John Lennon (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980).

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Steve Hoffman, Dec 7, 2011.

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  1. dirtymac

    dirtymac Forum Resident

    Location:
    Exile, MN
    Very upsetting. What an epic, senseless, painful loss for the world.

    Having recently finished the Phillip Norman book on Lennon, it's clear, too, just how happy and optimistic he was in the fall/early winter of 1980. He was in a great place and was very keen on his future.

    A sad day for sure.
     
  2. shepherdfan

    shepherdfan Western European Socialist Music Lover

    Location:
    Eugene, OR
    I love and miss you, John.
     
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  3. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    ...he seemed so young now...sad day for all of us fans.:(
     
    MAYBEIMAMAZED likes this.
  4. Gary

    Gary Nauga Gort! Staff

    Location:
    Toronto
    Thirty one years. Wow.

    Some things never seem to loose their significance and sense of loss.

    Never.
     
  5. apple-richard

    apple-richard *Overnight Sensation*

    I was in my second to last day of Air Force basic training when John was killed. I was surprised our drill instructor let us have the radio on all the next day with nothing but Beatles and Lennon music.

    I wanted to be able to sing like John did on Ticket To Ride when I was 5. Didn't happen but I sure have had a lot of fun singing with him the past 46 years. I miss him a lot. Hopefully he's in a better place.
     
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  6. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven

    The death of the great John Lennon is one of those things that never lose their significance or sense of loss.
     
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  7. Mal

    Mal Phorum Physicist

    .
     

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  8. Tremaindous

    Tremaindous Forum Resident

    31 years :-(
     
  9. RockWizard

    RockWizard Forum Resident

    Feel the same about losing John so soon Veech. Black will be the color at work tomorrow.....:sigh:
     
  10. Maidenpriest

    Maidenpriest Setting the controls for the heart of the sun :)

    Location:
    Europe
    I am glad I met his Aunt Mimi and spent some time at her Poole home, even if I didn't realise she was related to John as I was a young boy at the time, she was just this nice old lady !! :)
     
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  11. jgreen

    jgreen Well-Known Member

    Location:
    St. Louis,MO.
    Blessed are the peacemakers.
     
  12. Fullbug

    Fullbug Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    I'm still angry about it.
     
  13. Koabac

    Koabac Self-Titled

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    There is John Lennon -- and then there is everyone else who ever played rock music. He may very well be the best there ever was or will be, but that would mean he wasn't beyond compare - which he was. Absolutely unique. Peerless. Untouchable. And he's given everybody who has followed him something to which they can aspire. I'm still trying to aim high. Thank you. Rest in peace, brother.
     
  14. jfine

    jfine Forum Resident

    Lennon was the coolest
     

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  15. ssmith3046

    ssmith3046 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arizona desert
    12/8 is one of those days that you remember where you were when you heard the news. Tragic day.
     
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  16. supermd

    supermd Senior Member

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    We all miss John. My avatar of him will never change. He was and is loved very much. :love:
     
  17. moople72

    moople72 Forum Resident

    Location:
    KC
    Not a virtuoso, but my favorite singer/songwriter/musician.

    Obviously he was wise to keep his guitar/piano playing limited-----I think it allowed him to find continued inspiration composing on those instruments---right up to the very end.

    He also seemed to mean every note he sang-----and then some.

    Also, it's rare to find someone who was so good at what he did, who attainded that level of success-----and yet was so self-critical.
    Even though post-Beatles he would brag in interviews, he was never self-satisfied in his music.

    I love Sean’s comments about his dad in an interview which appears at the end of Philip Norman’s Lennon biography (and is the highlight of a long book):

    “I think he had insecurities about everything: about grammar and writing, about knowing how to write and read music, about all the established ways of knowing things. And that was a handicap he turned to his advantage. He invented insecure song-writing-----‘I’m a loser and I’m not what I appear to be’ or ‘Help!’”

    “He said that Bob Dylan taught him to write in the first person about his real life, but Dylan never wrote a song that revealed his emotions like that. Dylan always observed other people’s emotions; it’s like he’s a journalist------he’s not saying it’s good or bad----just articulating something that’s in the air and jotting it down. That was an aspect of my dad’s work but, to me, not the best one. ‘Give Peace a Chance’ is great, but that’s not the one I want to go home and listen to; it’s not as good as ‘You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away’ or ‘Girl’ or ‘In My Life.’ To me, those songs are on a whole other level. For a man to feel insecure and question himself the way my dad did in songs is a post-modern phenomenon. Artists like Mozart or Picasso never did; it’s something that’s only happened since the Second World War. And that’s something he owns, that feeling of insecurity so many other songwriters since have tried to copy. He invented that.”

    “I don’t think my dad would have been commercial at all without Paul and the management and George Martin. I mean in the sense of making himself palatable to the masses, I don’t think that was his area of expertise. I think he was very edgy and interesting, and ‘edgy’ and ‘interesting’ don’t always cut it for the populace. I think the sugar around the Beatles with my dad as this core of intensity made them the ultimate package.”

    “When he turned his back on the Beatles and formed the Plastic Ono Band with my mom, that to me was like when Matisse turned his back on painting and decided that everything he wanted to say artistically from now on could be said by a few simple shapes cut out of paper. It was as if Elvis had left Vegas in the seventies and started to play with the punks. That Plastic Ono Band album, for me, is the greatest rock album any man ever made. That’s why he’s so much more for me than just a Sixties rock figure like a Jagger or a Clapton.”
     
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  18. mbleicher1

    mbleicher1 Tube Amp Curmudgeon

    Location:
    Washington, D.C.
  19. deville

    deville Forum Resident

    Location:
    Riverside, CA
    Bless you... wherever you are
    Windswept child on a shooting star.
     
  20. Mal

    Mal Phorum Physicist

    A few months ago I discovered the full uncropped colour version of that Robert Freeman panda photo while googling for it to show my little boy as he has a cuddly panda that looks similarly oversized relative to him :)

    Even in Freeman's The Beatles a private view book it is cropped and in black and white.

    Here it is in case anyone hasn't seen it:
     

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  21. Chief

    Chief Over 12,000 Served

    I just found this on Youtube - a John Lennon song that I have never heard of before (?) with the following description: "John Lennon- unreleased song demo, 1973- bootleg from cassette, passed around for years by Los Angeles studio personne".

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=7b-OKSuD5Qg

    This is a fairly complete song that sounds like it could be an early version of "Steel And Glass" but its a totally different song. How could this be? It has to be fake. How could Chip have not found it? Yet it sounds exactly like John's acoustic guitar and the vocal sounds like John. I'm dumbfounded. If this is really a new Lennon song, then what a gift for me on this day. If not, then...

    Check out this creation. It's "Whatever Happened To" with believable overdubs. Other thhan the demo quality, it sounds like something that could have been on a Lennon album in the mid seventies, or from 1980, with it's ska-ish rhythm.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUei2Q_Ux-A
     
  22. deville

    deville Forum Resident

    Location:
    Riverside, CA
    I don't think that's Lennon, Chief. This is just one dude's opinion, but...
    The timbre of the voice is somewhat similar, and the "Lennon Echo" doesn't hurt the illusion, but it just doesn't sound right to me. The phrasing of the vocal seems like a cheap imitation. And the distortion in the recording sounds fake, and almost feels like a cover-up.

    I'm no 70's Lennon expert by any stretch. But from what I've heard, the only time you get that vocal echo on a Lennon demo is when it's being worked for release. Otherwise, they're just basic home recordings. Since this piece saw no official (or unofficial) release when all the rest of it came out, that all but kills its chances at authenticity.
     
  23. Chief

    Chief Over 12,000 Served

    I was just nine when John was killed. I knew about the Beatles but I didn't know that "John Lennon" was one of them. My mom told me after I got up for school and asked her 'who John Lennon was because I heard on the radio that he was killed last night'. She wasn't a fan, but was slightly taken aback by what I told her. She didn't believe me until she turned on the TV.

    I have nothing new to add. I'm sad every year, and at any other time it comes to mind. As much as I love John's music, I may love his "persona" even more, particularly the comedic, irreverent side. I mean the guy pulling faces at the camera, making up hilarious alternate lyrics to songs ("all I want is booze and figs" in "She's A Woman"), Tobias Casuals, the middle bits in "Serve Yourself", his books which are filled with multi-layered puns; actual good puns. His way with words in general was fascinating - both when he deliberately wrote words or simply ad libbed one-liners, or gave long form interviews. What an incredible character. How could someone like him ever get famous in the first place? He was too good.

    So every year I think about these things and more. Sometimes I listen to an album or two, other years I don't make a point of it. It makes me sad. Beyond that, I'm glad that I was alive at a time when I could discover this man and appreciate his wit and talent.
     
    richarm likes this.
  24. I was 14 years old, so that was a school night. I found out what had happened when
    my alarm clock went off and I turned my radio on while getting dressed. I still miss John Lennon,
    and wonder what kind of music he would have made through the 1980s and beyond.
     
  25. moople72

    moople72 Forum Resident

    Location:
    KC
    Cool!

    Thanks!
     
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