John Lennon and his 40 favorite songs

Via Kottke's year-end round-up, I discovered a marvelous site called SmashingTelly which I immediately put in my Inspiration set of links. It gathers free, legally available television and video, often full-length documentaries. I just watched this wonderful documentary called John Lennon's jukebox. Here's the description:

"A few years back, a portable jukebox that had once belonged to John Lennon, in the 60’s was discovered. On it were Lennon’s hand written labels for his favorite 40 songs. This documentary is about those songs. Perfect."

There are bits of an interview with Lennon where he talks about specific licks or vocal bits he studied, imitated, used in his songs. There are snippets of the songs themselves, but the best part is the appearance of the musicians and songwriters talking about making the music, about the Beatles, about the influences of American R and B on the Beatles, about each other and their music. Lieber and Stoller make an appearance and have a lot of say on the matter. Be-Bop-a-Lula, Little Richard, the Isley Brothers: "they wanted to be US! they wanted to be like us." Not just black musicians--also West Texas harmonica player Delbert McClinton, Dylan, Donovan,
The musicians don't just talk about Lennon, they talk about each other, how they borrowed, changed, remade each other's sounds. Originally produced for PBS,
John Lennon's Jukebox also has a page with more on the songs, musicians and the scene.
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