What you may not know is that the entire first three chapters are now up on the Lennonology site, and freely available to preview; '66 and '67 are fairly short (given that the focus is on John and Yoko together), but '68 is a huge and hugely informative piece of research (some of the fruit of 15 years' worth) in which, regardless of how much you know, you'll learn something new with every few entries, and also come away with a much clearer understanding of what happened when, where and why.
To take one example: the date and chronology of the Two Virgins night has never been satisfactorily explained. Previous attempts haven't made much sense even on their own terms, but the new order of events given by Madinger and Raile does (though we'll have to wait for the publication of the notes to see how they arrived at this conclusion).
The book is being privately published by them, in a strictly limited edition, so it's not cheap, but if you can afford it (or can manage to lay off the beer for a while to save for it) then it's clearly going to be a major contribution to all this (whatever this is) and one for the ages. Go HERE for the previewed chapters, and HERE for the Lennonology home page, where clicking through will take you to the order form.
I was looking at their website and the prices are beyond me. Besides I do get bored with everything being controlled by Yoko. It would be nice to see something on John only. Imagine my apt has only John photos on the wall. After all, it's him I love.
ReplyDeleteIt is expensive, but they have been working on it for 15 years - plus publishing a large book in a limited edition isn't cheap. (I think there might be an eBook at some point after the physical format has sold out, so eventually everyone should be able to afford it in some form.)
ReplyDeleteHowever, I'm not sure what you mean by everything being controlled by Yoko. The book is entirely independent, and based on solid research - if something is in there, it's because it happened and there is documentary evidence to show that it happened, and they wouldn't leave anything out just because Yoko (or anyone else) might not like it.
If you mean that Yoko "controlled" John, then John addressed that himself shortly before he was murdered: "For all you folks out there who think I'm having the wool pulled over my eyes, well, that's an insult to me. But if you think you know me, or you have some part of me because of the music, and then you think I'm being controlled like a dog on a leash because I do things with her, then screw you, brother or sister, you don't know what's happening. I'm not here for you, I'm here for me and her, and now the baby."
No, I can not possibly afford the prices I saw listed on their website. No, I was not referring "when John was alive". I know what he said and I am sure John did exactly what he wanted.
ReplyDeleteI am referring to Yoko's control over the estate. It is my opinion that it has been poorly managed. Others may differ.
I will definitely buy it as soon as I can. I have been doing my book ENTIRELY independently for many years and I know how very hard it is. For the time being, the verb to buy is prohibited in my life. Only when the Portuguese edition is printed I will be able to be a "normal" person again and buy the bunch of books I have missed. I wish Chip and Scott the very best!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words, and especially for pointing out how we got the "Two Virgins" thing right, finally! But you don't have to wait for the footnotes to see how we got there; we were able to pin down the date because of one strange and obscure piece of information that, on the surface, had nothing to do with anything, but actually was the key to the entire puzzle: Jenny Boyd's passport. Go back and read that whole section again, and you'll see what I mean.
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