There was never any guarantee,on Dec. 8, that had Mark David Chapman not shot him to death John Lennon would still be alive to celebrate his 80th birthday today.
After all, Lennon did a good deal of burning the candle at both ends. But it would have been so much better had he at least been given the chance. Instead of retrospectives speaking of Lennon in the past, we could be celebrating his life and his accomplishments in the present tense.
His murder is still as fresh in my mind now as it was 40 years ago. I can still hear Howard Cosell announcing the news on Monday Night Football that Lennon had been assassinated outside his Manhattan apartment building across from Central Park. And I can still remember bounding up the stairs, two at a time, to our bedroom to wake my sleeping wife to tell her.
It is as unbelievable now as it was then. But then again, the whole story of Beatlemania, and Lennon’s part in it all, was pretty unbelievable, wasn’t it?
How did these four Liverpool scrubs pull this off? What form of musical natural selection chose them?
Who knew, 60 years ago, that John Lennon would end the 20th century as one of the two most influential and innovative composers/recording artists of his time (the other being his songwriting partner in the Beatles, Paul McCartney)? Who knew that both would turn everything they did into something to be idolized?
While the experts claim the Beatles were a classic case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, I’m not sure. There had to be a catalyst. And that was John Winston Lennon, product of a broken home, who wore his lifelong anger like a badge. Or, as he said in one of his songs, “a chip on my shoulder that’s bigger than my feet.”
That anger fueled Lennon and, by extension, the Beatles. It was legendary. Once, on the cusp of worldwide fame, Lennon put a disc jockey who had done much on the group’s behalf into the hospital for making a snide remark about his friendship with manager Brian Epstein, who was gay (this wouldn’t be a big deal now, but it was in the 1950s and early 1960s).
While the Beatles soaked up the adulation that came their way, behind the scenes Lennon was — as always — restless, never happy with the status quo, and cruelly scornful of people he thought beneath him (which was practically everyone). He always said the words to “Help” were among his most honest.
Lennon gave us so many enduring tunes. And for a guy who was so hard to crack, he could be remarkably tender. One such song came from the album “Rubber Soul.” Lennon’s “In My Life,” was a marvelously nostalgic look at some people in his past who meant the most to him. But he concluded it by saying the current person in his life meant more to him.
But that old, angry John was never too far from the surface. Even at a time of his life when he was pretty much zonked out on LSD 24 hours a day, he managed to write the wonderfully acerbic “She Said, She Said,” which recounted a peculiar acid trip with actor Peter Fonda in Los Angeles.
This edge in his personality always put him on the cutting edge. When, in late 1966, the psychedelic movement began taking hold in popular music, Lennon’s answer was to write “Tomorrow Never Knows,” which is — if you were to ask me — one of the most brilliantly bizarre songs ever. He went off to Spain to film a movie and came back with “Strawberry Fields Forever,” a masterpiece fueled by acid and introspection.
He wasn’t wild about the idea behind “Sgt. Pepper,” but he kept his dissatisfaction hidden enough to write “A Day in the Life,” perhaps the Beatles’ most brilliant piece of music.
But Lennon was also the principal architect of the breakup of the band — not because of any feuds with McCartney or because of Yoko Ono, but because he’d just had enough. He didn’t want to be Beatled anymore.
Maybe he realized he wasn’t wrong when he said the group was more popular than Jesus Christ. Maybe being manhandled by Philippine authorities after a misunderstanding involving Imelda Marcos proved that Beatlemania was beyond comprehension. The group couldn’t hear itself play at their concerts anymore. And I defy any music act today to survive their touring schedule during those Beatlemania years.
Lennon was an enigma. He could challenge you one minute and charm you the next. There’s no doubt all his angst and baggage resulted in some of the 20th century’s best music, and made him one of the most important musical figures.
Lennon had so many incarnations there’s no telling what he’d have been like had he reached 80. But let us drift back to February 1964 when, for three weeks, the Beatles landed in America and took a country desperate for something fun after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by storm. For those who weren’t there, trust me. It was magic. So were the next four years.
Much of it was thanks to John Lennon.