John Lennon---Revolution

John Lennon---Imagine

When have a few piano chords and a signature voice produced more great music and vision?

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John Lennon---Strawberry Fields

Strawberry Fields has become a global icon. Thank you very much.

Here's a cover by an unknown artist.

John Lennon---A Day In The Life (Sugar Plum Fairy Version)

Good afternoon. Here's an unreleased "A Day In The Life" of John Lennon.

John Lennon---Oh Yoko

John Lennon---Love

Good morning. It is John Lennon day here at KTWS RADIO--an entire day devoted to John Lennon. We are broadcasting 24 hours a day, every day of the year, from America's land of the alligators.

The Walrus Speaks.

Alice in Chains - Rooster

This may have been the most melodic of the great bands of the 90s.

The Beatles---Every Little Thing

John sings lead, but Paul wrote it, and that is quite unusual.

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Nada Surf---The Plan

Julia

The death of John Lennon's mother when he was a teenager tells us much about the artist. Julia Stanley Lennon died at the age of 44.

Monkees---Daydream Believer

They were a complete farce, of course, and the joke was on the Establishment. These guys were totally subversive, and serene Mr. Green, with a TV in every room, never realized it.

For simulacra, they were good vocalists.

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Patti Smith---Helpless

Is she Hindu?

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Neil Young---Powderfinger

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Elvis--Surrender

1961.

Neil Young---Cortez The Killer

He came dancing across the water
With his galleons and guns
Looking for the new world
And the palace in the sun.
On the shore lay Montezuma
With his coca leaves and pearls
In his halls he often wandered
With the secrets of the worlds.
And his subjects gathered 'round him
Like the leaves around a tree
In their clothes of many colors
For the angry gods to see.
And the women all were beautiful
And the men stood straight and strong
They offered life in sacrifice
So that others could go on.
Hate was just a legend,
War was never known.
People worked together
And they lifted many stones.
Then they carried them to the flatlands
But they died along the way
Then they built up with their bare hands
What we still can't do today.
And I know she's living there
And she loves me to this day
I still can't remember where
Or how I lost my way.
He came dancing across the water
Cortez, Cortez
What a killer.

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Rilo Kiley---All The Good That Won't Come Out

As one reviewer wrote, "Just be glad that you weren't 'born secular, and inconsolable,' you ungrateful bastard." Don't look at me, I'm just quoting here.

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State of the Recording Industry--"Fragile"

Rolling Stone chronicles the death of the recording industry. I blame MTV.

Still, every now and then they point their cameras at something good, like this performence of "The Fragile" by Nine Inch Nails.

J.S. Bach---Fugue In G Minor

To hell with dissonance. A little bit of that stuff goes a long way.

Nirvana---Heart Shaped Box

An interesting use of dissonance, if I may say so.

I Want You (She's So Heavy)

Here are the boys preparing for their famous walk across Abbey Road. Apparently Paul was concerned about Ringo's sartorial situation...yet he subsequently takes off his shoes. George is in the background chanting Hare Krishna or something...

Paul McCartney---Teddy Boy

"Teddy Boy" never made it on to a Beatles album, but it was included on McCartney's first solo album, McCartney.

As they got older, both Paul and John wrote overt lyrics concerning their mothers. This is Paul running through "Teddy Boy" with the Beatles. Lennon would make fun of McCartney's homages to his Mum, then turn around and do the same thing.

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Jenny Lewis - Happy

JLew sporting the sweet shades hanging out with a puppet and Jonathan Rice.

Rolling Stones---Ruby Tuesday

It's a beautiful Tuesday morning here at KTWS RADIO, broadcasting from America's Deep South 24/7, every day of the year. Local time and temperature is 11.20 am, 83 Beatle degrees.

Across The Universe

I believe the Station Agent is quite fond of this song.

Ganesha Sharanam

Lord Ganesha is not an elephant, he is a divine being with an elephant's head. Ganesha is the Lord of obstacles, beginnings, categories, success. He binds, and he loosens.

Om Ganeshaya Namah--we bow to Lord Ganesha.

Simon And Garfunkel---The Sounds Of Silence

This is not the radio version, but still very great.

George Harrison And The London Radha Krishna Temple

Some people call the absolute Govinda.

The Postal Service---Such Great Heights

Enya---Only Time

No one can say that KTWS RADIO does not emphasize variety...

Violent Femmes---Blister In The Sun

"Big hands, I know you're the one." These guys kill me.

A Perfect Circle---Imagine (Cover)

I can't stand this version of John Lennon's Imagine. It's not hopeful, and I have a limited tolerance for dissonance.

But hey--maybe you have a use for it.

Flight of the Conchords - Issues (aka Think About It)

These guys have a show on HBO. The show has the same name as the band. It's fun and funny. Lots of good music and characters.

Billy Idol---Eyes Without A Face

This dude is like a caricature of himself.

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Blondie---Heart Of Glass

Neil Young---Don't Let It Bring You Down

Neil Young, they don't make many guys like you.

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Cars---Just What I Needed

Ringo Starr---It Don't Come Easy

No, it doesn't.

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Unfinished Business or Creativity Ecosystem?

Not sure if this is true, but I like the spirit.

TNH and I were just having a conversation about creativity and coping with disability, and we got to talking about starting things and not finishing, and about the intense feelings of guilt and paralysis of decision-making that this can lead to in some of us. Mike had said something very important to me about that, years ago, and it helped immensely.

He said that having started many more things than you finish is a natural state for anyone who is actually engaged in doing a lot of creative work. He said that those unfinished projects were part of an ecosystem, and served a purpose; they were the nurse logs on the forest floor. Having them is not failure; having them is part of how the natural process works.

When he told me this, it felt like a huge iron spike had been taken out of my heart, or something.


So I told her, and she suggested I tell you guys too. So there you go.

Paul McCartney--"In Liverpool"

We tend to worship the land of our birth.

Indian Traffic

I think I might prefer to walk...

She Said, She Said

From the album Revolver.

Station Agent's Pick's--Schizopolis

Steven Soderbergh's no budget film Schizopolis could very well have come out today. The paranoid corporate/security state dystopia and seat of the pants do-it-yourself filmmaking resonate with 2007 much more than 1996, when Soderbergh--star, producer, writer and director--made it.

The movie is pure self-indulgent tripe, but who says that self-indulgent tripe can't be wildly entertaining and insightful?

Here's the opening scene, in which Soderbergh explains why this is the most important movie ever made.

Why Be A Vegetarian?

Join the vegetarian revolution, why don't you?



Lots of folks will understand the wisdom in the vegetarian argument, but for one reason or another can't bring themselves to give up meat. For someone in such a position let's recommend at least not hindering the vegetarian revolution, for such hindering would be a "bad faith" position.

It is certainly bad faith to advocate that meat eating is necessary. It really isn't necessary.

Let's consider one of the worst case scenarios--how would you feel, if you were a veal?

Carol King---It's Too Late

You couldn't go anywhere in America in the summer of 1971 and not hear "It's Too Late".

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Carol King - You Got a Friend

I'm watching PBS re-broadcast of the James Taylor tribute concert and I was taken by Carol King's intense, focused version of "You Got a Friend".

Fixing A Hole

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Evan Almighty A Green Production

The film industry is a massive American industry, and sadly, Hollywood has a reputation for leaving an environmental disaster in the wake of their often excessive productions.

Evan Almighty may very well have left a model for the entire industry to go by. Great work, I will now buy a ticket to your movie and not just put it on my Netflix queue.

Here's the Evan Almighty cast and crew telling you about it. Good work celebrities!


Crossposted at IST.

Chambers Brothers---Time Has Come Today

You don't want to miss this one. It's the long version.

Here, There, And Everywhere

Lennon said this one was his favorite of all of Paul's compositions.

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Eleanor Rigby

1966.

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Tom Waits - Lie to Me

Yeah, lie to me. Everyone on TV does.

Rilo Kiley - Paint's Peeling

Hope everyone's having a rock solid, fantastic Friday. Be careful, our leaders are nuts! KTWS time is 3:25 on the East Coast of the U.S.

New Rilo Kiley drops in August.

Tori Amos - Silent All These Years

Live from 2003.

Misheard Lyrics - "Black" by Pearl Jam

Getting the lyrics right to certain Pearl Jam tunes can be tough. I don't think these lyrics are quite right.



Here's the actual lyrics (I think):

Pearl Jam - Black

Sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets of clay
Were laid spread out before me as her body once did
All five horizons revolved around her soul
As the earth to the sun
Now the air I tasted and breathed has taken a turn
Ooh, and all I taught her was everything
Ooh, I know she gave me all that she wore
And now my bitter hands chafe beneath the clouds
Of what was everything?
Oh, the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything...

I take a walk outside
I'm surrounded by some kids at play
I can feel their laughter, so why do I sear
Oh, and twisted thoughts that spin round my head
I'm spinning, oh, I'm spinning
How quick the sun can, drop away
And now my bitter hands cradle broken glass
Of what was everything?
All the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything...
All the love gone bad turned my world to black
Tattooed all I see, all that I am, all I'll ever be...yeah...

Uh huh...uh huh...ooh...
I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star
In somebody else's sky, but why
Why, why can't it be, why can't it be mine

Grateful Dead---Sugar Magnolia

The Dead had difficulty getting on the singles charts. They certainly did not try very hard. But their albums always sold very well and by the 1980's, they had broken all records for concert attendance.

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Bob Marley---One Love

Incredibly, although born in 1956, I had never really heard Bob Marley until the late 80's. I was walking around for a decade without appreciating one of the greatest composers of the 20th century! When I heard his stuff, I was stunned.

Cyndi Lauper---Time After Time

Culture Club---Karma Chameleon

I was told by punkers in the 80's that I was "stuck in the 60's". So what, going by my posts today I am stuck in the 80's? I reject the notion that music is fundamentally time-contextual. Superficially it may be, but if it has any potency IT IS ETERNAL.

As the Moody Blues said, "We decide which is right...and which is an illusion."

Billy Idol---Rebel Yell

I'm told Idol's original punk audience was outraged that he went "commercial." I was amused by their outrage. Two decades earlier, Dylan's folk audience was outraged that he went electric. Why do I find all this outrage amusing?

Only the Station Agent knows for sure. What's up with my irreverence, Fuseman?

Here Comes The Sun

This song never fails to cheer me.

The White Stripes - Icky Thump

The new White Stripes album is out. This single rules. I will purchase this soon.

All You Need Is Love

I presume you know whose glasses these were.

George Harrison---Let It Down

I personally know the dudes at the left and the right. We all know the dude in the middle.

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Katie Melua---Halfway Up The Hindu Kush