Roll up roll up for the magical mystery tour step right this way

Did we have fun, back when we were young
Was the summer longer and the days slower,
What happened to those carefree yesterday’s?
When life was for living and days full of fun

The years now seem to rush by in a haze
On December 31st seems as though
Yesterday was January 1st, but that’s tomorrow
Will it herald a new life dawning?

I still feel as though time marched on
But left me behind, if it were true
I could bottle it, sell it and retire
What happened to that burning desire?

I wanted to leave my mark on history
But all I do is cause so much misery
What happened to those dreams of mystery
What happened to put out the fire?

Imagine there’s no country

At this time of day, sitting with a cup of coffee, I was thinking about what needs to be done which snowballed rapidly into thoughts of John Lennon. Next month would have been his 73rd birthday, he was, as we have been told, a man of many layers, husband, father, home body. He would stop and speak to those of us lucky enough to come into contact with him. He was a great man, a genius, a man of the people. Yoko has stayed in the Dakota building, not to ponder his death, but to remember all the good times they shared there. No matter what he may have done, or didn’t do, he was a man who lived and breathed peace. Anti-war since the 60’s, he was prevented from speaking out against the war in Vietnam by Brian, which probably helped the Beatles but left John frustrated. After all the Beatles achieved until Brian died, once he’d gone the gaps became chasms. Paul recently said that Yoko didn’t tear the group apart and I never thought she had. Imagine if you can, four young men who came together in the 1950’s to play rock ‘n roll music, a new exciting sound coming over the pond from America. They went through some tough times together, losing a friend along the way. They watched the other acts playing in Hamburg in the early 60’s and met Ritchie. I think that was the time when the magic started to happen.

They fought, as all young men do, internal strife is nothing new, but they would forget their own quarrels if anyone started on one of them. The group started to gel, as long as they were kept busy with touring to support an album then cutting a new one ad infinitum they could maintain the structure. Once things started to go wrong, and the death threats were real, the cycle had to be broken. What do you do then? Recording slowed down to one album a year, Paul and John spent less time together and more time with nothing to do does take it’s toll. This has all been well documented and I’m not trying to go over the past once more. George found Indian music and culture, including religion, filled the gap left. He tried to get the other 3 interested and did for a time. John was always the cynical one but I think he managed to find purpose about this time. He went off to make a film, “How I won the war”, without the others. This was the time of hallucinogens which all four Beatles admitted taking. The music became grander, more effects being used, after all they wouldn’t be recreating this on stage.

Sgt Pepper, I think, took everyone by surprise. If I’m right in thinking that a year earlier sitar’s had found there way into rock music thanks to George and Brian Jones. Live the Stones had the edge over the Beatles, but in the studio throughout the 60’s the Stones were always lagging behind. The media focused on the battle between these two groups, in reality they hung out together, and John and Paul appeared on We Love You, so why was John outspoken? He spoke candidly to reporters. Trying to get his thoughts to the fans in a manner they would understand he often simplified things. This lead to his comment on the falling number of people going to church on Sundays. Unfortunately, the journalist he said this to was over-ruled and it was published verbatim. This was his, and the groups, downfall. This was the statement he would be killed for some fifteen years later. Those of us who knew John only through the music, didn’t understand what the furore was about. We knew the large demand for tickets for a concert meant some going away disappointed, those of us still attending church saw the empty seats. John spoke of this in terms he knew, he was talking, not of the group the Beatles, of the movement of Rock n Roll.

He was not passing judgement, merely stating fact. I think he was surprised at the fall out of this off the cuff comment. The Americans, particularly in the “Bible-Belt” were very outspoken and no matter how John, and the other 3 plus Brian Epstein, tried to apologise and explain what the comment tried to portray the angrier the back lash became. Anyway that’s what I started thinking, in the words of Sir Paul McCartney when my mind is wandering who knows where it will take me (or words to that effect).

I’ll drink some of yours, if you’ll drink all of mine

Well, summer has gone, weather is unsettled, gales expected tomorrow. At least we had a summer this year. I must be getting old though, as the cooler temperatures make me feel absolutely terrible. Pains in my joints, bones and all through my body let me know how much I miss the warmth. In an ideal world I’d be able to go somewhere warmer for the winter or at least have the heating on for warmth.

Okay, enough about me, let’s step up a gear and look for something cheerful, the good thing about living in England is the seasons are very visible here. In the Spring you see the crocuses flower, along with the daffodils, in the summer (usually) it rains almost non stop through the cricket season, or else we have lots of warm sunny days interspersed with some wet and warm ones. Occasionally we will have a totally warm/hot summer with little or no rain, Autumn (or Fall) the leaves on the trees turn from green to brown looking beautiful as they change, then they fall making a carpet on the ground. These should be left to rot into the roots to provide nourishment through the long winter months, sadly most of our forests and woodlands have disappeared to make concrete jungles for our ever expanding population. Then we have winter, the temperature drops, sometimes below zero, if we’re lucky we have beautiful snow covered scenery to take our minds off the cold.

I think we are lucky here that this island is small so there are never the extreme temperature differences as, for example, Russia or the Northern USA, but at the same time, there is beauty out there if we only open our eyes to it. I know I can’t talk as I have been walking around with eyes closed for a while. I used to be able to go out and have fun, up until a few years ago. I’m not sure what happened to me, but now I feel older than my years almost as if I’m getting ready to meet my old friend for the last time. Would I welcome DEATH this time? Yes I would as it would end my pain. I’ve shaken hands with him so often in the past that I consider him a friend rather than an acquaintance. I know he has to come eventually as all things born have their own cycle just as the seasons do.

Well here we are, boy versus girl in the World Series of love

What is love? Is it a strange movement of neurons in the brain? It has plagued artists (poets, singers, songwriters, minstrels, painters and sculptors) since the dawn of time. Even the philosophers have tried to make sense of it all. Why has everyone failed to give us a definitive answer? Could it be a personal emotion? It seems to affect different people in different ways, could this be the reason we are unable to get an answer? Is it subjective, if so why is it so?

I’m asking a lot of questions but giving no answers, because I cannot answer them for anyone, not even myself. Is love tangible? Well we can’t see feel or touch it, so it must be intangible. If it’s intangible, as it must be, does it even exist?

What is love, subject of so many songs
Is it real or imagined
If you find it is it always wrong
Can you taste it, can you feel it?

There must be something strange about emotions which can change your outlook so completely. Put you off your food, leave you feeling shell shocked and, after the thrill has gone, having the blues, feeling heart broken. So what is this feeling we all want? Do we know when we have it, or do we only realise what we had when it’s gone?

Full circle, do we hold onto, or even try to, when feelings of love and affection have cooled? If love turns to hate should we put up with it for any reason? If anyone knows the reason why women, and some men, will stay with a violent or abusive partner, please let me know.

Still we remember

It was 12 years ago yesterday that our lives were forever changed in the space of a few hours, those hours left thousands dead or missing in New York and Washington DC, and around the planet we grieved together. Let’s not forget the horror and carnage which saw fire fighters, police officers, innocent civilians who were at their place of work, and military personnel at the Pentagon who lost their lives in an unprovoked act of extreme cowardice.

We pulled together as one
In a time of crisis and grief
Lets not forget those fallen
Lets remember together
One world, one planet, one humanity

Early one night in the middle of the day

A thought for all of us living with annoying neighbours, is there any need to put up with anti-social behaviour? Some people seem to collect ASBO’s as though they are badges or medals, these are the ones who deserve to have the police calling on them every time they set fires, put through windows, climb into business properties, get drunkly violent, or any other form of anti-social behaviour. If one person reports them for every misdemeanour there is a chance of reprisals, however, if every law abiding person keeps reporting them to the police and the local councils we may be able to recover our peaceful neighbourhoods.

If we can all work together, those who are able bodied as well as the disabled among us, we can stop the rotten apples spoiling our neighbourhoods and forcing us to live in fear. I seemed to be on my own taking on an entire family, mother was serving 3 months for breaching an ASBO, son and 2 daughters were known to the police and the entire family had been hounded all over the town by the local council for their anti-social behaviour. I know how hard it is to be the only voice in the community, it took almost 2 months before others joined in and a further 6 weeks to have their landlord evict them.

When you rent privately the council can only do so much to having you evicted, if the rent is paid when due, the landlord may not want an eviction as he doesn’t know how much damage has been done to his property. Even if he is convinced of the council, and local residents concerns, he has to give at least 28 days notice of his intention. If the bothersome tenants are still there on expiry of the notice to quit, the landlord has to go back to the court and request an immediate order be granted. He then has to turn up with bailiffs and police to forcibly remove the tenant.

I’m leaning on a lamppost on the corner of the street

Ukulele and Rock guitarists, who’d have thought that up? Yet, apparently, when George Harrison (ex-Beatle) was entertaining friends he would get the ukulele’s out for a jam at some point. Very fond of a certain Mr. Formby was George.

Anyway, George was responsible for several strange instruments being utilised in Western Rock music since the 60’s. Again that’s not what I want to discuss here tonight (morning?) rather I would like to talk about a book I’ve picked up again and am currently reading for the first time. The book is a German tenet called My Struggle (Mein Kampf in German). It makes for disturbing reading, however, while giving a little insight into Hitler’s oratory skills.

In this insight he tells of his time in Vienna, prior to the Great War and also laid the foundations for his anti-semitism and the Final Solution, although he hasn’t named it as such. I don’t care how many people of any religion say the Holocaust didn’t happen, there is documented evidence to prove it did.

I am neither for nor against any religion being allowed to worship, in their own temples, as they feel they should. I am not a member of any church, I believe in a superior power, I just don’t believe this power is human in any way, shape or form. The only way I’m going to be proved right or wrong is after death and unfortunately I won’t be able to come back to confirm or deny my belief.

Can anyone enlighten me about anti-Semitism, or indeed anti any religion? Adolf was a great speaker, his ideas were twisted, granted. He did get honest hard working Germans to work. He was the creator behind Volkswagen (translates as people’s wagon) and he knew if Germans from all the Germanic people came together it would prove to be almost unstoppable. That was why he united Germany and Austria ahead of the creation of a new Empire, for Germans.