On John Lennon
Jul. 29th, 2015 02:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grimrose_eilwynnI've been listening to The Beatles for really all my life.
My Mom and Dad had a Beatles CD around the house growing up. I always liked listening to my parents' music because I wasn't supposed to, and I guess they figured I could do worse than listening to The Beatles. I remember listening to Hey Jude and looking at the "Best Of" cover art. It was all psychedelic and it showed the band members as orange outlines, so for a long time I didn't know what they looked like. Just what they sounded like.
Then I saw a documentary about them on TV. I felt an immediate connection to them, especially to John Lennon, and I started looking them up, researching them and their lives. From there, I really got into their music, both together and as solo artists. I've been hooked ever since -- they're one of my favorite bands.
I'm not really sure what it is about The Beatles for me. I think part of it is that they're very real people -- they, and especially John, have never been shy in talking about their lives or their flaws. I think it helps when we get to see celebrities as real people. That can be very attractive to the ordinary viewer.
John is my favorite, in case you haven't been able to tell.
John was a complicated man. He had moments where he was a horrible person (for example, that time he slapped his first wife Cynthia, or the fights he got into, or his problems with addiction), and moments where you thought he was one of the best people in the entire world. My favorite clip is of him coming out to talk to an old homeless man who's been stalking him. John was very blunt with the man -- he told him he felt no special connection to him, wasn't singing to him in particular, and didn't know him.
Then he invited the man into the house to have dinner with him, just because he looked like he needed a meal.
John had his flaws, but in the end I'd like to think he proved himself as a good person. He was intelligent, opinionated, good with words, and he knew how to sway people over to his side. This made him an incredible asset to whatever cause he happened to take on, notably the pacifist movement.
And don't get me wrong, I'm not some mindless worshipper, I have mixed feelings about the pacifist movement. I'm instinctively attracted to the idea of a peaceful world, and try to be peaceful myself, but I think any country has the right to military defend itself against attackers. I also think that because he was so attracted to the underdog and the person with the bad story, John (and Yoko) sometimes supported people they shouldn't have supported. I have issues with the world in Imagine, which feels the need to erase all belief systems and personal boundaries in order to create a peaceful world.
But there's one thing you can't deny, and it's that at heart John's world was one of love and of peace. He wrote some of the best love songs I've ever heard ("Love", "Real Love", "Woman", "Oh My Love") and he wrote some of the best songs about peace I've ever heard. My favorites are "Happy Xmas War is Over" ("for black and for white, for yellow and red ones, let's stop all the fight", "war is over, if you want it") and Revolution ("but if you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out"). One of my favorite things about John is that he refused to become an extremist despite his political leanings, and he was incredibly inclusive in a time when that wasn't common.
He also wasn't afraid to say what he was really thinking. Even when that got him in trouble. And coming as I do from a 21st century world where anyone will say anything to get you to like them, I find that to be an incredibly invaluable trait. However you felt about John's opinions, you at least always knew where he stood. His honesty was sometimes cruel, but he was unafraid of braving other people's opinions. If he had been afraid of what other people think, he wouldn't have married Yoko, the woman he really loved. In this, John was an incredibly brave person.
He was his own person in his art, too. John did some things that were unusual and controversial for his time period -- for example, "Revolution #9" and "Cold Turkey." He was at heart an innovator, and I think he appreciated the same in other people. He loved excitement and novelty, and I think this is part of what attracted him to New York.
He was his own person, and he genuinely tried to be a good person. Most importantly, he regretted it openly when he did bad things -- he regretted hitting Cynthia, he regretted being so unfeminist in his early life, he admitted he liked himself better when he wasn't violent, and he once said that though he wouldn't tell anyone what they should do with their lives, he didn't think drugs had benefited him. He even talked at different points about his struggles with depression. He was open, honest, vulnerable, courageous, reformist, innovative, and he wrote some great things for love and for peace. His memory inspires me as well as other people to be the same.
He lives on in the public mind and imagination. His tragic death just heightened that. And I'd like to believe his soul is still out there somewhere, living a new life, still showing the peace and love and intelligence that was always a part of him.
So, since today has been dubbed John Lennon Day, I thought I'd type out my little tribute to him.
My Mom and Dad had a Beatles CD around the house growing up. I always liked listening to my parents' music because I wasn't supposed to, and I guess they figured I could do worse than listening to The Beatles. I remember listening to Hey Jude and looking at the "Best Of" cover art. It was all psychedelic and it showed the band members as orange outlines, so for a long time I didn't know what they looked like. Just what they sounded like.
Then I saw a documentary about them on TV. I felt an immediate connection to them, especially to John Lennon, and I started looking them up, researching them and their lives. From there, I really got into their music, both together and as solo artists. I've been hooked ever since -- they're one of my favorite bands.
I'm not really sure what it is about The Beatles for me. I think part of it is that they're very real people -- they, and especially John, have never been shy in talking about their lives or their flaws. I think it helps when we get to see celebrities as real people. That can be very attractive to the ordinary viewer.
John is my favorite, in case you haven't been able to tell.
John was a complicated man. He had moments where he was a horrible person (for example, that time he slapped his first wife Cynthia, or the fights he got into, or his problems with addiction), and moments where you thought he was one of the best people in the entire world. My favorite clip is of him coming out to talk to an old homeless man who's been stalking him. John was very blunt with the man -- he told him he felt no special connection to him, wasn't singing to him in particular, and didn't know him.
Then he invited the man into the house to have dinner with him, just because he looked like he needed a meal.
John had his flaws, but in the end I'd like to think he proved himself as a good person. He was intelligent, opinionated, good with words, and he knew how to sway people over to his side. This made him an incredible asset to whatever cause he happened to take on, notably the pacifist movement.
And don't get me wrong, I'm not some mindless worshipper, I have mixed feelings about the pacifist movement. I'm instinctively attracted to the idea of a peaceful world, and try to be peaceful myself, but I think any country has the right to military defend itself against attackers. I also think that because he was so attracted to the underdog and the person with the bad story, John (and Yoko) sometimes supported people they shouldn't have supported. I have issues with the world in Imagine, which feels the need to erase all belief systems and personal boundaries in order to create a peaceful world.
But there's one thing you can't deny, and it's that at heart John's world was one of love and of peace. He wrote some of the best love songs I've ever heard ("Love", "Real Love", "Woman", "Oh My Love") and he wrote some of the best songs about peace I've ever heard. My favorites are "Happy Xmas War is Over" ("for black and for white, for yellow and red ones, let's stop all the fight", "war is over, if you want it") and Revolution ("but if you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out"). One of my favorite things about John is that he refused to become an extremist despite his political leanings, and he was incredibly inclusive in a time when that wasn't common.
He also wasn't afraid to say what he was really thinking. Even when that got him in trouble. And coming as I do from a 21st century world where anyone will say anything to get you to like them, I find that to be an incredibly invaluable trait. However you felt about John's opinions, you at least always knew where he stood. His honesty was sometimes cruel, but he was unafraid of braving other people's opinions. If he had been afraid of what other people think, he wouldn't have married Yoko, the woman he really loved. In this, John was an incredibly brave person.
He was his own person in his art, too. John did some things that were unusual and controversial for his time period -- for example, "Revolution #9" and "Cold Turkey." He was at heart an innovator, and I think he appreciated the same in other people. He loved excitement and novelty, and I think this is part of what attracted him to New York.
He was his own person, and he genuinely tried to be a good person. Most importantly, he regretted it openly when he did bad things -- he regretted hitting Cynthia, he regretted being so unfeminist in his early life, he admitted he liked himself better when he wasn't violent, and he once said that though he wouldn't tell anyone what they should do with their lives, he didn't think drugs had benefited him. He even talked at different points about his struggles with depression. He was open, honest, vulnerable, courageous, reformist, innovative, and he wrote some great things for love and for peace. His memory inspires me as well as other people to be the same.
He lives on in the public mind and imagination. His tragic death just heightened that. And I'd like to believe his soul is still out there somewhere, living a new life, still showing the peace and love and intelligence that was always a part of him.
So, since today has been dubbed John Lennon Day, I thought I'd type out my little tribute to him.
