Remembering John Lennon....his music and his life

If I get banned.. youll know why.

Beatles.. yuck. Monkees.. takent! ** ready for the lashes**


I liked Lennon in later times.. when he was able to do his own thing. He had an interesting mind.

There was this one quote that I always enjoyed thinking about.. I mean its interesting if you at last attempted to understand Lennon.. and why he said this. I believe its from one of the last interviews.

Nor do I think we came from monkeys, by the way...That's another piece of garbage. What the hell's it based on? We couldn't've come from anything--fish, maybe, but not monkeys. I don't believe in the evolution of fish to monkeys to men. Why aren't monkeys changing into men now? It's absolute garbage. It's absolutely irrational garbage, as mad as the ones who believe the world was made only four thousand years ago, the fundamentalists. That and the monkey thing are both as insane as the other. I’ve nothing to base it on; it’s only a gut feeling. They always draw that progression-these apes standing up suddenly. The early men are always drawn like apes, right? Because that fits in the theory we have been living with since Darwin.

and

Don't believe that jazz about there's nothing you can do, "turn on and drop out, man" — because you've got to turn on and drop in, or they're going to drop all over you.

... and interesting mind..

reply to post by DontTreadOnMe


Did the mind games save you?
We know how hard you tried
Did you get your heaven
On this day when our youth died?
Yoko's heart is breaking
But will Lucy cry?
Are they her tears shining
Those diamonds in the sky.

Five shots from a forty-five
Blew us all away
Those alive, who still survive
In a moment, old and grey

But seekers still dumbfounded
Ask where the truth now lies
Was it in the words of one
Who simply lives and dies
It did seem like paradise
Perhaps it was worth a try
Could it be, peace and happiness
Are more than words can buy

And, can you tell me John
How'd it go so wrong
That a peaceful one
Is killed for a song
A whirl of the photoflash throng
And another faceless fan
Your killer had a record
Signed by your own hand

The crowds are silenced now
And those who clapped and cheered
Pray your words and heart live on
To inform future years.

I am really glad to have been able to find this as a video clip. I thought it would be more difficult.

I saw this video when I was very young because aunts and uncles were watching it. John Lennon's behaviour during his encounter with this fan left a very deep impact on my psyche that reverberates to this day. I for sure am grateful for John Lennon, when he was at his best he was a very good role model.



Thanks for the thread, OP.

reply to post by Advantage

Monkees.. takent! ** ready for the lashes**

OK, call in the translators.

I still have the Monkees on vinyl.

Jbird
I still have the Monkees on vinyl.

Okay.
Forget Mandela...you're my new hero.

-Peace-

reply to post by Bybyots

I vaguely remember that vid. Thanks for the memory.
I wonder if the dude took in what John explained ?
He looks kind of zealous in his beliefs.

Unfortunately. it's that kind of accessibility to everyday people that lead to his demise, I suppose.

And just when he was coming back. What a waste.

Regardless of one's views on him as person or artist, there's no denying He's an Icon of that era, IMO.

reply to post by Eryiedes

Wow you take yer music serious like.

Either that or you're callin' me old.... Hey .... wait a dadburn minute...

Jbird
reply to post by Advantage

 

Monkees.. takent! ** ready for the lashes**

OK, call in the translators.

I still have the Monkees on vinyl.

WOOHOO!!!
See.. Im not the only geek. OLD geek..

Oh and I was going to edit that "takent" to "talent" but didnt even care..

Jbird
Either that or you're callin' me old....

No older than I am at any rate.
Lost all my vinyl to a psychotic ex in a bad break up.
She frisbee'd them all into a brick wall.
Whenever I hear about LP's, I get all misty.

-Peace-

reply to post by Advantage

Actually I was referring to the second part - ** ready for the lashes**

I've been known to throw some obscure references around myself but that's a new one on me.

especially in context with the Monkees.

Sounds like a Olde English kinda thing ?

reply to post by Eryiedes

I've been selling mine off at the community yard sale.

Did it on a lark and some dude bought most of them at once and sent back a list for more. Ha,ha.

I figured may as well let someone enjoy them rather than having them sit and collect dust.

Even then I still can't get myself to give up the favorites. Don't ask me why.

Kinda like giving away memories, I guess.

Bybyots
I am really glad to have been able to find this as a video clip. I thought it would be more difficult.

I saw this video when I was very young because aunts and uncles were watching it. John Lennon's behaviour during his encounter with this fan left a very deep impact on my psyche that reverberates to this day. I for sure am grateful for John Lennon, when he was at his best he was a very good role model.

Thanks for the thread, OP.

"Are you hungry? Lets give him something to eat"
WOW!
Can you imagine that happening today? More likely they'd call some crazed security cop who'd blow the poor guys head off.

reply to post by VoidHawk

Can you imagine that happening today?

Nope.

part of what has always stuck with me about that video is John Lennon's embarrassment at the situation. It was that exposure of his humble heart that I think effected me so. I think it was important to see a guy as an example of compassion. he would have been what I think Steely Dan referred to as a "Major Dude".

I always liked The Beatles music, and especially John Lennon's. His music could be very close to the heart, and surdenly make you think about what is going on in the world.

I can't help thinking for TPTB, Lennon was dangerous. His music could literally start a revolution? I wonder if John Lennon would have done if he was alive during 9/11, and watched the aftermath, the conspiracies, and the lies it was spun upon.
Maybe he would have made music supporting the truther movement? Maybe the world would have looked entirely different? One will never know.

We need more John Lennon's

A great song, even though you have to look at Chapman's ugly mug.

Edit:

edit for the fanatics

One of my favorites. A song about being "awake"? Very angry, minimalist rock and roll.

Only just spotted this and it is a nice tribute to an outstanding artist.

I once did a thread on the Beatles Fifty years of Fact and 'Fab'-rication. I have been a big fan of their music as a very young boy despite not remembering them as a working band. When I was young I always hoped they'd get back together as they definitely lost something when the band split.

That hope was shattered back in December of 1980 when John Lennon was murdered in cold blood. It was a shock that reverberated around the world. If you listen to interviews from around that time John was making music again after a long break, he and Yoko seemed happier than ever together. John had taken time out to spend time bringing up his son Sean and he seemed to have found happiness with his life at long last. There was talk of a tour, of him returning to England and even the hint that he was going to work with his former band mates on a special show about the Beatles legacy (it eventually became the Anthology TV series).

Whilst I consider myself a fan of John Lennon and found him a very intriguing guy when he spoke I am certainly not fooled by the media image of him being a man of peace, forever singing "Imagine". He was most certainly a man of many contradictions, capable of violent verbal (and probably physical)attacks when aggravated and began to support some very radical and subversive campaigns in early 1970s America. I still wonder what he thought he was getting into at that time? Then he went quiet and retired in the mid-70s to "bake bread" and look after his newly born son Sean.

Whilst Lennon is always painted as the rocker and Paul the balladeer of the Beatles, John was also capable of writing some very moving songs like "Woman" and very introspective pieces like "In My Life". He even wrote the ballad "Goodnight" which Ringo sang on the White album.



McCartney, lest people forget also penned "Back in the USSR", "Helter Skelter" and "She's a Woman". They were not opposites, they were simply slightly different in character. It's probably fair to say that whilst McCartney was generally crafting the more melodic songs, John Lennon wrote most of the slightly more interesting songs. However by late 1967 John had abdicated his role as leader of the band and Paul kept it going. The stream of hit singles through Hello Goodbye, Lady Madonna, Hey Jude, Get Back, Let it Be and the Long and Winding Road were all McCartney (as is most of the Let it Be album) with only the hastily released, Paul and John only "Ballad of John and Yoko" featuring a John song as the A-side. Once the Beatles split Lennon's albums after Imagine, whilst still featuring some interesting tracks are generally average in quality. I think you can say the same with McCartney's. Quality control disappeared for each of them.

That all said it is still sad that John Lennon never lived on and who knows what he may have done? Returned to Britain, closed Live Aid, made underground releases via the internet in his old age and even reformed the Beatles.

He was certainly no saint, a very complex human being and like all of us he had his faults and weaknesses. He was taken away so cruelly and so callously but his music will live on and that's what we should remember him for most. Rest in Peace John Winston Lennon.

I have always enjoyed John Lennon's music, and even those terrible movies. My iPod is filled with Beatle songs. Unfortunately he became a disappointment to me when I learned of his treatment of the women in his life.


listverse.com...

As a person from Liverpool I was brought up to respect The Beatles. John is and always will be one of my heroes.

On a funny n ote (I'm sure he would have laughed at it himself) here's John making a Cappuccino