Imagine John Lennon at 80

 

Liverpool Echo, Oct 12, 1940

I used to be cruel to my woman

I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved

Man, I was mean but I'm changing my scene

And I'm doing the best that I can -- The Beatles, "Getting Better"

John Winston Ono Lennon was born 80 years ago today -- Oct 9, 1940. His birthday is being celebrated around the world.

He is among the most celebrated icons of pop culture. I mean, that's it. To say "ever" is almost silly and redundant. 

Dying at the age of 40 -- assassinated, murdered as it was -- only added to his legend. Everything is frozen right there.

He was a genius and a visionary and brilliant and a rebel and peace-loving and passionate and thoughtful and a womanizer and a warm soul and a jackass and a wiseass.

It's not fair to simply see him as flawless. He needed those flaws and it helps tell his full story, from his confusing youth and troubles in school until playing in a skiffle band to meeting another Liverpool youth who would help him with a "Revolution."

He was full of love and some hate as well. A lot of stuff ran around in him, thus "Help," which, as opposed to the finished product, was actually a plaintive cry*.

*Give a listen to "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" as performed by The Shirelles sometime. Then listen to Carole King's version (or the version with King and James Taylor) and tell me if the song doesn't completely change. The tone is 100% more forlorn. John said a similar thing in regard to "Help." He didn't truly want the uptempo classic it became. I wonder if John would have given the song a different spin later in life. Alas, we'll never know.

Each Beatle had their "personality," and John, in reality, should have been called "The Complicated One."

But, the truth was that Lennon needed Paul McCartney, just as Laurel needed Hardy or Alan Trammell needed Lou Whitaker (Detroit Tigers reference). It starts with their brotherhood beginning on July 6, 1957.

To that end, "Getting Better" was mostly a McCartney song, but John contributed his honest take about what kind of man he was in the years before Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. His first marriage, to Cynthia, wasn't exactly harmonious and his relationship to son Julian was difficult at best, or non-existent.

He also contributed the line "It can't get no worse" to "Getting Better," a perfect Lennon retort to McCartney's impeccable optimism. Ying mets yang.

John would get it right eventually, but he even threatened to blow it with Yoko Ono later on. That's why he went on his "Lost Weekend" that lasted almost two years. It was John's "Rumspringa." It was his last chance to grow up (sort of -- nobody ever truly believed that John would ever truly grow up).

But he did grow up. Yoko gave birth to Sean and John disappeared for five years as he was "Watching the Wheels" go 'round and 'round. He played housedad to raising Sean and, slowly, began to rebuild his fractured relationships -- with Julian and, just as notably, with a Mr. James Paul McCartney.

John and Paul spent much of the early 70s sniping at each other, with John writing the menacing "How Do You Sleep?" They would meet up a few times, including "The Lost Weekend" where they (and others) jammed on the famed "Toot and a Snore in '74" session. They also watched "Saturday Night Live" together in April, 1976 as Lorne Michaels offered The Beatles $3,000 to reunite. The fun thing is they almost took Michaels up on it.

The music? Oh yes. That. From those early days in The Quarrymen through the changes that made them into The Beatles to The Plastic Ono Band and, eventually, on his own, John Lennon made an incredible array of music and had a profound effect on popular culture. It's impossible here in the words of this silly little corner of the interwebs to sum it all up. "Imagine" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Lucy in the the Sky with Diamonds" and "Come Together" and "I Am the Walrus" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Instant Karma" and "In My Life" lesser-known  (perhaps) works like "She Said She Said" only begin to highlight all of it.

And "A Day in the Life."

(We'll just leave "Run For Your Life" here as part of the complicated John Lennon. Those lyrics -- granted, based on a song Elvis Presley recorded in 1955 called "Baby, Let’s Play House," but...yikes.)

He could rock. He could be mellow and acoustic. He could be deep. He could be frivolous and nonsensical ("Yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye?" Anyone?). He could be funky. He could be brash and obnoxious. And that's just a glimpse at his music.

He didn't buy into prejudices. The Beatles wouldn't play Jacksonville, FL if the Gator Bowl crowd was segregated. The policy was changed.

He made a few movies -- with and without the Lads. He wrote a book of poetry. He infuriated and concerned Nixon.

And he was only 40 when the world lost him. There was a whole later act that could have been fascinating. Would the 1980s have been good to him? The music, frankly, had waned a bit. There were uneven returns through the 70s. McCartney would be the hit maker. George Harrison would have, possibly, the best solo album of all four. There's at least a debate to be had among All Things Must Pass, Imagine, and Band on the Run.

And Ringo was just happy to be Ringo (nothing wrong with that).

I still think John would have been active. He would have protested. He would have hated Reagan. I still think we see The Beatles on stage at "Live Aid" (an event that was right up their alley).

But it's all speculation at this point. We were robbed of the reality.

John wasn't perfect at all. I'd like to believe his best was yet to come.

It can't get no worse.

Thanks for all of it, John. Thanks for showing us the flaws and recognizing the need to fix them. 

Thanks for that "Hard Day's Night."

Keep being a dreamer, John. You're not the only one.

And shine on. For we all shine on.