http://www.steynonline.com/index2.cfm?edit_id=68

He had some catchy songs, all right.

Still, of all the things that make me grateful for the Internet, one of the very best was discovering the vast horde of people who despise "Imagine."

Great. Pearl Harbor day barely rates a mention, but John Lennon gets to be the prestigious noon time post?

Not that I'm questioning your patriotism or anything, but are you sure your not canadian?

Howard:

I did a big post on Pearl. I just took a while to do it.

"Imagine" = The Communist maifesto for the 20th Century.

BTW: Did Yoko give away all of John's posessions??

I was never a John Lennon fan, but you get mad props for a morbidly funny headline.

In other news, six months ago Paul McCartney turned sixty-four.

Oh, and for MCPO Airdale I should quote "The Other Side of Summer" by Elvis Costello:

Wasn't it a billionaire who sang "Imagine no possessions"?...

I like John Lennon just fine. It's John Lennon's fans who are such insufferable twats.

Ya know what? Didn't care for him them, care less now.

A 'socialist' who moves to the USA, the side benefit of which being lower taxes. Oh yeah, real deep guy.

Well, the sheep need a hymnal, and Lennon provided.

Well, I certainly remember where I was when I heard the news: watching Monday Night Football, talking to a friend of mine on the phone, and then reading the news on one of those bottom-of-the-screen crawlers. Not that I cared that much, actually. People thought he was "deep", I thought he was just silly.

I remember this dumbass I was in school with sobbing that we lived in the worse of times: JFK, RFK, and now John Lennon! boo hoo hoo. I pointed out to her that our parents and grandparents had it tougher with the depression and WW fkn 2. Idiot.

I remember hearing about Lennon's murder. I was in college and knew a guy named John Lennon. SOmeone came into my room and said, "John Lennon was shot." My first thought was, "Why would someone shoot John?" It took a little while for me to realize that it was some other guy named John Lennon.

Allow me to quote myself:

The world wouldn't have changed if Lennon had lived. At the best, we'd have one more excellent musician mouthing off about politics and war and other things he knows next to nothing about.

That's the best-case scenario. Because people seem to forget that he was married to Yoko. The genius that was John Lennon would at this stage in life would have spent the last twenty-five years making an ass out of himself, making Michael Jackson look positively sane and suing Paul McCartney.

Imagine that.

"Imagine" is total crap.

The best version I heard of it (okay, not the best - but certainly the most amusing) was by a guy who used to hang around the UMaine campus with his guitar. His message was that John Lennon was shot by Stephen King and the CIA conspired to cover it up. No joke.

His van was covered with pictures of both men and he'd sing versions of Beatles and Lennon songs, all having to do with Stephen King's crime. His version of "Imagine" had to do with Stephen King finally paying his debt to society.

The guy was a nut, but an entertaining one.

Sure, it's fun and easy to slag Lennon for his loopy-left politics.

And especially for Yoko's influence.

But can you honestly say that you don't think having all 4 Beatles reunite (if only for the Anthology Project) wouldn't have been pretty cool, even as a one shot deal?

Hell, I'd have been willing to accept 25 years of crappy albums for a living Lennon doing vocals on "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love".

Minor correction: Sir Paul won't turn 64 until mid-June.

Sunday morning go for a drive.

Cordially...

It was the person with the gun not the gun itself that murdered JOHN LENNON and these persons calling for more gun control should quit acting like idiots

My bad, Rick. I misread the year. Somewhere, my sub-par intuitive math skills are making Chris Matthews cry...

Sometimes, I like to sit back and imagine I never heard that fucking song.

The best version I heard of it (okay, not the best - but certainly the most amusing) was by a guy who used to hang around the UMaine campus with his guitar. His message was that John Lennon was shot by Stephen King and the CIA conspired to cover it up. No joke.

Oh, *that* guy. Last I heard, he lives in SF (shocking I know). King has all sorts of restraining orders against him and rightfully so. He use to call all the talk radio shows but I haven't heard him in a few years. The paper did a big story on him a few years back. He comes from a fairly well to do family, and is deceptively sane looking.

Anyway, during OJ Days, he was arrested for doing something outside OJ's house – I forgot what exactly but he was charged with resisting. I was sent to court to handle his case which was a court trial. Of course, nobody bothered to tell me he was crazy as a loon. And like most crazy people, he can only maintain a veneer of sanity for so long. By the end of the trial he wound up upside down, screaming, pinned to the wall by a couple of deputies and that was that.

I wondered what happened to that guy. He disappeared after awhile. Thanks for the update.

Imagine was really a cry for help. It is an acronym - I married a goddam imbecile need execution. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your personal point of view), the nutball who shot Lennon thought he was talking about himself, not Yoko. On second thought, maybe Lennon was talking about himself.

I wondered what happened to that guy. He disappeared after awhile. Thanks for the update.

I heard he started a blog called ... The Daily Mos ... er no .... Gos .....

KOS! The Daily Kos ....

http://www.lennonmurdertruth.com/about.asp

Everybody has a website these days. Reading his "about the author" he doesn't seem to be doing very well, psychologically speaking.

The Beatles were tools, the boy bands of their day: pop tarts sorely lacking in originality.

Think about it. The throngs of screaming teenage girls, bouncing from one crazy assed religion to the next, making self-indulgent movies.

There were real bands playing real music back then, but the Beatles most certainly were not one of them. They were just dumb-ass pop stars, years behind the creativity curve led by their less commercially successful peers.

I was just listening to Michael Medved do his first hour on Lennon. And I'm trying to think what is the one word that comes to mind when I sum up the art of the '60's -

Impotent

It's musings and wishings and delirium ad infinitum, but there just seems to be very little touch with reality. It is idealism arrived at not by any real preference, but by surrendering reason, logic, and philosophy to quasi-intellectual nihilism.

Interviewer: What was this [song|painting|essay|novel] about?

Artist(e): It's an attempt to make people realize that [world peace|free sex|marxism|communism|socialism|*ism] is our only real option as a society, and that we have to come together and agree on that before we can agree on anything else.

When I think of John Lennon, I think of when he was running around wearing sanitary napkins on his head in clubs.

Hmm, of course, now a days, it would have to be a Mooncup.

pop tarts sorely lacking in originality

I don't disagree. I was never much of a Beatles fan, or really a fan of the component musicians. Sure there were moments of brilliance, but never anything that dragged me in.

But there are also a lot of people who were there who would argue heatedly.

I guess looking back, and not having been there at the inception, it all seems really lame. And I mean all of it - the early, screaming girls stuff to the later, drug induced stuff. Boring. Done better by someone else. And so on.

"His message was that John Lennon was shot by Stephen King and the CIA conspired to cover it up. No joke."

I think I've encountered this guy on the Berkeley campus a time or two. Not recently, though.

*

A poor old little schoolboy who said "We don't need no lessons ..."

John Lennon's mediocre derivative music is timeless. The man has become one with the MUZAK and thus, immortal.

As we type, Lightfoot is parading up an down Van Ness near O'Farrell until 6 p.m.

Yeah, the Beatles were "pop tarts sorely lacking in originality".

Sure they were.

That's why "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" is often cited as the Most Influential Album of all time. And when it isnt, their "Revolver" album often is.

And that's why they still sell millions of albums over 40 years since they first appeared, and over 30 years since they broke up.

Certainly that is indicative of a lack of talent, substance or creativity. After all, we all know pop tart boy bands have that kind of staying power, don't we?

Unless you were around during those times, I don't think people understand the influence they had. I'm not big on Sgt Pepper but I agree about Revolver.

I remember it was a very quiet day. I liked the Beatles and John's music. I preferred Harrison whom I feel is the most underrated of the group. I also feel bad for Julian as Yoko has kept the true hier of Lennon down. shaun got his talent form hos mothers side which is to say he ain't got much. I'm conservative which does not mean I don't appreciate art and good music and ideas. Peace even when appropriate.

Thanks for weighing in, Jack. I was there when it started. I remember when all us adolescent kids would gather in a garage, use rakes as guitars, put on a Beatles record and pretend to put on a show.

But the Beatles were not the Backstreet Boys. As I matured, so did they. This unlikely combination of working class kids evolved into something truly unique. It's just facile posing to deny their genius.

Spare me the Lennon homages. Particularly during the Yoko years, the guy was a complete A-hole.

As a very recent (and very young) Soviet emigré at the time, I had no idea who the hell he was.

"What? Something about Lenin?"

It's just facile posing to deny their genius.

Facile.

Posing.

Is that like philosophical voguing?

Seriously, if it makes you feel any better, I think that Elvis Presley sucks too.

It was,nt the gun that did it it was the person who pulled the trigger and his widow YOKO ONO should stop blaming a inanimate object

Other sites may have humor. They may have cool design or genius writers. Well, guess what we have that noone else has. Spurwing Plover. And that's alot.

facile posing

That about sums up the intial post and most of the comments.

The day any of you here get the opportunity to fuck any woman on the planet you want, any time you want, and create a body of muscial works that people still talk about 25 years after you've been blown away, then maybe your words will hereor anywhere will mean something.

Until then, continue on with the wanking.... losers.

Seriously, if it makes you feel any better, I think that Elvis Presley sucks too.

Hey, thanks!

That does make me feel better.

Coming from a facile poser.

(Still, I gotta admit, you were awesome in the Cheney contest.)