enjoying life as a house husband in New York, and being well out of the public eye, especially on this side at the Atlantic.

Yes, that would have had the CIA worried, wouldn't it? "Imagine if all American men stayed at home and grew beards. It would throw the economy into chaos, and destroy the chances of Project Kiam from being a success."

It's perhaps surprising that - given he's just making stuff up, including the inevitable 'second actual gunman' - Strongman hasn't just decided to construct an equally pointless motive. Hey, how about if Lennon was actually a KGB sleeper? Programmed to go wild and slaughter Walter Cronkite - or the actual true heir to the Romanov throne, of course - at a signal from Olivia Newton John. Hey, the CIA are keeping their Lennon files sealed, so who's to say that just because I've made this up off the top of my head, it isn't in there?

Apparently without John Lennon, there'd have been no Jonas Brothers

In a bid to try and squeeze some publicity and misbegotten credibility out of his birthday, the Jonas Brothers recorded a tribute to the dead Beatle:

Sitting together on a couch, NIck Jonas offers a concise tribute to Lennon's influence on them.

"We grew up listening to the Beatles in our home, John Lennon specifically. And his words, and his lyrics, and his music spoke to many generations of people and continue to," brother Nick said.

Yes, when you listen to Video Girl you can really hear the influence of The Plastic Ono band on the Jonas Brothers.

"It's his birthday, 70th birthday, so happy birthday, John. Thanks for the memories. Thanks for the music. And thanks for showing the world that it's time to come together and live in peace. You're the man."

Yes, thanks for that, John. Imagine if you'd not pointed out that war was bad. We would never have noticed.

Imagine no possessions. Now, imagine those no possesions, but limited edition no possessions

No surprise about more overpriced Lennon tat emerging - limited edition models of Lennon's Imagine guitar coming from Gibson.

What's interesting, though, is that Gibson have announced that it wasn't their idea:

Gibson Acoustic's director of sales and marketing, Robi Johns, said Yoko Ono asked the company to release a limited number of the model of guitar that her husband played.

I don't think I can recall an instance where Yoko's instigation of a tacky cash-in was quite so publicly acknowledged.

Neil McCormick is actually sort-of right

Sometimes, we point and snigger at Neil McCormick, the Telegraph's friend of Bono music writer, but he's got a point this morning, listing the churning products of the Lennon Industry:

This is the latest offering from a posthumous, multi-million-dollar Lennon industry, partly fuelled by his widow's sometimes suspect desire to keep the flame burning. It has led to such dubious tributes as a TV commercial for the Citroën DS3, a Mont Blanc fountain pen retailing at $27,000, a limited edition Gibson Imagine guitar ($10,748), alongside the usual array of Lennon-branded mugs, clothing, books, calendars, prints and even an Imagine brand of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

I suspect Neil and I would disagree over the core of his argument. Neil insists this isn't what the man himself would want, or be doing, were he alive today; my suspicion is that Lennon would just be more careful than Yoko at merchandising the idea of the rock ascetic. But the headline?

John Lennon's 70th birthday: these tacky souvenirs and adverts insult his memory

I think we can agree on that.

John Lennon time capsule to be stuck in cupboard at JMU

Together at last - the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and John Moores University, as some sort of time capsule thing will be stored at both to mark Lennon's 70th birthday.

With the co-operation of Yoko Ono Lennon, the three time capsules will each include; John Lennon’s entire body of post-Beatles recordings, newly restored art prints of his LP artwork, rare memorabilia, a newly commissioned essay on John’s career, plus additional key items to help preserve his legacy and spirit for future generations.

In addition to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio USA, the second Time Capsule storage location has now been named as the Liverpool John Moores University.

You've got to love that co-operation of Yoko, as if it's awfully hard to get her to agree to something to keep her lucrative brand afloat.

So it sounds like it's a box set with a couple of knobs on. Quite how this will differ from anything on the shelves of the nearby HMV isn't clear. Apart from everyone planning it still to be there in 2040, of course.

[E]ach of [the three capsules] will be re-opened in a world-wide ceremony on October 9th, 2040, the 100th anniversary of John Lennon’s birth.

One will be locked up in Cleveland; the location of the third box is still up for whoever wants it.

Now, of course, a box of just records that you can find anywhere is hardly likely to get the post-apocalypse kids excited, so will there be anything else in the box?

The general public are invited to contribute to the John Lennon Time Capsule by submitting birthday wishes, commentaries, musical performances and personal thoughts online, at www.BoxOfVision.com/TimeCapsule. After the closing date of October 1st, the fan contributions will be collated and included in the 3 Time Capsules

You've got to love that "general public" - could that be any more condescending? Maybe the original draft had "schmucks" in but they decided to soften it.

Is anyone actually clearing their diaries to turn up to see a bunch of mawkish fan mail and a tape of Imagine There's No Heaven being opened in 2040?

It's a long way off. Given the way the current government is destroying the public sector, maybe there's as much hope of Liverpool JMU being around as there is of HMV.

Yoko Ono suggests charity promotes the Lennon brand

Pepsi are currently running a charity campaign in the US. Causes looking for funding can bid, encourage people to vote for them, and if they're at the top of the poll at the end of the month, the charity gets the cash.

It's perhaps a bit unfortunate that Pepsi decide to turn their generosity into a gameshow, but for small charities, it's an extra avenue of potential funds so it isn't all bad.

But hang about: what's this?

YOKO ONO is urging JOHN LENNON fans to celebrate the late BEATLES star's 70th birthday by voting for his Educational Tour Bus to win a $250,000 (£156,250) charity grant.

The mobile recording and multimedia studio enables youngsters in the U.S. to record their own music, with sound engineers on hand to help students produce projects.

Ono wants to take the initiative global to coincide with what would have been Lennon's 70th birthday in October - and she's eyeing a cash sum from the latest Pepsi Refresh Celebrity Challenge.

So this bus - splattered with the Lennon brand, you'll notice - needs less than £200,000 to get on the road.

Couldn't Ono write a cheque for that without even breaking a sweat, instead of throwing the bus into a battle for a limited pot of cash against other groups who can't draw on the name of a dead pop star to push their cause? It's a bit like staging a Beatles gig in the same village at the same time as the fete to raise funds for the new Church roof, surely?

[If you want to vote for someone, why not vote for Denver's splendid Center For Hearing, Speech and Language's literacy project?]

I collect, I reject: Lennon's lavatory

If you have a spare thousand pounds, you can poop where, once, John Lennon pooped. An old Beatles bog is on the auction block.

The auction organiser, Stephen Bailey, said: "The toilet might be worth something, and it might not, but it is certainly one of the more unusual items we've sold."

Mmm. Or, perhaps, the point at which you should go 'let's stop fetishising everything Lennon might have touched'.

Sure, he might have been a terrible old hypocrite, but even he might suggest treating his old can as if it was a part of the true cross was taking the piss.

Experts are expecting Lady GaGa to buy the toilet to use in a video.

Apparently, it is possible to tarnish John Lennon's memory

Given that since he was shot, the keepers of John Lennon's flame have been quite happy to use his name and music to flog everything from regional airports to training shoes - to say nothing of John Lennon's Flame brand barbecue coals - it's something of a surprise to discover that people still get upset by it.

But they do, and so we find ourselves with Sean Lennon having to defend why Lady GaGa was allowed to use Lennon's white piano.

You know the white piano - it was the one in the video where John banged on about how we'd all be much happier if we could free ourselves from being fixated on physical stuff; from treating things as if they were somehow of intrinsic value themselves and to concentrate instead on the spiritual.

Apparently that message of not treating stuff like it was a god has had such a deep impact on Lennon's fans, they can't stand to see people putting their hands on the piano Lennon used to float the idea. Hey, you, get your hands off John's stuff:

JOHN LENNON's son SEAN has been blasted by fans of the late BEATLES star for allowing LADY GAGA to play the musician's iconic piano.

Yeah - how dare Lady GaGa, a mere pop star, put herself on the piano keyboards of the bloke who did Twist And Shout and I Wanna Hold Your Hand. That's just wrong.

Sean defended his decision to allow the pop sensation to use the piano - insisting his followers shouldn't be "so judgemental".

In a series of posts on the microblogging site, he writes: "Pianos are meant to be played. Why is everyone so uptight?

"What should we do, lock it away in a dusty room? So judgemental... Come on, lighten up... life's too short, there're enough real problems in the world.

"Firstly, he gave that piano to my mother for her birthday, it is hers, secondly, he was not uptight the way you seem to be."

Of course, if Sean really wanted the piano to be played, he could give it to a school that wants to teach kids to play piano but don't have the money to buy one. Eh, Sean?

Imagine no possessions, eh?

I know, I know, the idea that John Lennon represents some sort of ideal of the simple life finally vanished around about the time the van turned up with the big white piano, but it never hurts to have it rubbed in.

Someone likes Lennon and what he "stands" for so much, they're expecting to raise nearly three quarters of a million dollars by selling a copy of the lyrics to A Day In The Life.

Sean Lennon denies Yoko selling out his Dad for money

Oh, sure, Yoko Ono might have pocketed a bunch of cash for letting Citreon chop John Lennon into an advert. But Sean Lennon is keen to defend his mother - it's not about the money at all:

Writing on micro-blogging site Twitter, Sean Lennon said the ad was "not for money" but was intended to keep his father "out there in the world".

"Having just seen [the] ad I realize why people are mad," he wrote. "But [the] intention was not financial."

Yes. That'd be it. Given that it's about a full ten minutes since The Beatles were all over the media with the computer game and the re-releases, it's quite possible that people might have forgotten Lennon ever existed.

But... hang on: why would you need to make a car advert to promote Lennon?

[Lennon] defended his mother, saying she was merely "hoping to keep dad in [the] public consciousness".

The ad, he said, meant "exposure to [the] young". "Not many things as effective as TV," he continued.

Yes. That's what you think of when someone mentions John Lennon, isn't it? "He's that guy who was on the Ed Sullivan Show a while back, wasn't he?"

Sean could say "look, my Dad loved money as much as anyone and Yoko's just worked out that he's reached a point where he's more valuable as a cash-cow than a pretend hippie. If he hadn't been shot, Lennon would be doing Nespresso adverts and writing start-up jingles for Microsoft." Trying to pretend that flogging cars is simply a way of keeping a philosopher's flame alive just makes everyone look silly as well as grubby.