Happy Birthday JL

[Oola]

Happy Birthday to John Lennon today! He would have been 67, can you believe.

[Healing Hands]

Wow 67, I wonder what he would be doing if he was still alive?

What was your favourite song from John Lennon?

[Oola]

Gosh, I couldn't really choose one to be honest. Of course I love the classics - Jealous Guy, How?, Imagine, Whatever Gets You Through the Night, but there are so many Beatle Classics written by John that I wouldn't know where to start! In My Life, She Said She Said, And Your Bird Can Sing, There's a Place, This Boy, If I Fell, Across the Universe....

I could go on for hours!

[Healing Hands]

Mine is Imagine, but as you say he wrote some wonderful music, and that what makes me wonder if he would still be writing music today?

[Pippa]

Can you remember what you were doing or where you were when he died? I was turkey plucking, ghastly job, that could be another thread.

[Oola]

I wasn't even born!

[Healing Hands]

You were not even BORN! Oh my goodness now you are making me feel like a granny...How many years was it when he died? then I can try and remember where and what I was doing, that is if my old brain can think that far back!

[sheddie]

What is it you liked so much about JL oola, was it his personality or his singing, songwriting or just everything about him?

[Oola]

Healing Hands he died on Dec 8th (9th here in the UK) 1980. I was born at the very end of 82 so I didn't even get to experience things as they happened. All in retrospect and so very very frustrating for me!

sheddie I like the complexity of his character - love his songwriting, especially his earlier Beatles stuff, I have a tape of his interviews and he was so passionate and eloquent, and his ability to be a cynic and a dreamer at the same time. I'm very much a half and half person, and it's quite comforting to know that there's someone else that has been out there that is similar in that respect! However in the same breath, he could also be quite cruel and nasty, something that he did realise I think. But then nobody's perfect.

It also helps that I think c.1958-66/67 he was possibly the most handsome specimen of a man to grace the planet!!!!!

[dinger]

wow 67 makes me feel old .I love his song imagine and when I was in the throws of labour with my eldest daughter there was a Beatles concert on the t .v in the next room .She was born to I wanna Hold Your Hand .!2 th feb 1964 .Appropriate don't you think?

[Crocus]

Hi, Dinger, most appropriate, the song.

My birthday is on the 11th of February (just a few years earlier of course)!

[sunflower]

Oh wow Dinger. I can remember the VERY FIRST time they played on the radio 'I wanna hold your hand' I was thirteen at the time and had come home for my lunch. Being at an all girls' school, everyone one was waiting with great anticipation for the next Beatles song. And I was the first in the school to hear it because everyone else stayed to lunch!
It was on the station of what is now called Radio 1 and played at 1pm, and I think it was 1963 the year Kennedy died. Oola, can you look up the date on your collection, I expect you have some old singles of theirs and see if I'm right? Thanks

[sunflower]

correction, I was twelve!!!

[Oola]

Oh wow Dinger. I can remember the VERY FIRST time they played on the radio 'I wanna hold your hand' I was thirteen at the time and had come home for my lunch. Being at an all girls' school, everyone one was waiting with great anticipation for the next Beatles song. And I was the first in the school to hear it because everyone else stayed to lunch!
It was on the station of what is now called Radio 1 and played at 1pm, and I think it was 1963 the year Kennedy died. Oola, can you look up the date on your collection, I expect you have some old singles of theirs and see if I'm right? Thanks

Yes it was Nov '63 it was released. You know, it's something that I feel so much longing for - anticipating their next record, wondering whether I'm going to catch them in concert or even meet them, when they're next going to be on the Tv.... I find it so frustrating that I have none of that to look forward to. I can only live in my own little bubble where they're still playing! Lol, I was a bit of a nutcase in my teens, I used to literally live within this 1960s bubble....

[sunflower]

Thanks Oola for finding out for me. Yes, they were magical almost painful times. Just hoping to hear their music, see them on the TV, wait for their magazine to come out. I used to collect Beatles pictures, and one day I had done something 'wrong' and the person who I was living with at the time threw all my pictures out into the dustbin. I was devastated and it had taken me so long and lots of bargaining with friends to get my little collection. The Beatles were and are beautiful people. Paul was my favourite as he had a baby face. They were true musicians as well and could really play those instruments. The Beatles gave the young people of the sixties something to be passionate about....released good feelings. My own personal belief is that the effect of the second world war lingered well into the early sixties, where everybody held their feelings in, very controlled and we were brought up like that, to laugh quietly, not show sadness etc. But the Beatles songs released all that and brought in a new era of honesty and truthfulness, not always pleasant, the truth, but nevertheless the truth that people have feelings,,,and the best way of release is through music. xxx

[SummerSkye]

Everytime I heard a Beatles song on the radio I would turn it up full volume, Mum was always turning it back down. I read online this morning that it was JL's birthday and knew Oola would be thinking of him (more so than usual). Happy Birthday JL wherever you are, you gave the world so much enjoyment.

[sheddie]

I did see The Beatles in person and sat in the front row, they were the supporting act to Cilla Black, she was top of the bill. I wish I had kept my ticket and programme.