JOHN LENNON'S SONGS ABOUT HIS MOTHER

It's not often you get a renown singer-songwriter who records three songs about his mother. And yet, that is what John Lennon of The Beatles did. He wrote "Julia" for the White Album. He wrote two songs as a solo artist in his debut album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band about his mother. One simply called "Mother" and one I never heard of called "My Mummy's Dead."

Julia Lennon gave birth to John while the Germans were bombing Liverpool during World War II. Her sister Mimi ran to the hospital during the air raid to help her sister. Around the age of five, John started living in his aunt Mimi's house because her aunt kept complaining to Social Services that Julia was living in sin with an unmarried man and sleeping in the same bed with them. Mimi was the one who raised him although Julia was in daily contact with John. I don't think John wrote any songs about his aunt Mimi.

Julia seemed like a fun girl. She had a great sense of humor and knew how to play guitar and accordion. She bought John his first guitar, but John could only play it at her house because John's aunt Mimi was against it. She taught John how to play guitar and piano accordion. The song "Julia" is from the White Album. John sang and played the instruments without the help of any of The Beatles. John took some of the lyrics straight out of a poem by Kahlil Gibran called “Sand and Foam.” These lyrics are “Half of what I say is meaningless.” The lyric “Julia, Julia, oceanchild, calls me,” is supposedly about Yoko Ono. Yoko means “child of the sea” in Japanese.

The song "Mother" was written by John and produced by Phil Specter. Ringo played on drums and supposedly John asked George to play but George refused because he hated the song. The song was influenced by John doing primal therapy. This therapy is based on the belief that neurosis is caused by childhood trauma that has been repressed. This trauma has to be re-lived to be cured. The song also mentions his father though not by name.  His name was Alfred, but was known as Alf. Never heard a name like that except for a smart alecky life form with a sitcom by the same name. Alf was an absent father, although he almost ran off with John to New Zealand when John was six.

The third song that John Lennon recorded about his mother was called “Mummy's Dead.” The song is only 49 seconds long. The song is about the pain of losing his mother. Julia was killed by an off-duty police officer who was driving under the influence. John was seventeen at the time.

Who knows how many songs John wrote about Yoko. Gotta figure that one out one of these days. Some of them are actually really good. So in that sense, thank God for Yoko. There must've been something John saw in her that most of us don't see. Still don't in fact.

POSSUMS LIVING IN THE GARAGE

On last weeks blog, I mentioned being on vacation, tidying up the garage and cleaning up the cat puke. I haven't gotten around to the cat puke yet. The reason being that I've been busy battling a family of possums living in our garage.

We have about five trash bags of bottles and cans that I was going to take to the local recycler. When I picked one of the bags up, the hairs on my back stood up. There lying on the floor of the garage was a mother possum and her litter. Mind you, it wasn't such a horrifying sight that made my hairs stand up, rather, it was the total unexpectedness of it.

We called Animal Control and they took away the mother, who had gotten tangled up in a plastic bag, and one of her young ones. Several times, while picking up plastic bags, I encountered other joeys, which is what young possums are called. The dogs next door to us have gotten two of them. So all in all, there have been six taken away or killed and one that got away and still on the loose in our garage. The officer who came by said they can have up to ten in the litter. So there might be more. I did a little research on a website called The Possum Pages. It said they are born the size of bumble bees. The ones we have are the size of rats. Possums are also the only marsupials in North America. Marsupials are the only animals that carry their offspring in a pouch. One other interesting fact is that they are one of the few animals that have opposable thumbs. So take that Focker.

Isn't this a blog about music, some might be wondering. Well it is, and I was wondering of a way to tie it in to music. There aren't that many songs about possums that have become hits. In fact, I've only found one. The song is Possum Kingdom by The Toadies and it isn't really about possums at all.
Possum Kingdom is a State Park in Texas.

The song, however, isn't about the park either. It may be about a stalker or a rapist or about vampires. There are different interpretations to what the lyric "I'll show you my dark secret" means. The "I'll never die" lyric has been used as the impetus for the song being about vampires.

Whatever the song is about, it's still a good song which I never would've mentioned in this blog if it weren't for the possums living in our garage.

Vacation by the Go-Go's

Vacation is a song by the Go-Go's that was released in 1982. From the brief reading that I did about the song, namely Wikipedia, there is not enough in the story to merit a podcast. Although a decent podcast could be made just about the Go-Go's and them being the first band with all women band members who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments. They should also be known as probably the only successful band with both a hyphen and an apostrophe in their name. What other band has an apostrophe in their name? And why Go-Go's? What does that mean?

That's pretty good for the band and really sad for women in general. Why did it take so long for women to accomplish that? Is there something about the nature of women to make it really tough to be in a band?

There have been lots of accomplished women composers who sang and played their own instruments. But they were solo artists. From Carly Simon to Joni Mitchell to Carol King. And now Norah Jones and Alicia Keys are doing it. Gwen Stefani and Pat Benetar and a host of other women don't count because they were in a band with men. And of course, The Supremes and all those Motown girl bands don't count either because men wrote their songs. Even Beyonce, who is incredibly talented and was in Destiny's Child with all women and wrote hit songs, doesn't count because they didn't play their own instruments. They do, however, count in the bands with apostrophes in their names.

So the Go-Go's are just about in a league of their own. But forget about them. The reason the song is on my mind, though, is because I will be going on vacation next week. Which usually means I will be doing chores around the house. Including, cleaning the mold under the sink and the cat puke in the garage. I'm so looking forward to it.

IT'S "TAXMAN" TIME

Tax season is almost over and newscasts are sure to dredge out the one hit song about taxes during their coverage at the local post office. I'm talking about The Beatles song "Taxman". It's not easy to make a hit song about taxes. But somehow The Beatles managed to do it. The Beatles thought the song was so good that they put it as the first song on side one of the "Revolver" album. The album itself is considered one of the best albums ever. Most lists rank it in their top five. It's also one of my favorites. Along with "Rubber Soul" and "Meet The Beatles" and "The White Album" and, I can keep going.

George Harrison was actually the one who wrote it. He asked for and got help from John Lennon. John supposedly helped George, but very reluctantly. Apparently, he didn't want to piss off his writing partner Paul McCartney. George didn't ask help from Paul because he knew he wouldn't get it. Paul did, however, play lead guitar on the actual recording and this includes him playing that terrific guitar solo.

One of the lyrics to the song is, and this is the taxman talking, "Here's one for you, nineteen for me." The thing about that lyric, which is pretty incredible, is that George wasn't that far off. Taxes for the upper tax brackets in England back then were incredibly high. In fact, most of their money did go to pay taxes. I guess George found out the hard way and decided to write a song about it. Must be nice to be like that. Something bugs you, bam, you write a hit song about it. It must be nice.

THE GREATEST SPRING BREAK LIST OF PARTY SONGS

Last week, I wrote about some Spring Break song lists I found that I thought were just plain bad. With songs like "The Theme to Jaws" and "The Long and Winding Road," who can blame me.

So I figured I'd make my own list. So here it is, The Greatest Spring Break List of Songs Ever. One of the criteria for the list was that the songs can be played on any given Spring Break now and in the near future. Of course the songs on any Spring Break is going to include current hits. None of those were included. So these songs on this list can be played right along with the current stuff. Here's the list, in no particular order.

1. "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffet. I guess this song is a must on any Spring Break list. Songs about drinking are also a must.

2. "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" by The Beastie Boys. I know the song was supposed to be an ironic take on party songs. But it really is a pretty good party song in its own right. It also turned out to be an irony of an irony. Or in mathematical terms, irony squared.

3. "Pretty Woman" by Van Halen. I could've included several Van Halen songs on the list, but one will do. The original by Roy Orbison is also good but there is a tinge of sadness in his version. David Lee Roth has none of that.

4. "Bad to the Bone," by George Thorogood. I know "Bad to the Bone" is somewhat of a cliche by now. But there is no denying the power of that guitar. And that stutter. B-B-B-B-Bad. As far as cliches go, it's still a good one.

5. "I Get Around," by the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys is another band that could've had several songs on the list. I picked this one because its good to know that during Spring Break, people do get around.

6. Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Even though they knock Neil Young, they make up for it with that great intro riff.

7. "Super Freak" by Rick James. Everybody knows this song. And anyone, and I mean anyone, can dance to it. As proven in the movie "Little Miss Sunshine."

8."Love Shack," by The B-52s. I wouldn't necessarily put it on for my own enjoyment. But lots of people seem to like it. Why else would it be on the list of 365 Songs of the Century?

9. "Lady Marmalade," by Labelle. Good catchy song. And now that I finally know what the French lyrics mean, it's even more appropriate for Spring Break. "Do you want to sleep with me tonight?"

10.“(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty” by KC and the Sunshine Band. Come on, who can resist not shaking their booty to this song. Well I can, but a lot of people can't. And let's face it, shaking your booty is the essence of a party.

SPRING BREAK PARTY TUNES

Spring Break is around the corner and as everyone knows, it's time to party. Connie Francis had a movie called "Where The Boys Are" in the 1960s that might've popularized Spring Break partying even more than it already was. Frankly, a movie with a title like that is something I might not be interested in seeing. But that's just me. I never did any partying during Spring Break. The closest I ever got was turning on MTV and checking out the latest dance moves at Lake Havasu. I guess you really can't call that a party.

Having said this, if I had a party during Spring Break and had to put on some tunes, which ones would I play? So I went looking for a list of the ultimate Spring Break songs. I checked out a site from the University of Wisconsin's Daily Cardinal and they had a list. The most interesting song on the list was the "Theme from 'Jaws'". Jaws? Come on University of Wisconsin, Jaws? I guess that happens when you have too much cheese. The list did have a few good songs though. "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffet and "Wouldn't it be Nice" by The Beach Boys.

I also found another site with a list of the Top 50 Spring Break party songs. So I figured this was it. This was exactly what I was looking for. So I check out the list and frankly, it is just about the lamest list I have ever seen. And to prove it, I will tell you one of the songs on the list. A song on the list for the Top 50 Spring Break party songs is, hold on to your breath, "The Long and Winding Road" by The Beatles. "The Long and Winding Road" is just about the most boring song ever and I love The Beatles. They are my favorite all time band. So if you want to put someone to sleep, that's the song to play. In fact, I wouldn't mind if they played "The Long and Winding Road" at my funeral. But only if I lived to be a hundred. In fact, McCartney feels the same way about the song. He was outraged at what Phil Spector did to his song. And was one of the reasons the band broke up.

The Spring Break list actually includes another Beatle song that just doesn't make any sense at a party and that is Magical Mystery Tour. I suppose if you had to play Beatle tunes at a party, I would play "Twist and Shout" and "Money." Another song that doesn't make any sense on the list is a song by Barbra Streisand called "Somewhere." I've never heard this song but I can tell you right now with complete accuracy, it is not a good song for a Spring Break party. I just can't imagine any Barbra Streisand song being any good at a Spring Break party. Amazing voice? Yes. Terrific songs? Absolutely. For all I know, Somewhere is probably a fantastic song. But Spring Break party song? Not possible.

The list is not totally bad. I mean it does have some decent songs. For example, the list includes "Born to be Wild" by Steppenwolf, "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd and "Here I Go Again on My Own" by Whitesnake. But all in all, it is not a very good list. In fact, there is a song there that was listed twice. This just means that I might have to create my own list of Spring Break songs for when I do have a party. I just have to figure out how to ditch my wife and five year old son.

DEAD PEOPLE'S MUSIC

As I was listening to NPR's list of most important works of the twentieth century, I came to an interesting realization. Well, interesting for me anyway. Dead people's music is better than living people's music. Not always, of course, but mostly.

I'm no fuddy duddy either (are those words still being used?). I like good music no matter who plays it and how old it is. Even if it's from the Jonas Brothers. Well, if they played good music I might like it. This is a horrible realization. And what does this mean anyway? The last album I bought was, well, a gift for my wife. The soundtrack to Summer of Sam, which for some reason she seems to like. Actually, some of the songs are pretty good. It has a good mix of living and dead people's music.

Maybe the fact that they are dead kicks their songs up a notch. Especially if they die a sudden horrible death. I'm sure artists like Tupac, Biggy Smalls and Selena were helped somewhat as a result of their tragic deaths. I had never even heard of Selena before she was shot to death.

I wonder if, when I was young, I listened to dead people's music. Let me think...all The Beatles were still alive, CCR, J Geils...Holy smokes, I mostly listened to music from people who were still alive. I must be getting old.

I listen to Kevin and Bean on KROQ here in LA and they play modern Alternative music, so I keep up to date on some of the new artists like The Killers and Linkin Park. But even KROQ plays music by dead people, such as Nirvana and Sublime.

I think I started listening to dead people's music, in earnest, when I started going to college. I would go to the library and check out old records and tapes. Sometimes I would even check out albums on Classical music. And those guys are REALLY dead. I'm sure they're dust by now. Even Jimi Hendrix must be dust by now.

The one thing that makes me still feel young is that I have a five year old son. He keeps me young. Unfortunately, he also listens mostly to dead people's music too. No thanks to me. Oh, and let's not forget the Disney channel and Noggin. He also listens to that. So I know about Laurie Berkner.

I don't really mind this realization so much because there is just so much good music out there. Even if all new music stopped coming out, for some crazy reason, there is just so much old music out there that I still need to discover that I don't really mind knowing that I mostly like dead people's music.

If I had a cover band, I would call it Dead People's Music. Nobody take it.