Went to Liverpool a couple of weeks ago to play a Phil Ochs benefit concert which was amazing but also did the tourist Beatles trail. For £10 you can do a very English 'National Trust' tour of Mendips (Lennon's childhood home) and Forthlin Rd (McCartneys). To do it you have to go on a minibus - otherwise you can't get in! Apparently Dylan was on the trip a few weeks before and nobody noticed the crazy old fella ... he just looked like an eccentric old guy at the back of the bus!
The houses are restored to their basic 1950's. Lennon was middle class, Macca very working class. There's a piano in Macca's parlour which I got to play Hey jude on - had to be done for the tourists!!
But you could stand in the porch at mendips where they'd be kicked out too and test the acoustics, feel the rockabilly vibe all these years on. You could almost feel John's ghost scribbling caricatures of Mimi's lodgers on bit's of scrap paper and climbing trees with his mates over to Strawberry Fields. I'm sure his spirit visits there periodically .. you sense he loved life and Liverpool.
If Macca existed down the road today you'd probably have the council round complaining of the noise! The house just smells of music... drums, piano, guitar - you can sense they all lived for it 24/7.
The biggest thing though I felt was that you could feel they were both loved by Mimi and Jim and that's what kids need to be a success in life. 
Anyway of course a song is on the way... here's an exert from the last verse inspired by Ginsbergs Beatles comments ..this is for John - I'm sure he'd approve!

'Come on and feel the Karma
Of the beat groups prophets pen
A world of goons and nonsense
At the gates of genius in his head'
(inspired by mendips)

Andy Smythe Oct 2009
 

I've recently read 3 books that have really moved me on a profound spiritual basis ..
'The Journey of Crazy Horse' Joseph M Marshall
'Mutant message down under' Marlo Morgan
'Touch the Earth' a self portrait of indian existance
Just seems to me more and more that in our commercial, technological society that we're missing the point. When did you last really listen to the birds sing? When did you last  cook a meal outside? When did you last spend a night looking at the milky way/shooting stars?
These so called 'primitive people' understood the need to respect and honour all life (animal and plant) and that music has enormous power on a soul level to enable people to honour each others talents. As Roy Harpers famous rant goes ' in the rich countries they just say how shit or how good you were tonight, in the poor countries they just sit and dig ecah other ....'  The operative word being each other ... no human being is any less unique than another. Why do we lift certain human beings to an almost god like status - when all they're good for is self promotion. Do you really think Madonna could move you with an acoustic guitar around a camp fire?????
Anyway back off the music for a second. Did you know that until the 1920's it was legal to shoot an aborigine? Did you know that Apaches were american prisoners of war until afer the 1st world war? 95% of american indians were wiped off the face of the planet by disease and war in the 19th century?
Perhaps we could learn a lesson or two from them all in sustainability otherwise we're up the creek without a paddle....
Just leave you with a quote..
'What is life? It is the fireflash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of buffalo in the winter time.'
'When the last stream is poisoned, the last fish is eaten only then will you realise that you cannot eat money'
Life is about improving yourself. The love you receive is equal to the love you give...
 

Just last weekend we all had the latest female 'singer/songwriter sensation' thrust upon us glamorised across all the sunday broadsheets... oh what a shock .. point of origin the Brit School South London. Following in the footstpes of Amy Winehouse, Kate Nash e.t.c. oh and that other one that sung the daft song about 'Punk Rocker with flowers in their hair' from Liverpool Performing Arts Macca school. So I thought give the girl a listen they must be doing something right down there in Croydon...

Unfortunately the usual immature, unimaginative garbage... oh she's split from her boyfriend. Never heard songs about that before... but the press say she plays her own guitar. Yes she does but .... it's basic stuff .. taught by the guitar teacher at the Brit School no doubt.

It just bugs me that we have a generation of new musicians who are being 'taught' 'how to be a singer/songwriter'. But they have nothing meaningful to say. They need to live a bit ... Just yesterday I was reading Bob Dylan's story again. Hithhiked to New York at 19, played every cafe, bar in Greenwich Village for peanuts before getting his lucky break as a harmonica player on a session overseen by the great John Hammond. Or sub the Beatles .. years spent learning their trade in Liverpool and Hamburg ... mixing old standards with rock 'n rool leaning how to harmonise, substitute strange chords. John lennon learning lyric writing through Lewis Carroll, a sense of humour from the Goons ...

Have today's singer/songwriters read Ginsberg, the beats, hitchhiked, played in a tough pub to a tough bunch of customers you have to win over. Have they played a folk club and learnt that playing the songs isn't enough... that you have to entertain and cajole an audience.. NO they haven't. It's put there on a plate for them.

However it's not their fault. Who is the ogre behind the scenes telling us what we should like? Yes it's whoever funds the BRIT school. And again surprise, surprise .. the major record companies. The corporate money men .. who want the talent trained on the cheap. Let's employ ex-session men and cheap vocal coaches and music technology teachers, let's audition and train 'em up... The educational version of the X Factor. Don't fall for the hype.. it's our culture being homogenised and regurgitated for us all over again.

Search myspace and you'll find a 1000 brilliant singer/songwriters people like Martin Joseph, Robb Johnson People who have lived and learnt their craft on the road. Their songs are real life, lived in stories about real people.. not the immature fantasies of the average 19 year old. Listen to real music and don't fall for the hype!! When the reality TV comes on press the off switch and maybe they'll start putting real playwrights and proper music back on prime time TV. Vote with your curiousity, don't buy the latest junk just cos they tell you it's good. It's almost always not!

Andy