A lot of people
still remember what they were doing on the night of December 8, 1980; a night
that marked modern history forever when John Lennon was assassinated. The career of the founder of the greatest
rock 'n' roll band of all times, and undisputable spokesman of the sixties,
had been shut down forever and with him a whole generation’s dreams. But the
name grew also, and the dream John Lennon and the Beatles set out to conquer
acquired mythical proportions that were closer to the truth than the myth: their accomplishments were real and stayed
with us through their music.
I was in fourth
grade when my friend Ramón came to get me for school, and his face had a somber
expression when he told me, “John Lennon was killed.” I had been introduced to Lennon’s music not
too long before by the radio’s endless playing of “(Just Like) Starting Over,”
and two or three days after his death I got to hear “Woman.”
From what I heard
the following days, John Lennon had been a big deal, because his death produced
worldwide shock. But, was the man as
good as his myth had him to be? Or, was he just overrated, living off his
Beatles past? Well, I guess we need to
know who he was as a Beatle in order to try to answer those questions.
As a band, The
Beatles' music had unarguably all the right ingredients: harmony, rhythm, and
melody; elements that they combined --all the four contributing to that-- with
such a natural grace, which gave their sound a feeling of warm and ingenious simplicity
that had John and Paul as the masterminds. And with their penchant for
experimentation they took their music to higher planes of innovation and
inventiveness.
According to
Paul, it was him who introduced John --and we believe him-- to a more sophisticated
and complex kind of music. But it was Lennon who actually took the initiative
to make a style out of it. Because, while Paul was busy putting out his catchy
tunes, John was exploring a more esoteric and experimental aspect of recording.
And it was he also who contributed with most
of the work that was paramount to the Beatles’ avant-gardish trademark in compositions
like “Tomorrow Never Knows,” “A Day in the life,” “I’m the Walrus,” and “Revolution
#9,” to name a few; because John always took things a step further to what most
of his contemporaries were doing.
After The Beatles
split John Lennon was the most “promising” of the four, since he had already
released “Instant Karma,” a single that made it all the way to number three in
the charts, which wasn’t bad at all for a song that was completed in one single
day. At the time he was more active than
the other three, not only with his own projects but also jamming around with
all kinds of people in the rock scene. Unfortunately,
his “Plastic Ono Band” --one of his best works as a soloist-- wasn’t the
commercial success he expected, mainly due to its autobiographical and
socially-conscious contents that made it the kind of material masses aren’t
dying to collect. And here resides part
of the answer.
With the “Imagine”
album he had a better idea of what he wanted, as far as making good music and money
in the process. Both, the musical and ideological contents of the record were
well-balanced; but the number-ones weren’t here yet. At this point it was
obvious that Lennon’s political stances were affecting record sales and the
concept that a lot of people had of him; especially American people, who didn’t
see it right for a foreigner to attack their institutions, even in the form of
a greatly corrupt president like Richard Nixon.
When we listen to tunes like “Jealous Guy,” “How,” and “Imagine” we
cannot help but wonder why three songs that are so well crafted and appealing
to common taste don’t reach number one. I mean, even Ringo had a number-one hit before
John.
The rest is
history. He kept making music, mainly going through the motions, because he
seemed to have lost focus as he went along, trying to prove himself he had what
it took. And yet another incidental factor was added to the equation: his
separation from Yoko, which led to emotional and artistic chaos. Part of the natural outcome of all that was the erratic production --with none other than Phil Spector-- of the disjointed and
confused music that would become his Rock ‘n’ Roll and Menlove Avenue albums; which, nevertheless, had a couple of rescuable tunes.
Another thing
that contributed to a bad rating of his work was the fact that he started overproducing
his music, stripping it of its natural candor. Two of his records of that
period, Walls and Bridges and Mind Games had Lennon’s essence hidden behind
the extra polish that he added to tracks such as “One Day at a Time,” “Bless
You,” and “Scared,” that would have been awesome works of art, otherwise. If
you listen to the Lennon anthology that contains some of the in-the-raw tunes,
recorded during band rehearsals, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Paradoxically, it
was “Whatever Gets You thru the Night,” out of Walls and Bridges that would
give him his first number-one.
Still, he affected the seventies only partially, because in 1975 he went
into seclusion --a five year hiatus to raise his newborn son Sean.
Then, in 1980 Lennon
made his big comeback with two albums: Double Fantasy, with which he closed
the seventies forever; and Milk and Honey, the one he greeted the eighties – the
most indicated for that -- with. While the
former still bears the candidness of the seventies in gems like “Watching the
Wheels” and “Woman” --with their beautiful instrumental embellishments-- the
latter has a more simple approach, characterized by the fast tempos of choppy
rhythm guitars in songs like “Nobody Told Me” and “I’m Stepping Out,” a sound
that was representative of those days.
He was ready to
start over, and he did so in a big way, as his last works prove. Sadly, the
chance of giving any more input to his times was cut short by death. But John Lennon’s musical and human legacy
lives on. And, after all, I think is safe to say that the man and the artist were as big as the
name.
Note: This article appeared originally on a now
defunct online magazine, and I wrote it on account of the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's death.
Music suggestions for
appreciation (probably on YouTube):
“Isolation”
“How”
“How Can You Sleep”
“Oh My Love”
“Gimme Some Truth”
“Intuition”
“I Know (I Know)”
“One Day at a Time” (from the Lennon Anthology)
“Steel and Glass”
“Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)” (from the Lennon
Anthology)
“Nobody Loves You When You’re Down and Out”
“I’m losing You”
“Now and Then”
“Grow Old with Me” (Glenn Campbell’s cover)
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