We All Shine On

John Lennon would've been seventy today, but you probably already know that. It's a major media event around the world. He's been dead for nearly thirty years, and that's longer than he was active as a musician and a songwriter. He was only forty when he died from gunshot wounds inflicted on him by a crazed fan, but you probably already know that too. For me and people my age, too young to remember Kennedy's assassination and the ensuing craziness of that very decade that Lennon is most associated with, it's a moment we'll never forget. At least I won't, and I can only speak for myself. He's best known as a member of The Beatles, but in his solo career, as spotty and short as it was (it includes a five year break from recording), he wrote more great songs than most songwriters could hope for in a lifetime. He was prolific and the good far outweighs the bad. Below, are some of his songs performed by other artists, and a few by him. All but one are from his solo career. The exception being "The Ballad of John and Yoko," and although it is a Beatles song, it does mark the beginning of Lennon's departure from the Beatles.

Happy Birthday John Lennon.

Download:

"The Ballad of John and Yoko" mp3
by Teenage Fanclub, 1990.
available on Deep Fried Fanclub

"Nobody Told Me" mp3
by The Flaming Lips, 1995.
available on Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon

"Jealous Guy" mp3
by Donny Hathaway, 1972.
available on Live

"Mother" mp3
by Shelby Lynne, 2001.
available on Love, Shelby

"Happy Xmas (War is Over)" mp3
by Lorette Velvette, 2000.
available on Rude Angel

"I Found Out" mp3
by Nathaniel Mayer, 2004.
available on I Just Want to Be Held

"Imagine" mp3
by Neil Young, 2001.
available on America: A Tribute To Heroes

"Working Class Hero" mp3
by Marianne Faithfull, 1979.
available on Broken English

"Gimme Some Truth" mp3
by Generation X, 1978.
ripped from vinyl
alternate version available on Generation X

"Instant Karma!" mp3
by Chris Stamey, 1984.
from Instant Excitement
ripped from vinyl
out of print

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"Isolation" mp3
by John Lennon, 1970.
available on Plastic Ono Band

"God" mp3
by John Lennon, 1970.
available on Plastic Ono Band

VOTE

Download:

"Vote" mp3
by Chris Stamey and Yo La Tengo
Public Service Announcement

"Time Has Come Today" mp3
by The Chambers Brothers, 1968.
available on The Time Has Come

"Stand!" mp3
by Sly and the Family Stone, 1969.
avaliable on Stand!

"Yes We Can Can" mp3
by Allen Toussaint, 2005.
available on Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast

"I'll Take You There" mp3
by The Staple Singers, 1972.
available on Be Altitude: Respect Yourself

"Let's Make A Better World" mp3
by Dr. John, 1974.
available on Desitively Bonnaroo

"This Land Is Your Land" mp3
by Woody Guthrie, 1944.
available on This Land Is Your Land: The Asch Recordings, Vol. 1



"Yes We Can Can" mp3
by The Pointer Sisters, 1973.
available on The Pointer Sisters

The Summer Sun

I walked out of my apartment this morning and into the heat. It's well over ninety degrees and not yet nine 'o clock. Summer is here in New York City. Not by way of the solstice, but in every other way it is. It's hot - very hot. A few weeks ago there was a senseless killing in Chinatown. That always used to mark the beginning of the summer. There's a lot less violence here than there used to be, but the heat in NYC always brings tensions to the surface. Walking down Havemeyer to go to the bodega, I felt like I was walking through a set from Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing. There was a stillness in the idiotic sunlight blasting through every crevice of shade. All of of it steeped in a foreboding and quiet boredom. I passed a Methedonian waiting on a stoop trying to look busy. A few women walked by, clothes too tight - tits sweating. No one is smiling. In the bodega I grabbed a brick of Bustelo. As hot it is, I knew that iced coffee wasn't gonna do the trick for me this morning. At the counter, a neighborhood drug dealer, whom I remember from when he was a kid (and there's nothing youthful in his demeanor anymore) looked up from his Ring-Ding breakfast to comment on my choice of coffee. "That's the good stuff," he croaked. I may have mumbled a response, but it's too hot to make small talk, and I needed this coffee as badly as he needed whatever he was waiting for. I've been battling intense headaches for weeks. Back upstairs and making my coffee my thoughts drifted back to the usual default...

"Love is only love, but it's the least we think the most of..."


Download:



"The Summer Sun" mp3
by Chris Stamey, 1977.
with Alex Chilton
Ork Single
out of print



"Where The Fun Is" mp3
by Chris Stamey, 1977.
with Alex Chilton
Ork Single
out of print



top photograph: Crossing, Brooklyn, New York, 1997. © Ted Barron