What started out as a hobby, while her naval husband was away at sea, has turned into a lifetime career for Louisiana born Jude Southerland Kessler.  Jude’s adventure and dream of writing about the life of John Lennon has taken her to Liverpool 7 times and allowed her to meet and interview friends, family and colleagues of John Lennon over the past 25 years and made her one of the leading experts on the subject of Lennon and the Beatles.

The John Lennon Series by Jude Southerland Kessler is a nine book series on the life of John Winston Lennon. The first book in the series, Shoulda Been There, was published in 2008, tells of Lennon’s life from birth in 1940 to December 1961, when the Beatles hired Brian Epstein as their manager. Book two, Shivering Inside, published in 2010, picks up the story of Lennon and the Beatles in 1961 and continues until the birth of John’s son Julian in April 1963. She Loves You, the third book in the series, is currently in the works and is due for publication in October 2013.

Ms. Kessler is a highly sought after speaker at Beatles festivals along corporate and club events across the U.S.  Because of her expertise, she was invited to host her own weekly radio show, “The John Lennon Hour”, on the number one Beatles internet radio station in the world, “Beatles-A-Rama!.” The show debuted in September 2012 and can be heard every Sunday night at 8 pm (est) at: www.BeatlesARama.com

Jude Kessler graduated from Northwestern State University in 1974 with degrees in English Education and History. She went on to receive a master’s degree in English from The University of Maryland.

For more information about Jude Southerland Kessler and her books, go to her website.

Image Courtesy : Jude Southerland Kessler

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‘You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one’ is one of the greatest inspirational quotes. It makes us believe in our dreams again, makes us believe that we can make the world a better place. This line is from a song of one of the greatest musicians of all times, John Lennon.

Rock star, music composer, songwriter, and recording artist- John Winston Lennon was born October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, Merseyside, NW England, UK, during a German air raid in World War II. John wasn’t a very bright student at school, but he did show a very artistic side. Lennon met Paul McCartney in 1957 and invited him to join his music group. They eventually formed the most successful songwriting partnership in musical history, The Beatles. Lennon left The Beatles in 1969 and later released albums with his wife Yoko Ono, and others.

Lennon kicked off his post-Beatles career with back-to-back hits. Apart from being associated with the Beatles, John Lennon himself is a success, a rock star, a dreamer, and, according to some, ‘a musical genius.’ John’s career didn’t stop when the band split; instead, he went on with his wife Yoko Ono to bestow the world with some of his masterpieces.

His first solo album of popular music was Live Peace In Toronto, recorded in 1969 (prior to the breakup of the Beatles) at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Festival in Toronto ) with a Plastic Ono Band including Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann. He also recorded three singles in his initial solo phase: the anti-war anthem Give Peace a Chance, ‘Cold Turkey,’ which was about drug withdrawal symptoms, and ‘Instant Karma’. The music of the Plastic Ono Band was said to be so emotionally raw that to this day they are difficult to listen to among songs of extraordinary beauty and simplicity. Lennon’s pain of being abandoned by his parents can be recognized in the way he screams ‘Mama don’t go’ and ‘Daddy go home.’

One of his greatest works, ‘Imagine,’ was released sometime in the year 1971 and was an instant success. This album had proved incontrovertibly that he was capable of greatness on his own. The change in the genre of music in this album is noticeable. It is as if John had returned with confidence once again, leaving behind all his abandonment issues. The songs are melodic and beautiful, and inspire hope in the listeners.

John’s next album ‘Somewhere in New York City,’ released in 1972, can be distinguished as an anti-war album. However, this album is said by many to be his weakest work. Yet it contains some great tracks, and like the name suggests, the album was to an extent inspired by New York where John had moved with Yoko.

In 1973, while John and Yoko had split up, John released some of his greatest works like Mind Games. The albums he made during this period include Walls and Bridges (1974) and Rock N Roll (1975). The mix is astonishingly good, and it was during these years John had his first-number one as a solo artist.

Other than being celebrated for his amazing music, John was an activist and also did charity work. His song ‘Give Peace a Chance’ was written as an anti-war anthem, and probably will be cherished as that forever. Another example of how seriously John thought about peace was when he returned his Member of the British Empire (MBE), awarded by Queen Elizabeth to the Beatles in 1965, in protest over Great Britain’s support for the Vietnam War in September 1969. This had seized the media and earned him great publicity, but he stated he was going to return the award anyways, and the war issue just triggered it. In the year 1972, Lennon performed a charity concert at Madison Square Gardens, to help improve living conditions for mentally handicapped children.

Like they say, ‘Life is not a matter of counting years, it’s a matter of making years count.’ John Lennon led a short but fulfilling life. He gave the world the gift of music, and fought for what he believed in. John is still cherished in this world through his music and by the examples he set, such as ‘Bed-in’ for peace, which many celebrities follow to date.

Image Courtesy of  John Lennon

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The Beatles had an amazing impact on the music industry and the world at large. A majority of today’s mainstream musicians cannot even begin to compare with the talent that this fantastic foursome had. In honor of the 50th anniversary of the formation of the group, here are ten interesting facts about The Beatles that fans new and old should know.

1. During the week of April 4, 1964 The Beatles held the top five places on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. No other group or artist has ever managed to match this feat.
2. The “man in the crowd,” in which Lennon refers to in the song Happiness Is A Warm Gun, was taken from a newspaper story about a man who was arrested by the police for having mirrors on his toe caps to look up women’s skirts at football matches.
3. On Lennon’s song Girl from the album Rubber Soul, one can hear Paul and George constantly repeat the word “tit” in the background. John also breathes heavily several places. This could have been done to emphasize on the fact that the song had sexual references.
4. What Goes On from the album Rubber Soul was written by Lennon and McCartney together with Ringo Starr. Ringo also wrote Don’t Pass Me By on The Beatles, also known as The White Album, and Octopus’s Garden on Abbey Road. He also sang lead vocal on songs such as With A Little Help From My Friends, Yellow Submarine and Good Night.
5. While Let It Be was the last album to be released by The Beatles before their breakup, most of it was recorded before Abbey Road, their second last album.
6. The album Abbey Road was originally going to be called Everest, named after the brand of cigarette Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick was smoking at the time. Paul McCartney even wanted the Beatles to go to Tibet and pose in front of Mount Everest for the album cover! Other suggestions were Four In The Bar and All Good Children Go To Heaven, before Ringo joked that they could call it Abbey Road.
7. On September 11, 1964, the Beatles refused to play at Gator Bowl, Jacksonville, without guarantees that the audience would not be segregated.
8. The Beatles were featured in an American Saturday morning cartoon series called ‘The Beatles.’ 3 seasons (39 episodes total) were produced.
9. The album Sgt. Pepper was one of the first pop albums to include completed lyrics. They were printed on the back cover.
10. Some of the band’s early influences included Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins and Ray Orbison. Later, The Beatles were also inspired by Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, The Byrda and The Beach Boys.

Image Courtesy of  The Beatles

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On April, 12, 2012 The Herb David Guitar Studio will celebrate its 50^th anniversary in business; creating custom instruments and repairing instruments (often for musical legends), teaching lessons, and selling brand name guitars. David distinctly remembers his first day in business.

“April 12, 1962 at nine o’clock in the morning,” David Said. “And why do I remember that– because April 12^th is my birthday.”

His studio is at the top of two narrow creaky staircases that lead to the hidden inner bellows of his guitar studio. On his third-floor hideaway, two string-less custom ukuleles lay on his cluttered work bench. A custom headstock, intricately carved into a frog’s head, is lying unattached nearby. These are the most recent projects on which Herb David, owner of The Herb David Guitar Studio is currently working.

The Herb David Guitar Studio began as a place for David to teach guitar to his many students, a task that previously took place in the basement of his home. David said it was his wife that pushed him out of the house and into his own shop due to the overwhelming amount of students coming and going from the house. It was only when students began to have their guitars break that David tried his hand at wood working and repairing.

It was April 12, 1962 at 9 am when The Herb David Guitar Studio opened for business at 209 S. State Street in the basement of a small bookstore. Twenty years late he moved his store to 302 E Liberty St, where it still resides today.

“I was a psychologist–that was for my family, to get an education so I could bring honor to my family—but my real [passion] was music. That’s what I really wanted to be involved in,” David said.

Involved he did become.

MUSIC’S MIGHTY GIANTS VISIT

It was the early 60s and Ann Arbor was a hot bed for the political change movement that would define the decade. With the birth of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), many teach-ins, sit-ins, and concerts promoting change in the midst of political unrest, The Herb David Guitar Studio was in the thick of it all with a front row seat.

TWO OF US

During the Free John Sinclair concert in 1971, John Lennon came to town with Yoko to perform an original song called “Free John Sinclair”, among others. He wasn’t slated to perform until around 3 am, so he hit the town and Herb David’s shop.

Herb David recalls:

“He (Lennon) just came in to just say ‘hello’ because he was bored. He was hanging out in town…and [he wasn’t] playing until three o’clock in the morning…So he hung around [the shop] for most of the afternoon. He walked in and I said: ‘oh, you’re John’ and he said ‘no, I’m not John.’ I said than ‘who are you?’ and he said ‘I’m his cousin.’ I said ‘Well, okay, cousin.”

Lennon sat in a little wooden chair in The Herb David Guitar Studio and played guitar that afternoon. Patrons of the shop can still see and sit in the chair today. The sign on the chair reads: “John Lennon sat here in 1971.”

FOLK GIRL

 David recalls an evening with folk singer Joni Mitchell:

“Joni Mitchell came into the shop to get a set of strings and we tore down Washtenaw Ave (a main drag in Ann Arbor) going the wrong way on our way to my house to welcome my wife home from a visit to Greece and Turkey, to join up there with Jack Elliot and a hot local blues group called the Prime Movers. She had jet lag so the party broke up early.

CORNFLAKES FROM A BYRD

While he was still playing bluegrass music with The Colonels, Clarence White (who later played guitar for The Byrds) ran over his guitar before a gig and brought it to David.

Herb David recalls:

“It (guitar) looked like a box of Cornflakes. He (Clarence White) came in on Monday said ‘I have to record out in California on Friday. Can you out it together for me and don’t use any new wood.’ You couldn’t even tell it was fixed [when I was finished] and it’s still going.”

KNOCKIN’ ON HERB’S DOOR

“Bob Dylan came into the shop,” David said. “You could see him in town for 60 cents at the beginning. He was a Woody-Guthrie [type]. He was hitch hiking and riding trains. He (Dylan) wanted to be seen in that kind of image. He and I played at the same hootenannie. Everybody said ‘boy, he’s a terrible guitar player and he can’t sing, but he sure can write a song.’

THE DEAD CONCERT THAT ALMOST HAPPENED

“The Gratefull Dead came to town to play at Hill Auditorium. Jerry Garcia came to the Herb David Guitar Studio we talked about a guitar problem he had and my apprentice Dan Erlewine (now a well-known and highly respected writer and repairman) talked with him about a guitar he made for Albert King and discussed making a guitar for Jerry.

I asked Jerry what the band was doing that afternoon and if maybe they would like to play a short set at the Canterburry House, a coffee house in the alley across from The Arcade. They agreed to do it I passed the word around the show could go on at 1:30 pm. By 1 o’clock the line of around 200 people wound around the area.  At 1:15 the Dead’s manager called off the event saying if the show went on ticket sales would suffer. There were lots of disappointed people including The Dead and me.”

THE CREAM-OF-THE-CROP REPAIR

According to David, it was a student who was involved in organizing local hootenannies that brought guitar legend Eric Clapton into the Herb David’s shop. It was sometime in the 70s after a fan knocked his Gibson SG off the stage and broke the peg head and the neck off the body of the guitar.

Herb David recalls:

“He (Clapton) brought it to me. He broke in such a way that I had no hope that I’d be able to fix it overnight, but it’s still going. I think it was in the 70s, but the guitar is still going. It worked; I don’t why it worked, there must have been some magic in what I was doing back then.”

And the magic continues decades later.

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Bob Gruen, an American photographer known for his iconic shots of legendary rock ‘n’ rollers, unveils his John Lennon ‘Peace & Freedom’ Suite for collectors internationally.

This museum quality artwork, released in partnership with Depiction Art, is a 30 X 40 silk screen in archival colors on Coventry 320-gram paper and available in four distinct versions, titled Yellow Afternoon , Blue Morning , Sunset and Fireworks Nite. Each piece in the collection is a strictly limited edition of only 210 museum quality works, hand-numbered and hand-signed by the artist, and comes with a certificate of authenticity, ensuring the quality and collectable nature of each piece. Each artwork retails for $1500.

The quality and integrity of Bob’s photographic work has gained him the ultimate reputation as ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Legendary Portrait Artist’ and for this suite, Gruen has worked with a production team that is well known for creating Pop Art with Warhol and Robert Indiana. New York’s Museum of Art [MoMA] installed a 20′ collage of Gruen’s work with Lennon as a central character and that honor was justified when Bob’s piece became a museum favorite. 

Rock Seen [Abrams Books 2011], spans Gruen’s remarkable 40-year career with striking portraits of music legends from Cab Calloway and Chuck Berry to The Boss and Madonna, through the Rolling Stones, Lennon, Dylan and Led Zeppelin to Bob Marley and Ozzy Osborne.

What’s significant is not simply that he is the single-most important photographer of record to document the Punk, Proto-Punk and New Wave scenes of America and England, but that this seminal body of work reflects a profound commitment and long-standing personal friendship with the artists and personalities who shaped and defined the music of that remarkable era, and how these great artists have actually worked with Gruen to make him rock’s ultimate insider and incomparable documentary portrait artist www.depictionart.com.

In 1972, Gruen met John Lennon and Yoko Ono at a benefit concert, and later dropped some prints at their nearby apartment. This began a close friendship between Bob Gruen, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono. Throughout the 1970′s Gruen worked as their personal photographer, documenting concerts and press conferences, as well as capturing serene moments between John and Yoko, and the first images of their son, Sean Lennon. ‘Peace & Freedom’ is a special moment in both rock and cultural history, where music, message and Lennon are united.

The portrait was originally conceived by Gruen to help aid his friend John Lennon in his battle against deportation for incidental marijuana use. “I felt John stood for Peace,” Gruen has said of the portrait’s inspiration, “and that The Statue of Liberty stood for Freedom. More and more, I see the two ideas – Peace and Freedom – as something the world needs, and these two icons, John and Liberty, say it better than words could.”

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