Conference beatle::beatles

used ithout permisson from http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/entertainment/
    
Wednesday May 21 2:27 PM EDT

Lennon Solos Survive Test Of Time, Author Says

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuter) - John Lennon once confessed: "I really cannot wait to be
old."

He never got the chance.

But at least his music lives on, with rock journalist Paul Du Noyer arguing
in a new book that Lennon's best solo songs equalled anything he ever wrote
for the Beatles.

"We All Shine On" is the first book to take a critical look at the songs
penned by the legendary rock icon who was shot dead outside his New York
apartment by a crazed gunman 17 years ago.

Du Noyer had no hesitation in picking "Instant Karma" as his favorite
composition but is the first to acknowledge the solo output was patchy.
Many political protest songs had a short shelf life.

"The best of what he wrote equalled the Beatles, but a lot of it was
substandard. He was a victim of his own enthusiasm," Du Noyer said in an
interview Wednesday to mark publication.

Lennon excoriated Paul McCartney in his song "How Do You Sleep," a blatant
assault on his fellow Beatle that Rolling Stone magazine condemned as
"spiteful and self-indulgent."

Du Noyer accuses Lennon of descending into playground bickering but says he
understands why.

"He was not a calculating man. He tended to blunder into situations," he
said of the split between two of the most famous popular music composers of
the 20th century.

He believes that, had Lennon lived, the wounds between him and McCartney
would have healed. The Beatles could even have spontaneously gotten
together for some mega-charity event like the 1985 Live Aid concert for
African famine relief.

"I always felt that Lennon and McCartney were each other's equals. They
acted as each other's sensors, raising one another's game," he said.

He attacked Lennon's inconsistency, saying: "He turned ideological
cartwheels in a casual way that made his allies despair. His personality
underwent transformations worthy of a B-movie werewolf."

But the searing honesty of his obviously autobiographical songs was
admirable.

Perhaps the most poignant lyrics highlighted in the book are "Grow Old with
Me," which tells how Lennon's stormy marriage to Japanese artist Yoko Ono
survived and flourished.

The sad irony of the song's central message is captured in the line: "Man
and Wife together, World without End" and he sings the chorus "God Bless
our Love" with the Sunday school air of a Victorian hymn.

On the night of his murder, Lennon helped to complete the Yoko Ono single
"Walking On Thin Ice," and she offers the most moving tribute to the man
who brought the world "Imagine."

"He was my husband, he was my lover, he was my friend, my partner. He was
an old soldier that fought with me."

Reuters/Variety

used without permission from http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/entertainment
    
Wednesday May 21 3:43 PM EDT

UPDATE: Notebook Contains Early Lennon-McCartney Tunes

(clarifying release of mccartney statement)

NEW YORK (Reuter) - Just when you thought "The Beatles Anthology" was the
end of the road for unreleased Fab Four material, Paul McCartney has
revealed that he owns a notebook of some never-recorded songs that he
composed with John Lennon.

These are the earliest-ever McCartney-Lennon songs, dating to shortly after
the meeting of the two musicians at the Woolton Church Fete in Liverpool
some 40 years ago.

"There are probably five or six (songs)," McCartney said in a statement
released Wednesday by his New York publicist. "I wrote them in my school
exercise book. It's got 'Love Me Do' in it and four others that were never
recorded."

McCartney's management office in London said it has received several calls
inquiring about the notebook, but so far there have been no official offers
to purchase it.

Geoff Baker, McCartney's London-based spokesman, said Wednesday it was
highly unlikely the former Beatle intends to sell the material.

Nor was there any official word on whether McCartney would consider
recording any of the songs from the notebook. But a spokesman in New York
said: "They never thought that new Beatle songs would appear on a record
either, and they did."

He was referring to "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" from the "Anthology."
Those two singles were made by McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison
using the recorded vocals of the late Lennon from an old demo tape.

During his "Town Hall Meeting" on VH-1 last weekend, McCartney also
revealed that he has another Lennon demo in his possession.

But McCartney said he didn't remember the title of the song and wouldn't
say whether it was something he, Harrison and Starr were considering for a
future recording project.

The disclosure of the notebook comes less than a week before the U.S.
release of McCartney's first solo album in four years, "Flaming Pie," which
features songs he has described as deliberately reminiscent of the Beatles'
early sound.

Reuters/Variety