The Smart Beatle
Nobody ever pushed the possibilities of rock & roll like John Lennon, and nobody in the music's history has really mattered as much. This isn't to say that Lennon was the primary reason for the greatness of the Beatles, though the Beatles are, of course, unimaginable without him. Nor is it to say that after he left that group he necessarily made better albums than the other former Beatles -- though he made more interesting and consequential ones, and he took greater risks. And it isn't to say that he led a life of uprightness or sanctity, because -- and this is the important one -- he didn't. With songs like "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine," Lennon idealized optimism and compassion, but he realized those ideals in himself only fleetingly. He had a notorious, biting temper, he wasn't always fair to the people who loved and trusted him, and he sometimes lashed out viciously at an audience that simply believed in him. -- Mikail Gilmore on John Lennon in the new Rolling Stone.
John Lennon died 25 years ago this week, gunned down outside the Dakota on Dec. 8, 1980, by a deranged fan later described as a smirking nobody. He was half of the greatest team of songwriters in our time, the dark one who, when Paul McCartney would chirp "It's getting better all the time," answered with "It can't get no worse.'
Rolling Stone dedicates much space to Lennon's life and death this week, and many other tributes are moving over the wires. I've gone looking for things that were written in the day. And the Web doesn't disappoint.
"I've been baking bread and looking after the baby." -- The 1975 Playboy Interview
"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace." -- 75 better John Lennon quotes.
Lydia Lunch, Roger Ebert, T. Coraghessen Boyle, Robert Altman, Larry Flynt and more remember Dec. 8, 1980.
The 1964 article from the London Evening Standard in which Lennon famously observed the band was "more popular than Jesus."
"I feel like I've been on Sinbad's voyage, you know, and I've battled all those monsters and I've got back. (long pause) Weird." -- Pete Hamill's 1975 Rolling Stone Interview.
The John Lennon Dreamsite.
A voice for the revolution, but one strange pitchman. John Lennon's Tower Records ad.
I love The Beatles, but I hate Lennon. He's the kind of guy who just never got it. Interesting quote illuminating his nitwit status: "If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace." Uhh, everyone is demanding peace and another television. You ever met anyone demanding war? This is just more evidence of what the unenlightened, uneducable peacenik lefties think is reality, and it ain't so.
I'm a big Beatles fan and enjoyed some but not all of Lennons solo work. I never cared for the Ono inspired/weasled stuff on the Beatles White album or the other things. It's easy to see why the other Beatles were upset about Ono being present in the recording studio. Its also easy to see why the Beatles were having problems, Drugs and Alcohol and evidently Lennon was a big dope head nearly till his death. By my read Lennon was a mean and angry guy, even cut his first born sun out of his life and out of his will. When McCartney tried to wrestle the business into control, the group imploded. McCartney though it turns out has done exactly what he proposed to the Beatles to do. Just take a look at his MPL website. Along with his great (and it is) music - not bad for a working class bloke. It's not true that Lennon was the smartest Beatle, he was the most vocal and didn't care what he said. He was very talented and had a wacky goofy looking Japanese wife. Harrison was a pretty smart guy and recorded a bunch of great music post Fabs. I think we should just stop comparring them and just - LET IT BE!
No matter how much the press tries, John Lennon wasnt that great. He was a good song writer, who had chemistry with 3 others and who had good timing. After the beatles broke up he spent the next 10 years living the life of a detached, lazy millionare, content to have yoko be a surrogate overbearing dragon ladfy mother. My birthday is Dec8th, let's talk about more important rocknroll stuff from 12/8..,, Jim Morrison's birthday... 12/8/43 Vince Neil kills hanoi Rock's drummer 12/8/85
Bush demanded war #$%^.You're the guy that never got it. Never did, never will. #$%^
also;that dude= also an idiot.you've got it figured out now go back to your basement moron; your birthday and its lame coincidential events aren't a speck on the #%$ of the world
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