Following their marriage in 1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged two bed-ins for peace in protest to the Vietnam War, one in Amsterdam and the other in Montreal. The Montreal bed-in was originally supposed to take place in New York City, but Lennon was not permitted to enter the country due to his 1968 conviction in England for possession of cannabis. The New York bed-in was then moved to the Bahamas, but after one night in the stifling heat Lennon and Ono moved the event to Montreal. The bed-in for peace was filmed and edited into the documentary Bed Peace, which Ono has now made available for viewing online for free until August 21 at midnight in response to the recent unrest in London. You can watch the film now embedded here below.

Songs for Japan, a compilation of 38 songs from some of today’s biggest names in contemporary music, is available through the iTunes store for $9.99. The album is to benefit those affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and proceeds from the album’s sale will go towards the disaster relief efforts of the Japanese Red Cross Society.

The compilation album, put together by Universal Music, includes songs from many genres, like rock, pop, hip-hop, R&B, country, new age, and more, with artists like The Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bob Dylan, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Ne-Yo, Eminem, Keith Urban, John Lennon, Enya, Josh Groban, and others.

See full list of artists and songs here below.

Not only is this for a great cause, but it’s also the perfect collection for the all-around music-lover. Plus, these songs individually typically cost 99 cents each, so even if you only like 10 of the 38 songs, it’s well worth the money, and hey, you just might like some of the tunes you don’t know.

With just a few more days left til the end of February, now’s the time to get in on Amazon’s $5.00 MP3 album deal of the month for February 2011: 100 Albums For $5.

Here’s some of my favorite picks from the 100 albums on sale: Dio‘s first album Holy Diver; John Lennon‘s Imagine; Pat Benatar‘s Crimes Of Passion; and Fugazi‘s 13 Songs. There’s plenty of other selections from other genres (I saw some R. Kelly, Lil Wayne, Lenny Kravitz, Usher, The Judds, Carrie Underwood, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, The Smiths, Violent Femmes, Frank Sinatra, and many more.)

There’s also a $.69 Song Sale (they are typically $.99 each) where thousands of songs are discounted. You can go to the main page and then view by genre from the list on the left — there’s 102 hard rock/heavy metal songs to choose from (you know that’s my area) from bands like Megadeth, Accept, Sepultura, Tesla, Free, and Corrosion Of Conformity. (If you’re into Latin music, there’s over 1,155 tunes.)

By Frank Ramblings

February 7, 1964: Beatlemania Begins

It was a cold February day at the newly-renamed John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. At about 1:20PM, Pan Am flight 101 landed to the excitement of the 3,000 screaming fans who had been waiting patiently all morning. Four young lads from Liverpool, England, were about to step onto U.S. soil and change the world forever. The Beatles had arrived in America. The British Invasion had begun.

Timing played a huge role in the Beatles success in the United States. It’s easy to forget that when the Fab Four arrived, Americans were still mourning the loss of their slain President John F. Kennedy, who had been shot down less than three months prior. Violence in Vietnam was escalating rapidly. The country desperately needed a distraction from the harsh realities they had been made to face.

Mark Waters, director of Mean Girls, Freaky Friday, and The Spiderwick Chronicles, is currently in line to helm Get Back, a comedy about two diehard Beatles fans who discover a time machine and use it to travel back in time to change a major event in John Lennon‘s life.

What do they plan to do in Get Back, which is named for the popular Beatles tune that closes out their final album Let It Be? No, not to stop his murder, that would be too logical. Instead, it’s to prevent the musician from ever meeting his wife Yoko Ono, who they feel was the cause of the breakup of the Beatles.

As this is planned as a comedy, I can see where there would be plenty of opportunity for laughs, especially when you have die-hard music fans and time-travel involved. But, I’m seriously hating the premise of this movie, which was scripted by Chris McCoy and was named as one of the best unproduced screenplays on the 2007 Black List.