bill reminds us what today is. I thought of it earlier today, but hadn’t gotten around to acknowledging it yet.
Yes, boys and girls, it’s John Lennon’s birthday. I don’t know what days the other Beatles were born on, but I never forget this one, for two reasons. First, it’s just a few days after my own birthday, and I feel a vague-and-completely-irrational kinship with fellow Libras.
More relevantly, I had an excellent mnemonic device drilled into my head at an early age. From 1962-1965, when I was in the fifth and sixth grades (after having completed the 4th grade with a tutor to catch up with the difference in school years), I lived in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Nueve de Octubre was the biggest deal on the school calendar. We got a whole week off for that, and only a day and a half for Christmas. It was sometime later that I read that that John Lennon was born on Guayaquil Independence Day, and the association stuck.
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It’s also Jackson Browne’s birthday. I had a friend in high school who was a huge Beatles and Jackson Browne fan, and she made a big deal out of both of these. I need more things to do, don’t I?
Eventually, Lennon did his time running on empty, and the Beatles certainly found out enough about lawyers in love, at least lawyers in love with money.
But no one really ever took pen to toilet paper or parchment and said anything more starkly expressive than “Mother, you had me, but I never had you.”
That’s running on empty with an in-your-face foot glued to the artistic floor.
Doctor, my eyes have seen the years, and I’m lucky for it.
‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ was an early ‘pro-gay’,yet convoluted song,Lennon wrote about,Brian Epstein,who finally had his way w/John on an infamous trip to Spain,but luckily ,the media,pretty much stayed out of the way.Things change.
Excuse the sound-quality,but this was in the olden days,and I’m still a Beatlemaniac , It was one of the few,if not only shows, on the ’65 tour where they had monitors,and can hear themselves sing;not that bad for an almost 50-year old amateur recording:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HvlNCWvDzY