Revolver Deep Dive Part 2: Eleanor Rigby

Revolver

Side One, Track Two

“Eleanor Rigby” Lives On

by Jude Southerland Kessler and Simon Weitzman

Through 2023, the Fest for Beatles Fans blog will be delving into the fine details of The Beatles’ astounding 1966 LP, Revolver. This month network TV director, producer, and author, Simon Weitzman – best known in The Beatles’ World for his beloved film A Love Letter to The Beatles: Here, There, and Everywhere – joins John Lennon Series author Jude Southerland Kessler for a fresh, new look at a track that literally changed all we had come to know about The Beatles! Simon is co-author, with Paul Skellett, of four remarkable Beatles books: Eight Arms to Hold You, All You Need is Love, The Mad Day Out with Tom Murray, and The Beatles in 3D. We’re thrilled to have Simon with us this month and in person, in just a few days, at the New York Metro Fest for Beatles Fans!

What’s Standard:

Date Recorded:

The Home Demo was recorded by Paul in late March 1966 at Ringo’s flat in Montague Square (Winn, 7)

First EMI session, 28 April 1966, Studio Two

5 p.m.- 7:50 p.m. (Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, 77)

Second EMI session, 29 April 1966, Studio Three

5 p.m. – 1 a.m. (Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, 77)

Third EMI session, 6 June 1966 in Studio Three (control room only)

7 p.m. – 12 a.m. (Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, 82)

Tech Team

Producer: George Martin

Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Second Engineer: Phil McDonald

Stats: On 28 April, a professional string octet (members listed below) recorded 14 takes. On 29 April, as John C. Winn tells us in That Magic Feeling, “Paul added his lead vocal on track 4, and then he, John, and George harmonized for the choruses on track 3.” (p. 24) That evening, the tape recorder was slowed a bit to achieve a higher pitch when played at regular speed. Finally, on 6 June (spilling over into the small hours of 7 June), Paul re-recorded his vocal, employing a unique concept provided by Martin. Martin had suggested Paul “sing the chorus in counterpoint to his final vocal refrain.” (Winn, That Magic Feeling, 24)

Instrumentation and Musicians:

Paul McCartney, the composer, sings lead vocal.

John Lennon sings backing vocals.

George Harrison sings backing vocals.

String Octet including violinists Tony Gilbert (first violin) Sidney Sax, John Sharpe, and Jurgen Hess; violists
Stephen Shingles and John Underwood, and cellists Derek Simpson and Norman Jones. Musical arrangement by George Martin. (Hammack, 136)

Sources: Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Chronicle, 219, Lewisohn, The Recording Sessions, 77, Martin, All You Need is Ears, 199, Emerick, Here, There, and Everywhere, 127, Rodriguez, Revolver: How The Beatles Reimagined Rock’n’Roll, 167-169, Davies, The Beatles Lyrics, 144-149, Margotin and Guesdon, All the Songs, 326-327, Winn, That Magic Feeling, 7 and 24, Hammack, The Beatles Recording Reference Manual, Vol. 2, 136-137, Turner, A Hard Day’s Write, 104-105, Riley, Tell Me Why, 184-185, Spizer, The Beatles for Sale on Parlophone Records, 213, Spignesi and Lewis, 100 Best Beatles Songs, 93-95, McCartney, Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 157-163, Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 118-119 and 151, Shotton, John Lennon: In My Life, 123-124, and MacDonald, Revolution in the Head, 162-163.

What’s Changed:

Absolutely Everything!!! If you knew nothing at all about The Beatles, and heard “Love Me Do” followed by “Eleanor Rigby,” you would vow that those two songs were not composed by the same band! Even if we juxtaposed 1965’s “Help!” against 1966’s “Eleanor Rigby,” the differences would still be myriad and vast. The second track on Revolver truly changed so much that we know about The Beatles. It was a dramatic 180-degree pivot. Here are just a few of the meteoric changes:

Instrumental Personnel – Paul sings the lead vocal while John and George sing back-up, but nary a Beatle plays an instrument on this track. The instruments are manned by a professional string octet, but not by John, Paul, George, and Ringo. That is certainly “something new”!

Instruments – four violins, two violas, two cellos. And that is all. To quote Clang: “Shocking!”

“A Complete Change of Style” – This quote regarding “Eleanor Rigby” (and “Tomorrow Never Knows”) is from Sir George Martin. And of course, he said it perfectly. Both songs propelled us headlong into “the new direction.” Prior to Rubber Soul and Revolver, Beatles music had been upbeat if not always optimistic. Even songs expressing crushing depression (such as “I’ll Cry Instead” and “Help!”) sound hopeful, if not downright joyous.

But “Eleanor Rigby” is unabashedly a song about painful isolation from which there is no glimmer of rescue. In The Beatles’ catalog, this is a revolutionary theme and sound. As Tim Riley observes in Tell My Why: “The ‘ah’s’ aren’t soothing, they’re aching, and the sudden drop in the cellos after the first line sinks the heart along with it.” Yes, “Misery” was a song of heartbreak but left open the possibility that the wayward girl would “come back to me.” And in “Girl,” the bickering couple only suffer through their troubles because they’re still very much in love.

But the world of “Eleanor Rigby” is a place in which “no one was saved.” In Revolver: How The Beatles Reimagined Rock’n’Roll, Robert Rodriguez points out that even “Yesterday” holds more hope than “Eleanor Rigby.” He observes: “’Yesterday’ bore obvious commerciality with its time-honored theme of love gone wrong. But ‘Eleanor Rigby’ was a somewhat unsettling composition devoid of traditional romanticism, calculated to stir rather than to soothe.”

Contested Authorship of Lyrics – The lyrics of only one other Beatles song – “In My Life” – has been claimed by both John and Paul. Through the years, Paul has always claimed full authorship for “Eleanor Rigby.” In Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, he goes into great detail about several “old ladies” he encountered in his youthful Bob-A-Job-Week chores – ladies who inspired the character. And Paul adds that Eleanor Bron might have reinforced the concept of using “Eleanor” as the character’s name. Then he states, “Initially, the priest was ‘Father McCartney’ because it had the right number of syllables. I took the song out to John at that point, and I remember playing it to him, and he said, ‘That’s great, Father McCartney.’ He loved it. But I wasn’t really comfortable with it because it’s my dad – my Father McCartney – so I literally got out the phone book and went on from ‘McCartney’ to ‘McKenzie.’” (pp. 157-163)

However, in the 1980 Playboy Interviews, John Lennon told David Sheff, “Yeah, ‘Rigby.’ The first verse was [Paul’s], and the rest are basically mine…we were sitting around with Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall, and he said to us, ‘Hey, you guys, finish up the lyrics.’…and I was insulted that Paul had just thrown it out of the air. He actually meant he wanted me to do it, and of course, there isn’t a word of theirs in it because I finally went off to a room with Paul and we finished the song.” John then goes into great detail about the writing process of “Rigby,” even stating that “when [he] stepped away to go to the toilet,” George and Paul were working on “Rigby” in his absence, and they came up with the line, “Ah look at all the lonely people.” When he returned, John says, “They were settling on that.” He says that he heard it, loved it, and remarked, “That’s it!” (pp. 118-119)

Later in the same interview, John restated his contribution to “Eleanor Rigby,” calling it “Paul’s baby, but I helped with the education of the child.” (p. 151)

However, in his book, John Lennon In My Life, Pete Shotton revealed a very different account of the song’s creation. Pete says that he and about 8-10 other people (including Ringo) were spending an evening in John’s home Kenwood when Paul arrived. McCartney presented those gathered with a set of lyrics for “Eleanor Rigby,” and said, “I’ve got this little tune here. It keeps popping into me head, but I haven’t got very far with it.”

Pete says, “We all sat around, making suggestions, throwing out the odd line or phrase…[When] Paul got to the verse about the cleric, whose name he had down as ‘Father McCartney,’ Ringo came up with the line about ‘darning his socks in the night,’ which everybody liked.” However, Pete says that he objected to the cleric’s name and pointed out to Paul that fans might think it is Jim McCartney having to darn socks, lonely and all alone. And when Paul agreed, Pete goes on: “…I noticed a telephone directory lying around and said, ‘Give us that phone book, then, and I’ll have a look through the Macs.” And he did. After finding and rejecting the humorous name “McVicar,” Pete says that he asked Paul to “try Father McKenzie out for size, and everyone appeared to like the lilt of it.” (Shotton, 123)

Then, according to Pete, Paul told the gathered group: “The real trouble is I’ve no idea how to finish this song.” Ideas and suggestions were thrown out at random. And Pete claims that he suggested having Eleanor die and having Father McKenzie perform the burial. Pete states that he said, “That way you’ll have the two lonely people coming together in the end – but too late.” (Shotton, 124) It was a concept, Pete tells us, that Paul seemed to endorse, but an ending that John did not care for one bit.

Quite a different tale! So, where does the truth lie? Who wrote what and when and why?

The only thread that is consistent in all accounts is that Paul took the song to John and somehow the two of them – alone or with other people – finished the lyrics as a joint effort. All other details vary, depending upon the teller of the tale. Rarely does this scenario occur with a Beatles song. Credits are shared; nods are given. But the history of “Eleanor Rigby” is much like the record’s namesake, aloof and unknown.

Recording Techniques – When Paul McCartney told new EMI engineer Geoff Emerick that he wanted the strings on “Eleanor Rigby” “to sound really biting,” Emerick was a little intimidated. How could he achieve that? In his book Here, There, and Everywhere, Emerick tells us that he devised an outrageous plan to close-mic the strings. He explains: “String quartets were traditionally recorded with just one or two microphones placed high, several feet up in the air so the sound of bows scraping couldn’t be heard.”

Defying this unwritten rule, Geoff close-miked the instruments. It was a bold act of genius. And the result was precisely what Paul wanted! Not only did the strings supply melody but they also supplied percussion. And their “harsh realism” brought the strident authenticity of a callous world into this lonely and tragic song. (More on this in Simon Weitzman’s “Fresh, New Look” interview below.)

One final note…According to The Beatles, “Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name.” But in 2023, almost 60 years from her appearance in the world of The Beatles, Eleanor lives on. By the mid 2000’s, the song had been covered by over 200 musicians. Ray Charles, for example, hit No. 35 on the Billboard charts with his version of the song. In 1969, Aretha Franklin’s take on the number shot to No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. But these two icons are not alone in their respect for the song. Hundreds of other groups recorded their own tributes to Father McKenzie, all the lonely people, and yes, to Eleanor. In 2023, Eleanor is still with us…living on.

A Fresh, New Look:

We’re thrilled to have Simon Weitzman with us this month for a close and personal examination of “Eleanor Rigby.” Apart from his other many credits, listed earlier in the blog, Simon is working on a documentary about Beatles PA and Rolling Stones Tour Manager, Chris O’Dell. He’s also completing his wonderful film, A Love Letter to The Beatles: Here, There, and Everywhere, which you will be able to enjoy at the New York Metro Fest for Beatles Fans. Taking time out of his hectically busy schedule to discuss “Eleanor Rigby” was a real treat for the Fest staff. Thank you, Simon!!!!

Jude Southerland Kessler: Hi Simon, thank you “ooover and oover and oover again” (whoops, wrong band!!) for giving us the gift of your time. We know you’re incredibly busy, so I’ll dive right in. Simon, the 1966 addition of young Geoff Emerick to the production team at EMI certainly made Revolver an edgier, more experimental LP. Please tell us a bit about Emerick’s clever method of making the orchestral segment “hard-biting,” as Paul had requested him to do.

Its production is as exquisite as it is different. Paul was a forward-thinker and was amenable to George Martin’s suggestions that classical music be employed. Despite initial misgivings, Paul wisely followed Martin’s lead and brought classical influences firmly into the 20^th century. It was familiar ground for George Martin; it enabled him to take a leap of faith with Paul and really push the strings in the recordings, whilst taking inspiration from Bernard Herrmann, who himself innovated the modern film compositions that were to shape cinema throughout the century. Indeed, “Eleanor Rigby” has a soundscape that would very comfortably sit in a number of movie soundtracks today.

“I was very much inspired by Bernard Herrmann…[he] really impressed me, especially the strident string writing. When Paul told me he wanted the strings in ‘Eleanor Rigby’ to be doing a rhythm, Herrmann…was a particular influence.”

George Martin as quoted in The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn, 77

The sound revolution in “Eleanor Rigby” was further extended by the youthful influence of sound engineer Geoff Emerick. Emerick loved classical music but wasn’t bound by the rules and containment of his predecessors. He was more in tune with Paul’s desire to take what was known from the genre and move it into the contemporary music of the time…in effect, making classical acceptable to the pop genre and vice versa. To achieve this – as Jude noted – Emerick brought the microphones closer to the players, managing to isolate each string in a way that hadn’t been done before, This caused some of the more purist musicians some discomfort during the recordings. You just didn’t do that to musicians in session; well, not until now. As Emerick clearly stated in his book Here, There, and Everywhere: “On ‘Eleanor Rigby’ we miked very, very close to the strings, almost touching them. No one had really done that before; the musicians were in horror.”

The combination of Emerick’s soundscape enthusiasm mixed with Martin’s more orthodox approach worked perfectly to create something that sounded filmic, classical, and modern, all at the same time – just as Paul had always seen it in his mind’s eye.

Kessler: Simon, please give us your thoughts on the imagery of the desolate woman and the desperate priest whom no one could hear and whom no one drew near. What do they say to you? Is there hope in this song?

For me, “Eleanor Rigby” is about the mask we put on when we are in social situations and the personas we invent to create our own self-worth. The line: “Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door” is a face we all wear when we leave our homes and try to interact and connect with the world. “Picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been, lives in a dream” for me, translates as the daydream in which most of us live as we look at what we perceive to be what we should be doing with our lives…and what we perceive everyone else is doing with theirs, as well as being the outsider who is always trying to conform.

“Father McKenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear, no one comes near. Look at him working, darning his socks in the night when there’s nobody there, what does he care?’” Again, for me the song concentrates on the lifelong search for our self-worth and ultimately, the things we do to satisfy our own perception of achievement. We are conditioned to do things that are recognized. We are educated to believe that the things we do to create our own self-worth don’t count if no one else is watching or listening. Perhaps Paul was also thinking about the apparent futility of everything. Perhaps he, too, was asking, “Does any of it matter?” and “Why are we conditioned to think like this?”

“Eleanor Rigby, died in the church and was buried along with her name, nobody came. Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave, no one was saved.” These final words remind us that we are all ultimately alone. Although in this case, Father McKenzie – whose life is as lonely as Eleanor’s – is at least there to see her over to the afterlife. There is ultimately someone there to see us through, even if it is after we have passed, if only to acknowledge our existence.

Then, there is the final chorus: “All the lonely people, where do they all come from?” This speaks to me and to all of us, I believe, at some stage of our lives, or a lot of stages in our lives. “All the lonely people, where do they all belong?” Where do any of us belong? It’s such a clever observation of the human condition and our need to find our place in the world. It addresses our belief that we only count if we are recognized by others…when the reality is discovering and being at one with our self-worth, however our life turns out. That is ultimately what it’s all about.

Kessler: Finally, Simon, why does this song appeal to you, personally?

This is a song that I very much identify with as an only child and as someone who lives on his own. Ultimately, we are all ‘lonely people,’ but what Paul McCartney (possibly together with John) tapped into is the ultimate loneliness of us all. Even if we are successful, we are unsure. If we are unsuccessful, we feel remote from those who seemingly find success easier. “Eleanor Rigby” is also about the lives we lead, despite the isolation we encounter in life. It is a song that speaks to so many people, even if they aren’t hardcore Beatles fans.

It’s a song that has always made me think. Very few of us get through life without anxiety and self-doubt. I do get very lonely. I suffer from anxiety and issues of self-worth, perhaps like so many of us in this Beatles family. And perhaps that’s why this family exists and why it is so successful…because it is one of the few places in life where we do belong, where we are amongst our own kind and where we can embrace individuality and encourage each other. It feels like this song was designed as a “shout out” to everyone looking for themselves.

We all have to go through life trying to exude a confidence we probably don’t have. Look at musicians like Adele, who suffer from imposter syndrome. I think we all suffer from imposter syndrome, unless we lack the humanity that anchors us to the reality of our short lives in the vastness of eternity. It doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank, how good looking you are perceived to be, or what circles you move in – isolation is the biggest challenge we encounter in life, and it is easy to get lost. Look at the unfortunate people who are homeless and struggle to be seen at all by so many of us. Everyone deserves to be seen.

I wonder if Paul ever imagined that the fans of The Beatles would still be together after all these years and that the music and the legend of the group would create such a strong family bond? Yet, here we are. We are very lucky to have our Beatles family. It’s what keeps many of us sane and gives us a community to feel comfortable with. I think our Beatles community has a bond stronger than The Beatles ever anticipated. It has been the catalyst that unites us and helps us get through the tough times, and songs like “Eleanor Rigby,” for me, remind us where we all are and how lucky we are to have each other. A place where we can belong, be valued, and not feel so lonely.

Kessler: Simon, truer words were never penned! Thank you for being an integral part of this special look at “Eleanor Rigby”! We can’t wait to see you in just a few days at the New York Metro Fest for Beatles Fans!

For more info on Simon Weitzman, HEAD HERE or follow him on Facebook HERE or on LinkedIn HERE

For more information on Jude Southerland Kessler and The John Lennon Series, HEAD HERE

The Fest For Beatles Fans is Home

By Jude Southerland Kessler

Oddly enough, every time I step through the door into a Fest for Beatles Fans – whether it’s held in New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, or Los Angeles, I hear Simon and Garfunkel singing. Yeah, you heard me: Simon and Garfunkel.

Oh sure, over the hotel speakers, The Beatles are joyfully “yeah, yeah, yeah-ing their brilliant way across the universe,” as it should be. But in my head, I hear:

“Home where my thoughts escapin’,
Home, where my music’s playin,
Home where my love lies waitin’
Silently for me…silently for me.”

Home. Going to a “Beatlefest” (as we used to call it) means coming home again.

Mark and Carol Lapidos always say that the fest is a Thanksgiving Dinner without the family arguments. And that pretty well sums it up.

All the usual characters are there…the same family members we’ve seen over and over for the past five, ten, twenty (or more!) years. You know, Michelle and Jessica in their flowing, glorious attire and 10-12 inch heels. The man who has every elegant Beatle suit ever tailored. That group who sets up a full band in the lobby and sings away, all night long…and the tanned, smiling man who dances to every, single, solitary song. Mark Hudson with his “love-is-a-many-splendored-beard” and his crazy-mad command of “Working Class Hero.” The fresh, hopeful teens out to win the “Battle of the Beatles Bands.” Jim Demes who works his buns off with a sincere smile ever on his face. Bruce Spizer who barely chuckles when I call him a “Beatleseffin’pedia.” Gregarious Judith, supremely talented Eric, and our sweet friend, Dara.

My family. Our family. Home again.

We do the traditional things. We dance to the sounds of Liverpool’s nightly concerts. We take part in the trivia contest. We go to Jude’s Sunday morning Early Bird speech in the Main Ballroom (Hint! Hint!) on “The 180 Hardest Days of The Beatles Career.” We watch “A Hard Day’s Night” on Friday evening just before the Author’s Symposium. We get autographs from our lifelong heroes…and at least once during the weekend’s span, we just stop and sing along with The Beatles.

It’s at that moment that we remember why we came here: for the friends, of course. For the family. For the fun and the programs and the laughter and the carefree moments out of time. But most of all, we have traveled here to celebrate our champions, The Beatles…to lift a glass or two and say, “Those were the days my friend.” To remember.

We stand beneath the posters of their bright, 1960’s smiles, and we recall a time less harried, less riddled with care, less uncertain, and less angry. We remember the hope that was ours and the days that stretched ahead golden and full of promise. And it reminds us that this can happen again, if only we try…if only we stay true to those things in which we once so ardently believed.

At the Fest for Beatles Fans, we come home to ourselves…to whom we were and to whom we can be again.

Join me March 20-22 and be reborn. In Rye Brook, New York, YOU are waiting for you. I wouldn’t miss that appointment.

Grab your #TicketToRye RIGHT HERE

Jude Southerland Kessler
http://www.johnlennonseries.com

What do the Beatles have to do with selfies?

By Jude Southerland Kessler

It’s infectious, The Chainsmoker’s narcissistic, beat-jammed song. As I run, I listen to the lyrics and giggle at the girl who’s forlorn over getting only 10 likes for her selfie in the last five minutes, the girl who whiningly wonders, “should I take it down?”

My I-pod is eclectic, and up next are The Beatles, harmonizing in my ears. “She Loves You” is quickly followed by “Hey Jude” and suddenly, I see it! What made The Beatles incredibly timeless was not their selfie-ness, but their selflessness. Instead of focusing on themselves, The Beatles focused on us.

Sure, the boys started out at Square One with songs that asked the girl to “Please Please Me” and to “Love Me Do.” But with a tiny bit of confidence and experience under their belts, John, Paul, George, and Ringo relinquished self-adoration for something bigger.

They began to focus out, not in.

In the years to come, The Fab Four would give us Lovely Rita, Dear Prudence, Mr. Kite (and company), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Mean Mr. Mustard, Rocky Raccoon, Maxwell (avec his silver hammer), Bungalow Bill, Julia (a very real girl), Girl (deep breath now!), that nameless lass who was finally, finally leaving home, Michelle, the girl who graciously permits Paul to drive her car, Desmond and Molly, JoJo, Sweet Loretta Martin, Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie, the man who blew his mind out in a car, Nowhere Man (closely resembling John Lennon, but not a clear-cut selfie), the girl who doesn’t miss much, athletic Mother Superior, Darling (of Oh!), You Who Never Giveth Me Your Money, Little Girl (who’d better run for her life…if she can), and oh so many more. “The Lads” populated our world with people like us and unlike us. They created a cast of characters with whom we identified, related, or rejected. They spun stories that drew us into other magical worlds.

Through the eyes of these four Liverpool boys, we plunged under the sea to live in a submarine. We tended an octopus’s garden. We rolled up for the Mystery Tour. We were happy just to dance with them. We reluctantly hung our red dress back up in the closet. We discovered what it was like to be dead. We let them take us down to Strawberry Fields. We anguished over lost friends in an eerie L.A. fog, and we raged on the brink of Revolution! We lived lives beyond our tiny rural, suburban, or even urban worlds. We reached out.

John was the only one who really wrote “selfies,” and we were so unaccustomed to hearing these boys speak of themselves that we completely overlooked what John was saying. When he penned, “I’m a loser, and I’m not what I appear to be,” we assumed he was talking about someone else…another “character,” as it were. When he cried for “Help!” we thought it was just a heady theme song. When he said, “I’ve got every reason on earth to be mad, ‘Cause I just lost the only girl I had,” we thought it was a fictional scenario. That’s how infrequently these boys focused on themselves!

The delight of The Beatles lay (and still lies) in their ability to get us to see others, to hear the stories of others, and to care about someone beyond ourselves. Even in his Christmas carol, John is admonishing our selfishness and urging us to see and care for the poor and hungry. Time and again, The Beatles urge us to look beyond the “ME” to the “WE.”

Look, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a little selfie now and then. It’s a good place to start. After all, you’re asked to love others as you love yourself.

But once “selfied”…move on. Because in the end, (after all) the love you take is equal to the love you make.

Jude Southerland Kessler
http://www.johnlennonseries.com

“Living with Eyes Closed?”

By Jude Southerland Kessler

“Living with Eyes Closed?”

“Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see,
It’s getting hard to be someone
But it all works out.
It doesn’t matter much to me…”

John Winston Lennon

“Strawberry Fields”

My sister refuses to watch the news. “I just don’t want to know about it,” she tells me. And on one level, she’s SO right: Life is to be enjoyed! (And yeah, I know… the news is never good.)

Our own John Lennon voiced a similar opinion. “Living is easy with eyes closed,” he sang. And he was right. Life’s so much smoother if you don’t know the details.

But wait!! Was John advocating living that way, or was he pointing out (in typical Lennon satire) how very wrong that kind of attitude is? Wasn’t John asking us to examine our actions just the way he always did in “Instant Karma” or “Happy Christmas (War is Over)” or even in “Revolution”?

I think what John was pointing out is that “living with eyes closed” is NOT what we’re called to do. It’s not how we’re called to live.

The answer to, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is still a resounding “Yes!”? And especially in this season, we’re reminded that we’re inexorably linked to the poor, the war-torn, the abused and neglected, and the lonely. (“Ah, look at all the lonely people!” Paul penned.)

Watching hours and hours of current events and televised news may not be the happiest habit. And certainly watching it without putting any lifestyle changes into action is fruitless and empty.

But maybe this year, we can OPEN our eyes, take a good look at the world around us, and then do something.

Maybe right now, at this moment, we can decide to make 2015 the year in which we:

Volunteer at a shelter

Write a letter to a congressman

Give (a little or a lot) to a good cause

Contribute a song or quote or photo to the Fest Facebook page or the Moments group to lift someone’s spirits

Tweet something important

Champion a cause

Plant a neighborhood garden

Tutor a child

Drive someone to work or to the grocery store

Clean up the neighborhood

Forgive an old wound

Cook for a neighbor who works long hours or who is elderly

Rake someone’s leaves

Call someone who is lonely and chat

Buy a ticket to The Fest for someone and give it to them anonymously! (It’ll be the best time they’ve ever had!)

Knit a scarf for someone who works in the cold

Take in a rescue dog or cat

Encourage someone to make his or her dream come true

Stand up for what you believe in

Give sincere compliments…(you know, the things you think but never have the courage to say)

Withhold judgments

Build faith

Try to smile more and gripe less

It’s 2015, people! This year, let’s take a peek. Let’s open our eyes. Let’s understand what we see, and then do something about it! Let’s make the world less “a lonely branch” and more a “Strawberry Field.”

What say you?

Jude Southerland Kessler

http: //johnlennonseries.com

Moments: With A Little Help From Our Friends

By Jude Southerland Kessler

“Why in the world are we here?
Surely not to live in pain and fear…”
-John Lennon

But sometimes, it feels that way, doesn’t it?

Sometimes you have a horrid day…
followed by a worse one…
and then, an even darker one than that.
Sometimes, your cup runneth over, but not with joy – with sorrow.

John Lennon felt that loneliness and isolation, too. In fact, in Strawberry Fields Forever, he cried out, “NO ONE, I think, is in my tree. I mean, it must be high or low.” Many times, he felt alone…out on a limb, cut off from human understanding. We all do.

That is when we reach for a MOMENT.

Moments come in myriad sizes. They can be as small as a freshly-brewed cup of coffee, a hot shower, a single crimson leaf tumbling along the sidewalk, or a quick smile from someone at work. Or a moment can stand tall and significant: an afternoon shared with your child or a kind email or precious card from someone who has taken the time to think of you and let you know.

The best moments are unanticipated…hearing a favorite Beatles song on the radio. Or finding a crumpled $10 bill in your jeans pocket. Having a stranger randomly treat you to Starbucks.

But hey, there is nothing wrong with moments that are planned! You can, in fact, begin to inject moments purposely into your day. Plan to get a pedicure or listen to Rubber Soul or Live at the BBC. Plan to curl up with a good book (Shoulda Been There might be nice!). Plan to cut fresh evergreens or pansies to place on your bedside table. Plan to eat a STRAWBERRY or a tangerine. Plan to do something that makes you happy.

Planning one special moment for yourself in the day ahead gives you a chance to anticipate “the happy.” If you know that at 3 p.m. you’re going to take a 10-minute break to walk outside or to sip a cup of cocoa or read a few pages in Mark Lewisohn’s Tune In, then all day long, you can look forward to that moment with hope. No matter what else happens, you can move toward that bit of joy with the assurance that at least one good thing is going to occur.

I’m a runner, and sometimes, when the run is particularly difficult, I push myself from focal point to focal point, not trying to mentally accomplish the “whole run,” but refusing to quit by saying, “I’ll make it as far as the next mailbox” and then, “Okay, now I’ll make it as far as the next street sign.” Using that technique, I trick myself into enduring the whole four miles; I complete the run bit by bit, moment by moment.

THAT is the thought process behind a new Facebook page called “MOMENTS.”

It is a page filled with inspiring quotes, lovely photos, good videos, a couple of jokes, some uplifting songs, and an entire potpourri of thoughts to help us endure the race. It’s a collection of thoughts that keep us running, even when we feel like giving up.

I invite you to join the Moments page on Facebook and enjoy it. It’s a page for Beatles fans…although we want anyone to enjoy it. It’s a place where those of us who have connected via John, Paul, George, and Ringo can contribute a thought or two. We can post happy songs or inspiring songs like Across the Universe. We can post quotes or videos.

Go to the page when you need a smile. Go to the Moments page when you want to give one away.

I’ll be there, offering you a moment or two when you need one. And when I need a moment, I’ll run there as well, hoping you’ve left one there for me.

Moment by moment, we’ll get by. It happens, of course, with a little help from our friends.

Jude Southerland Kessler is the Author of The John Lennon Series

http://www.johnlennonseries.com

Follow Jude on Twitter @JudeKessler

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Billy J. Kramer will always sound like summer

By Jude Southerland Kessler

To me, Billy J. Kramer will always sound like summer.

I first heard “Bad to Me” as we trekked back from City Pool to Bringhurst Park where Camp Denim Deb for Preteens was in full swing. It was deep summer in Alexandria, Louisiana – June bug and Popsicle days. And I was almost 11, or “one teen,” as I insisted on calling it. And it was in that “almost-one-teen summer” that I began noticing boys and dreaming of falling in love.

“The birds in the sky would be sad and lonely

If they knew that I’d lost my one and only…

They’d be sad! Don’t be bad to me!”

The words poured from our camp counselor, Joanne Wooten’s, transistor radio. Walking single file through sun and shadow – our flip flops wet-smacking the sidewalk – my friends and I sang along…allowing ourselves to fall for the tune and the words and the way they made us feel, even though the hit wasn’t (or so we thought) by The Beatles.

The Beatles! They were my world. Well, John Lennon was my world. And had I known that he’d composed “Bad to Me” during his May 1963 trip with Brian Epstein to the Costa Brava and the Costa Del Sol, I would have flipped over it. Head over heels! But instead, I fell for the song gradually, mesmerized by the image of “softly sighing” leaves and the gentle sound of Billy J. Kramer’s voice.

Slender, brunette Joanne Wooton wore aqua contact lenses and tailored Capri pants. And as a teenager (almost an adult!), she was beyond cool. So when she informed us all that Billy J. Kramer was from Liverpool, too, and that he was blond, broad-shouldered, and handsome, we swooned. The Denim Debs had never seen Billy’s face, but listening to him plead, “Don’t be bad to me,” we were hooked.

It wasn’t until forty years later that I actually met Billy, face-to-face, at the Las Vegas Fest for Beatles Fans. Gathering all of my courage, I strolled over to him and said, “Billy, I want you to know that ‘I Go To Pieces’ meant the world to me growing up. In fact, I loved it so much that I sang it as a lullabye to my son each evening when he was a baby.”

Billy, who could have easily retorted, “Uhhhh, that’s not my song, you twit!” smiled a kind smile and tenderly replied, “Ah, that’s so nice. I’ll be sure to tell Peter Asher next time I see him.”

It took me ten minutes to figure out that I had named the wrong song. And ten months to get up the courage to speak to Billy again!

But since then, we’ve become good friends – me and this tall, sandy-blond NEMS star who wooed me away from John, if only for one small segment of summer. He and his wife have become one of the couples I most look forward to seeing each time we Fest for Beatles Fans-ers convene in New York or Chicago.

But this past Fest, as I sat in the Saturday night concert audience with my grown son, Cliff, and heard Billy J. sing the song I had REALLY crooned to my baby as a lullabye, “Bad To Me,” I was overcome with emotion.

Suddenly, it wasn’t 2014. It was 1964. And I was flip-flopping back to Bringhurst Park to braid a keychain made from rubber strands of brightly-coloured, waxy ribbon. I was singing along with the other Denim Debs and talking about the futility of attempting a cartwheel on the thick, grey tumbling mat that always smelled of feet.

It wasn’t October in Los Angeles as Billy sang. It was long ago…June bug hot and Popsicle cold. When Billy J. offered up “Bad to Me,” it was blue skies and birds on the wing.

For me, Billy J. Kramer will always sound like summer. His is the sound of days free from care. A lost innocence.

Jude Southerland Kessler is the Author of The John Lennon Series

http://www.johnlennonseries.com

Follow Jude on Twitter @JudeKessler

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By Any Other Name

By Jude Southerland Kessler

We call it The Fest.

We could say “convention” or “gathering” or “conference” or “meeting.” But it’s more than that.

It’s also “celebration” and “party.” The Fest for Beatles Fans – whether it’s held in New Jersey, Chicago, Las Vegas, or L.A. is always so much more than the trite, run-of-the-mill weekend symposium or show. It’s indeed a festival…a joyous fête uplifting of The Beatles and who they were and what they stood for, then and now. It’s a fest of their love.

In Los Angeles two weeks ago, we experienced that feeling with an awareness borne from time to think and reflect. Oh there were crowds and we were busy, but we weren’t OVERWHELMED the way we were in February at the New York Fest…we weren’t inundated as we were in Chicago. The authors and presenters and speakers who gathered on the “Left Coast” had moments to digest what was going on and to let the HISTORY of the moment sink in.

Directly across from my booth in the Marketplace stood Julia Baird, John’s sister, taking time to have her photo made with every single person who asked – signing autographs and sharing memories. At times, I could feel how very exhausted she was, but like John, she turned no one away. Julia kept smiling and hugging and making each fan feel special and unique. And when they walked away she didn’t roll her eyes or secretly snipe at them. Her love for each person was genuine. I know. I could see.

Beside me sat Ruth McCartney, takin’ the mickey out of everyone in her path…especially me. She had a blast from the moment she arrived ‘til the last second that she walked away. Selling her own brand of McCartney tea, Ruth was a force of fun to be reckoned with…a whirling dervish of deviltry. She was all nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Loved it!

It was a weekend for standing and chatting with Bob Eubanks who once brought The Beatles to the Hollywood Bowl…a weekend for learning The Cavern Stomp from the lovely Freda Kelly, who (quite fortunately) will never ever change…who will always, as the song says, “stay as sweet as you are.” It was a weekend for laughing with Ivor Davis over Ringo’s 1964 escapades and for smiling from ear-to-ear as Dave Morrell spun his web of loosey-goosey experiences, sharing the moments he spent with John just “horse-doggin’.” Those were the days, my friend.

The L.A. Fest was a weekend of music: the rock rant of Mark Hudson, the mad sax of Mark Rivera, and the “Hey Jude” of Mark Lapidos. All reMARKable.

It was Denny Laine, Denny Seiwell, and Laurence Juber all WINGing across the stage together…together, minus One.

It was Bruce with the serial number and history of every Beatles record ever made and Chuck with a photo of each stop along the concert highway. It was me with 4000 footnotes and Kit with two upcoming books and Michelle and Jessica flowing past in 8-inch platform heels and burgundy “Help”-inspired, hooded capes. It was “Liddy Dave” with his quick wit and Candy with her inborn Beatleness. It was Susan stepping up to emcee us all…and Wally toting his penguin, a wry Thisbe (or Pyramus?).

We photographed one another. We made Beatles news for Steve Marinucci and Adam Forrest. We got up the courage to tell Julia how much she meant to us (well, I did). We bought T-shirts and books from one another. We had dinner together. And we laughed. We laughed as if our lives outside those walls realm had vanished, as if Joy was all we had.

For one weekend, we were all sixteen again.

Someone called The Fest for Beatles Fans a family reunion without the squabbles…and it is. It’s a magical mystery tour where she loves you and everyone feels fine. It’s a ticket to ride to a realm where each quirky person is completely accepted and totally loved.

When John Lennon gave his stamp of approval to Mark Lapidos’s idea to create a “Beatles Fest” forty years ago, he was unwittingly endorsing The New Apple…a gathering of creative souls to sing, dance, act, speak, read poetry, do yoga, imagine, and remember.

And so, in an important way, we are continuing The Business of The Beatles. But to most of us, it feels like nothing but “fest!”

How many days ‘til the next one?

Jude is a John Lennon author/historian whose writing style is geared for fans, as she explains in great detail all angles of events in a very enjoyable manner. Head to Jude’s website to explore her works: http://www.johnlennonseries.com/

Follow Jude on Twitter @JudeKessler

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