John Lennon: 1940-1980–Thirty Years Later

This is another John Lennon tribute post; a kind of sequel to the one I did to commemorate what would’ve been his 70th Birthday. Click the link for my favourite song, “Working Class Hero” and a rare accoustic version of “Imagine”.

I was listening to folks talk at work, in and around town as well as on the radio, all remembering where they were when they first heard the news about Mark David Chapman shooting John Lennon. I mentioned in my previous post that I was on the school bus, on my way to my high school the following morning.  As I’ve mentioned, it seemed that I was always either in a car, school bus or some other mode of transport whenever I would get news of an idol dying from the radio.  I heard about Led Zeppelin’s drummer, John Bonham’s death same way, on my school bus, from the driver’s radio.

Another of my favourite songs from John Lennon’s solo career was “God” from The Plastic Ono band in 1970. The first time I heard it during my youth, listening to him sing that laundry list of people, things and entities he didn’t believe in, I thought, how cool! He didn’t believe in anything; an angry song.

However, as I got older, I started interpreting the song differently.  Perhaps Lennon grew disillusioned with everything he believed in the sixties and prior to that.  It certainly would’ve made sense, given the timing of the release of the song; shortly after The Beatles broke up.  There are other interpretations I’ve read such as John’s way of putting his past behind him and beginning his new life without The Beatles and everything that went with it. Particularly, near the end, where he says, “I was the walrus but now I’m John And so Dear friends, you’ll just have to carry on…”, he not only seems to tell us that he’s shelving his past and moving on, but asks us, his fans to move forward with him.

Naturally,  in family values US of A, the song was indeed considered controversial due to the religious themes or lack thereof, depending how you look at it.

“Instant Karma” was also released in 1970, where Lennon reunites with the other Beatle who had talent: George Harrison who plays electric guitar and Billy Preston also makes an appearance, playing piano. It is also said to be one of the fastest rleleased pop songs in history. From the day Lennon wrote it, the single was released just ten days later. Imagine that, all that before the days of all that technology; a time before laptops could synthesize all the instruments; a time where musicians actually had to know how to play their instruments.

Sometimes I still find myself wondering what Lennon would have been doing the past thirty years had he lived. What would he be like as a septuagenarian?