Entertainment For Lively Minds
John Lennon At 70
Imagine a world without John Lennon. Pretty difficult isn't it ?
If he had not been so senselessly murdered nearly thirty years ago, there is a real chance he would have been alive and well today to herald in his 70th birthday on 9th October.
How would he have marked the occasion? In truth, nobody can really answer that most hypothetical of questions. The past is a foreign country, as someone once wrote, and to gauge what he would do today in a world that has changed and advanced to a technological level undreamed of in 1980 is anyone's guess.
Many recently in the media have said that he would be a prominent and vocal figure in leading the protest against the war in Afghanistan. Perhaps today he and Yoko would have been holding a dazzling, multimedia event, a 21st century equivalent of the bed-in campaign for peace, to direct attention towards such a noble cause. For in a world that changes so rapidly the one constant is war. The names of the countries may change, the motives may be numerous, but at any one time we are living in a world where atrocities are being allowed to happen.
Maybe he would have shunned the spotlight, and disappeared back into another period of house-husbandry, and bought that cottage on a small island off the coast of Ireland and lived a simple and quiet existence. Perhaps he and Paul McCartney would have made up and continued their songwriting and musical partnership, resuming their rivalries into their most senior years with their sixties contemporaries The Rolling Stones.
Or maybe he would be the surprise guest on the first live show of The X Factor on ITV, coaching the 12 hopefuls on their first tentative steps into the limelight, reminiscing with Dermot O'Leary how different it was in his formative musical years in the Cavern, before bringing the house down with an emotional medley of Strawberry Fields, Imagine, and The Times We Forgot We Had.
I can hear you saying 'I've heard of the first couple of songs, but not that last one.' And you are right. That song was never sung by John Lennon. To my knowledge it doesn't even exist. But I put it there to stand for every new John Lennon song we have been deprived of for the last thirty years. That is what I will think of today. How different things could have been had he still been with us today.
Happy birthday John.
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Alternative History
There's a school of thought that suggests The Beatles might not be held in quite the level of esteem they are now if John was still alive. I reckon if he hadn't died in 1980 they would have certainly played Live Aid. And probably made some cheesy records produced by Jeff Lynne.
I've always been of the opinion...
...that if, say, Mick Jagger had been murdered instead of John Lennon (and subsequently the Stones' catalogue had stopped in 1980 while that of the Fabs might have consequently sullied by Jeff Lynne-produced atrocities), then today the Stones would be held in much higher regard than the Beatles.
EDIT: That isn't to say I don't like the Beatles, I do - I bought the mono boxset and everything...
Don't really agree
They'd already been split up ten years and the reputation was sealed - even the patchy, sometimes poor solo careers didn't change that. A reunion would have most likely been a bit of a let down but it wouldn't have been looked on as really quite the same band anyway after a long gap.
I don't really see The Stones as having spoiled their name in any case. I don't get the idea that a great record is any less of a record because of what happens after. They had their classic albums then they declined - I think their best records are still rated as some of the finest made as they should be. It's like how your life is - you think of your younger self almost as a different person, gone forever.
Sorry,but
the idea that if he hadn't died, he would still be alive made me laugh out loud.
The Beatles were genius. Solo LPs not so genius. And he's dead. End of.
Grumpy
Oh, don't I sound grumpy? Not really intentional, but perhaps my Lennon patience has worn rather thin over the last week.
Sorry for the terseness, anyways.
If he was alive
I'll bet all the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets that it wouldn't be anything like this.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/09/john-lennon-at-70-201...
Yeesh!
You're on...
- apart from the cows.
I think if he hadn't died, it'd be 'I wonder what happened to...'
Double Fantasy
Anyone remember the critical trashing that got when it came out? Of course, he was murdered a few weeks later, everyone felt bad about trashing the LP, and it went to number one...
I suspect that had he lived, he probably would have had a patchy solo career, and yes some dreadful Beatles reunion would no doubt have occurred..
Happy Birthday John
On 7th December 1980 the biggest act in the history of popular music was 'The Beatles' and Lennon's death couldn't leap-frog them or him over anyone 'cos they were already the biggest!
The idea that Mark Chapman's action has made the Beatles' or Lennon's legacy bigger is way off the mark and grants that nutter greater credibility if one thinks it did.
As I don't think post-60s recorded music is that important anyway I think pondering what a 1993 Lennon album would sound like (a cross between Neil Young and Paul McCartney at a guess) is a red herring, but you'd hope that the man might have been a thorn in the side of Reagan, Bush, Blair and Thatcher had he been allowed to be.
Ranger
Spot on! Only disagreement would be wot Lennon would have sounded like today. Certainly not Macca I would say, probably more edgy and rocky and experimently, and certainly more political. He would have been at Live Aid (with Ringo, Clapton and Voorman -wrong spelling, sorry). And Yoko.And yes, he would have been right into the Evil Axis that was Blair/Bush.
Nah, he'd have gone Tory
Been a tax exile and be jamming with Phil Collins.
Paul
Have an up my friend. That post brought a wee tear to my eye. Indeed, what songs will we never hear because of John's death? I have thought about that many time over the years with artists who died prematurely. In particular, Eddie Cochrane. In his short life he wrote some killer songs, so what gems were we denied when he died? We will never know. Also Al Wilson, Tim Buckley and Jimbo Morrison. What a waste! Ignore the naysayers... they know nothing.
Not Convinced.
I remember Double Fantasy being reviewed in the NME, and if I recall it correctly the gist was it was alright, if you liked listening to songs about domestic bliss. Either way, it didn't make reveiwing the album particularly easy.
Who knows what would have happened, although I do share concerns about Jeff Lynne produced rubbish. A noughties Rick Rubin produced stripped down effort may well have turned out to be something to write home about, though.
Here's the major caveat, though: I also remember Whispering Bob interviewing Lennon for OGWT in New York. He asked Lennon the million-dollar question. Lennon's response was telling: Ah, he said, will they or won't they.. to which Bob asked, well, would it be a good idea. Lennon saw this as being the nub, adding that all the ex-Beatles had their own careers and their own niches, and he saw no reason to interrupt.
I checked Youtube but it's not on there, unfortunately.