Posted on 12/20/2006 5:52:03 AM PST by ShadowDancer
Secret John Lennon Files Released By FBI
Documents Conclude Former Beatle Wasn't Serious Threat
POSTED: 7:35 am EST December 20, 2006
LOS ANGELES -- The FBI has released its final surveillance documents on John Lennon to a university historian who has waged a 25-year legal battle to obtain the secret files.
The 10 pages contain new details about Lennon's ties to leftist and anti-war groups in London in the early 1970s, but nothing indicating government officials considered the former Beatle a serious threat, historian Jon Wiener told the Los Angeles Times in Wednesday's editions.
The FBI had unsuccessfully argued that an unnamed foreign government secretly provided the information, and releasing the documents could lead to diplomatic, political or economic retaliation against the United States.
The newly released documents include a surveillance report stating that two prominent British leftists had courted Lennon in hopes that he would finance "a left-wing bookshop and reading room in London" but that Lennon gave them no money.
Another page states that there was "no certain proof" that Lennon had provided money "for subversive purposes."
"I doubt that Tony Blair's government will launch a military strike on the U.S. in retaliation for the release of these documents," Wiener told the newspaper. "Today, we can see that the national security claims that the FBI has been making for 25 years were absurd from the beginning."
Wiener first requested the documents in 1981, several months after he decided to write a book about Lennon following the singer's murder.
He initially obtained some documents, but the FBI withheld numerous files, saying they contained national security information and were exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
Wiener sued the government and received a number of files in 1997 as part of a settlement with the FBI. Justice Department lawyers continued to withhold the final 10 pages until a federal judge in 2004 ordered their release.
The previously released files showed that the FBI closely monitored Lennon from 1971 to 1972.
Well. That's subjective. My personal opinion is that he was a complete and total hack compared to people like Paul Simon. I've always disliked his music, even in 5th grade.
But an ability to write music does not in itself, translate into an ability to perform music competently. It's actually not the least bit abnormal for a skilled composer to not be a skilled performer: composing and performing are two different disciplines.
Do you think Mccartney was also tone deaf?
Lets just say I respect Lennon more than McCartney. Especially after watching a special a couple years ago where McCartney proved, on film, that he couldn't actually write music but rather, had to dictate how he wanted the music to sound to an actual composer who was able to score it for him.
I just sat and laughed to myself.
What made it doubly amusing was that he had already been knighted for his so-called musical skill.
But then again, he's got a gagillion dollars more than me, so he's been successful at something and I have to respect that about him.
Thanks...
Lennon had a unique voice that people have tried to imitate ever since. His vocals on 'Twist and Shout' and 'Money' are regarded as among the best in Rock history. Paul Simon couldn't really sing. He did the best he could with an extremely limited vocal range.
I suppose I should make a distinction between composing and being a tunesmith. None of the great Tin Pan Alley writers orchestrated either (Irving Berlin). Most of them anyway. Gershwin wasn't the best orchestrator but he was getting better.
"Especially after watching a special a couple years ago where McCartney proved, on film, that he couldn't actually write music but rather, had to dictate how he wanted the music to sound to an actual composer who was able to score it for him.
I just sat and laughed to myself.
What made it doubly amusing was that he had already been knighted for his so-called musical skill."
The joke's on you.
McCartney's father taught him music. He had piano lessons as a child. Plus plenty of other music classes in school.
He can read and write music.
He chose/chooses instead to play and compose "by ear." (Something a lot of jazz and folk musicians have often preferred.)
McCartney was by far the most accomplished musician of the Beatles. And certainly the group's most sophisticated composer.
"I should never have put that in about Chairman Mao. I was just finishing off in the studio when I did that."
Another quote is,"...the original version which ends up on the LP said 'count me in' too; I put in both because I wasn't sure....On the version released as a single I said. 'When you talk about destruction you can count me out.' I didn't want to get killed.
Also, " It's a yin-yang thing. We all have a streak of violence underneath."
John didn't see Julian for about three years until he separated from Yoko and lived with May. Julian visited John about three times in a one-year period. When John went back to Yoko, Julian only visited about three times in the last five and a half years. The last time Julian saw John was in Palm Beach in March 1979. John never visited England for the last nine years of his life, but he had no problem flying to Japan as well as going on "around the world" trips directed by Yoko's astrologers.
I understand if you play the file backwards, it sounds like Lawrenece Welk.
Just play "Revolution Number Nine" backwards and you'll find out!
Turn me on deadman.
"an unnamed foreign government" MI6 and John Lennon... Shagadelic Man!
You don't have to have a clue about music theory to be a great tunesmith. He's also a world class bassist.
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