Seems over 40 years ago Lennon owned a portable jukebox that was sort of a suitcase with a record player inside. It was purchase in 1989 at a sale of Beatles memorabilia. The 41 discs on it were all listed in Lennon's handwriting.

Some of the tunes, like Little Richard's 'Long Tall Sally,' or Barret Strong's 'Money (That's What I Want)' were actually covered by The Beatles on their early albums. Others just had bits and pieces snatched and incorporated into new Beatles songs. The most amazing example of this is a guitar lick performed by Blues man Bobby Parker on a song called 'Watch Your Step.' The Beatles copied the exact guitar lick on "I Feel Fine." Parker's record was a regional hit and later covered by The Spencer Davis Group and Santana.

During the documentary Lennon said, "In the early days I would often write a melody, a lyric in my head to some other song because I can't write music. I would carry it around as somebody else's song and then change it when putting it down on paper, or down on tape - consciously change it because I knew somebody's going to sue me or everybody's going to say 'what a rip off." Cool and far be it from us to accuse The Beatles of plagiarism, but there's no question of Bobby Parkers contribution to 'I Feel Fine." In fact he deserves a writing credit because the song was written by Lennon, McCartney, and Parker. Only Paul and Yoko can right that wrong, but at least we are giving him well deserved credit.

Bobby still performs in the Washington DC area and you can check him out at www.bobbyparkerblues.com. Also there is a CD on Virgin called "John Lennon's Jukebox." It's usually available at Amazon and it contains "Watch Your Step" and all of the other tunes.

1966- Grace Slick joined Jefferson Airplane, replacing Signe Toly Anderson. Slick left local band, The Great Society, and brought two of their songs with her: White Rabbit and Somebody to Love. 1969- Abbey Road, the last album recorded by The Beatles entered the U.K. charts this week at number 1. 1971- John Lennon’s Imagine album was number 1 in the U.S. making it his first album to hit the top of the charts in both the U.K. and America. 1977- Three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd were killed on October 20th in a fiery plane crash.

What's new this month . . .

Features:
Betty Davis: The Eyes That Saw For Miles – A tribute to the former Mrs. Miles Davis and how she was such an influence on his revolutionary music.

CD Reviews:
A Bigger Bang - The Rolling Stones / Sweet Neo Con - The Rolling Stones (special song review) / Genius Loves Company - Ray Charles / Back In 20 - Gary U.S. Bonds / Magic Time - Van Morrison / Fearless Child - Reel Ting / Classic Mule Tracks - The Roxy, Atlanta, GA - Gov't Mule (download only from the Mule website) / Make Believe - Weezer / That's What I Say: John Scofield Plays The Music of Ray Charles - John Scofield / The Mighty Rearranger - Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation / Chaos and Creation In The Backyard - Paul McCartney / If Footmen Tire You... - The Bloody Hollies / The Dreadful Yawns - The Dreadful Yawns / Weeds - Ring of Myth / X&Y - Coldplay / The Secret of Movin' On - David Pack / So... This Is Earth - Dimension X / The Living Room Tour - Carole King

DVD Reviews:
No Direction Home - Bob Dylan
Beyond The Beginning - Emerson Lake & Palmer
Helloween - Hellish Videos

Book Reviews:
Stevie Wonder - A Musical Guide to the Classic Albums
Punk Diary:The Ultimate Trainspotter's Guide to Underground Rock 1970-1982

Plus Reel Big Fish added to our Best of the Best section.