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| "My best contributions to the Beatles are in the White Album" |
"I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people".
One of my favorite quotes of John Winston Ono Lennon, the genius, the one, the musician, the artist with a capital "A". Different blogs and websites throughout the world and have already their two cents to celebrate the life of someone who, along with his bandmates actually helped transform the face of Western civilization, for better or worse. Just because his life was practically under a microscope since the Beatles went there, saw and conquered; so making a nother biography or assessment of Lennon is a futile effort ... but irresistible for beatlemaniacs.
That "weird" feeling in the midst of so many people did not fail to accompany him his entire life. During the famous five-year hiatus in which officially was dedicated to be a "househusband", much of that time actually was used by sleeping 16 hours a day, smoking pot and masturbating while fantasizing being intimate with famous movie stars . How could do I know this? First, I am a beatlemaniac and I want to conquer the world, too. Second, Lennon left huge amounts of things said and written by him that everyone he contacted tried to save or sell for posterity (even his instructions to prepare his orange juice in his apartment of the Dakota building were preserved and sold to collectors).
The interesting thing about this unnecessary element of knowledge, it that it sheds light on how heavy it was for John Lennon to carry the weight of the Beatles for a long time: John, while he was at the height of Beatlemania was said to sleep with no less than 300 women, but at the time he was living with Yoko in New York, he felt like he did not want to leave the shell of his apartment and try to get the woman he wanted (it was almost certainly that she would not say no to him). But it was better for him to stay at home than go out and have to deal with people recognizing him on the street, and people not recognizing him, asking him, not about his solo career but about when The Beatles were going to be reunited, and maybe in one of these walks he should suddenly recognize that no matter what he did, none of that would surpass his work with Paul, George and Ringo.
A career with many ups and downs, whatever you may say: Unfinished music: Two Virgins is only essential for knowing where his head and Yoko's were placed at the time; for each "Jealous Guy" there are too many "Scumbag." I can not speculate why the sound of his voice in almost all of his solo work is buried in echo, just to suddenly discover at the (unexpected) end of his career (and life) that things worked better like in (Just Like) Starting Over, or why Lennon's number one single in America when he was alive, "Whatever Gets You Through the Night", hardly sounds like Lennon. Here comes what became commonplace: that no matter how much he believed he needed Yoko, he needed as much or even more McCartney, who used to take the best out of him.
"Coming Up", the revolutionary song (and video) from McCartney II, was recognized by the same John as main drive he needed to make music again after five years. That's because after the breakup of the Beatles, John was left without a real musical rival and friend (Yoko, nothing against you. You were not a mind control divice of the FBI's MK-Ultra program to derail John and the Beatles, or stuff). Elton John and David Bowie could be seen as friends and partners by John Lennon, but they never would be considered as equals by John Q. Public (even Yoko tried it and failed). The Beatles break-up was as it should have been: bombastic, exaggerated, controversial and irreversible, so that they could not easily meet (it was a nice touch when they included the first reality show "Destroy the band", aka Let It Be), but the price to pay by John was too much. I can not blame him for trying anyway.
However, after the break-up, his attention (and money) was still bitterly contested. John later regretted having let himself being wrapped in the affairs of Abbie Hoffman and other radicals, that would cost him direct harassment from J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, which left him permanently marked, and adding the additional pain of having lost track of his stepdaughter, Kyoko Chan Cox. Meanwhile, Yoko invested her efforts in making John's fortune grow and being the other half of the JohnandYoko artistic partnership. In an interview they were attacked for this: How big should grow Lennon's fortune and why they didn't start giving away their money? Poor John had fallen into his trap of "imagine no possessions." After a tug of war with the interviewer, he acknowledged that apart from the paid taxes, he and his wife used to tithe.
"Life is what happens to you while making other plans"
Another of my favorite quotes. Any self-imposed lifestyle after the Beatles would have been perceived as unreal as the others, and perhaps he did not know that he already had everything he needed to be happy. But it has never been nor will be easy to be the king. Imagine a talented proto-punk, sharp, irreverent, rude, sneering, foul-mouthed and aggressive in the early 60's, determined to be bigger than Elvis, and instead achieves more success than any other artist even dream. Anyone could be confused, even a genius like John.
But he also had and has the affection of the people. Happy Birthday, John.
One of my favorite quotes of John Winston Ono Lennon, the genius, the one, the musician, the artist with a capital "A". Different blogs and websites throughout the world and have already their two cents to celebrate the life of someone who, along with his bandmates actually helped transform the face of Western civilization, for better or worse. Just because his life was practically under a microscope since the Beatles went there, saw and conquered; so making a nother biography or assessment of Lennon is a futile effort ... but irresistible for beatlemaniacs.
That "weird" feeling in the midst of so many people did not fail to accompany him his entire life. During the famous five-year hiatus in which officially was dedicated to be a "househusband", much of that time actually was used by sleeping 16 hours a day, smoking pot and masturbating while fantasizing being intimate with famous movie stars . How could do I know this? First, I am a beatlemaniac and I want to conquer the world, too. Second, Lennon left huge amounts of things said and written by him that everyone he contacted tried to save or sell for posterity (even his instructions to prepare his orange juice in his apartment of the Dakota building were preserved and sold to collectors).
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| Dig a Rooftop |
The interesting thing about this unnecessary element of knowledge, it that it sheds light on how heavy it was for John Lennon to carry the weight of the Beatles for a long time: John, while he was at the height of Beatlemania was said to sleep with no less than 300 women, but at the time he was living with Yoko in New York, he felt like he did not want to leave the shell of his apartment and try to get the woman he wanted (it was almost certainly that she would not say no to him). But it was better for him to stay at home than go out and have to deal with people recognizing him on the street, and people not recognizing him, asking him, not about his solo career but about when The Beatles were going to be reunited, and maybe in one of these walks he should suddenly recognize that no matter what he did, none of that would surpass his work with Paul, George and Ringo.
A career with many ups and downs, whatever you may say: Unfinished music: Two Virgins is only essential for knowing where his head and Yoko's were placed at the time; for each "Jealous Guy" there are too many "Scumbag." I can not speculate why the sound of his voice in almost all of his solo work is buried in echo, just to suddenly discover at the (unexpected) end of his career (and life) that things worked better like in (Just Like) Starting Over, or why Lennon's number one single in America when he was alive, "Whatever Gets You Through the Night", hardly sounds like Lennon. Here comes what became commonplace: that no matter how much he believed he needed Yoko, he needed as much or even more McCartney, who used to take the best out of him.
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| "No matter what they say..." |
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| "... this is my Fat Elvis period" |
"Coming Up", the revolutionary song (and video) from McCartney II, was recognized by the same John as main drive he needed to make music again after five years. That's because after the breakup of the Beatles, John was left without a real musical rival and friend (Yoko, nothing against you. You were not a mind control divice of the FBI's MK-Ultra program to derail John and the Beatles, or stuff). Elton John and David Bowie could be seen as friends and partners by John Lennon, but they never would be considered as equals by John Q. Public (even Yoko tried it and failed). The Beatles break-up was as it should have been: bombastic, exaggerated, controversial and irreversible, so that they could not easily meet (it was a nice touch when they included the first reality show "Destroy the band", aka Let It Be), but the price to pay by John was too much. I can not blame him for trying anyway.
However, after the break-up, his attention (and money) was still bitterly contested. John later regretted having let himself being wrapped in the affairs of Abbie Hoffman and other radicals, that would cost him direct harassment from J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, which left him permanently marked, and adding the additional pain of having lost track of his stepdaughter, Kyoko Chan Cox. Meanwhile, Yoko invested her efforts in making John's fortune grow and being the other half of the JohnandYoko artistic partnership. In an interview they were attacked for this: How big should grow Lennon's fortune and why they didn't start giving away their money? Poor John had fallen into his trap of "imagine no possessions." After a tug of war with the interviewer, he acknowledged that apart from the paid taxes, he and his wife used to tithe.
"Life is what happens to you while making other plans"
Another of my favorite quotes. Any self-imposed lifestyle after the Beatles would have been perceived as unreal as the others, and perhaps he did not know that he already had everything he needed to be happy. But it has never been nor will be easy to be the king. Imagine a talented proto-punk, sharp, irreverent, rude, sneering, foul-mouthed and aggressive in the early 60's, determined to be bigger than Elvis, and instead achieves more success than any other artist even dream. Anyone could be confused, even a genius like John.
But he also had and has the affection of the people. Happy Birthday, John.
