The Albums Of John Lennon.

I’m a big fan of John Lennon.
You’d be hard pushed to find a bigger Lennon maniac than me.
When I was 14 I heard his 1970 “Plastic Ono Band” album and I’ve been completely hooked ever since on everything he ever did.

On the 4th of October Yoko Ono is releasing a John Lennon ‘Signature’ Box Set.
It looks like this:

It’s available for Pre-Order now and already has bad reviews because it’s a rip off.
A £127.99 rip off.

The box includes 7 remastered official John Lennon albums, some singles and assorted filler.
As much as I love Yoko Ono (And I do), this is a lazy effort.
From what I can see, it’s light by around 7 albums.
It’s also cheaper to buy the albums individually. 

So, in order,
Here they all are:

“Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins” (1968):

“Unfinished Music No.2: Life With The Lions” (1968):

“Wedding Album” (1969):

“Live Peace In Toronto 1969” (1969):

“John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band” (1970):

“Imagine” (1971):

“Some Time In New York City” (1972):

“Mind Games” (1973):

“Walls And Bridges” (1974):

“Rock ‘N’ Roll” (1975):

“Double Fantasy” (1980):

“Milk And Honey” (1984):

“Live In New York City” (1986):

“Menlove Avenue” (1986):

“Acoustic” (2004):

Lennon’s music changed a lot from album to album.
For a good balance I recommend:
“John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band”,
“Walls And Bridges” & “Double Fantasy”.

P.S.
I was gonna title this post “All We Are Saying Is Gies Peace Yoko”.

The Trongate, Glasgow.

I’ve got a bit of an obsession going on with the Trongate area of Glasgow.
It’s one of the oldest streets in Glasgow and these days I’m spending more and more time down there.
I was thinking the other day about how little the Trongate seems to have changed over the years.

For instance,
I took this photo 2 days ago:

And here’s a drawing of the area facing the same direction from 1774:

I’ve been looking for photographs of Glasgow Cross and Trongate for 2 weeks now.
Here are some of the more interesting ones…

Looking West, 1770:

A lithograph depicting the visit of Queen Victoria to Glasgow in 1849:

Looking East, 1860:

1896:

1909:

Looking West,
This is an oil painting of the Trongate circa 1770-1790 by an unknown artist:

Notice the now demolished tollbooth to the right of the painting attached to the Clock Tower/Steeple.
That clock tower still stands and is well loved.

I’ma Have Me Some Fun Tonight.

What with the new “Predators” movie getting decent reviews,
I think I’m gonna go see it.
But only after I’ve watched the original movie for the 200th time.

Seeing “Predator” as a kid was a great experience.
It was the first “War” film I ever saw and the first time I ever heard Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally“.
You don’t forget those things.

“Predator” was also cool because it was about a 7 foot alien hunting down Army guys whose leader was Arnold Schwarzenegger back when Schwarzenegger was the toughest Motherfucker in the World:

After I saw that film,
I’d greet everyone I knew with: “Dylan! You Son of a BITCH!”

During and after school,
We played a game called “Dead Man’s Fall“.
Ever heard of it?

What you do is:
Choose one kid to stand on the ground and the rest of you stand in a line on a high (And preferably dangerous) wall.
The kid on the ground pretends to kill you by any imaginary means he wants to.
You all fall off the wall and whoever performs the most convincing death is the winner!

It was a great game and one of us would almost always go Billy from “Predator”.
Big war cries and imaginary knifes across the chest!

One of the funniest things I remember is a wee boy who lived next door to me called Jordan.
He was the wee Brother of my pal Gavin.
Jordan was only 7 and one time during a game of “Dead Man’s Fall”,
I caught him pretending to shave his face and muttering:
“I’ma-Have-Me-Some-Fun-Tonight…I’ma-Have-Me-Some-Fun-Tonight“.

He was only 7!
Ha Ha!