Happy Birthday, John Lennon

walrus

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Lennon would have been 79 years old today...



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beecee

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Wonder how he would compare looks wise to Keith or Mick
 

JF-30

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Paul and Ringo held up pretty well. No reason John wouldn't have if he would have survived. And I think Ringo is the oldest.
 

walrus

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Paul and Ringo held up pretty well. No reason John wouldn't have if he would have survived. And I think Ringo is the oldest.

Agreed.

BTW, in order of age - Ringo, John, Paul, George.

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adorshki

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https://www.beatlesbible.com/people/george-harrison/songs/its-johnnys-birthday/
:smile:

Huh, just discovered it's Sean Lennon's birthday, too!:
https://www.beatlesbible.com/1975/10/09/sean-lennon-born/
What're the odds?!?
75-john-lennon-sean-yoko_01-580x389.jpg


Happy Birthday Sean!
 
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walrus

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Al, nice link to George's All Things Must Pass bonus LP!

Yes, a great story, John and Yoko tried for years to have a child, Yoko miscarried at least once. Then Sean is born on John's birthday!

Here's John's song for Sean from Double Fantasy:



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JF-30

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John and Paul both had great stuff during their solo years, but when you listen to The Beatles you can tell they brought the best out in each other, cause I am sure they were both trying to one up each other.
 

adorshki

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John and Paul both had great stuff during their solo years, but when you listen to The Beatles you can tell they brought the best out in each other, cause I am sure they were both trying to one up each other.

Well subject to the ups and downs caused by the insane enforced intimacy and heavy pressure of operating "the Beatles machine" after Epstein's death, and Paul beginning to plow his own furrow more and more, John and George got to be pretty good buddies especially during my favorite "golden period" of '66-'68.
A little creative competition mixed with camaraderie is still a great blend, although from what I've read George was beginning to get a little miffed at always having his stuff kicked off the albums first, even as far back as Pepper's.
gettyimages-91139146-580e3a01-1b2f-43bf-b26c-a676bc43a5a8.jpg


George-and-John-long-hair.jpg


John-and-George-Srg-Pepper.jpg


20953_THE_BEATLES_CA_CA3_24X_181x_THE_BEATLES_CA_CA3_24X_181x_cleaned_master.jpg


magical-mystery-tour-the-beatles-2488351-1527-1509.jpg

tumblr_pg7ju5DPhk1s9nul2o1_640.jpg


Imagine sessions 1972:
tumblr_ngyen3rH3I1s9nul2o1_500.jpg


Last known photo of them together, Troubador, LA, 1976:
acbda0a7cc3215b4c283a077e7b2cc88.png
 
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JF-30

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Well subject to the ups and downs caused by the insane enforced intimacy and heavy pressure of operating "the Beatles machine" after Epstein's death, and Paul beginning to plow his own furrow more and more, John and George got to be pretty good buddies especially during my favorite "golden period" of '66-'68.
A little creative competition mixed with camaraderie is still a great blend, although from what I've read George was beginning to get a little miffed at always having his stuff kicked off the albums first, even as far back as Pepper's.
gettyimages-91139146-580e3a01-1b2f-43bf-b26c-a676bc43a5a8.jpg


George-and-John-long-hair.jpg


John-and-George-Srg-Pepper.jpg


20953_THE_BEATLES_CA_CA3_24X_181x_THE_BEATLES_CA_CA3_24X_181x_cleaned_master.jpg


magical-mystery-tour-the-beatles-2488351-1527-1509.jpg

tumblr_pg7ju5DPhk1s9nul2o1_640.jpg


Imagine sessions 1972:
tumblr_ngyen3rH3I1s9nul2o1_500.jpg


Last known photo of them together, Troubador, LA, 1976:
acbda0a7cc3215b4c283a077e7b2cc88.png

How dosed are John and George in some of those pics?
 

adorshki

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How dosed are John and George in some of those pics?
A little background is apropos:
John and George were the first Beatles to try it, although their first experience was actually non-consensual (!)
Both experienced LSD for the first time together at a dentist's house in early '65.
From the Beatles Bible:
"The precise date of the first encounter is unknown, although it's likely to have been in March or April 1965. It is known, however, that it took place at Flat 1, 2 Strathearn Place, London W2, in the home of 34-year-old cosmetic dentist John Riley."
John recounted later:
"He laid it on George, me and our wives without telling us at a dinner party at his house. He was a friend of George's, and our dentist at the time. He just put it in our coffee or something. He didn't know what it was, it was just, 'It's all the thing,' with the middle-class London swingers. They had all heard about it and didn't know it was different from pot or pills. And they gave it to us, and he was saying, 'I advise you not to leave,' and we thought he was trying to keep us for an orgy in his house and we didn't want to know.
John Lennon, 1970
Lennon Remembers, Jann S Wenner"


By their August '65 tour they were familiar enough with it to have arranged to pick some up from a source in New York and take it to LA for the party with McGuinn and friends where the Peter Fonda episode occurred that inspired John to write "She Said She Said", also recounted in that Beatles Bible forum ("the Beatles and Drugs").
Ringo's first time was at that party and Paul was still the holdout for another few months.
Anyway, that was just to set the scene for the fact that John was unquestionably the most frequent flyer of the bunch, George started tapering off before John.
Also, heavy users actually develop tolerance for LSD< the effects aren't as strong if one doses several times a month, even with increasing dose.
I suspect it's related to neurotransmitter metabolic chemistry as in how long they take to refresh after their normal cycle's accelerated or disrupted.
Very little was known about that stuff at the time but LSD was one of the agents stimulating early research into the role of serotonin.
Low serotonin's associated with depression, now.
Anyway, the point's that both of 'em could probably "maintain" at small dose levels (Guessing 100-200 mics for John by '67 was probably about as strong as smoking a joint if that even, depending on how long it had been since the last trip, suspect a little lower for George but don't know.
Suspect John routinely handled dosages in the 1000 mic range during his high tolerance period, which would cause total reality disconnect for most folks.)
So suspect John could "maintain" more easily than George just based on his known heavy usage and therefore higher tolerance.
Physiological signs still occur though, like dilated pupils, and psychological effects still accrue and compound over time, as was evident in John's gradual withdrawal and introversion, to the point where his friends became concerned.
John's description of their first trip's in line with probably a couple hundred mics, where hallucinations are pretty strong but one still has a sense of having a body and being in the "real" world but seeing new dimensions in it and a feeling like the "stuff"'s been there all along but one just couldn't see it..
Anyway, with that frame of reference, suspect for sure pics 1 and 5; from the Magical Mystery Tour movie filmed in mid '67.
They've just got that "look" especially John's childish bemusement in pic one and the general awestruck look on both of 'em in pic 5.
Pic 4 from the Sgt. Pepper's launch party May '67: George's eyes dilated, John just looking like he's "coming on", when users typically describe the initial euphoria of onset.
Pic 6? Not so sure but George's dark shades might be a clue, credited as:"John Lennon, Estelle Bennett, George Harrison, and Nedra Talley during the final Beatles US tour (1966)".
Pics 2 & 3 don't think they're actually "dosed" at all, they just appear a little too "alert" and involved with the moment. Or else a pretty low dose (Original manufacturer Sandoz Laboratories packaged the stuff in 25mic ampoules for psychiatrists, and they would have considered 100 mics a heavy [and probably non-recommended] dose).
These well-known photos from "the White Album"?:
images

Dilated eyes say it all, the only one I'm not sure about is Ringo but he's got the light right in his eyes.
 
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walrus

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Hard to add anything to Al's amazingly detailed reply - nice, Al!

But here's some classic footage of Lennon out and about (a rarity!) in London for the "14 Hour Technicolor Dream" event on 4/29/67.

At 2:09 Lennon is on film, and at 3:12 or so he licks his lips in that "I'm tripping" way that some of you may recall, while others may not.



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