The WELL: inkwell.vue.265: Elizabeth Partridge, "John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth"

#69: Evelyn Pine (evy) Mon 27 Feb 06 10:28

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 10:28:00 PST

Yes, and thanks so much for writing a young people's book about John that doesn't present him simply as an icon but presents him in all his remarkable complexity. [Read entire topic]

#68: Phil Catalfo (philcat) Sun 26 Feb 06 21:51

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 21:51:00 PST

Well, whatever you decide to do, Elizabeth, we'll all be eager to see it. And good luck with it! Thanks for being available here and for all your insights into one of the most iconic figures of our lives. [Read entire topic]

#67: Elizabeth Partridge (elizabeth) Thu 23 Feb 06 09:40

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 09:40:00 PST

This has been wonderful. Thanks for all the interesting posts.

So far, I haven't committed myself to a new project. I'm playing with a couple-- for me, ideas are easy. I have plenty of cool ideas to chose from. I spend a period of time waiting to see what clamours the loudest. I may write a novel, or I have a couple of bio. ideas i'm checking out. We'll see! [Read entire topic]

#66: Cynthia Dyer-Bennet (cdb) Wed 22 Feb 06 13:03

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 13:03:00 PST

Yow, the two weeks have zipped by so fast! Thank you so much for joining us, Elizabeth, this has been a great conversation. And thank you, (evy), for moderating the discussion.

Our virtual spotlight has turned to a new author, but that doesn't mean this conversation has to stop. The topic will remain open indefinitely and you're welcome to continue as long as you like. On the other hand, we'll understand if you have to move on to other responsibilities.

In either case, it's been a pleasure. I'm hoping, Elizabeth, that you'll be able to give us a quick run-down on what's next for you before you have to disappear. Are you working on a new book, and if so, what's it about? [Read entire topic]

#65: Elizabeth Partridge (elizabeth) Tue 21 Feb 06 11:40

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 11:40:00 PST

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by a "great white hope" sense, but this may answer your question: Sam Phillips had a small recording studio in Memphis. He was white. He recorded black r & b musicians. He said "I knew that for black music to come to its rightful place in this country we had to have some white singers come over and do black music -- not copy it, not change, not sweeten it. Just do it." In 1954 Elvis walked into his studio.

The rest, as they say, is history. [Read entire topic]

#64: Evelyn Pine (evy) Tue 21 Feb 06 10:19

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 10:19:00 PST

Thanks for the heads up about all the discussions in the WELL's Bealtes Conference. All this and much more all the time.

I'm wondering how much the spread of the Beatles was fueled by a "great white hope" sense -- wasn't the really great stuff on the charts in 1963 Marvin Gay, the Shirlles, the Temps and the Four Tops? [Read entire topic]

#63: Infradibulated Gratility (ssol) Tue 21 Feb 06 06:36

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 06:36:00 PST

Ooosh, my reaction to the news, oh, boy, once I regained the ability to think at all about what had happened, was this: "How could WE have killed John Lennon?"

It's not a rational feeling, but it sort of rings true even today. How in the world did we make a culture that could breed and then kill such a man? It's a complex question that spills out into so many more. He was no angel. He was a useful, powerful lens through which we could see ourselves and our society.

There was the cold weather that morning; all those snow and flowers, and it was so grey. Ronald Reagan was the big pop star on the scene. His management team of thugs, goons, and bonzos had swept the nation in a storm. All the new music sucked. I couldn't imagine a future. It was like when one stupid kid shot Lennon, hope died, and I felt we all shared some of the blame. [Read entire topic]

#62: Elizabeth Partridge (elizabeth) Tue 21 Feb 06 05:20

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 05:20:00 PST

Yep, the two posts above give some measure of the depth of the loss of John Lennon. We were already filled with pivotal moments we might not have even realized: launched into puberty with the Sullivan show, hooked into being a musician with the Hard Day's Night mailcar scene, realizing we could never go home again, the end of a love story. What layers! Lennon carried so much for us, and he had the depth himself to contain all of it. It must have been a heavy burden to be so symbolic. I know sometimes he would protest: "We were just four guys who formed a band, and we made it very, very big." (paraphrasing) [Read entire topic]

#61: Chris (cooljazz) Mon 20 Feb 06 10:42

Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:42:00 PST

"...why the death of Lennon stood for so much..." I think its personal for everyone. AS I recall, up until about a year before the tragedy I hadn't been very interested in the Beatles or John for that matter. I'd been caught up in the John and Yoko story and demise of the Beatles. In that year before the tragedy, I had started hearing another side of the John and Yoke story, and began to feel there was an incredible love story, something I had completely missed in the stories I had been reading. For me, there was the sense of a tremendous loss of John and the end of the love story of John and Yoko. I still think about it from time to time. [Read entire topic]

#60: Low and popular (rik) Mon 20 Feb 06 10:24

Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:24:00 PST

"It was a personal loss, certainly, but for me it was more: it was some kind of end of the dream..."

That's it, exactly. Frankly, I didn't have a favorite Beatle. I was aware from the beginning that they were a whole greater than the sum of the parts. And as I became a professional musician myself (a goal that became cemented for me while watching the mailcar scene in "Hard Day's Night"), I realized that the synergy required two more factors. Brian Epstein and George Martin.

John's death, for me, was the you-can't-go-home-again moment. It would have been the same for me if it had been any one of the four performers. And, in my life, it was that part of growing up when I really got that everything is not going to turn out OK. [Read entire topic]