JOHN LENNON THE ICON ( White Album photo session)

Click at photo for a full-size image!

Rare photo outtakes from 1968.I guess this is a Lennon image most fans remember. Round glasses, quite long hair and a serious look.Click to see the larger size.

THE Walk

A 10-minute photo shoot. Four guys crossing a street. What could be less eventful? But the photograph taken for the last record the Beatles made, Abbey Road, has become a classic of album art — one of the best-known and most copied images in popular music.

It was Paul McCartney who came up with the street-crossing idea and worked out the details with photographer Iain Macmillan. The other Beatles liked the idea — ''with varying degrees of enthusiasm,'' says Macmillan — and agreed to meet at 10 a.m. on Aug. 8, 1969, outside their Abbey Road studio. A bobby held up traffic while the band walked back and forth across the street three times. Perched on a ladder in the middle of the road, Macmillan snapped six pictures from which McCartney chose the cover shot.

''It was nerve-racking,'' remembers Macmillan. ''Getting them to walk in the right way was difficult.''

The result was ironically eloquent, a jarringly mundane image of the larger-than-life Beatles. Even 28 years later, fans still flock to the site of the crossing and re-create the picture themselves.

Of course, not only tourists have been imitating the famous photo over the years. Booker T. & the M.G.'s ambled across a Memphis street for their 1970 album, McLemore Avenue, and alterna-funk band the Red Hot Chili Peppers cheekily parodied it on their 1988 The Abbey Road E.P., while the cover of rapper Chubb Rock's recent album, The Mind, also pays tribute. Even McCartney has joined the fun, digitally spoofing the famous scene for his 1993 album Paul Is Live (whose very title plays off the old rumors of McCartney's death, supposedly proven by evidence in the original photograph). Why is the cover so imitated? ''You can replicate it wherever you're making a record,'' says James Henke, chief curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. And hey, an association with the Beatles' best-selling album can't hurt. What band wouldn't want to carry that kind of weight? -EW.COM

Jump!

The Beatles seem to always love to jump. That's why there's no one higher than them. It's the cutiest jump in rock, I guess.

John Lennon answers a fan's letter

From the Beatles book monthly No.2/1963.


Dear Beatles Book,

I'm a girl from Finland--you know, the country where polar bears walk the streets. I've heard and read very much about the Beatles and I've seen pictures too. But I've never heard the boys playing. Oh, I'm sad about that. The records haven't come to Finland yet but I'll keep waiting. Do they sing on their records? I've seen pictures where they're keeping their mouths open so I expect they do. I hope I didn't disturb you too much by sending a letter from so faaaar away. I with the Beatles could sometimes in the future come to Finland and then you can be sure they would get a big welcome. About those polar beats in the streets. That's a BIG lie. Here it is only Finnish girls who DRESS UP in polar bear furs! Wishing you good luck in the future.

Yours truly,
(signed) Gula Lindroos,
Helsingfors, Finland
-----------------------

John Lennon of the Beatles writes:

What a fab letter! I'm arranging for a copy of our new single "She Loves You" to be sent out to Gula...then she'll know we can't sing!

7 facts you should know about....the Beatles' "Rain"

1.Ringo has said this is his best drumming on a Beatles song.
2.This was the first song to use a tape played backwards, which created the strange audio effect. John Lennon discovered the technique when he put the tape for "Tomorrow Never Knows" on the wrong way. He was stoned at the time, and producer George Martin had to convince him that using a backward recording for the entire song was a bad idea. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)
3.Lennon wrote most of this. It was his first song to get really deep, exploring themes of reality and illusion.
4.The backwards vocal at the end fade out is actually the songs first line: "When the rain comes they run and hide their heads". (thanks, chet - saratoga springs, NY)
5.This was one of the first Beatles records to feature loud, booming bass. McCartney's bassline is extremely recognizable, in contrast to The Beatles' older records. (thanks, Chris LaBenne - Niles, OH)
6.This was released as the B-side of "Paperback Writer." It was recorded during the Revolver sessions. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)
7.The rhythm track was played fast and slowed down on tape.