Cool Video: John Lennon’s Jukebox

September 2nd, 2007

The BeatlesEven if you’re not a huge Beatles fan, I think this documentary about John Lennon’s jukebox is worth seeing for a neat history of the music of the sixites.

Basically John Lennon had a jukebox that he would take around with him on tour, filled with all of his favorite music. It’s a pretty good sampling of early R&B, Stax, to folk stuff from Dylan. What’s interesting to me is the documentary seeks out some of the original artists and goes over their inspirations. You can also hear a lot of musical influence toward the Beatles’ own songs.

Lastly, the whole idea of this large jukebox filled with 45 records is an interesting contrast to today’s iPods with tens of thousands of songs in a package no larger than a wallet. There’s something definitely more precious about having 40 odd physical objects containing your favorite music. The irony is that by having only room for 40 songs, might we be more careful about our selections and value that music more?

4 comments!

  1. comment Gravatar Technology » Technology September 2, 2007 2:35 pm - September 2nd, 2007

    [...] Cool Video: John Lennon?s Jukebox Even if you?re not a huge Beatles fan, I think this documentary about John Lennon?s jukebox is worth seeing for a neat history of the music of the sixites. Basically John Lennon had a jukebox that he would take around with him on tour, … [...]

  2. comment Gravatar Dave - September 2nd, 2007

    I’m finding the image of a Jukebox as a precursor to the walkman and ipod very funny. Can you imagine some dude walking around with a handcart taking one of these for a jog or a “slimmed down” version that fits in your backpack (capacity 10 singles!).

    Though I guess if you were John Lennon and loaded with roadies and moola, the notion is not so far fetched, as you detail above.

    Your comment about the relative value of music vs. our ability to store anything and everything is an interesting one. There’s definitely something to that.

    Very cool find.

  3. comment Gravatar webomatica - September 2nd, 2007

    Yeah I’m sure Lennon had roadies carry this contraption around. But yeah, I can’t imagine any other way this could have happened back in the sixties - I don’t think the tape machines were really portable and he probably wanted the original sound from the 45s.

  4. comment Gravatar new york pizza - September 3rd, 2007

    nice video
    you know i pass by his building in new york atleast once a week and it always make me sad

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