Happy Birtday, John Lennon

Today marks what would have been ( I think) the 72nd birthday of John Lennon. Today is also Sean Lennon's birthday, so Happy Birthday Sean!  When I think of John, I try not to remember how he died, but  rather how he lived.  I remember being allowed to watch the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show and having a HUGE poster on my wall as a kid.  The Beatles created the music that catapulted Rock and Roll into the mainstream music world.  Our parents hated them.  We loved them.   It must have been hard to be such a public figure, John made a lot of mis-steps as far as PR might be concerned, but he remained true to himself.  The tragedy of his death is that he was coming back into the musical world that had truly missed him.  I can only wonder what songs he would have created had he not been so cruelly taken. His album "Double Fantasy" was terrific.  John was irreverent, cheeky and we loved that about him.  I think the songs he created with Paul McCartney are some of the best ever.  He gave edge to Paul's sweetness and Paul gave sweetness to his edge.  I loved the silly Beatles movies.  I even tried to watch "How I won the War"  a movie in which John plays a soldier called Gripweed.  John is also supposed to be somewhere in Monty Python's Holy Grail.  I believe he is the flute player among Sir Robin's minstrels.  I never could confirm that one.

The funny thing about the Beatles for me is this.  My father HATED them, made all kinds of remarks about their musicianship ( although we were allowed to listen to the music, they never forbade it)  Years later, he made an offhand remark to me about how much he appreciated a Beatles song that was playing in a restaurant  where we were eating dinner.  He said "Boy , they sure wrote some good songs!"  It's a good thing I was sitting down when he said that.

John was more than his Beatle personae.  He was a writer and artist and an actor.  He was a gift to the world, taken from us far too soon.   Happy Birthday, John.