It's been 39 years to the day yesterday when John Lennon
was killed. He died on December 8th in 1980, he was just 40 years old. Shot down
by that beast Mark Chapman who is still alive and in jail. I don't know exactly
of the motive behind this murder, but I did watch a documentary once that this
was a ''religious'' thing. As in Chapman aparently was upset because Lennon
said in 1966 that the Beatles are more popular than Jesus. It was also said
that Chapman was angered by the fact that Lennon would preach about love and
peace and yet have millions on the bank account. Which is absolutely ridiculous
but let's be honest here, Chapman is not exactly a sane person is he.
Couple of hours before killing him, Lennon actually
signed Chapmans cover of ''Double Fantasy'' which despite it being a completely
morbid and bizarre is now one of the most important rock n roll artefacts in
history and after it being in the possesion of the same person for almost 20
years it was sold to some collector for
1,5 million dollars making it probably the most expensive album on the planet. Well
the story, evidence markers and Chapmans visible fingerprints are probably
worth more than Lennons signature alone, given that you can actually buy
autographed things by Lennon on eBay from anywhere near 2000 to 20 000 euros.
Who wouldn't want that though, say a guitar signed by all four of the Beatles
(even if we know which one is my favourite coughmccartneycough) specially
because I know that having an autograph from all four of them and on a guitar
even is super rare.
Why am I rambling about this? Lennons death was so
pointless, and to this day I feel it's an incredibly tragic thing. John still
had so much to give to the world, musically and as well as an activist. I think
he was an incredibly positive person and the world would be a much nicer,
better and happier place with more people like him around today. Though on the
other hand, maybe this is better this way, I can only imagine just how saddened
he would be watching the world and what it's turning into.
It's true I'm not the biggest Beatles fan, I really don't
like the White album that everyone is praising to high heavens. I listen to
''Back in the USSR'' then turn it off, no joke, but I have in fact been hunting
the white shirt with their logo, you know just plain white saying ''The
Beatles'' in black, for a long time because I do actually like quite a lot of
their songs. Help! per say is one of my fave albums I've got and also both the
red and blue albums are rather good, though best thing to do is just throw on
the ''Greatest hits'' and enjoy that one. I actually have two copies of that
one, one near mint condition for collection value and one severely beaten up
copy to listen to, cracks a bit but it's alright.
Alright you probably guessed that this is leading up to
something. It's December, my abosolute favourite month of the year. Lol joke. I
despise December. There is nothing worse than the fake hysteria, children
hopped up on sugar and lies and people acting like January first is the end of
the world so they gotta ''live it up'' while they can. Oh my god give me a break, life is
crappy now and it will be crappy later. No need for false hope and partying
''like tomorrow is the end of the world''. All the hysteria about christmas
lights?! What is that about? It's just lights? Never saw them before? I have
wanna be Christmas lights in my room all year round. Big deal. And oh my god
don't even get me started on these so called ''photo corners and hashtags''
like, I get businesses, simple, very inexpensive commercial everyone takes dumb
selfies and posts them with a hashtag. But people! They are the worst. And not
teenagers mind you but older people, like our parents ages. They are all
insane. Taking selfies, pictures, live feeds on facebook, posting the entire
concert as stories on IG. I mean the hell is going on with people? I get
nervous rashes watching these idiots take a million selfies. For and fucking
real who goes to a concert and spams up their news feeds with nothing but
selfies? Okay we get it you went out of the house for a photo op. Great for
you. Do people even care and enjoy things? Like do they do things because they
want to / like to, or do they do it just to post on social media and brag about
it? It really is that way, unless you have picture proof that you went
somewhere / did something / eaten something it's like it never happened. I feel
like we're all in some vicious circle or a digital prison where our own freedom
is just an illusion. I feel blessed to be growing up in the 90's where my every
move and later mistake wasn't documented and posted on FB or IG.
Now it's not all as bleak and disastrous, even if
December is a month from hell. There is one positive thing about it. The stupid
so called ''fairy land'' in this town has quite a few December concerts which
are all free. Not always good music unfortunaly but I suppose you can find
about two gigs per December to tolerate. Or at least one. Now I've seen one
(first one – maybe also last one) this December last Saturday. I've seen these
guys before and to be honest I believe they are the best Beatles cover band out
there. They're called ''Help! A Beatles tribute'' and as a band they are quite
amazing. All four of them are great
singers and seriously respect for playing in that cold, I was freezing just
watching them. As a tribute band they are recognized as one of the best tribute
bands out there which I think is incredible, specially if you take into
consideration how many Beatles tribute and cover bands exist. If we believe the
press, there's currently 6000 Beatles tribute bands. Wow.
Listening to these guys it's pretty obvious why they are
in the tops. Very talented musicians, amazing voices, music, sound, hairstyles,
clothes, it all fits down to the very movments on stage. And I'd say it's about
as close to the original as one can get. We weren't all quite as lucky to see
the actual Beatles when they were ''all the rage'' even if let's be honest I'd
still go see the Stones in those times. Always been more attracted to the bad
boys rather then the ''good school boy'' type vibe the Beatles were channelling.
But Paul McCartney is on my ''to go see live'' wish list for the longest time
now, I just wasn't quite as lucky to actually go yet. I mean you see old ticket
prices 3, 4 or 5 dollars and you got all four for those prices! And today you
pay 150 and up dollars just to see one of them. Crazy. I'm still upset by the
way for missing out in Rome this summer. Paul was attending a wedding and I
actually was at his hotel but then I had a train to catch so missed out on a
photo op. I'd just die if I'd get a picture and autograph with THE Paul
McCartney. Ugh. I guess it just wasn't meant to be like touching Bon Jovi
wasn't meant to be in Milan. Damn it.
I'm so off point right now. Help! are such a good band,
and they wouldn't even exist if someone wouldn't ask them once to play Beatles
songs for a charity event. It was a one time thing and they realised they had
far too much fun doing that to never do it again. Amazing. So Saturday night
they spoiled us with all the best hits such as ''I want to hold your hand, She
loves you, Can't buy me love, We can work it out, Yesterdays, Roll over
Beethoven, Rock n roll music,…'' and others amongst which of course ''Twist and
shout'' which I LOVE but also I'm sorry boys I will ALWAYS love it more when
The Boss sings it. It was my favourite moment at his gig in Austria when the
cops shut him down and he's like you know what fuck all y'all I'm gonna play
for 30 more minutes and he did Twist and shout and the entire stadium sang and
danced with him. It was a hair raising moment ( which you can take a look at
overe here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G2gkPcCNfg ).
They also played ''All you need is love, Back in the USSR''
and of course ''Let it be'' and ''Hey Jude'' which just happen to be my two
favourite Beatles song. Especially Let it be. It's a line I wanted tattooed on
me for the longest time, and now everyone seems to have it so I'm kinda over it
but still I love the song so much ''When I find myself in times of trouble,
Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be. And in my hour of
darkness she is standing right in front of me, speaking words of wisdom, let it
be.'' Beautiful and it was preformed beautifully by these boys. (speaking of,
any ''mother marys'' out there having a vinyl copy of Let it be going spare? Maybe
we can do some business. Lol).
Well last time I saw these guys I had only the White
album and the Help! album but this time I got ''a few'' more so I guess I'm
doing alright. Either way, here are some highlights from the great show and
below are the links if you wanna check out the boys.
http://helpabeatlestribute.com/
https://www.facebook.com/helpabeatlestribute/
https://www.instagram.com/helpabeatlestribute/
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