Ringo Has An Obsession with Selfies

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I Wanna Hold Your Hand vs She Loves You

I Wanna Hold Your Hand - Single, 1964 ~ Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, sung by Lennon

She Loves You - Single, 1964 ~ Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, sung by McCartney 

Remember, THESE are my own opinions and they may be totally, 100% different than yours so no hate please!

Compare: From being both recorded in German by The Beatles, these 2 songs hit number 1 on the charts in 1964. Both of them never located on albums (until after The Beatles) and sold both as singles and were both profitable. Both of them are about confessing love "wanting to hold someone's hand" and saying that the one that you love "she loves you" back. Both could be about losing love, showing about how both sides react from that.

Contrast: Really, I don't think there are very many differences between both of the songs. They do both sound different and they are both classily different Lennon and McCartney songs but they both have key points in each songs that really remind me that they're the same. "Love" centric themed songs really remind me of almost the same things. 

Likes: I like both of the songs, they're typical Beatles songs and EVERYONE knows them. Hey, if you haven't heard I Wanna Hold Your Hand at least once in your life then there's something wrong with you! And if you haven't checked out the German versions, you would enjoy listening to them (even if you don't know any German). 

Dislikes: I have a problem with Beatles song that I listen to too much that after a while I don't really like them much anymore, sadly this is what happened with the both of these songs. I can listen to them sometimes but I don't listen to them all the time, only on certain occasions. 

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The Monkees - The American Beatles

The Monkees is something that I happened to learn about on accident. It was 1am on a Saturday MANY years ago, and I just remember that I had troubles falling to sleep that night, so I decided to turn in my television to see what was on. When I passed by one channel, I swore that The Beatles were on! I laid there with confusion as I watched, on how much I loved this show. Not until I researched more about them that I knew how much they actually did relate to The Beatles.

After 'A Hard Days Night' premier in 1964, 2 men thought that it would be a great theme for a television show, having 4 young musicians who find troubles getting music jobs and running into hilarious distractions on the way. They wanted the success of the show to be just as much as The Beatles. What was cool about the show is that they were a recording band with albums! Show + band + good looking guys = very happy teenage girls. 

After interviewing many young men, they picked 4 that they thought would fit the roals perfectly. Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork (who were actual musicians), Micky Dolenz (former childhood star in a show called Circus Boy) and Davy Jones (jockey/former stage performer). They remained together as a band even after the cancelation of the show in 1968 until Mike Nesmith's departure in 1969. After taking a break for years, Peter, Micky and Davy joined back and started recording again in the 1980s. We lost Davy in 2012 and still to the day Peter and Micky are touring (so is Mike but on his own without them). 

What makes this cool is that The Beatles WATCHED THE SHOW! They were aware that they The Monkees were inspired by them and was very supportive of them. John Lennon was especially supportive, having talked about looking forward to watching the next episode of The Monkees every week. Knowing that, whenever I watch The Monkees, it makes me think that I'm watching something John Lennon had watched at one time (made me cry the first times I thought of it). 

Each of The Beatles gained friendships with each of The Monkees. John Lennon invited Mike and his wife (at the time) Phyllis (who bonded with Cynthia Lennon that day) to come to the recording of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club band, in which they did. George Harrison and Peter Tork spend many times playing the sitar together. Paul McCartney and Micky Dolenz frequently hung out (adorable pictures with them and Paul's equally as famous sheepdog Marthia). 

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The Beatles and Germany

To this day, whenever I hear someone say Hameburg, Germany, I think about The Beatles. Yes, I know that technically at the time they weren't known as "The Beatles" and it was years before Ringo would even be thought of joining the band. At that time, the consisted of 5 members, Johh Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stu Stutcliffe and Pete Best. They were so young when they went, George was 14 and underage - which was illegal at the time and he ended up getting deported to Liverpool! For years to come, I will always connect The Beatles and Germany together. 

John, Paul and George all learned German school but George was the one who remembered the most. It's funny, I used to look up YouTube videos of The Beatles all the time, it was so adorable to watch them whenever I wanted. One day I looked up George Harrison speaking German and I thought it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Like The Beatles always do, it impacted my life forever. Currently for the last 3 years in my high school I've learned German as my forgin language, just because of George. 

If you didn't know already, The Beatles in 1964 released German versions of their 2 top hits of the year, "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" (formerly known in German as "Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand and Sie Liebt Dich"). Since I knew that they had these songs in iTunes I had to get them (thanks to the Past Masters album with Beatles hits). The part that makes me love the songs the most that 1. Its the ACTUAL Beatles singing the songs (John and Paul trying to) and 2. I CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY'RE SAYING IN GERMAN! (Thanks to those 3 years or learning it)

In Germany, The Beatles found themselves meeting 2 loyal friends, Astrid Kirshher and Klaus Vorrman. Astrid was engaged to Stu, even more famous for coining the term "mop top" for The Beatles and creating the hairstyle. She has even taken many infamous pictures of them, especially ones of John Lennon. Klaus is just as special to me as Astird is, he's one of my favorite people ever because he was the one to design and make The Beatles Revolver album cover (my favorite album). He also played bass at George's Concert for Bangladesh in 1970 - the both of them spoke in George's documentary Living in the Material World.  

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Dear Prudence vs. Back in the U.S.S.R

Back in the U.S.S.R - The White Album, 1968, Written and sung by Paul McCartney 

Dear Prudence - The White Album, 1968 ~ Written and sung by John Lennon 

Remember, THESE are my own opinions and they may be totally, 100% different than yours so no hate please!

Compare: The theme for the songs this week are the one's I said that Ringo didn't do the drums on. I feel like these 2 songs are really represented of the people/band that they were named after. 'Dear Prudence' was John writing about a girl named Prudence Farrow (actress Mia Farrow's sister) who was in India on the trip with them in 1968. She used to get caught in meditation and John wanted to make a song kinda after that, beaconing Prudence out of meditation.  'Back in the U.S.S.R' was basically a song based off of Chuck Berry's 'Made in America' and The Beach Boys 'California Girls'. 

Contrast: It's Lennon and McCartney at their work - we all know that there is going to be a difference in the sound of both of the songs. But another thing I think there is a difference in them is that one is more famous than the other (my opinion). We all know 'Dear Prudence' a lot more than we do 'Back in the U.S.S.R'. 

Likes: I like the songs on The White Album, it's like taking a jump into the later 1960's and experiencing multiple different kinds of genres of music on 1 album (packed with songs on both sides of it). These 2 are on the top of the list of my favorite songs on the album. I listen to Dear Prudence a lot more than Back in the U.S.S.R, I love Dear Prudence so much that someday I'd love to name my daughter Prudence so she could have it as her song.

Dislikes: Being a Ringo girl, you can guess that I'm not very happy that he didn't play the drums on this album. Yes, Paul did a decent job on them and if you didn't know that Ringo wasn't drumming, you wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. But being me, I can't ever forget that it isn't Ringo whenever I listen to the songs. I'm the bad person of telling other people as they listen to the song that it isn't Ringo and they get angry at me. Sorry!

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Jayci's 4 Beatles Funfacts (Part 2)

I did a post like this a while back where I talked about Beatles Funfacts that I personally know and hopefully could share to you guys if you didn't know - today I decided to bring it back again and talk about more of my favorite Beatles Funfacts! 

1. The White Album's title isn't really "The White Album": If you ever look at The White Album, you can instantly tell that there's something unique about it - it's plain with nothing special on it; unless you look close enough. Towards the bottom of the album cover, you can see that 2 words "The Beatles", and do you know why they're there? Yes, obviously The Beatles made the album but that's actually the titled of the album. 

2. The song 'Yellow Submarine' is located on 2 separate Beatles albums: This one fact has always been confusing to me because why would they put the same Beatles song on 2 albums. Out of a ll my Beatles song knowledge I have, this is the only song that I can think of that is on 2 separate Beatles albums several years apart. Yes, 2 years isn't that long away but it's just a little surprising. It's located on 1966's 'Revolver' and 1968's 'Yellow Submarine'.

3. Paul McCartney and George Harrison went to school together: Some people think that The Beatles all knew each other before they ever joined with each other to make the band, which isn't the case at all. The only 2 Beatles that knew each other before the making of The Beatles were Paul McCartney and George Harrison. They both went to the same elementary school together (George was in a grade below Paul) and they actually took the same bus together. This is how after Paul met John, was able to persuade him to listen to George's playing and then kicked off the start of something amazing. 

4. Ringo didn't play the drums for 2 (technically 3) Beatles songs: Ringo quit the band in 1968 (before rejoining back that same year) during the same time production of 'The White Album' was going on. This meant that they had to have a replacement for the drum parts for the 2 songs that he missed. Paul jumped in and played the drum parts for both 'Dear Prudence' and 'Back in the U.S.S.R'. Only 2 Beatles played on the song 'A Ballad of John and Yoko' having Paul taking on the drumming part once again. 

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Within You Without You vs. Norwegian Wood

Norwegian Wood - 1965, Rubber Soul ~ Written and sung by John Lennon

Within You Without You - 1967, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ~ Written and sung by George Harrison 

Remember, THESE are my own opinions and they may be totally, 100% different than yours so no hate please!

Compare: This week is going to be sitar week! I picked 2 of the songs that I felt like really has a sitar presence (definitely Within You Without You). Norwegian Wood is significant to this as well because it was the first Beatles song to include the sitar with it - HOW COOL IS THAT?! Even though John wrote it, I feel like he left George shine on it with the sitar since this is around the time that he first started learning how to play it. Within You Without You has a sitar/violin battle in it and it a large part to the song in general. 

Contrast: Even though both of these songs have sitar in them, they are very different sounding.  Norwegian Wood was still a rock sounding song, just with the hit of the stringy sitar while Within You Without You is a song revolved around it, showcasing it's Indian type of sound with violins adding along to it. 

Likes: Both of these songs are 2 of my favorite Beatles songs. Sitar being one of the coolest instruments I have ever heard, I'm always fascinated by how The Beatles were able to integrate that specific sound into their music (from the skillful help of George Harrison)

Dislikes: It's really hard for me to find any kind of dislike on either of these songs - the only kind I can think of (not personally from my taste but I know people have other likes) is that some people do not enjoy the sound of sitar - which is totally up to them and everyone has their own kind of music style and sound that they like 

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George Martin

There are many things about George Martin that makes him high up on my heroes list. He's done so many things in my lifetime that I look up to now and even into my future. If you don't think of George Martin when you listen to The Beatles, then you must know nothing about The Beatles history. 

The topic is always known of a "Fifth Beatle" and people always have their own opinion on who exactly it was. Some people say it was their first manager, Brian Epstein, others say it was their loyal roadie Mal Evans, who stuck around with them through the highs and lows. But for me (and mostly everyone), we believe that George Martin is the "Fifth Beatle". He was there for album recordings, gave them advice on their songs and was there until the very end of The Beatles. 

You'd be surprised how much he actually did help with The Beatles. All of the lyrical music found on the 'Yellow Submarine' album and was also in the movie, was music he made and conducted himself. How cool is that?! That music is some of the most beautiful things I have ever heard (and what would be the coolest thing ever is a marching band show playing that music). 

You know how last week I was talking about the weird little "feud" match between the sitar and violins in 'Within You Without You', well, that wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for George Martin. He took classically trained violin and tought them about western culture-type of music like what people would use when playing a sitar. I always think about it whenever I listen to the song and it makes me think about how special it is. If you listen to it soon, just think about how cool it is and how it turned out! 

Recently with the help of his son Giles, created the put together the music used for the Cirque Du Soleli Beatles show "Love" (the "Love" soundtrack CD was also the first Beatles CD I had ever gotten fun fact from me). Also some help in production with The Beatles Rockband video game (made by Beatles child Dhani Harrison). 

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My First Favorite Band - WASN'T THE BEATLES

I can tell what you're thinking from the title of this post - it's hard to believe that my first favorite band WASN'T The Beatles, I know, my friends react the same way whenever I tell them. Surprisingly, because of my first favorite band was one of the ways that I first got even introduced to The Beatles. My best friend gave me a CD package for my birthday that had greatest hits from the 1970's and there was one band on there that I just kept going to and kept listening to and will forever be a big part of my life - Badfinger. 

Yes I know that the name of the band is a little "risqué" but blame John Lennon for that. A unknown band from Wales called "The Iveys" caught the eye of The Beatles for one of their first recording acts on Apple Corps label. Really, John thought they should have more of a "edgier" sound to it, and as time would come to show, they did end up changing it. 

The relationship between The Beatles and Badfinger was one that was made to stand the test of time. They were there at the beginning of Apple Corps and stayed until close to the end, they were there from the very end days of The Beatles and yet Paul McCartney and George Harrison helped them keep their hopes up. Paul writing 2 of Badfinger songs and helping record them - sitting in on the album recording. Even though this wasn't particularly "Beatles" associated, but they did provide the sound track to "Magic Christian" - a movie Ringo Starr was in.

George Harrison loved Badfinger. He had them record on one of his albums after The Beatles broke up and even played on some of Badfinger songs on their album. Pete Ham loved playing slide guitar and George was never a big fan of it until they played a duet on one of Badfinger most famous songs, "Day After Day". From that time on, George showcased it in his music, and now that will be one of the things he will forever be famous for. He even invited Badfinger to play at "The Concert for Bangladesh" - in which Pete and George did a rendition of a Beatles song - Here Comes The Sun (every time I watch it, I just sit there and ball my eyes out. One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen/heard in my life).

I am a very big suicide awareness advocate and Badfinger is one of the reasons why I am. In 1975, one of my heroes Pete Ham committed suicide in his home, taking his life just a month before his daughter, Petra was born. But it doesn't stop there, less than 10 years later, Tom Evans - the basest for Badfinger and Pete Ham's best friend committed suicide. In his sucide note, he said that he "wanted to be where Pete was" that it "was a better place". 

Even though Badfinger never became as famous as The Beatles did, they will forever be my first favorite in my mind and will forever be a major part of my life. 

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Ravi Shankar

There was always something that drew my close to George's songs that sounded different than most of the other Beatles styles. It took me a few months to learn what this fabulous instrument was - called a sitar. Since then, it was one of the instruments that I want to play someday. There is one man who helped George learn about his love and interest for this instrument just like mine, and this man was named Ravi Shankar. 

Ravi Shankar was famous for being one of the best sitar players in the world, but he will forever be remembered in my mind as one of George Harrison's best friends. It seemed like after 1965, they were always around each other and never lost contact with each other until George's death in 2001. Since we lost Ravi in 2012, I always like to think that him and George are together playing the sitar and laughing about old memories. 

The first time I think I ever saw or really got to know Ravi was when I bought a copy of "The Concert of Bangladesh". He was the one who really urge the fact to George on what was going on in Bangladesh during that time and he had the brilliant idea to make a concert in 1971 to raise money for the cause. From that time on, he was one of my favorite people in history. I'll never forget watching him with his daughter during "The Concert of George", all of them getting together to remember the great man that they were all friends with and will always morn his loss.

On April 29, Ravi's 95th birthday, he will have his own exhibition in the US at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles which will have a collection of sitars, artifacts and photographs of his throught out all of his years active in music. I think this is a great honor and I'm very proud that Ravi will be able to receive this to have some of his stuff on show. 

I feel like our generation won't be keen on the idea of traditional Indian sitar music, I know that Anoushka Shankar is still making music like her father did. With having his memory still live on in the Grammy Museum, someone in the future visiting there could have their interest sparked from his memory and keep this style of music alive. 

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Don't Pass Me By vs. What Goes On

Don't Pass Me By - 1968, The White Album (The Beatles) ~ Written and sung by Ringo Starr

What Goes On - 1965, Rubber Soul ~ Written by John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, sung by Ringo Starr

Remember, THESE are my own opinions and they may be totally, 100% different than yours so no hate please!

Compare: Since this is a very special week for Ringo, I decided to compare/contrast 2 of Ringo's BEATLES SONGS! Yes, Ringo didn't write or sing too many Beatles songs, so I wanted to make this special. What are mostly alike between these 2 songs is that Ringo had help in the writing process. He helped John and Paul in the writing of "What Goes On" and "Don't Pass Me By" being the first song he made by himself (yay!) 

Contrast: I wouldn't want to say that these 2 songs are almost completely different but I 100% think that they're almost different. Ringo has his own kind of writing that is different than John and Paul's, "Don't Pass Me By" it has a country type of feel that Ringo enjoys and you can tell the easy, rocky kind of feel from John and Paul in "What Goes On". 

Likes: It's Ringo and I love his voice, so I do love both of these songs. Don't Pass Me By took Ringo 6 years to make and I think that is the most adorable things I've ever heard! (Rather contrasted to the full album completion by John and Paul in 1 week). 

Dislikes: This isn't really about these 2 songs themselves by its more over the actions between John/Paul (mostly Paul) and Ringo over the discussion of singing songs. Paul thought that Ringo didn't have enough of a voiceless range to sing many songs - so that's why he basically only got 1 song on each album. What I find funny is that when Paul wrote Yellow Submarine he didn't want to sing it because the range was so easy and gave it to Ringo to sing. Now that's one of The Beatles most memorable songs. 

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Ringo in the Spotlight

Usually when we think of someone being busy out of the last two remaining Beatles, it's probably Paul. But for the last few months, I've gotta say that Ringo has been over shining him! Ritchie is on the cover of April's Rolling Stone magazine (which my best friend gave me a copy of), his new album "Postcards from Paradise" was released March 31st, and he has been preparing for his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame on April 18th all of his life. I'm so proud of him and I think it's amazing that Paul is going to be his inductee - man, I just can't believe that Ringo is the last of The Beatles to be inducted, heck even Brian Epstein, their former manager was inducted before he was! I guess the saying, "save the best for last" is used in this sense. 

While reading the article about Ringo in this months Rolling Stone magazine, I'm not going to lie to you when I say I cried through the whole thing. Yes, I know that I'm super crazy but freaking Ritchie was pulling in my heart strings! On the second page, it is talking about how he lost his two brothers...John Lennon and George Harrison. That's what got me first, I couldn't hold in the emotions after that. The fact that Ringo references to them as his brothers breaks my heart. They we're all so close for SUCH a long amout of time and then to lose the both of them so early must have taken a very hard toll on him. 

Of course, this one article about Ringo saying that The Beatles reunion could have happened. Just sit there for a moment and think about it - A Beatles reunion - Back together since 1970, playing the songs that made them one of the most famous bands in music history. I never knew that they did try in both 1976 and 1979 for reunion tours but a year later we lost John and in 2001 we lost George. Do I think Paul and Ringo would go on a little Beatles reunion tour now? No. Do I wish that they did? Yes. But I don't think they'd do it without John and George because they aren't The Beatles without them. 

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The Beatles + Food

Have you ever listened to a certain band while eating food and suddenly think the food is more delicious than you ever thought? I know that's so totally weird to think about, it even seems a little crazy to me! But this whole theory has been proven by actual scientists and tested it on different types of music on people while they are food to figure out the results. 

Many reachers can suggest that certain types of music can bring out flavor in food including sweet, salty and bitter. Luciano Pavarotti can enhance the bitterness in coffee and intensity in chocolate mouse and Bille Holliday can empathize the taste of "autumn" in the taste of pumpkin just as two examples of many that were written. Even though those are pretty cool, what made me extremely excited when The Beatles was one of the bands to be tested! 

I think it's pretty cool that scientists did this experiment because now I know that if I ever eat fish and chips that The Beatles is the PERFECT band to listen to while eating them! You heard me everyone, they have actually proven that listening to The Beatles could help the enjoyment of eating fish and chips. How freaking cool is that?! Wait, that isn't it - it can even enhance different kinds of drinks.

Ultraviolent restaurant in Shanghai, China has already kinda tested out this theory by serving fish and chips to a backdrop of The Beatles. The dining room of the restaurant has photos projected onto the wall so when you're eating different courses/different foods, they put up pictures that goes with each theme. This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen (look up the pictures of the restaurant on the internet, you're mind will be blown away!) and if I ever get the chance to go to China, I'd love to check out this restaurant for sure (and 100% fangirl about The Beatles and fish and chips)! 

I've always been interested in food, every since I was younger. For a long amount of time I wanted to be a chef and work in my own restaurant. What I found cool about this article is that more and more restaurants should follow different atmospheres with the music that they play followed up with what the food they serve. With doing that, the amount of profft could almost be DOUBLED! This is just a really good topic to be researched into. 

If you'd like to read more about the different singers/bands that effect the taste of foods and learn more about this experience, check out the article that I first found this out about!: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3026252/The-Beatles-fish-chips-Pavarotti-chocolate-mousse-Pyschologists-discover-music-help-enhance-enjoyment-food.html

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Julia vs Hey Jude

Julia - The White Album (The Beatles), 1968 ~ Written and sung by John Lennon

Hey Jude: Single, 1969 ~ Written and sung by Paul McCartney

Remember, THESE are my own opinions and they may be totally, 100% different than yours so no hate please!

Compare: So since we lost Cynthia this week, I decided to pick songs that mean a lot to John - one written about this mother and one written about his son. John wrote a song on what he remembered the most about his mother, she wasn't around during most of his childhood and when they finally got connection back with each other, she was tradically killed by a drunk driver so I feel like this helped him with all of the pain he had held in over so many years. Paul wrote Hey Jude for Julian during the divorce of John and Cynthia as a way to help him feel better. 

Contrast: Like always, the differences between John and Paul's writing styles and way they compose their music. Julia sounds a little somber, extremely heartfelt and you can tell how much John put his feelings into it. We all know how upbeat Hey Jude sounds and how for generations people have loved the song, and how famous it is. 

Likes: I love how adorable John wrote the song for his mom, I always feel so bad about how he lost his mom and how he might have never been okay after it happened. Same with Paul writing the song for Julian, surprisingly John thought Paul wrote the song for him to "help him through the time with Yoko" and all of the problems with him happening...when it was about his song that felt neglected...hmmm.

Dislikes: Hey Jude used to be my favorite song, but I swear that I listened to the song so much that I can't hardly listen to it anymore. I mean, on certain occasions I can listen to it, but it makes me kinda sad that happened. Same thing with Julia, I can only listen to the song during certain occasions. 

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A Hard Day's Night Hotel

There is one thing that I want to do before I die - is to go visit Liverpool and stop at any related Beatles site I can find. Strawberry Fields, the Beatles childhood homes, The Cavern Club, and of course The Beatles Museum. While looking through some Beatles articles like I always spend my freetime doing, I noticed one that REALLY sparked my interest and didn't stop talking about for days. A Beatles themed hotel was being SOLD! I had no idea that there was such a thing as a Beatles hotel, and by looking through the pictures on the article, I WAS BLOWN AWAY!

Do I have £11m? No. If I had £11m, would I buy the hotel? HECK YES! Imagine being an extreme Beatles fan and getting a chance to own a Beatles themed hotel, I'm pretty sure that would make my life forever! I am a very creative person and I love decorating rooms so I feel like owning something like this would be a way to express my love for The Beatles and my love for being creative. 

I love staying in hotels and I love how unique hotel rooms are with the ways that they're decorated. In Limerick, Ireland, the hotel room I shared with my friend matched the colors orange, purple, green and blue together with a beautiful view towards the sunset every night. There was a hotel that my mother, myself and my aunt used to go to some summers said that was designed like a castle with framed paintings of royal looking people and large, comfy beds with dark, rich toned colors painted on the walls. Those rooms are cool, yeah, but imagine staying in a certain Beatle themed room! JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE AND RINGO! 

The John themed room is white, reminding me of his home in Tittenhurst were we've seen the videos of the 'Imagine' recording with the classic white piano. Paul's room is decorated with pictures of him and his former wife Linda, a backdrop behind the bed made from newspaper headlines which I think is the coolest thing I've ever seen! The article didn't show if there was a George or Ringo room, but I'll do some more research on it and see if there are any.

If any of you guys would like to see the article I am talking about, I'll leave the link so you can check it out (it's pretty amazing so I totally suggest it): http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/incoming/liverpools-beatles-themed-hard-days-night-8928610

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Remembering Cynthia Lennon

On Wednesday, we lost another of our big family, Cynthia Lennon. It has been 35 years since since we lost John and now hopefully Cynthia is safe where he is and they're back together again.

This news was an extreme suprise to me! Since it was April Fool's Day, the full day for me was filled with "joking" lies and filled with laughs. I was laying in my bed scrolling through Facebook (I know, I hate myself too), I happened to pass by a Beatles page that I follow and noticed that it said something about "pray for Julian", then I got VERY worried that something happened to him. It was horrible that the first thought I had was that it was just a April Fool's joke that the page had posted.

I looked up Cynthia first on the Internet to see if it had any news about her to see if it was something wrong and my heart my dropped. It said that she died from cancer. What. WHAT! I never knew that she had cancer and I never thought that we would lose her this early. It broke my heart. I'll never forget the moment when I called my mom at work sobbing and her trying to calm me down. It was a very hard moment for me in my life. 

There was a really sweet tweet posted by Julian, a picture of his mother in a heart. Ringo posted a tweet saying, "Peace and love to Julian Lennon God bless Cynthia love Ringo and Barbaraxx" and a heartfelt tweet from Dhani and Olivia Harrison on George's official Twitter. But there was one tweet that was met with backlash - Yoko's. 

People thought that it was very rude to make a very long tweet about her death, their defenses saying that she "broke up the Lennon family". Yes, we know what happeneded back in the 60s but I think it was very nice of Yoko to make a tweet in remembrance. 

I hope Julian is doing ok and stays strong through this very hard time. Cynthia with be forever missed and she will never be forgotten. She got through the time of hardship during the beginning of The Beatles, having to basically hide her existence from the world to stop from jeopardizing The Beatles fame, then the affair between John and Yoko. Now she's up in heaven with John and will watch over all of us. 

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Good Morning Good Morning vs. Good Night

Good Morning Good Morning- Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967

~written by John Lennon and sung by Lennon

Good Night - The Beatles (The White Album), 1968

~written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, sung by Ringo Starr

Remember, THESE are my own opinions and they may be totally, 100% different than yours so no hate please!

Compare: There is one thing right off the bat that everyone can tell why I put this in the 'compare' section, both of the titles have "good" in them and also times of the day. They are both close to the same times in which they were made and for a little bit of a twist, Ringo actually got to sing a song! Both songs are both written by John, which means that they have kinda the same style of sound. 

Contrast: Following the way of John's mind, he has ways of changing up his songs. Good Morning Good Morning starts out with a chicken crowing (legit right!) and then goes to a brassy, big band sound. With Good Night, it's almost the complete opposite, quiet strings that sound like a lullaby. John's voice is hearty and airy, you could even imagine what he would look like singing the song, with Ringo, he has a deep, bassy voice that makes him perfect to sing a lullaby like song. 

Likes: The backstory behind Good Night was that John wrote it for his son Julian as a lullaby and would sing it to him before he went to sleep at night. HOW CUTE IS THAT?! Then having Ringo sing it was 100000000x more adorable. Good Morning Good Morning is actually my alarm when I wake up in the morning, quite fitting. 

Dislikes: The only dislike I have is that my heart drops whenever I listen to Good Morning Good Morning because it reminds me of getting up and going to school haha! 

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Beatles Project?!

My US History teacher recently told us that our final at the end of the trimester is that we'll have to pick a topic and make a 10 minute presentation that we'll have to prevent to the class THEN be preceded to have questions asked over the topic. HOLY JEEZE! I was frazzled at what to do, but then I thought, 'What do I know in my life that I could talk about 10 minutes worth of it?' of course, guess what I picked! THE BEATLES!

Even though this may seem like a pretty easy project to handle BUT IT ISN'T EVEN CLOSE TO THAT! There are so many things to talk about from 1962-1970 and even things prier to that! With all of those years in store; comes with a large task of picking out which topics are more important than others. 

The first thing that came to my mind was a way of using what we've learned about the 1960s in the class and then partake that with major things that happened with The Beatles. We just got done learning about the Civil Rights and I remembered that Paul McCartney wrote "Blackbird" (on The White Album) about the death of Martin Luther King Jr. that happened around the same time. So that's a possibility of something that would be able to tie in 2 things that are actually quite interesting.

Of course I'd talk about the most famous Beatles events, such as them coming to America in February of 1964, the comment that John made about The Beatles being "more important than Jesus", maybe a little bit on the usage of the drugs they did (and the way of song making behind it), their break up in April of 1970 for sure. My friends keep joking to me and saying that I would probably take over the amount of time given to talk because I'd have so much information to say (which is most likely true). 

I still have a few more months to prepare for this project. Looking up more Beatles facts, getting out all of my Beatles books and rereading them over again, anything to keep my Beatles knowledge up until then! The PowerPoint won't take as long to make and I already have all my information in my head that it'll be a breeze. I GUESS WE'LL FIND OUT IN MAY/JUNE! 

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Beatles Road Trip!

Hey everyone! And welcome back to a new trimester of blogs with some pretty awesome BEATLENESS! First blogs before spring break and man, won't mine be busy. Our school band is taking a trip to Florida (WHOOP!), but instead of getting a plane, we have to go by bus. Not as fun (or enjoyable). So I'm getting myself prepared for the essentials that I'll need for the long 1 1/2 NON STOP RIDE. Beatles, Beatles and more Beatles.

This consests of taking my favorite Beatles books to read and stocking up on my favorite Beatles songs to make sure I can listen to. Still trying to decide if I should bring my Beatles blanket for the ride but I'm too afraid it might get ripped or destroyed! Better be safe and not bring it (yep, definitely not).

This whole experience reminds me back A LONG TIME AGO when my grandma, dad, grandpa and myself went on a 2 week vacation to North Daktoa to go see Mount Rushmore. I'd say it was at least in the 7th grade (I'm currently in the 11th), because I was obsessed with listening to 1 album the whole time, which was the first Beatles album/CD I had ever got; Help! To this day, whenever I hear the album, it brings back memories of myself looking out the window and watching all of the beautiful scenery pass by. 

This isn't this first time I've ever been to Florida for sure! I've been going to Florida every year since I was born; either being in February or over Christmas (this year was special because I wanted to wait and go with my band friends). The years we went over Christmas, I would get a new Beatles CD RIGHT before leaving so I would have some new music to listen to (mind you I had a CD player during this time). I remember one year I got the White Album (The Beatles album) for Christmas and it was one of the most CRAZIEST THINGS I've ever heard. 

What reminds me that most of it was being shoved into my grandparents little car and taking the 4-5 hour drive from Daytona Beach to Orlando for a fun filled day at Universal Studios! (The extra time was caused by my grandfathers lack of direction and following direction). One song that really struck me was 'Martha My Dear' and I listened to it the whole way there! The funny thing about this is that I played the song to my mother and she hated it - I make fun of her now because it's her favorite Beatles song. 

I hope everyone has a good spring break (whenever it is) and if you go anywhere, BE SAFE! 

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And I Love Her vs. Girl

And I Love Her- A Hard Days Night, 1964

~written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, sung by McCartney 

Girl - Rubber Soul, 1965 

~written by John Lennon, sung by John Lennon

Remember, THESE are my own opinions and they may be totally, 100% different than yours so no hate please!

Compare: There are 2 things that hit me right off the bat that they are similar in. I'm really happy that my shuffle did this because if you notice, both of the songs have a girl implication in it, 'Her' and 'Girl', using those kinds of words bring us closer to the listener (which all know at the time were mostly girls). Secondly, they are only a year apart, but 3 albums away from each other. You might think that the sounds of the albums mostly sound the same, so both of the songs will be the same, but that is actually not true. Both of the songs have distinct sounds for each year.  

Contrast: The sounds of the songs are the closest things that they sound different in, 'And I Love Her' is a soft ballad that a person is talking about all of the things that he loves about his girl and almost in a taunting way to make the other person jealous. 'Girl' is like a story, starting out with, "Is there anybody going to listen to my story...all about the girl that came to stay" and goes on to talk about the girl and all of the things that makes the person crazy about them. 

Likes: I like both of these songs, they really hit home to you and play at your love strings when you listen to them. Hey, I'm not going to lie if I said I wished someone loved me enough like the people in the songs explain. Both good examples between McCartney ballads and Lennon ballads. They make my heart hurt (in a good way don't worry!). I love the version of Girl that is at the beginning of 'Across The Universe', it actually explains the movie quite well and Jim Sturgess does a fantastic job singing it!

Dislikes: I dunno, sometimes when I'm feeling hurt or something, these songs are really sappy and hard to listen to and so sometimes I skip them. Really, it comes down to (I don't wanna say it or not because maybe no one would understand) if you're a Lennon song fan or a McCartney song fan. 

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"Who is Paul McCartney?"

There are little things in this generation that makes me feel scared for the future. This story is one of those moments that give me the chills and make me think if The Beatles will ever be truly remembered in 20 or maybe 30 years from now. I know everyone is shaking their head at my last sentence, but once I get done with this post, I want you to think about how long it will be. 

Here's a little bit of backstory - on Kayne West's new song, he had Paul McCartney playing the piano on it, which is actually really cool! But some man Tweeted "who tf is paul mccartney?!?!?! this is why i love kayne for shining light on new up and coming artists" 

First, my friend actually texted me the Tweet over Christmas break and at that point, I just looked at it and laughed for a good 20 minutes, I really couldn't believe that some idiot would think that Paul McCartney is an up and coming artist. Second, my other friend brought it up to me the first day we got back from break and told me what he thought about it. Then it finally hit me, the guy who Tweeted the Tweet was being serious! He had no idea who Paul McCartney was! 

The reason why it angers me so much is that people in this generation have no idea who The Beatles are. Even though they were famous over 50 years ago, some to most people have no idea who they are or the music that they created. Yes, I know that I am a special person for liking The Beatles such a long time ago and close to none of the people my age who even likes them. Here's the thing, what if enough people stop liking them that they'll be forgotten into history. I know that they have made so many strides in music and some call them, "The Best Band that Ever Lived" but there is still a chance in the future that a band could over pass them, all of the people who liked The Beatles previously die and then we will have a forgotten band. 

If you want to read more about the Tweet, check out this article: https://hiphopwired.com/2015/01/02/man-asks-who-is-paul-mccartney/ 

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George Is Always on My Mind

Welcome back loveliesssss! First post back from break!!! *chears in the background*. I'm glad to be back (even though it was a nice little break from posting), and ready to start some new, wonderful posts for 2015! How was everyone's New Year? Ok? Fun? Enjoyable? Mine was, I went to a party that my friend had and I stayed over night, it was pretty awesome! 

Let's take a step back from that and give a little explanation to the meaning of this title for this blog post - "George Is Always on My Mind". I bet everyone is wondering "Jayci, why in the world would you make a post like that?! Are you crazy or something?!" Yes, I am, but there are many reasons why I wanted to make this post. 

Little things in my life confuse me when it comes to The Beatles, it's like my mind is trained to refer back to them no matter what I'm doing in my life. Like if someone says "Number Nine", I can't help but start repeating it over and over again like in the song 'Revolution 9' on The White Album. I can't help it when people start listing off names and start with, "John, Paul...", I have to automatically say "George and Ringo". See, things like these make me feel Iike I'm crazy. 

This last week in my German class, my friend was telling someone that she got a ukulele for Christmas and is very excited to start learning how to play it. I turned back to her in my seat and preceded to tell her a story from the doctumenty "George Harrison: Living in the Material World". This story was told by one of George's good friend Tom Petty. He said that one day he and George hung out and played ukuleles together and when George was about to leave, Tom handed his ukulele back but George refused to take it. As they walk out to George's car, he opens up the trunk and it was full of ukuleles! (Which I think was one of the most adorable stories I have ever heard). I said this randomly just because I heard her talking about a ukelele...yeah I know, I'm weird. Times like these make me wonder if any other die hard Beatles fans have moments like these...

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