Posted on 12/04/2010 7:03:56 PM PST by pastorbillrandles
On December 8, 1980, The World was stunned to hear that John Lennon was murdered on a street in New York, not far from where he and his wife Oko lived. The impact of his death was felt immediately, as millions mourned the forty-year old rock star in candlelight vigils around the world.
What was this man’s legacy? Who is this man who will again be deeply mourned by many in this generation on the thirtieth anniversary of His death? Lennon was no doubt a profoundly gifted musician and lyricist, but I believe his legacy goes deeper than his involvement with the Beatles, and the songs he is noted for.
Lennon’s legacy was more than musical, it was and still is spiritual, for he was a minstrel for the drug and sexual revolution that swept through the west in the sixties. Obviously he wasn’t the only one who promoted sex and drugs through music, but he was one of the more effective toxic role models.
In a Rolling Stone interview of January 1971, Lennon admitted he began taking LSD in 1964, “How Long did it go?”, he was asked.”It went on for years” he replied.”I must of had a thousand trips…a thousand,I just used to eat it all the time”. When the Rolling Stone interviewer said “Theres a lot of obvious LSD things you did in the music,” Lennon replied,”Yes”. (from pg 58 The Legacy Of John Lennon, David Noebel,Nelson publishing)
Lennon would go on to say that “Help”, “Rubber Soul”,”Day Tripper” and “Yellow Submarine” were all drug oriented. Perhaps the most pervasively drug oriented Album up to that time, was 1967s “Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band”. This album has been credited with heralding the drug revolution.
Lennon himself , to be fair, insisted that “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” was not a coy reference to LSD, although the lyrics of the song evoke a mystical,dreamy hallucinogenic trip. But other songs such as “I Get High With A Little Help From My Friends”openly advocate the Pharmekia that God hates.
The fact that the Beatles were open and outspoken proponents of the Drug Revolution cannot be denied.Life Magazine, in an article “The New Far Out Beatles” quoted Paul McCartney about his own use of LSD;
“After I took it ,it opened my eyes.We use only 1/10 of our brain.Just think what we could accomplish if we could only tap that hidden part! It would mean a whole new world.If politicians would take LSD, there wouldn’t be any more war ,poverty or famine!.”(Life June 1967)
In July 1967 The Beatles signed heir names to a full-page advertisement in the London Times, calling for the legalization of marijuana. In his biography of the band, called The Beatles, Hunter Davies quotes Lennon’s favorable evaluation of his own use of LSD,”I was suddenly struck by great visions when I first took acid. But you have got to be looking for it before you could possibly find it”.
Lennon was also a minstrel of the sexual revolution which wreaked such terrible havoc in the west. I personally do not believe we have ever recovered from the trashing of Judeo- Christian morality in the west, and perhaps never will.
Lennon strongly advocated in his songs and interviews, and by his very public life, the deliberate destruction of the Christian sexual ethic of monogamous. married, till death do us part commitment.
Lennon, while still married to his first wife Cynthia,posed nude for an Album cover with his adulterous lover Yoko Ono for his album The Two Virgins. His comment on that was ;
“…intellectually we knew marriage was a stupid scene, but we’re romantic and square as well as hip and aware. We lived together for a year before we got married, but we were still tied to other people by a bit of paper.”(Noebel,legacy of John Lennon, pg 52,Nelson)
Lennon also wrote a pornographic ,blasphemous book called A Spaniard In The Works, which ridiculed Jesus, in hate filled and badly written prose. There are many blasphemous, anti Christ quotations Lennon is noted for, therefore I feel no need to repeat them. We pray he had time to renounce his anti-christianity before he died, God alone knows.
We are all going to be treated to the spectacle of mass mourning, public airings of Lennon’s songs, notably the atheistic hymn, Imagine , and other forms of canonisation, on or about the anniversary of Lennon’s tragic death. But what exactly are the people mourning?
Who is going to mourn for the millions who followed Lennon’s lead into the drug culture, and never made it out to sanity again? Who will shed a tear for the legions of broken and ruined people, who allowed Lennon’s message of sexual anarchy to wreck their lives? What about the broken families, the disenfranchised children, the ruined health of the thousands who bought into Lennon’s hedonistic Utopia?
Lennon had gifts alright, but who did he actually put them to the service of?
Psalm 12
Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things: Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever .The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
more to come
The Rolling Stones were the first true rockers to come out England, just months after the Beatles. THEIR early, and even later, music was based in the blues, blues-rock, and rock n roll. The Stones had SOUL; the Beatles had arrangements and lots of chords, not to mention their cutesy factor. Still, I give them kudos for being creative on occasion.
You can still hear Stones classics on just about any jukebox or classic rock station.
Lennon and McCartney were heavily influenced by British Music Hall silliness and Tin Pan Alley which the Stones didn’t care about.
George was the only one with any talent.
People have said I’m nuts to suggest the Beatles were influenced by British music hall tunes of the ‘20s and ‘30s. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Yeah the two guys who wrote most of the songs had no talen. /sarc
It bothered me for a day or so when he died but at that time my job was finding teens who had run away from home somewhere in America and were thought to be hanging out in the under layers of the city...a dangerous place for a sixteen year old from Podunk (not me - the kids I was looking for). I was spending too much time with the real danger and darkness of lost souls to let it get to me for more than a day.
Then he didn't know what he was saying because "hallelujah" has the name of the God of Israel in it, not any Hindus.
I got the sarcasm thing, but still the Beatles had NO soul as the Stones and many others out of the small Britain pubs had (think Kinks and others).
The Stones even named their band after a Muddy Waters song. "Englands Newest Hit Makers" album came out just months after the Beatles were singing, "I Want To Hold Your Hand". The Beatles were bubble-gum when the Stones were doing "Little Red Rooster" (major blues rendition).
Their next album, "Out of Our Heads" was a classic. Then you get "Aftermath", which the song "Going Home" was an 11 minute (or so) ad-lib by the band.
The Stones were covering Muddy Waters, Lil Walter, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, et al. (MONA, was their version of tribute to Bo Diddly). The Beatles were still singing about "PS, I Love You. The Stones took the Chess sound even further and became as big as the Beatles and continued long after they couldn't keep their shit together. I doubt they would have ever found any SOUL in their music. It was too over-produced. Give me straight forward ROCK anytime. I love Billy Idol's cover of "Mony, Mony".
I grew up that era. The Beatles were pu**ies. The Stones were the earliest bad boys of Rock n Roll and wrote songs that make you want to tap your foot to this day.
When's the last time you heard, "I Want To Hold Your Hand", or "Please, Please Me", or "Day In A Life..." or even later "Imagine" or ANY so-called rock song by the Beatles on ANY classic rock radio station? Even their rockin song, "Back in the USSR" had their stupid lecturing lyrics (commie at that)?
But yet you hear, "Satisfaction" or "Jumpin Jack Flash" or "Honky Tonk Woman" or "Gimme Shelter" or "Start Me Up" or "Tumbling Dice" or all the friggin time.
The Stones were the earliest rock n roll band to build on the early Chess Records that included Muddy Waters, Berry, Howlin' Wolf, et al.
The Beatles were for girls and later wimpy hippies. The Stones have always been (for good or bad) rock n rollers. Hell, they still rock even as old and grey-haired farts. The Beatles were a self-absorbed pop band. The Stones have always been about ROCK, even if 4 chords. Not to mention, Jagger/Richards wrote what I believe to be the best opening rift ever in "Gimme Shelter" (even if the song was a little about hippie crap). Or thing about the opening rifts to "Honky Tonk Woman" or "Sympathy for the Devil". The Beatles never got close to such rifts. Why? They didn't have Keith Richards.
"I met a gin-soaked bar-room queen in Memphis..." Maybe not good for our moral fiber, but rocks better than, "I saw the news today...oboy (whine,whine)".
Rolling Stones: "Aftermath" (June 1966).
Paint It Black (dark, forboding, catchy with the first use of a sitar on a rock tune - where were the Beatles?); Lady Jane (not as good but interesting take on Britain's history and first with a dulcimer - where were the Beatles?); Under My Thumb (catchy with an African xylophone - first ever in rock - where were the Beatles?). Going Home, THE first ad-lib tune in rock history where they continued after the obvious end of the song (where were the Beatles?) No where.
Everyone believes the Beatles to be the innovators in Rock from the Chuck Berry days and/or the Shirelles, Contours, Platters, et al. Sorry, I was there and being a musician at the time could tell who were experimenting with the Blues and Rock, and changing the chords and arrangements around that hit you in the heart of your Soul. Maybe the Beatles did in their Cave in Liverpool, but the first international band to do it on their recordings were The ROLLING STONES.
Deal with it. The Stones had soul in their very first album while the Beatles were still chewing on their bubblegum.
In case you forget, ROCK is built on soul, and should hit you in the deepest part of your being. Many can write lyrics that seem important, but guitar rifts, drum licks, bass lines, and melodie-matching lyrics is what Rock is.
If it's all about lyrics to you, then that is about poetry and NOT Rock n Roll. Think Joan Jett's, "I Love Rock n Roll". Stupid lyrics, but just nasty a** rock rhythm.
My point is that you can love what makes you feel good, but I lose patience with those (not you) who try to tell me how cutting-edge the Beatles were for ROCK. They weren't.
However, will admit they were cutting-edge POP musicians, but not ROCK! Fair?
I think his world view would be much different now than it was up until then. I doubt he would’ve been on board with Soros, Cindy Sheehan, Huffington, Maher and the rest...He might even be a golfing ditto-head!
“Deal with it. The Stones had soul in their very first album while the Beatles were still chewing on their bubblegum.”
Gee, d’ya think Brian Epstein had anything at all to do with that???
The Beatles used the Sitar on Rubber Soul in 1965. The Beatles also used feeback in 1964 (I Feel Fine) before anyeone else. The Stones didn’t even start writing their own songs until they saw the Beatles do it. For you it all boils down to how blues influenced the band was and the more the better - that’s fine but it’s not a criteria I much care about. The Blues do little for me.
The song wraps up with these lyrics:
Hm, my lord (hallelujah)
My, my, my lord (hare krishna)
My sweet lord (hare krishna)
My sweet lord (krishna krishna)
My lord (hare hare)
Hm, hm (Gurur Brahma)
Hm, hm (Gurur Vishnu)
Hm, hm (Gurur Devo)
Hm, hm (Maheshwara)
My sweet lord (Gurur Sakshaat)
My sweet lord (Parabrahma)
My, my, my lord (Tasmayi Shree)
My, my, my, my lord (Guruve Namah)
My sweet lord (Hare Rama)
It doesn't matter too much except for the person pushing false religion and anyone moved to false religion because of it. It matters a lot to them, going astray.
He does say "hallelujah" several times in the song. George Harrison was sued for plagiarism over that song - it was claimed that he ripped the tune off of the Chiffon's "He's So Fine" - I think he had to surrender all the royalties for it. Harrison said he was inspired by the Christian song "Oh Happy Day."
Are you ever right about anything?
Sorry for being a hater.
But the point is Beethoven and Wagner, same as Lennon, owe recognition and gratitude to the Good Lord for giving them what they need to make music.
“He’s so fine”, I never noticed the similarity. Hard to compare a doo-wop song with a 70s hit.
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