John Winston Lennon would have been 71 today – October 9.
All the outpouring of sorrow and tributes following the death of Steve Jobs brings back memories of Lennon.
It is not unlike what happened when we heard that Lennon had been murdered.
We wept openly.
We asked, How? Why?
We have never really had any closure.
Perhaps we don’t want closure.
We want and need John in our lives.
It keeps us honest.
John Lennon sang how we might have imagined that he was a dreamer, but he was not the only one.
He was a dreamer and a doer.
He was looking for and wanting some Truth.
He went from being the literally short-sighted Beatle John to a working class hero who asked the world to Imagine.
He went from singing “Twist And Shout”, “Please Mister Postman” and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” to writing about “Cold Turkey, “Woman Is The Nigger Of The World”, how he was a “Jealous Guy”, to “Imagine” and “Give Peace A Chance”.
Somewhere between there and then, he had met Yoko.
He also returned to his MBA, he embraced life in NYC and where he became known as a “political activist” though he was just being himself.
He became evolutionist and reluctant revolutionist.
His “Power To The People” messages scared the American Government and Richard Nixon.
He played with the Plastic Ono Band and distanced himself from the Beatles.
He wrote musical letters to his one-time songwriting partner.
Not nice letters with lines like “The only thing you’ve done was Yesterday.”
And “them freaks were right when they said you wuz dead”.
He had George Harrison join him in sending out the message.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK7CLXHSr1M
He was searching and not “finding” and it seemed to fill him with anger.
He had his infamous “Long Weekend”.
It was during this supposedly self-destructive period that he produced Harry Nilsson’s amazing “Pussy Cats.”
The pair also got thrown outta The Troubadour for heckling the Smothers Brothers and where Lennon wore a tampon on his head.
At this time, he also met May Pang and recorded the brilliant and underrated “Walls And Bridges”
“Everybody loves you when you’re six feet in the ground” he sang.
And “I scratch your back and you knife mine.”
The ending refrain were the chilling words, “It’s all showbiz.”
It’s one of his very best vocals.
He returned to “Mother” and retired to learn how to bake bread.
He became a house husband and father to Sean.
For years, we waited for him to record.
He was too busy enjoying a far more simple life
Then came “Starting Over”.
And then came Mark Chapman to so cruelly and stupidly and quickly to kill The Dream.
Often, we think how John Lennon might have aged.
Would he have continued to make music?
Perhaps not.
Perhaps he had said everything worth saying?
Would he have become an “Ambassador for Peace”?
Not in some official bullshit way.
Would he have tried to “save the world”?
Probably – but not in the “It’s all showbiz” way which “it” has become.
He would have embraced causes – but just because.
Would he have become Sir John Lennon?
One doubts it.
Plus he wouldn’t have wanted it.
What for?
Would he have worked with Steve Jobs?
Perhaps there might have been the i-magine.
We can now only sit and remember and wonder.
And listen to all the wonderful music he has left us as his legacy.
© Hans Ebert
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