By Terry Ott

Hey Jules, don't make it bad.

Or so the story goes for the inspiration of Hey Jude, a song Paul McCartney wrote in part to soothe a young Julian Lennon's feelings about his father and mother breaking up in 1968.

One wonders if that "don't make it bad" advice is still relevant, given the recent statement from Julian, posted on AbbeyRd.

When friends fall out it is bad enough, but when families do, there can sometimes be nothing worse.

I have been involved in two blended families touched by divorce in my life, and I know it is extremely hard on the children. An overall emotional minefield, unless everything is handled well.

Even after being estranged from his father in 1968, and almost 25 years years since John's murder, it seems to me that Julian is still carrying a crucible around regarding the father-son relationship.

In his statement, Julian said John let him down in many ways.

I'd imagine that two of the major ways would be in companionship, and money.

According to some reports, Julian received much less from his father's estate-reportedly about one million dollars-than he thought he was due.

And it is no secret that Julian and step mom Yoko Ono don't exactly see eye to eye, so I would guess that Julian may see himself losing his father a third time, in that he is not involved in any of the neverending Lennon legacy machinery as steered by Ms. Ono.

This week, a new book penned by mother Cynthia Lennon will give more perspective on John's life, and an ad for the release in the New York Times said that John's flaws were as deep as his genuis. So more Lennon dirty laundry is no doubt about to come out.

In fact, it is a pretty good bet that the gap between the two Lennon wives and families will lengthen as a result of Cynthia's book, and the fans will have to try to decide what "side" they are on in this one, if any at all.

It should come as little surprise to anyone that a person of John's stature in the crazy pop culture world would be imperfect.

But as Yoko said on a recent Canadian documentary about the making of Give Peace A Chance, John was very much an example of the "human condition," and that the fans "loved him," as a result.

So as far as I'm concerned, I am willing to grant John or anyone else that foiable, and the sooner Julian comes to terms with that uniform fact of life-that his dad was not perfect- he may continue to be "disapointed," and accordingly, the lesser for it.

Or, in other words: take a sad song, and make it better; come together, etc.

After all the hopeful news last summer that Let it Be (when?) was going to be coming out on deluxe DVD this fall, we now must face the cold reality: this turkey is somehow starcrossed, and for the time being, lost in space.

I mean, the history of this disc over the past 5 years or so is near Shakespearean tragedy levels. Yes, no,yes, no, yes, no....aghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kill all the lawyers involved in this wankfest.

Now, some Internet posters-and I'm not sure how they know, or if in fact they actually do know-are claiming we won't see LIB the DVD until Christmas 2006!

While that date seems a bit extreme to me, hey this IS the infamous LIB, so who fookin' knows?

And when you look at the Apple sked of possible reissues, it is getting crowded when history shows that the Core rocket scientists rarely release more that two major Beatles projects per year, and the Capitol Albums Vol 2, is already overdue.

Hell, and that is not even counting the remaster of the complete back catalogue, which next year will be 20 years olde!

Plus, don't these Apple rotters realize that the longer you let this LIB thing compost, the harder-and near impossiblity-it will be to live up the to the anticipation and hype?

Perhaps Yoko and Sir P are having a row over what will or will not be in the final product, but I must admit that soon the whole affair may be a dreadful bore, and I, and many others will no longer give a toss.

It would seem that if Apple were the only tanning salon in Alaska, they would go broke for lack of booths, and brains.

Let it Be:

Who
What
Where
When
Why, should we care?

I'd be the first to admit that Paul McCartney's new one, Chaos and Creation in the backyard, does not suck.

But I'd also-considering some of the sychophantic reviews online and other- be among the first to tell you that the record is not very good, either.

To me, Chaos is more of the same old, same old, and is not even interesting in the way the new Rolling Stones Bigger Bang album is-that is trying to get back to real roots even if the finished product is but merely an acceptable shadow of its former self.

In fact, I find the new Macca to be cloying and even annoying in that he whines on the same old doe eyed soul, and still refuses to rock, which is what I think he does best, even if he is almost 64.

Even the one track described by many reviewers as the best, Riding To Vanity Fair, sounds to me like it was arranged by Sting.

And some of the Beatle Internet forums want to seem to induce me puke, because most of them having been going and on and on-and on-about how great this record is, and if they really believe that, then they have had tea too. Lots of it, and biscuts.

If you are a big SPM fan, then Chaos will fit nicely into your already overflowing and mediocre collection, except of course for Band On the Run, Wings Over America, and the Russian Album.

How in the world can this guy do such great live shows, and then put out such a dour and downer of an album?

Next time Pauley, get some good SSRI meds, try harder, and call it the The Prozac Album.

Because this current LP has got not enough chaos, and too little creation.

Or maybe he just needs a new backyard?

I recently received a package in the post all the way from the jolly olde UK.

It was a copy of author John Blaney's new one on the Apple-and other- discography of John Lennon, entitled, Listen To This Book (Paper Jukebox, Limited to 1000 copies)

At 343 pages, it is so chock full of factoids on John's solo recordings that suffice to say, you may never need to know more.

A fully annotated list of every track is listed here, and a nice little historical essay on each recording. Such material is invaluable for completists.

Lots of rare pix of the various covers-although none in colour- labels and other stuff round out the voluminous package.

Some neat info on the machinations around the Live Peace In Toronto production as well.

But what really caught my eye was the discussion of the Lennon Anthology box set from 1998.

According to Blaney, Beatle expert supremo Mark Lewisohn was orginally given the task of going through almost 500 rolls of multi-track recordings from John's solo career to catalogue them, and eventually pick a track list for the 4 CD set.

But, Blaney writes, because Mark is not a sound guy, he was bumped in favour of Rob Stevens, an engineer who had previously worked on some Lennon projects with Yoko Ono.

Between Ono-who chose the tracks and sequenced them- and Stevens, the box set was remixed and run through vintage anaologue tape machines and sound restoration in order to create the set which some still consider the "best" solo Beatles project.

Blaney speculates that even though many of the songs for the Lost Lennon radio show were taken from the multis-which Yoko sent to Abbey Road for "safekeeping"-there is still much more unheard material that could go on a second, multi disc box set.

It is obvious that a lot of hard work has gone into Blaney's research for Listen To This Book, and if you are a big JL fan, you would not be disappointed owning and Reading This Book.

Oh, and let's not forget Ms. Ono, who had all those B sides from 1969-1971!

Mummy's only looking for her hand in ther snow....

So, some overally righteous Beatles fans have got their nickers in a twist over Dirk McQuickly, er, sorry, Sir Paul McCartney "stooping" to be being the talking advert head of a US financial planning company.

Sure the Beatles refused to "sell out," but that was then,this is now, and the Beatles proper have not exsisted for 35 years, so there!

Dirk-damn it-Paul has every right to add more to his net worth, now estimated at a paltry $1.5 BILLION US dolleros. Chump change, in the world of billionaires.

Perhaps Paul is also adding his know-how on how to run money things, seeing as he sure had experience with Apple, which, as Eric Idle once noted, "was losing money faster than the British government."

And even a member of Macca's own family chided Him for doing ads for Lexus, which sells some cars with a leather interior! The horror. The horror.

But I'll tell you what may cause me to think Mac's gone too far.

A little bird that can sing hinted to me that SPM's next project is a retirement village for Fabs' fans, called "Beatleville Lodge," where ageing Baby Booms can purchase replicas of Liverpool row housing circa 1940-50.

Model homes will feature the "Penny Lane" bungalow bill, the "Strawberry Fields" tent City," and "The Dingle Docks," slum, semi detached.

Of course, your residence purchase would come with a promise that Paul would spend at least one day a year there, doing a walk-about and signing a limited amount of autographs-for 50 quid each.

The final part of the puzzle, I'm told, is that just after the "When I'm 64 Tour," next year in the US winds up, there will be a similar to Liverpool gated retirement community in the US, called-what else-"Yesterday," reportedly, at the old Wonderland Ranch.

Stay tuned for more details.

It's been a while but the good boys at TOUP (Two Of Us Productions) have come through with another winner, in their continuing line of faux Beatles DTS 5.1 releases.

To be honest, we have to use the qualifier "faux," because these DTS mixes are created from extracting the 6 somewhat discrete channels from the best available steero mix of conventional Beatle music, which in all fairness to TOUP, is not always that great of a source.

(A "true" 5.1 mix requires mixing from the discreet multi-tracks, although some major record companies still do not do this in their 5.1 mixes, but rather, going the easy way and running the stereo master through a Dolby DPLII processor.)

In any event, for an "amateur" mixing and production job, Apple might do well to use this latest TOUP release of Rubber Soul, as a referrence point when they FINALLY, SOMEDAY, SOME YEAR, actually get 'round to doing it themseleves for the yearning masses.

And this TOUP version of RS may be, overall, their "best" effort to date.

The soundstage is excellent, and it is obvious that TOUP has taken great care in producing a 5.1 mix that still "sounds" like the record we all know and love.

In my opinion, "What Goes On," may be the stand-out track, with incredible guitar interplay between the right front and right rear channels, while still not distracting from the overall feel.

Bass response it gennerally good and chunky and overall balance is almost perfect.

A minor quibble, is TOUP's insistence in not using any sound processing for any of their extractions.

To my ear, the lack of such tools caused a few of the vocals to sound a tad brittle-at least on my system- but for the most part, everything sounds tonally just about the way we recall it, or better.

So while there may have not been any sound tools used, there has obviously been a lot of TLC applied to this recording by real Beatle music lovers.

A bonus track inlcuded is 12 Bar Original, and it is also one of the better 5.1 mixes on the project.

Highly recommended.

And now, on to Revolvera re-do- boys!

You still payin' attention all you Macca Madhatters?

Good, because today, I am going to take a shot at the Beatle the MMs claim I am partial too, the late, great John Lennon.

Well, not a shot a John actually, but rather at the keeper of his fame flame, Ms. Yoko Ono AKA Mrs. Lennon.

If the reports on AbbeyRd are accurate-and I have no reason to think they are not-then do we REALLY need ANOTHER Lennon best of? Even if the track list is tasty?

I say, well, no.

If the set contained any alternate or heretofore unreleased Lennon, then I would be in the cheering section right now. However, that does not seem to be the case.

And with the Lennon Legend CD and 5.1 DVD and various other Lennon comps over the past 10 years, this one seems redundant.

Well, OK, if the sound has been further tweaked then maybe this 2 disc set will be embracable. But if it is the same old, same old, old mixes from 5 or so years ago, then fooey.

Of course, I suppose Yoko is saving more of "the good stuff" for a Lennon Anthology Part 2, but hey, Part 1 is almost 8 years old!

That box set was-in my opinion- one of the best Beatles product ever offered, and as far as I know, it only began to mine the almost endless cache of lost Lennon music so we will for sure see Part 2 and perhaps 3, but when?

Move over Ms. L, and release some unheard shaved fish instead of stuff we have already heard a million times-and bought several more.