New video: "Love Not Blind" from our album, Homecoming.

MySpace friends remember JOHN LENNON

JOHN WINSTON ONO LENNON

9 OCTOBER 1940 - 8 DECEMBER 1980

"So long ago / Was it in a dream, was it just a dream? / I know, yes I know / Seemed so very real, it seemed so real to me." ~ John Lennon, "9 Dream"

For those who have decided to visit here over this weekend, we'd like to throw a bit of a "virtual party" on MySpace to celebrate the music and life of John Lennon. Actually, a "virtual pot-luck" might be a more appropriate term, because the real work has been done by the MySpace friends listed here on our "top friends" list this weekend.

As many of you are aware, John Lennon was killed 27 years ago on 8 December 1980. We thought it would be good for all of us to pool together our own voices to show our own appreciation of the man that was John Lennon, an ordinary human being who believed passionately in an extraordinary message. John Lennon may no longer be on this earth, but, as Lennon himself said, peace and love are eternal.

What Angie and I have done is provided links with a bit of info on each of the following participants' MySpace page. There's plenty of goodies to peruse though: words, quotes, photos, music, videos all related to John Lennon. Maybe you can get together with friends, your spouse or partner, listen to the songs together, watch videos together, have your own John Lennon Remembrance in your own home this weekend.

I'd like to thank Aroha-Aotearoa for planting the little seed for this whole idea in our heads last week. And I would especially like to thank each and every one of you for contributing to this "virtual pot-luck"! Each voice counts: we all shine on!

peace! ~ josh and angie

JOKER ~ We've put up two John Lennon cover songs up: a rather rocking version of "Dear Prudence" and a more atmospheric version of "Love" (one of the most vulnerable songs Lennon ever wrote-- but you should really heard the original!). "Dear Prudence," incidentally, was one of Lennon's personal favourites of all his songs. Also, drop in on our blog entry HERE and you can use the comments section as a way of meeting fellow John Lennon fans, mention your favourite songs or give us your thoughts...

JOSHKIWI ~ This is Josh's personal page. He's posted some of his own thoughts on Lennon's and a few of his favourite lyrics in this blog entry HERE.

APPLE JAM (Beatles Tribute Band) ~ Apple Jam is a Beatles tribute band from Seattle, Washington. They do an excellent covers of "Instant Karma" and other songs. Check them out!

MADOOO ~ Do you want to hear Lennon as you've never heard him before? Madooo's covers of John Lennon/Bealtes have a totally different twist-- a mix of world music with a heavy Indian flavour, a sort of psychedelic hip-hop with a cosmic twist. Make sure to listen to his excellent cover of "You've Gotta Hide Your Luv Away."

SUZI Q ~ Suzy hails from Alabama and has a blog entry posted her own thoughts HERE on what John Lennon's life and music means to her. She's also got Lennon's "Happiness is a Warm Gun" on her page to listen to...

ALAN AS JOHN LENNON ~ Alan's alter-ego when on stage is John Lennon. He's got videos of him performing "Imagine," "Come Together," "Jealous Guy," "Instant Karma," and other songs. His official website is also HERE.

IMAGINE... JOHN LENNON ~ This tribute site is run by a California fan with a poignant song by Death by Depression which has samples from John Lennon interviews (with Dick Cavett I believe?-- not sure). She also has plenty of photos and videos up.

BEATLES RUSS IS BACK ~ Russ has loads of Beatles songs, videos, pictures, quotes and his own thoughts on the Beatles and chock full of all sorts of interesting info.

LAUREN LA-DI-DA ~ Lauren from Maine is also a John Lennon fan with a few pictures as a tribute to him.

DO YOU SEE WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT ~ Included here are several John Lennon and Bealtes songs (like "Watching the Wheels" and "Dear Prudence") and also a few videos as well, including a live acoustic guitar version of Lennon performing "Imagine."

JOHN LENNON 1980 ~ This tribute site has a video for Lennon's song "Woman" and also a good documentary on the relationship between John Lennon and Yoko Ono and other videos.

JOHN LENNON ~ This page has plenty of John Lennon songs to listen to, including his duet with Elton John, "Whatever Gets You Through the Night," the dreamy "9 Dream," his cool cover of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me," and many other great songs. Don't miss the video of "Mind Games" (but you might want to keep a hanky near you!). And also check out his very informative BLOG (and make sure to check out other people's Lennon artwork there too!).

JOHN LENNON TRIBUTE ~ Plenty of pics here to peruse through and a variety of Lennon songs, such as his collaboration with Elton John on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "Revolution" (the LOUD version!!), and "(Just Like) Starting Over."

JOHN LENNON - I AM NOT ~ Teemo is a musician and fan in the UK-- make sure you listen to his Audio welcome on his media player there. Some songs you can listen to there is: "Happy Xmas (War is Over)," the lovely "Julia," "Mother," "God," "Working Class Hero," "I Am the Walrus" and don't miss "The End" from Abbey Road. His site also includes the song "John Sinclair" (which led to some Nixon having John and Yoko being followed, their phone lines tapped and "immigration complications"-- becuase Lennon was perceived as a threat to the Nixon administration). And there's plenty videos too!

YOKO ONO ~ This is Yoko Ono's official MySpace page. There's an excellent documentary on the concept behind the Imagine Peace Tower in Reykjavik, Iceland-- a must-see! Make sure also to visit her Imagine Peace site HERE and send a wish!

THE BEATLES ~ Plenty of videos to watch and music to listen to here! A video on the making of Sgt. Peppers and trailers and other videos on the movie Help! and interviews with George Martin.

Free CHRISTMAS music download

We've just put up our instrumental version of "Silent Night"available at our MySpace page here. Feel free to listen and download it. We'll keep the song up through the end of the year.

Joker wishes you a happy Christmas and happy holidays as we go into the new year!

~ josh and angie

JOHN LENNON TRIBUTE: FREE SONG DOWNLOAD

In Memoriam: John Winston Ono Lennon
9 October 1940 - 8 December 1980

"It's our responsibility what happens around the world. It's our responsibility for Vietnam, and all the other wars that we don't quite hear about. It's all our responsibility and when we all want peace we'll get it." ~ John Lennon



As a musical tribute to the musician, artist and peace activist John Lennon, we've put together a cover of John Lennon's song "Dear Prudence" (originally released on The Beatles in 1968). The song is available at our MySpace page (www.myspace.com/jokerpop) from now till 8 December for free download, so come and get it!

"Dear Prudence" was a personal favourite of Lennon's. This recording was thrown together rather hastily and haphazardly (Josh playing the wee drum machine live rather than programming it) but we wanted to put a small tribute out there for the next couple weeks to say: We remember John Lennon!

Much of his music with the Beatles, with Yoko Ono and by himself was an invitation to see the world in a different light, to wake people up to a reality that was already within them.

We are all Prudence in a way, too scared to be be ourselves, too quick to resort to weapons to defend our perceived insecurities (whether those insecurities are on a personal emotional level or on a larger collective scale).

Through his music and his activism, all John Lennon was doing was to invite you and me and everyone to "come out to play."

Thank you, John... we miss you!

~ josh and angie

Grabbed my suitcase that said to me,
"Dreams are free and so are we."

Jokers wild!

Besides creating songs together, Angie & I also collect Joker cards. Angie is a long-time fan of Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder & introduced me to his novel The Solitaire Mystery (I had read Sophie's World some years ago). We decided to start collecting joker cards, like the father in The Solitaire Mystery. (This is one of the many reasons our band is called Joker).

Little did I realise that there are others on the web that have joker card collection sites, like Jokeresse's Jokerblog & Dotpattern. One of the things Angie & I have in the works for our official website is to post up our modest collection of joker cards as well, so I guess we are in good company!

UPDATE: Plenty of links to joker card collectors here.

~ josh

Progress Report

I would love to give a definite release date for Homecoming, but for now all I can say is it will be November-ish. For now I think we can tentatively say 27 November 2007.

The music has been finished for some time, though & had to tinker with re-mastering it & the result is much better, more professional sounding. What is left is designing the CD artwork & getting everything sent off for mass production, then sending it to our first two distributors (CD Baby in Portland, Oregon and Your Indie CD in Rome, Italy).

The wait will be well worth it, however-- fuller sounding & more professional, with lyrics enclosed & Angie's artwork (a two-page collage inside). Angie showed me the first of her sketches for the collage & its coming along nicely.

In the meantime, we've got mp3s of the songs for download & a few songs from Homecoming that can be streamed (as at the top of this blog as well as on our official website at www.jokerpop.com).

Stay tuned... more to come!

~ josh

TESTING 1, 2, 3...

Hey, is this mic on?