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| From | "bryan" <munki100@pacbell.net> |
| Subject | Lennon jukebox reveals Beatles' musical debts |
| Date | Tue, 13 Apr 2004 15:55:22 -0700 |
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Lennon jukebox reveals Beatles' musical debts
Fab Four borrowed from host of Sixties artists
David Smith, Sunday March 7, 2004
The Observer
Their sound defined a decade and spawned a thousand
imitations, but a long lost jukebox owned by John
Lennon has revealed that, when it came to musical
inspiration, even the Beatles got by with a little help
from their friends.
The 15 kg portable jukebox, owned by Lennon around
40 years ago, was bought by the late Bristol music
promoter John Midwinter for just £2,500 at a Christie's
sale of Beatles memorabilia in 1989. He then spent years
restoring it to working order and researching its 41 discs.
Listed in Lennon's handwriting, they are effectively the
Desert Island Discs which helped shape his musical
genius.
Among the collection of rock and roll, rhythm and blues
and soul, Midwinter traced an intriguing influence on the
Beatles' output. Blues performer Bobby Parker's guitar
lick was 'borrowed' by the Beatles for 'I Feel Fine'.
Delbert McClinton's harmonica inspired Lennon's own
on 'Love Me Do'. And the high-pitched scream on
'Twist and Shout' and other tracks was copied from the
Isley Brothers.
A team from The South Bank Show took the jukebox,
which they dubbed 'the original iPod', across America to
track down Lennon's musical heroes. Many were gratified
and none accused the Beatles of plagiarism. But one said
he felt his contribution deserved greater recognition.
The two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo
Starr, declined to take part, to the frustration of the
programme's makers.
Lennon is believed to have bought the Swiss-made KB
Discomatic jukebox in 1965 but some of the records date
from several years earlier. He is thought to have left it
behind when he moved to America, possibly at the Abbey
Road studios. It passed through private hands before
reaching Midwinter, who played it each year on the
anniversary of Lennon's death. Midwinter died of throat
cancer at the age of 57, just two days before he could be
told his ambition of a TV documentary about the jukebox
would be realised.
Artists featured on the jukebox include the Animals, Chuck
Berry, Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Smokey
Robinson and Gene Vincent. There are no Beatles records
and only one sung by a woman, Fontella Bass's 'Rescue Me'.
In Lennon's rough and ready scrawl, with gaps and crossings
out, The Lovin' Spoonful become 'The Lovin's Spoonfuls'
and Otis Redding is 'Ottis Redding'.
John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful, whose 'Daydream'
is on the jukebox, says: 'A few years ago a friend of mine
sent me this recorded tape of the Beatles rehearsing, and
there is this fragment where John is working his way through
"Daydream". There were a couple of problems, and if you
listen carefully you can hear him say, 'Damn tunesmiths!'
'Sir Paul graciously said that "Daydream" played heavily in
the creation of "Good Day Sunshine", so to have influenced
those boys is a wonderful thing for a songwriter because of
course they influenced me, they influenced all of us.'
Folk musician Donovan tells the programme: 'In May 1965
amazing things were happening. The folk music world would
soon infiltrate the pop culture, and it moves me because on
the jukebox is my third single, "Turquoise".
'When we were in India, John said: "How do you do that?"
I said, "What?" He said: "That stuff with your fingers." I said,
"It's a pattern." Three days later he had learnt it and a whole
new world opened up for his songwriting. "Dear Prudence,
won't you come out to play..." Prudence was Mia Farrow's
sister.'
Another track is the Isley Brothers' 'Twist and Shout', which
the Beatles covered. Lennon admitted: 'The "Oooooooh!"
was taken from the Isley Brothers on "Twist and Shout",
which we stuck in everything - "From Me to You", "She
Loves You"... they all had that.'
In radio interviews, some of which have not been heard for
decades, Lennon admits: 'Especially in the early years I would
often write a melody, a lyric in my head to some other song
because I can't write music. So I would carry it around as
somebody else's song and then change it when I got down
to putting it on paper or tape - consciously change because I
knew somebody's going to sue me or everybody's going to
say "what a rip-off".'
Melvyn Bragg, editor of The South Bank Show, said: 'The
musicians are surprisingly amiable. If they'd been ripped off
by somebody they thought was second rate, that would have
been different. But they really admired the Beatles, so it's OK.
On the film I saw no resentment, only a bit of ruefulness. But
who wouldn't be?'
Midwinter's widow and son have refused to cash in on the
jukebox and plan to give it to Lennon's widow Yoko Ono
for possible display at Lennon's childhood home in Liverpool.
The family will also publish a posthumous book by Midwinter
on the subject. A double CD, John Lennon's Jukebox, is
released by Virgin/EMI tomorrow.
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