"Give Peace a Chance" - FAB Cover and Video by TheBeatleSubmarine!

Hey, Beatlemaniacs!

So John Lennon's birthday was yesterday. One of my favourite Beatle Co-op YouTube channels, TheBeatleSubmarine, have done it again; They've put their creative hearts together and produced yet another solid tribute to John Lennon. In past years they have set their tributes to the tunes of "Imagine" and "Watching The Wheels." This year they recorded their own cover of "Give Peace A Chance" and it blew my mind away!

This zealous group of teens and young adults are undeniable proof that The Beatles are still as fresh and relevant today as they were fifty years ago. While many of the Submariners are separated by hundreds of miles of land or sea, their love of John has helped narrow the divide and this video is a collaborative testament to the power of the Beatles' collective and individual legacies.

Turn up the volume on this one! Get ready to watch and re-watch this bright young group of Beatlemaniacs cover "Give Peace a Chance..."



Be sure to check out TheBeatleSubmarine's past tribute vids for John's 71st and 72nd birthday!

Howard Smith's Interviews With Legendary Rockers To Be Released

From New York Times.com

John and Yoko are there, talking for hours and hours — during a bed-in, at a “happening,” listening to the Beatles at home. Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda, just back from Cannes in June 1969, rap about their new movie, “Easy Rider.” Eric Clapton, between shows at the Fillmore East in 1970, struggles with a sense of responsibility for his new band, Derek and the Dominos.



Image from NewYorkTimes.com

Those are among more than 100 interviews with rock stars, artists and assorted radicals recorded from 1969 to 1972 by Howard Smith, a longtime writer for The Village Voice. They have now been cataloged and packaged for the digital era as “The Smith Tapes” and will be released in monthly batches over the next year. The first, with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Lou Reed, Frank Zappa, Mr. Clapton and others, comes out Tuesday through Amazon’s MP3 store and next week on iTunes.

At a time when rock ’n’ roll, the sexual revolution and the antiwar counterculture all intersected, Mr. Smith spoke to seemingly every boldface name for “Scenes,” his influential column in The Voice. He also had a knack for being in precisely the right place at the right time...

Read More...

John Lennon's Irish Island Up for Sale!

From IrishCentral.com

It's the island where John Lennon saw himself and Yoko Ono retiring to with a crazy scrapbook of memories, but nowadays Dorinish Island is home only to sheep and seagulls.

According to San Francisco Gate, the island the size of a dozen soccer fields off Ireland's west coast is being offered as a spiritual retreat to a potential new owner for the knockdown price of $384,000, 45 years after the Beatles legendary songwriter bought it.

Before he was shot by a deranged Mark Chapman in New York in 1980, Lennon revealed to friends his plan to build a home and retire to the island. But his death changed that and Ono eventually sold it to local farmers in 1984...

Read More...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YOKO ONO!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YOKO ONO!!

"Yoko Ono" by MasterLen

Thank you, Yoko Ono, for your music, your art, and your love....

and for sharing it all with the world.

Happy Birthday!



IMAGINE PEACE at University of La Verne

Hey Beatlemaniacs!

Recently, I attended one of the most moving and heart-warming art exhibits I have ever had the pleasure of seeing; Yoko Ono's IMAGINE PEACE exhibit at the University of La Verne in Southern California. This no-cost exhibit featured some of Yoko's solo works, as well as her works with John Lennon including the iconic WAR IS OVER! If You Want It posters, images of John and Yoko's Year Of Peace, and my new personal favourite Lennon/Ono venture, NUTOPIA.

Upon entering, catalogs were available with info and insight on all the various pieces and installments. Also up for grabs were IMAGINE PEACE buttons and little flashlights representing Yoko's ONOCHORD project.


As you peruse through "Hair Peace" posters and photos from John and Yoko's "Bed-In", images from The Beatles' 1967 All You Need Is Love global broadcast, and WAR IS OVER posters, you can't help but notice the proverbial "pink elephants" in the room; a series of maps on the wall and a 14-square-foot chess set.

First, the maps are part of a participation piece called IMAGINE PEACE MAPS. The maps range from the Middle East, the USA, California, Mexico, and a complete map of the whole world. At each end of the maps are several stamps and ink pads;

"Visitors are invited to literalize their wishes by stamping the phrase 'Imagine Peace' on maps attached to the gallery walls. In this work, Ono transforms the exhibition space into the antithesis of the War Room - the Peace Room. Instead of generals positioning artillery, identifying military targets, and tracking the enemy, gallery visitors are prompted to express their wishes for peace, designating geographic locations to which they have a special affinity with the stamped text, 'Imagine Peace', becoming as much a prayer as a work of conceptual art." (from the gallery-provided catalog)


I, myself, stamped "Imagine Peace" over the Mexican states of Chiapas, in support of the Zapatista Movement, and Zacatecas; my father's home state.
I also managed to stamp this as a reminder to the "world police"...


What really put the whole Imagine Peace Maps message into perspective was seeing the map of the whole world with the "Imagine Peace" stamping heavily scattered throughout. It was a reality check-inducing representation of what the world strives for and could accomplish, of course, if we want it.


Second; As mentioned before, the exhibit also featured a 14-square-foot chess board, entitled Play It By Trust. The chess set is all-white with 2-foot, all-white game pieces for both opponents. Play It By Trust has been re-created by Ono in various different sizes; from table-top versions to the larger-than-life version seen at this exhibit. Visitors may actually play a game of chess "as long as the opponents agree on which piece belongs to each player. Los Angeles art critic, Shana Nys Dambrot describes the giant chess set as "a visceral reminder that it’s impossible to fight an enemy who is indistinguishable from yourself."


As I was leaving the gallery I was informed that Yoko Ono's Wish Tree was also on the campus of the University of La Verne in the next building over. Without hesitation, I went to see the tree and make my own wish. Below is the tree at La Verne before any wishes were made. Believe me, when I got there hundreds of wishes were already hanging on its branches.

Wish Tree has played a significant role in Yoko Ono's art exhibits since the 1980's. The concept is simple; you write your wish on a paper or a tag and simply tie it on a branch of the Wish Tree. The organic energy of the tree combined the act of making a wish is intended to aide in inspiring positivity, hope, and peace.

But who better to explain Wish Tree than Yoko Ono?...

"Wish Tree

Make a wish. Write it down on a piece of paper. Fold it and tie it around a branch of the Wish Tree.
Ask your friend to do the same.

Keep wishing.

Yoko Ono, 2011"





Ultimately, all of the wishes are sent to the Imagine Peace Tower on the Isle of Videy in Iceland and buried in capsules around the tower. So far, well over one-million wishes have been sent.


In summation, IMAGINE PEACE was a very insightful and inspiring multi-media collection of images, video, music, text, art, and love. I strongly suggest you look it up to see when the exhibit comes to a town near you.

Peace is a concept and ideal best initiated from within. You must believe peace is possible and help spread the message as far and as loudly as you can.

Surprise, Surprise!!

I'm sorry, I've been on a "John and Yoko" trip all day. I just love their relationship! They both loved and knew eachother like no other. It was apparent in their music together, it was apparent in their photos together, and it's apparent in this very simple video... plain and simple, they didn't need love..... they had plenty of it and shared it with one another..

Here we have John playing the melody of "Julia" and singing his bridge lyrics from "I've Got A Feeling".... simple and sweet..

Did Yoko Ono Cause the End of The Beatles? Follow-up!

After posting my last entry (Below) I visited TheBeatleSubmarine channel and finished watching Kimberly's November 17th video that I had started watching before going on the air to host The Big Beat. It's way too much of a coincidence that the day Kimberly posted her video, in which she talks about the Yoko Ono/Beatles topic, is also the day that Fingers and I have our discussion on the matter! CreEeEeEpy!

Here's Kimberly's video. She begins the Yoko topic around the 3:30 mark. But, please do yourself a favor and show some love; watch the whole vid. It's too awesome and very insightful!

TODAY IN BEATLES HISTORY!! "Mrs. Lennon" Single Release

40 years ago, September 29, 1971, Yoko Ono's first independent single "Mrs. Lennon" was released with "Midsummer New York" as its B-side track.

I particularly LOVE "Mrs. Lennon." It is such a simple song, with Ono on vocals, her husband, John, rockin' the keys, and friend and bandmate, Klaus Voorman holdin' the lows on the bass. Although having a simple structure, the song definitely inspires such a haunting atmosphere. Along with the mood and the cryptic lyrics, this track really provides a great window into the art John and Yoko made together. Both of them being unique artists and performers, they definitely opened eachothers' minds eye. I'm very glad that such a loving marriage produced music like this.

I have included the clip from John and Yoko's September 11, 1971 appearance on The Dick Cavett Show in which the pair introduce "Mrs. Lennon" and its accompanying video. The visuals, just as haunting and cryptic, further stand as a testament to the free expression that the Ono-Lennon's shared with themselves and the world.

And don't forget, be sure to listen to "THE BIG BEAT" Episode 2 Podcast, found just below this post.