Posted on 10/11/2005 12:51:13 PM PDT by lainie
On the day after John Lennon's 65th birthday, it was a chance to remember old times and maybe even repair some damaged relationships.
But Yoko Ono had other things in mind.
While accepting a special award on behalf of her late husband, she gleefully renewed her long-running feud with Sir Paul McCartney.
Yoko, 72, suggested that Lennon was a far better singer than his fellow Beatle, and went on to pour scorn on McCartney's lyrics.
There were gasps of astonishment at yesterday's Q Magazine Awards in London as she took to the stage and went on the attack.
'I'll tell you a story about John,' she told the audience. 'He often used to wake up in the middle of the night and ask me, "Why do people cover Paul's songs so much, but never mine?"
'I used to tell him, "It's because you are a talented songwriter. You don't just rhyme June with spoon. And you are a very good singer - lots of people would be too afraid to cover one of your songs.
'Then I would make him a cup of tea, and he would be okay. I just miss that sort of moment that we had.'
Her stinging criticism of Lennon's former bandmate and songwriting partner stunned the room filled with stars including Jimmy Page, Ray Davies, Paul Weller, Robin Gibb, Liam and Noel Gallagher and Coldplay.
Although McCartney's lyrics have often been seen as more simplistic than Lennon's, he never actually rhymed June with spoon.
But he came pretty close. In the song She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, which featured in a medley on the Abbey Road album, Sir Paul did rhyme 'spoon' with 'lagoon'.
The first verse goes: 'She came in through the bathroom window/ Protected by a silver spoon/But now she sucks her thumb and wanders/By the banks of her own lagoon.'
Yoko's comments perpetuate a row with McCartney which has been raging since she started dating Lennon in the late 1960s.
In the last few years she has threatened to sue him when he changed the famous Lennon/ McCartney writing credit around and in December banned him from using Yesterday on a solo album of love songs because it was a Beatles number, forcing him to scrap the project.
This is also the second year in succession that the Q Awards have caused controversy. Last year Elton John criticised Madonna for miming during her live shows and the dispute gathered such momentum that he was forced to apologise publicly.
And even before Yoko took to the stage there had been another example of bad blood between the musicians gathered at the Grosvenor House Hotel.
Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay, took his revenge on Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher for recent disparaging comments about Martin's wife Gwyneth Paltrow.
As he collected the award for Best Act in the World Today Martin made a point of raising the height of the microphone, saying: 'Sorry, Liam's a lot shorter than me.'
Oasis won two trophies, the People's Choice award and the album award for Don't Believe the Truth, at the event hosted by Jonathan Ross.
Legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page was named Q Icon and the Bee Gees were also honoured for their past work with a Lifetime Achievement award, while former soldier James Blunt won the award for Best Newcomer and U2 won Best Live Act.
Shut up and....Do Not Sing!
Thank you. I needed the laugh.
Cole's tunes will soon be in the public domain, and at that point I'll give you either "Begin The Beguine" or "All Of You," which I think was performed best by the Shorter/Hancock version of the Miles Davis Quintet.
PYOOOOOK!!!!!
Two best comedian lines on the subject:
1 "If Mark David Chapman had missed three feet to the right, he'd be a national hero." --I forget who said that.
2. "Today, Yoko Ono apologized to her fans for defacing a Bible on stage. Ladies and gentleman, I was deeply shocked by this story. Yoko Ono has fans?"--Jay Leno
That was a really good post. Their voices blended so beautifully...after years of singing together...the three of them knew how to harmonize. They may not compare in sophistication to Porter, Gershwin or Irving Berlin, but it was this last great master who thought they were the real thing as songwriters.
This may be a bit obscure, but have you ever heard Deanna Durbin sing Begin the Beguine? Or Cary Grant in the "Cole Porter Story"?
Steve Allen, I think it was, who on his TV show in the fifties, mocked rock'n'roll lyrics, especially doo wop (the "Sh boom, Get a job, get a job, Sh Boom" kind) by reading them out loud to the delight of the studio audience no doubt responding to cue cards saying: 'APPLAUSE', 'LAUGHTER'. The problem was that the lyrics of the dying schmaltzy pop of the late fifties weren't much better. And Steve Allen himself is said to have written thousands of songs, none of them hits, to my knowledge.
In any event, the Beatle lyrics are generally weak, as compared to say Smokey Robinson's or the master's Hal David's of the same era.
I think Yoko could be the perfect VP for Hillary's run. Two of the most hated women in America out there being pinatas!
I bought John Lennon's last album just weeks after it was released "Starting Over" was the title cut. Yoko sang on subsequent cuts..........it was an LP so I couldn't fast forward........it was pretty bad......As for John and Yoko, well, love is blind...........God Rest His Soul.....
I have seen Judy Garland practically set a park gazebo on fire during a performance in a movie short she and Deanna shared when they were teenagers. I remember feeling bad for Miss Durbin.
Gotta be using a lot of duct tape for cleavage like that at 72.
Gravity, NOT a woman's best friend!!
He's not the only one.
Take the Bare Naked Ladies, for instance:
Be My Yoko Ono
Words & Music by Steven Page & Ed Robertson
if there's someone you can live without, then do so.
And if there's someone you can just shove out, do so.
Chorus
You can be my Yoko Ono
You can follow me wherever I go
Be my, be my, be my Yoko Ono.
isn't it beautiful to see two people so much in love?
Barenaked as two virgins hand in hand and hand and hand in glove.
Now that I'm far away it doesn't seem to me to be such a pain.
To have you hanging off my ankle like some kind of ball and chain.
Chorus
Oh no, here we go, our life is just one big pun.
Oh no, here we go as Yoko sings
Aieee!
I know that when I say this
I may be stepping on pins and needles.
But I don't like all these people
slagging her for breaking up the Beatles.
(Don't blame it on Yokey!)
if I was John and you were Yoko,
I would gladly give up musical genius,
just to have you as my very own, personal Venus.
(Hit it!)
Chorus
Yoko? You mean that ugly little b*tch that broke up the Beatles?
As non-Beatles, Paul had more than three times as many Top 40 hits (37) as John (13). If you want to compare apples to apples, before 12/08/80 Lennon had 10 hits; McCartney had 28. After John's death, Lennon had 3 hits; McCartney had 9.
Congratulations, Pagey. You are the greatest.
And Paul was fabulous when we saw him in Philly a few weeks ago. Loved it all.
Now who is this Tokyo Rose?
Once the hysteria of their early R&B, Rock 'N' Roll period died down, Paul was found to be essentially a busker at heart and Lennon was revealed as a folkie, at least in part. Each stepped out of himself into what was, at the time, essentially unknown. They discovered what they discovered together, and for the rest of us, and created something Frank Zappa might describe as being "hitherto unknown to the people of this area." Most Boomers know that they changed the world.
Interestingly, she ended her career very early and moved to France where she still lives, unless she has passed on. She was my favorite female singer of that era. Although how can one really choose? There were so many well-trained, beautiful voices, singing gorgeous songs and lyrics. But she seemed genuinely happy. Perhaps that's why she left Hollywood.
Does that mean he has to register with The Police as a PETAphile?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.