Strawberry Field was a children's home that was just behind John Lennon's boyhood half of a double block home. He used to love to play in the woods behind the home although Aunt Mimi - the woman who raised him - constantly admonished him to stay away from there. It all started here.
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John's mother Julia was not very responsible. When John's father set out to sea - Julie asked her sister Mary to care for John. Mimi had a very nice small home in a neighborhood of upward professionals. Mimi kept the home after her husband's death by taking in boarding students. The house had 3 bedrooms - but Mimi managed to board 4-5 students. Regardless - John had an inspirational childhood - and throughout his life he wrote songs about the good feelings for his lost boyhood.
Lulu has 4 day weekends in her teaching job here in London. If there is one person on this earth that loves travel more than me - it is Lulu. My Mom always said that Everharts have "gypsy blood" in them. Lulu is the biggest Everhart of all. So last weekend she wore me out in Liverpool. And this weekend it is Cannes - Monaco - and Nice.
Liverpool was a hop - step - and jump from our flat. The Euston Train Station is just up the street - so on Saturday we drug our bag of stuff to catch the 8 AM train. 3 hours later we were in our 3-day Liverpool home. We lived on the docks of Liverpool in a 4-star hotel that Lulu got on priceline.com.
The main reason for our trip was to re-visit our youth by taking a pilgrimage to Liverpool. Lulu had the flu - but that was not going to stop her. She already had paid for the train - the hotel - and the "Beatles Tour." They were non-refundable.
A little bit about Liverpool proper. At one time - it was an industrial city and the busiest seaport in the British Empire. 2 million emigrants set out for America from her docks. It was also the capital of the slave trade until Great Britain banned slavery a long time before the USA.
In the old days - every house had about 6 fireplaces - and they burned bituminous coal. You might know that this fuel burns with a very dirty flame causing lots of soot and smoke. Brits were using the term smog - smoke and fog - a long time before it became Los Angeles's trademark. The city was filthy and when the Industrial Revoluton ended - it turned into a dirty slum-laden metropolis.
In the 1950s and 1960s - when the Beatles became famous - the second British Invasion of America started here.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney met here in 1957. They were smitten with skiffle music - a blend of folk and light rock and roll. Liverpool was overrun with music groups that bought guitars - learned 3 chords. Every waking hour was spent writing songs and finding places to perform them. There were over 700 skiffle groups in Liverpool alone. Lennon formed the Beatles and developed a career playing at The Cavern - a wine cellar in the rundown warehouse district. Just like the American kids - they enjoyed listening to Elvis - Chuck Berry - and Buddy Holly.
The original Cavern Club was filled in as part of a subway rail project - but a new one was developed right next to the old site. Lulu and I ascended the 4 flights of steps into the old wine cellar. By my calculations - we were easily below sea level. There was a tribute band playing a set of some of the old hits. No one was collecting money - but there was quite a few having drinks. Most of the folks were just curious middle-agers like me holding up their video cameras. I will post some video later.
From 1957 to 1962 - they became a phenomena - Beatlemania. Before America even discovered them - the Beatles had 5 years of relative success in the UK. Then they arrived in New York City in 1963 - and the rest was history. No music group has ever had a bigger influence on music - clothing - hair styles - or pop culture.
They stayed together as a group for 6 more years and then went their separate ways. Due to marketing in the music industry - they were virtually here and gone in seconds. Their record companies marketed their songs for many years before we realized it was all over. There were always rumors that they would get back together - one of the hopes that somehow steered my new Volkswagen to Woodstock. But alas - it never happened. The door was dramatically slammed shut when a nut shot and killed John Lennon - the leader of the group in 1980.
Visiting Liverpool - gives one a haunting feeling. From all the news coverage of our youth - you get a feeling of deja vu. A visit to John's and Paul's boyhood home brings a finality or closure to this event that powered my youth.
Kids can play rock and roll better now - better instruments - more equipment - and the genre has expanded from audio to visual - but The Beatles did it first. They were such vanguards that at one time they owned 9 of the "top 10" spots of the music charts.
One can tour the homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. You can feel the forces that urged these kids on to write and play so much wonderful music. This was probably the highlight of our trip. Visit this page -
http://picasaweb.google.com/HarryEverhart/Liverpool
-for pictures from those tours.
On Sunday we took a Ferry ride on the famous boat from that song - "Ferry Cross the Mersey." You get a feel for the lives - both past and present - of the working middle class people that inspired Lennon and McCartney. People were very friendly - they loved talking to us - and truly admired America. It was kind of hard for a lad whose hearing was altered as my mom said, "By playing that rock and roll music way too loud." But even with perfect hearing - Lulu assured me she couldn't understand most of what they were saying. Americans and Brits are truly separated by a common language.
I realize this story is all over the place - but I am lying here in bed with "Lulu's flu." I am trying to capture the feelings before I forget them - which happens more and more as I get older.
But there's more - just like the final crescendo in "A Day in the Life" - it was time for "The Beatles Story" - a museum exhibit on Albert Pier. After so much walking and the overkill of information - I was not sure that I wanted to pay 12 pounds 50 pence for another museum - after all of the others were free. With a senior citizen discount for me - and a student discount for Lulu - we got it down to 8 pounds 50 pence - or $17 each. It was without a doubt the best spent money on our trip. It took almost 3 hours to view all of the exhibits in this museum.
Near the end of the museum tour - there is a place called John Lennon's white room. I will not even try to describe my feelings as that white grand piano plays, "Imagine." While it played - I read the light gray words to the song on an otherwise bleached while set. One can feel the emotions and youth drain out of your body. It was like mourning - realizing that many of those exciting feeling of your youth have been stolen from you - maybe by a culture that did not experience the 60s - but had two sets of the 50s and went right on to the 70s. You think of the kids that died for nothing in Vietnam - and not were killing a bunch of them in Iraq.
When John used to run off from Aunt Mimi to Strawberry Field - notice no "S" - she would admonish him and warned him that danger out there in the world could hurt him. He would reply to Mimi, "Do they hang you for it?" She said no. That's all he needed to know.
John Lennon and Beatles have enriched our lives immensely. They taught us to follow our dreams."
"And Nothing to Get Hung About...
...Strawberry Fields Forever."
