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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