Wednesday, March 28, 2012

BY GEOFFREY GIULIANO


The Beatles / A Celebration
Dark Horse / The Life & Art Of George Harrison
Blackbird / The Life & Times Of Paul McCartney
The Beatles Album / Thirty Years Of Music & Memorabilia
The Rolling Stones Album / Thirty Years Of Music And Memorabilia
Behind Blue Eyes / A Life Of Pete Townshend
The Illustrated John Lennon
The Illustrated Paul McCartney
The Illustrated George Harrison
The Illustrated Jimi Hendrix
The Illustrated Elvis Presley
The Illustrated Eric Clapton
Vagabond Heart / Rod Stewart The Unauthorized Biography
Two Of Us / John Lennon & Paul McCartney Behind The Myth
The Lost Beatles Interviews
The John Lennon Interviews
Things We Said Today / Conversations With The Beatles
Glass Onion / The Beatles In Their Words
Lennon In America / Based In Part On The Lost Lennon Diaries 1971-1980
Compassionate Cuisine (with Vrnda Devi)
Revolution / A Secret History Of The Beatles

G Back In The Saddle @ TRUE BEATLES!

Been on holiday. Back to work soon! G

Thursday, October 15, 2009

“Yoko Ono quería divorciarse de Lennon poco antes del asesinato del ex Beatle”

Entrevista a Geoffrey Giuliano, el más polémico biógrafo de la banda

El periodista norteamericano es autor de una decena de libros sobre The Beatles y es uno de los pocos que ha entrevistado al círculo íntimo de la agrupación de Liverpool. Según Giuliano, en vez de relanzar el catálogo beatle remasterizado, “se podrían haber editado los ensayos acústicos del Album Blanco”.

Por Alejandro Tapia C.


Geoffrey Giuliano no sólo es uno de los mayores coleccionistas de la obra musical de The Beatles, sino que durante los últimos años ha sido el más polémico biógrafo de los “Fab Four”. Pese a las críticas contra sus libros, Giuliano tiene el mérito de haber entrevistado a prácticamente la totalidad del círculo íntimo de la banda y también a los propios Beatles. Autor de Revolver,the secret history of The Beatles; The Lost Beatles Interviews; Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney; Lennon in America y The Life and Art of George Harrison, entre otras obras, Giuliano conversó con La Tercera acerca del relanzamiento del catálogo Beatle y pasajes desconocidos de la banda.

¿Cómo analiza el relanzamiento de la discografía completa de The Beatles remasterizada?
Soy muy crítico de ese lanzamiento. El imperio de The Beatles, manejado por Paul y Ringo, además de Olivia Harrison y Yoko Ono, ha sido muy conservador. Ellos están interesados en preservar la reputación de The Beatles y su legado cultural. Eso está bien. Sin embargo, considero que les ha faltado creatividad. Nosotros recordamos a The Beatles por ser revolucionarios. Y lo de ahora es lo mismo de siempre. Es marketing.

¿Qué hubiese sido más adecuado?
Si ellos hubiesen querido hacer algo especial, podrían haber lanzado los ensayos del Album Blanco, que se hicieron en la casa de George Harrison en 1968. Ahí, The Beatles hicieron una suerte de unplugged, ya que tocaron el disco completo en versión acústica. Pero ahora McCartney y compañía se fueron a la segura, siendo que The Beatles siempre fueron más allá de los límites.

¿Con el nuevo catálogo beatle se acaban los lanzamientos oficiales?
No, no, no. Esto es como Jimmy Hendrix; dura para siempre. Hay mucho dinero en juego. Pero insisto, las grabaciones en la casa de Harrison son realmente buenas. Pienso que el relanzamiento del catálogo se hizo pensando en las nuevas generaciones y para ellos está bien.

En su libro Lennon in America usted se refiere a la última vez que Lennon y McCartney tocaron juntos, en una casa en Santa Monica en Los Angeles en 1974 ¿Cómo fue aquel “ensayo” cuatro años después de la ruptura de la banda?
Tengo una copia de esa tocata. Ocurrió durante el “Fin de semana perdido” de Lennon. John y Paul entraron en el estudio. Paul se sentó en la batería de Ringo (que también participaba de la fiesta pero justo ese día no se encontraba). En un punto de ese encuentro, Lennon preguntó a viva voz si alguien quería cocaína. Fue una fiesta. Hicieron varias canciones, entre ellas Blue Moon of Kentucky, Stand by Me y Midnight Special. Sin embargo, la mayor parte del tiempo, John se quejó por los problemas de sonido que tenía en sus audífonos. Técnicamente esa ocasión fue la última vez que John y Paul tocaron juntos, aunque sólo lo hicieron por mera diversión. Entiendo que no interpretaron nada de The Beatles.

¿Qué le parece el artículo sobre The Beatles aparecido en el último número de la revista Rolling Stone, en el que se habla del quiebre del grupo a raíz la relación de Yoko Ono con Lennon? Incluso ahí se sostiene que Lennon quería incorporar a Yoko a The Beatles.
Pienso que es absolutamente verdad. En esa época Yoko Ono presionaba sicológicamente a Lennon. Además lo tenía aislado y lo hacía consumir drogas y alucinógenos, lo que influyó en la autoestima de John. Y Lennon la llevaba al estudio todo el tiempo y no se separaban. En defensa de Yoko, mucha gente dice que sin ella no hubiese existido la canción Imagine. Lo que yo creo es que si ella no hubiese estado, hubiésemos tenido 30 años más de The Beatles, como sucede actualmente con The Rolling Stone.

Tras haber escrito los más controvertidos libros sobre The Beatles ¿Cuáles serán sus próximos “golpes”?
He pasado los últimos años juntando cintas que nadie más ha escuchado acerca de Lennon discutiendo sobre la paz. Las publicaré en una caja de cinco cedés, junto a un libro titulado John Lennon man of peace, the lost interviews 1969 (www.johnlennonmanofpeace.com). Este es el tipo de producto que pienso que los Beatles deberían hacer. Algo completamente nuevo. Las canciones remasterizadas están okay, pero son las mismas canciones de siempre.

Entiendo que también prepara una biografía sobre Yoko Ono.
Sí. Lleva por título “La Viuda Negra”. A mi ella no me gusta. Definitivamente ella destruyó a The Beatles. Puedo asegurar que poco antes de que John fuera asesinado, ella quería divorciarse. Esa relación estaba terminada. No se le puede creer a esa mujer cuando habla de amor y paz. Ella ha sido manipuladora, celosa y además, no muy talentosa. Lamentablemente ella tiene todos los derechos de autor sobre John. También pretendo completar mi trilogía sobre John con dos nuevos libros: Lennon in London y Lennon in Liverpool.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

BLACK WIDOW / YOKO ONO UNAUTHORIZED

“Yoko is a witch!”
George Harrison To The Author 1983

“John used to often tell me to get rid of her in the early days. As far as I am concerned she was, in the vernacular of today, a stalker.”
Tony Bramwell, Lennon Confidant

“If I would have been Hitler’s girlfriend things would have been different.”
Yoko Ono, 1969

Ugh! Geoffrey Giuliano, oh, I don't want to comment on him. If you follow his writings, you know all about him."
Yoko Ono, 2000

COMING IN 2010

Here at last is the bold, uncensored, unauthorized history of one of pop culture’s most controversial and dark divas. As the woman who shattered the Beatles and conquered John Lennon, Ono’s is the archetypal story of mile high ego meeting blind ambition in an explosion of over the top self promotion spanning four colorful decades. Hailing from the privileged upper class of the tawny Tokyo banking world on to the drug fueled art underground of 1960’s New York and London, this self proclaimed “con artist” came, saw and conquered taking with both hands whatever she wanted leaving a tsunami of broken hearts, lives and dreams in her inglorious wake. After the murder of John Lennon in 1980 Ono created a new role for herself, this time as the eternally grieving widow stumping for One World unity in a never ending series of often bizarre, always self aggrandizing so-called “event’s “ and “exhibitions” designed to raise her profile as the new millenniums ‘ “Mrs. Love & Peace.” Whether remixing Lennon’s post Yoko ‘Walls and Brides’ LP – deleting the Beatles loving references to his long time mistress May Pang and insinuating herself – literally- into the mix, re-drawing John’s private doodles for public display and profit, or sparring with young Julian Lennon over his share of the vast Lennon estate Yoko has excelled as the warbling Queen of Mean staking her claim as the unrelenting Ayatollah of John Lennon’s artful legacy and twenty five percent owner of the Beatles evergreen body of work.

Written with the aid of a wealth of unseen, exclusive private, personal and official documents, secret unpublished diaries and Lennon/Ono sex tapes, unpublished diaries, letters and exclusive insider interviews with Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Julian and Cynthia Lennon, Lennon’s sister Julia Baird and his Liverpool family, the Beatles’ intimate Apple staff including Peter Brown and Derek Taylor among many others. Controversial Lennon aid Frederic Seaman also weighs in as does John’s lover May Pang and Lenono staffer George Speerin. Featuring two 16 page inserts of never before published photographs from the private collections of intimate family and friends.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

WELL NOW WE KNOW WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO JOHN!

Found This On Google This Afternoon:

John Lennon Plumbing & Heating
90 W Shore Rd
Denville, NJ 07834-1572, United States

(973) 627-6484‎

Thursday, August 6, 2009

JOHN LENNON MAN OF PEACE 1969-2009

On Peace & Love 1969 / 40 Years Ago Today

“You say you want a revolution you’d better free your mind instead!” - John Lennon ‘Revolution’

NEW LIMITED EDITION 'MAN OF PEACE' GIFT BAG RELEASED TO CELEBRATE THE 40th ANNIVERSARY OF LENNON'S ICONIC INTERNATIONAL PEACE CRUSADE

The 'Man Of Peace Gift Bag' includes a specially designed vinyl shoulder bag. The deluxe signed and numbered limited edition 5 CD interview audio book boxset “John Lennon / Man Of Peace: The Lost Interviews 1969 : A 350 page trade paperback edition of Geoffrey & Avalon Giuliano’s latest work. An exclusive 30 page illustrated color booklet. A previously unpublished museum quality 8 X 10 photographic print of Lennon from 1969 signed & numbered by the authors. Plus a beautiful button & bumper sticker.

In this previously unreleased six plus hour five CD collection of John Lennon’s unique wit and wisdom the iconic Beatle introduces the world to his stirring non-violent philosophy to not only end, the then, raging Vietnam war, but also the deeply rooted violence within ourselves, a timely message especially important today in this world of seemingly endless international terror and conflict. Professionally recorded in Britain, Austria, Canada and Holland in 1969 the interviews are the complete record of Lennon’s turbulent ‘Give Peace A Chance’ days interspersed with relevant historical comments and reflections by celebrated Beatles author & historian Geoffrey Giuliano. Only recently discovered, these original, previously unreleased tapes of John Lennon (recorded exactly forty years ago) ring as true today in our almost hopelessly war torn world as they did during the now iconic ‘summer of love / days of rage’ era in which they were recorded. Here is history in your hands – as touching and funny as it is moving and overwhelming in its elegant philosophical simplicity. A powerful audio manifesto for the ages and a light for successive generations in this increasingly dark world. This is John Lennon / Man Of Peace!

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT JOHN LENNON'S ICONIC
INTERNATIONAL PEACE CRUSADE OF 1969 OR TO
ORDER YOUR 'MAN OF PEACE GIFT BAG' PLEASE VISIT:
http://www.johnlennonmanofpeace.com


VINTAGE LENNONSPEAK CIRCA 69

VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE
It doesn't help murderers to hang them, it doesn't help violent people to be violent to them. Violence begets violence. You can't kill off all the violent people or all the murderers or you'd have to kill off the government.

GOD IS WITHIN
We're all God, I'm not A god or THE god, but we're all God and we're all potentially divine and potentially evil. We all have everything within us, there is a power we can all tap. God is a power and we're all light bulbs that can tap the electricity - you can use electricity to kill people or to light the room. God is that.

I don't need to go to church, people who need a church should go. Others feel the church is in their head. They should visit that temple because that's where the source is.

MEDITATION & DRUGS
Meditation I still believe in and occasionally use it... I don't regret drugs because they helped me - I don't advocate them because I don't think I should, but for me it was good.

THE SIXTIES FORTELL THE FUTURE
I’m full of optimism because of the contacts I’ve made throughout the world, knowing there’s other people I can agree with. I’m not insane and I’m not alone. That’s on a personal level. And of course Woodstock, the Isle of Wight [music festivals] all the mass meetings of the youth is completely positive for me, we’re all showing our flags. And when you show your flag you’re not alone.

There’s no need to be a few Christian martyrs because there’s lots of us. Don’t be afraid because they do look after you, whoever’s up there, if you get on with it. This is only the beginning - this '60s bit was just a sniff, the '60s were just waking up in the morning and we haven’t even got to dinner time yet and I can’t wait. I’m so glad to be around and it’s going to be great and there’s going to be more and more of us, and whatever you’re thinking there Mrs Grundy of South Birmingham on toast, you don’t stand a chance, (A) You’re not going to be there when we’re running it and (B) you’re gonna like it when you get less frightened of it. Whoever they are, don’t stand a chance because they can’t beat love, because all those old bits from religion about love being all powerful is true, and that’s the bit they can’t do, they can’t handle it.

PEACE AS A PRODUCT
We’re just saying SELL PEACE, anybody interested in peace just stick it in the window. It’s simple but it lets somebody else know that you want peace too, because you feel alone if you’re the only one thinking ‘wouldn’t it be nice if there was peace and nobody was getting killed', so advertise you’re for peace if you believe in it.

BAGISM
What’s Bagism? It’s like...a tag for what we all do. We’re all in a bag and we realized that we came from two bags, I was in this pop bag going round and round in my little clique, and she was in her little avant-garde clique going round and round. We all come out and look at each other every now and then, but we don’t communicate. We all intellectualize about how there is no barrier between art, music, poetry... I’m a rock and roller, he’s a poet... so we just came up with the word so you would ask us what bagism is, and we’d say WE’RE ALL IN A BAG BABY! Well we got out of one bag and into the next, you just keep moving from bag to bag. If people did interviews for jobs in a bag they wouldn’t get turned away because they were black or green or had long hair, it’s total communication... Well no, if that was specified that when you interviewed the people you wanted to employ, and you had this prejudice, and the people had to wear a bag - then you'd only judge them on what they communicated to you, and You wouldn't have to think, 'Oh he's wearing black suede is he, I don't like it'.

THE PEACE VOTE
We want set up a worldwide vote: War or Peace, which do you want? When all these politicians are galloping around with "84% want hanging" and "200% don't like blacks" and that bit, well we'll have "35 million say No War!", just a positive move and somewhere where the youth can send their vibe.”..

DISARM THE ESTABLISHMENT WITH GENTLE HUMOR
"The establishment irritates you to make you fight because once they've got you violent they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is non-violence and humor.... Change people first, even if it's to tell people that YOU are the government and take no notice of the government, sit down ok, don't do anything, with your help it'll work, with everybody's help it'll work, all we've got to do is turn people on to the fact they THEY ARE the government NOW and they have the power NOW.

WAR AND PEACE
People ask us why we are doing this peace kick. What else? We got the fame and the money and the things that we were supposed to do, and what else is there? We're going to spend the rest of our life doing what? Eating and what? There's nothing else to do. There's two alternatives, war or peace.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
We are diet fanatics and continually talk about, "Read the packet before you eat it", on that level, apart from polluting the air, and we know -- I saw some guy on T.V. here who's invented a detergent that doesn't do whatever detergents do, and how he took it 'round to all the Big Three who were all frightened of each other, just like countries, and didn't do anything in case the other did something, and so this guy's going to do it on his own, you know, and the only way to get the Big Three interested is to make it commercial for them, like I was saying about the pot, you know. Let them have what they want, you know, if that's what they want, but we mustn't be poisoned. It's insanity. We are always talking to people to just read the packet, all that colouring, chemical additive, we think is bad for you. We try not to eat any of it. It's pretty hard, but we try not to eat any of it and we are always talking about that, of course, to people, and another myth about there not being enough food. There's another myth that must be shattered, because there is enough food and enough -- then the other one -- you say "Well, there might be enough food, but there's no transport". I mean, it's a joke. There is enough food. There's enough food in each city to feed each city in the West. There should be nobody starving in Montreal or Toronto for any reason on earth, or in London, and we can certainly feed India. Instead of handing a few -- the Indian Mafia two million pounds and to give them two handfuls of rice and keep it all, and all the rest of the (inaudible) and the jazz that goes on with all the international charities.

THE DYNAMICS OF LOVE

"The gift is a grace", but it's like a precious plant, you can't sit on it and you must protect it, nurture it and feed it, like an animal; otherwise it changes into something else, and another thing that society does to the married couple, that institution which people are, afraid of dying, is split them straight away. The man-woman joke about the woman make the bread and the man go and hunt the animals. There's no need any more of splitting the family. The family can be resurrected, and marriage, if society was built around a family and not built 'round - if two people are married the man has to go to this place. I know this is a hard thing. This is way ahead, but the fact that they split you as soon as you are together, no marriage stands a chance against those odds of all the goodies around, all the other sexual attractions around, all the people with nothing better to do, and that's, I think, what happened to marriage or "love", or whatever we call it. The family is the greatest thing. We saw this documentary in England of a woman native of a tribe in Africa before the Christians got them, and the tribe - pretty peaceful people, non-aggressive. They fight when attacked. They hunt just enough, et cetera et cetera, but one amazing thing was that all the children don't fight, and don't get into trouble Tommy. All the kids followed the parents like ducks and their babies, and the secret was that the mother didn't let go of the child until the child wanted to. Now, this sounds crazy in this situation that we are in today, but the fact that the mother held on to the child until the child itself wanted to explore -- they invented something and she carried it like an Indian. All these kids and -- there was not -- the mother was busy doing her job, and the kids were just playing there and maybe they only showed the good part of the film, but there was something in the fact that the child wasn't brought out of that security and thrown into a little plastic box half a mile down the road. Surely we can invent something that makes room if the mother can't possibly be with it all the time. Surely we can invent an environment for a baby that gives that basic security.

THE SOVENTRY OF LSD
I think LSD should be looked into and decided what can be done with it. The establishment got so frightened of it, and with these cases of people jumping out of the window, they just pretend it doesn't exist, or try and hide it. There's no way of controlling it, unless they do find out what it's about, it's going to go on and on and I personally would never condemn it from my own experience, but I condemn the free use of it. I think it could possibly be made available under supervision. I've met people who have been supervised on LSD in a plastic white room with a doctor looking like some spaceman. The hallucinations are all of their own making. If you stick a person in a room and frighten him, he will come out of that experience frightened for maybe the rest of his life, or for at least a few months. If you put a man in a room and are kind to him, he will come out with that experience, and I don't know about LSD. I don't think it should be made available. It should be found out about. I think there's great possibilities for all of us, especially for sick people, sick in the mind, and paranoid people and schizophrenia but I don't really know enough about it, only from my own experiences, but I have been both ways on trips, and the effect does last and it's profound, and it is forever. There's no going back once you have it. The only way you get off a bad trip is to dive in the water again and learn how to swim , but some people can't and they are the ones that are lost until somebody would change them. I can only imagine a situation where, sort of -- I don't know, specialists -- if there are no side effects I don't know what the propaganda is. I don't accept it because I don't know that they've really found out much about it. I think it probably does burn your head off, because -- I stopped using it because it did burn my head off, and, of course, now there's bad drugs going 'round. You can't even trust the drugs that come because people are selling acid that has got God knows what in it. The only thing I have to say about marijuana -- I can't imagine people going out for a joint in the afternoon any more than I can imagine people drinking in the afternoon. I think it's equally bad, and driving and all the other things, the restrictions on drinks, that's the danger, but the one thing can be said about marijuana is it's non-violent, and if any Government wanted to use it to calm the people, they have got the ultimate weapon, and there wouldn't be any Saturday night crowds and any Saturday night football fights, because that's what it does to people. They either withdraw because they're too -- it can make you paranoiac all right, and you withdraw, but you certainly don't have any aggression. I think LSD promoted the non-violent movement, including LSD, but marijuana was the main thing that promoted non-violence amongst the youth, because as soon as they have it, they -- first of all you have to laugh on your first experiences. There's nothing else you do but laugh, and then, when you've got over that and you realize that people aren't laughing at you, but with you, it's a community thing, and nothing would ever stop it, nothing on earth is going to stop it, and the only thing to do is to find out how to use it for good, or for the best. That would never happen. That's never happened before I because there hasn't been people smoking marijuana before in that vast (inaudible). There's never been crowds like that for anything else but violence or war, even if it's a football match.

CHINA WORRIES
We have to talk to China. You can't have the paranoiac person like China in your midst carrying a gun and just try and block him off. Especially when he's so big, and it's only our fear that makes him more fearful. He's only -- if you could think of China as one person -- he's only a completely paranoid guy that's had a tough time from his neighbours for a few years. He is the left-wing revolutionary with a gun. He is the guy that's going on dropping bombs in the street and all we ever do is say, "You make one move and we'll really whip you boy. We'll really whip you", and that's all they ever get, and we have to start talking to each other. And I think -- if it's the West that starts talking first, if our kids are the ones that get turned on and we grow up to be the Establishment, which we nearly are -- we're all in our thirties, the early people are nearly the Establishment already, so if you lot don't do it and the bomb doesn't come, because if the bomb comes, well, that's it anyway -- nobody's worried about the bomb any more -- so, if you don't hurry up, well, we'll do it, and if it's the West that says, "Come on now, come on", and trips China out or whatever it is, you must extend a hand to a -- to a mental patient. We mustn't treat them like we're still treating our mental patients, locking them up and torturing them and letting any soft Mick (?) attend them and beat them up and take out aggression, and the world will only change when we talk to each other, and straight. All that jazz about what sized table. And we honestly think a place like Canada looks like the only hope, because the only hope or help we've had is from Canada. The only real help we've had, and the only people like you that we've ever been approached by or the only people we've heard of that are doing anything like this, is going on in Canada, and Canada is America without being American, without that mighty -- we are the mighty whatever scene and the only hope is for a country like Canada that has the wealth and all the cars and all the whatever it is that we all seem to think we want, and to show -- lead. This is the opportunity for Canada to lead the world - This is it, and the youth are -- just in youth talk it's like -- when you mention Canada it isn't like "What! Australia!". That image is changing. You sell a country on image, like the Greeks, desperate to have an image, you know, and -- image is how we sell our cigarettes and Coca-Cola, and Canada's image is just about getting groovy, you know.
So, if people have -- let Canada be the hope. Don't take instructions from Britain. Let Canada lead.