John Lennon

[bgalbraith]

R.I.P.

Instant Karma:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqP3wT5lpa4

[joplinpicasso]

Been heavily getting into his post-Beatles career after seeing his artwork on display in SoHo. Great gems throughout.

And that Double Fantasy Stripped Down is superior IMO.

[onthewall2983]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmR0V6s3NKk

[con4cyn]

Listening to the Primal Scream album right now. LOVE this whole album.

[allegro]

Love Plastic Ono Band and all the Beatles stuff.

Beatles, woo.

[botley]

He wasn't kidding around with singing "the dream is over"... thankfully found his own way into sanity with the POB and then continued making music but I think his personality changed permanently soon after this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FxX5JHvAiM

[Highly Psychological]

I love everything he did with the Beatles. His solo stuff up to about 1972 has moments of greatness. However nothing compared to the material from 1966-67 with those other guys when he was the coolest king on earth. I do love some of his solo stuff Imagine and the Plastic Ono Band material though. **

However after about 1968 its just HIM as a person I cant stand. I hate who he turned into. A regular jack the lad from Liverpool meets pretentious odd Yoko Ono and turns into this weird nutjob, cold deluded hippy. He went too far up his own butt crack.

When I think of John Lennon being amazing its an image of him from the mid 60's that comes to my mind.

*

[allegro]

Yeah a lot of that comes across in "Imagine: John Lennon." Some of him now appears to have been carefully scripted (by him). He also wasn't always the nicest guy.

[botley]

He also wasn't always the nicest guy.
QFT. His behaviour towards his first wife and son after '66 was particularly cruel. Cynthia Lennon's latest memoir John (which is a great read, by the way) tries to be balanced and sympathetic about it but you can tell he hurt them pretty badly.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwfZXxRe9eQ

[con4cyn]

I hope you guys have read The Lives of John Lennon. It was very eye opening in the beginning of my teenage fandom whether it was true or not. I appreciated that he was not a perfect person, and not a godlike figure to admire. He was never a nice guy, really. Even when he was a young punk. He never believed those love songs he wrote. He was just feeding the fame machine. He hated those suits (in A Hard Day's Night you'll notice him losing up his tie a lot). He was just another asshole with a fucked up past like a lot of people. That being said, those qualities were the reason we know and still talk about him today.

[onthewall2983]

In a sense it's what has made his death even more of a tragedy because it seemed that he was finally becoming at peace with himself, and the past. I'm reading the book You Never Gave Me Your Money and in it said somewhere that John had signed a contract that meant he agreed to film a documentary about the Beatles, with the other members taking part.

[botley]

I hope you guys have read The Lives of John Lennon. It was very eye opening in the beginning of my teenage fandom whether it was true or not.
Haven't read it, no, but I've seen summaries online that led me to believe the book's a systematic hack job on many levels. I can almost understand the motivation for this, given all the deification and myth-making to which his life was subjected, but that's no excuse to just make shit up about Lennon (soliciting Thai boy prostitutes and murdering sailors?!? WTF). You need a balanced account, not just one focusing on either the positive or the negative aspects of a person. Apparently some credit is doled out in that book for creative genius in the Beatles but of course that's bloody obvious:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGrHEUvgt30

[con4cyn]

Well, of course, I've read other books. I just appreciate it as a way to keep me from worshiping the guy.

[botley]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDwd_fKmVec