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Sunday, December 08, 2013

Today We Remember John Lennon

Today we remember John Lennon on the anniversary of his death. John Lennon's music was part of the background music of my life when I was young. The Beatles' lives and careers paralleled what was happening to baby boomers like me across the country and John was the smart articulate one.
"The Beatles were simply the biggest thing in the world, short of nuclear fear. They represented a sea change -- in music, in culture, in democracy itself. They weren't always comfortable with having that effect. 'People said the Beatles were the movement,' Lennon later said, 'but we were only part of the movement. We were influenced as much as we influenced.' True, but the Beatles were a key part of that movement. They represented youthful hope, and they represented the new social power that rock & roll might achieve -- a power not only to upset but to transform. The world was changing -- or at least it felt that way -- and the Beatles served as emblems of that change." ~ Mikal Gilmore, Music journalist writing in Rolling Stone
To many of us, John Lennon's death felt like a personal loss. Why? Henry Marchand, Assistant Professor of English at Cedar Crest College, answers this question so well:
" Why? Because John Lennon mattered. He was smart and he was funny and he was arrogant and he was a man who loved what he loved and who hated what he hated with utter clarity and no apology at all. He would have been an important voice in the Reagan eighties, and if he was with us today...it's hard to envision him quietly suffering..."
"Give Peace a chance"...we remember the man who wrote the words, and who wrote  "Happy Christmas/War is Over." We remember how it felt when he died. Now 30+ years after his death, his music and message endure. Lennon's iconic "Imagine" became the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed album of his solo career and was one of the 100 most-performed songs of the 20th century. "

Imagine - John Lennon (Original video with lyrics included)




Imagine John Lennon
Imagine CD
"The song ranked number 30 on the Recording Industry Association of America's list of the 365 Songs of the Century bearing the most historical significance."  
  "It earned a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll."  "Rolling Stone ranked it number 3 in their list of  'The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time'...Emeli Sandé recorded a cover for the BBC to use during the end credits montage at the close of the 2012 Summer Olympics coverage in August 2012." 
"I hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one imagine freedom." ~ John Lennon     

Read more about "Imagine" on Wikipedia Click Here       


John Lennon
John Lennon
In The Cynical Idealist: A Spiritual Biography of John Lennon the author and artist Gary Tillery credits Lennon with making significant contributions to many modern spiritual movements.   
The reviewer writes "Cynical Idealist reveals, for the first time, the spiritual odyssey of this extraordinary man. Out of a turbulent life, from his troubled, working-class childhood throughout his many roles — Beatle, peace advocate, social activist, househusband — Lennon managed to fashion a philosophy that elevates the human spirit and encourages people to work, individually and collectively, toward a better world." 
"Imagine all the people/Living life in peace" 
Check out Remembering John Lennon 
Visit the Imagine Peace Tower site. Click here 

Edited 5/1/17

1 comment:

crosscreations said...

THIS is a wonderful remembrance and respect paid to the one and only, John Lennon.