Chuck HinsonCHASIN' THE ROCK MYSTERIES
October 10th 2008 03:37
NOTE: Beginning with this post, we're gonna look at the mysteries concerning some of rock-and-roll's greatest performers. It'll rotate with up-to-the-minute classic rock news commentary.
I think every rock fan remembers where he or she was when the news hit on December 8, 1980: that John Lennon was dead!
Of course, we quickly learned the name of the perp who murdered him: where he came from and how and why he did it. But ...
did John have a feeling ... something was about to happen to him?
Listen to what he said, just a short time before the shooting:
"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." (Playboy interview, Fall, 1980)
"What does it mean when a person is such a pacifist that they get shot? I can never understand that."
and, in an interview given just days before he was murdered:
"I am going into an unknown future, but I'm still all here, and still while there's life, there's hope."
There were also reports that John secretly battled bone cancer during his last days. This rumour started from the fact that, when he re-appeared on the charts, photos of him showed a gaunt man with tired eyes. (Hey ... he was forty years old! He'd been through a media hell for over a decade. How was he supposed to look? And, listen ... if you have bone cancer, I guarantee you're not gonna battle it secretly!)
But it was furthered by another quote in the article (evidentally, a lotta people were ... ahem! ... "reading" Playboy at the time): "You get the big prize when you get cancer and you have been drawing circles and triangles for ten years. I had become a craftsman and I could have continued being a craftsman. I respect craftsmen, but I am not interested in becoming one."
THE "WALRUS" MYSTERY ... and OTHERS
Of all the Beatles' songs, I Am The Walrus was probably the most confusing. What ... what did it all mean? Here -- straight from Lennon himself -- are the answers:
First, the mystery of the hidden words I buried Paul in Strawberry Fields Forever:
"I said 'Cranberry sauce.' That's all I said. Some people like ping-pong, other people like digging over graves. Some people will do anything rather than be here now."
The meaning of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds: Was it really about LSD (the initials)?
"My son Julian came in one day with a picture he painted about a school friend of his named Lucy. He had sketched in some stars in the sky and called it 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,' Simple. The images were from 'Alice in Wonderland.' It was Alice in the boat. She is buying an egg and it turns into Humpty Dumpty. The woman serving in the shop turns into a sheep and the next minute they are rowing in a rowing boat somewhere and I was visualizing that. There was also the image of the female who would someday come save me... a 'girl with kaleidoscope eyes' who would come out of the sky. It turned out to be Yoko, though I hadn't met Yoko yet. So maybe it should be 'Yoko in the Sky with Diamonds.'"
Finally, I Am The Walrus:
"The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko. Part of it was putting down Hare Krishna. All these people were going on about Hare Krishna, Allen Ginsberg in particular. The reference to 'Element'ry penguin' is the elementary, naive attitude of going around chanting, 'Hare Krishna,' or putting all your faith in any one idol. I was writing obscurely, a la Dylan, in those days."
Okay ... that's it for now. There are many more mysteries contained within the archives of rock, so stay tuned for tomorrow's edition. We'll also get back with the last part of the Sixties ads at the end.
The Relic's gotta apologize for bein' late, btw. I've been quite busy, with the PC breaking down and having to be rebuilt. But now we're gonna be on time from here on ...
So, until tomorrow ...
See ya on the FLIP SIDE!!
did John have a feeling ... something was about to happen to him?
Listen to what he said, just a short time before the shooting:
"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." (Playboy interview, Fall, 1980)
"What does it mean when a person is such a pacifist that they get shot? I can never understand that."
and, in an interview given just days before he was murdered:
"I am going into an unknown future, but I'm still all here, and still while there's life, there's hope."
There were also reports that John secretly battled bone cancer during his last days. This rumour started from the fact that, when he re-appeared on the charts, photos of him showed a gaunt man with tired eyes. (Hey ... he was forty years old! He'd been through a media hell for over a decade. How was he supposed to look? And, listen ... if you have bone cancer, I guarantee you're not gonna battle it secretly!)
THE "WALRUS" MYSTERY ... and OTHERS
First, the mystery of the hidden words I buried Paul in Strawberry Fields Forever:
"I said 'Cranberry sauce.' That's all I said. Some people like ping-pong, other people like digging over graves. Some people will do anything rather than be here now."
The meaning of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds: Was it really about LSD (the initials)?
"My son Julian came in one day with a picture he painted about a school friend of his named Lucy. He had sketched in some stars in the sky and called it 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,' Simple. The images were from 'Alice in Wonderland.' It was Alice in the boat. She is buying an egg and it turns into Humpty Dumpty. The woman serving in the shop turns into a sheep and the next minute they are rowing in a rowing boat somewhere and I was visualizing that. There was also the image of the female who would someday come save me... a 'girl with kaleidoscope eyes' who would come out of the sky. It turned out to be Yoko, though I hadn't met Yoko yet. So maybe it should be 'Yoko in the Sky with Diamonds.'"
Finally, I Am The Walrus:
"The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko. Part of it was putting down Hare Krishna. All these people were going on about Hare Krishna, Allen Ginsberg in particular. The reference to 'Element'ry penguin' is the elementary, naive attitude of going around chanting, 'Hare Krishna,' or putting all your faith in any one idol. I was writing obscurely, a la Dylan, in those days."
Okay ... that's it for now. There are many more mysteries contained within the archives of rock, so stay tuned for tomorrow's edition. We'll also get back with the last part of the Sixties ads at the end.
The Relic's gotta apologize for bein' late, btw. I've been quite busy, with the PC breaking down and having to be rebuilt. But now we're gonna be on time from here on ...
So, until tomorrow ...
See ya on the FLIP SIDE!!
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Comment by Kim Kinrade
Great new site. I just signed up. Don't know how I missed getting it before.
Cheers,
Kim
Comment by The Rock Relic
BTW, need to clear somethin' up: My old compadres and I are still on good terms. Didn't wantcha to think we were at each others' throats or somethin'!
After gettin' through this grief-thing about Lloyd, I'm gonna get BACK with the mysteries!!
Eager to see YOU on-board, mate!
Cheers,
Chuck