Posted on 12/08/2020 4:31:47 AM PST by Kaslin
I’ve always been interested in World War II, but really only the war in Europe. The war in the Pacific, though equally as important to world history, just never grabbed me. Maybe it’s because of the movies “Patton” and “Saving Private Ryan” and the lack of an equivalent movie in the other theater? I don’t really know why, it just is. The whole thing happened a lifetime before I was born, but something about it captured my imagination, which is how imagination works – you don’t have to have been a part of something for that something to be a part of you. Such is the case with John Lennon, who was murdered on this date in 1980.
The Beatles weren’t together in my lifetime, I’d just started forming lifelong memories when John was killed (though I have no memory of it because I was too young to know who he was). My parents were Elvis fans, anyway. But Beatles music, and John’s, has become as much a part of my life as it is to anyone screamed at the TV set watching The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964.
The Beatles were the very definition of a group; without any one of them there would not have been any of them. There was just something about them together, and that something carried each of them long after they broke up. Whether John was the “leader” or not is something some people still argue about to this day, but it is irrelevant. If Ringo Starr weren’t playing the drums, or George Harrison on guitar, or Paul McCartney on bass, John Lennon would be a retired factory worker somewhere.
Why did those four people together change music and, in many ways, the world? Books have been written about it, seminars held, someone is probably arguing on social media somewhere about it right now.
The question of “why them?” is something I can’t explain beyond the obvious, and I think correct, answer: they were damn good.
Not only were the songs some of the best ever written, you have to view them in context to understand just how different they were form everything else. At the end of the 1950s/beginning of the 1960s, Elvis had been drafted, leaving music for a while and returning as a crooner/movie star. His rock and roll days were over, at least until 1968’s comeback special. Buddy Holly, a true pioneer who, unlike most contemporaries, wrote and produced his own music, had died in a plane crash. Eddie Cochran died in a car crash, Little Richard had left music for religion, Chuck Berry was in prison for bringing a 14-year-old girl across state lines for “immoral purposes,” and Jerry Lee Lewis was a pariah for marrying his 13-year-old cousin.
Rock and roll was dead in every way except as a label. Crooners packaged by record labels were called rock and roll, but they weren’t anything close to it. Think what you will of groups like Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, their music is very catchy (and I enjoy it), but it’s not what comes to mind when you think of rock and roll.
Yet, that’s what dominated the U.S. charts and radio in the early 60s. The month before the Sullivan show the Billboard charts featured acts like Bobby Vinton, The Murmaids, Bobby Rydell, and the Singing Nun. Picture any song by any of those artists, then hear “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” in your head. That’s what changed – The Beatles brought rock back to rock music.
By April of that year, The Beatles has 14 songs in the top 100, including the top 5 slots, and the top 2 albums in the country. No one has come close to that kind of chart domination.
There really isn’t a moment of any of their lives that hasn’t been documented by someone at this point, most presidents haven’t had as many biographies written about them.
At the time of his murder 40 years ago tonight, John was back on top after a 5-year break from recording. He’d become a father again, more mature and unencumbered by Beatlemania, he threw himself into it this time. But all loaves of bread he baked didn’t quiet the songs in his head. And the country loved those song, the “Double Fantasy” record.
Through the mania, the insanity, the drugs, the everything that happens to a person when, in their early 20s they’d had the whole world want a piece of them, he’d finally gotten his life together. Then he was murdered.
We can all wonder what he would have done had he lived, whether they would’ve gotten the band back together or whatever. None of that really matters because it’s impossible now. What we do know is a wife lost a husband, two boys lost a father, and the world lost someone who’d provided at least a song or two to the soundtrack of every life that came, or will come, after it. No deranged assassin can take that away.
I grew up with the Beatles. I was too young to appreciate Elvis, but hit High School when the Beatles hit. I thought I hated the Swing and crooning that my parents listened to, though I came to appreciate them later in life. The Beatles, though were simply the best! Other songs that I could only hear at night on atmospheric skips from WLS, were OK, but not great. I still have medleys of Beatles songs in my (now ancient) DVD players in my cars, along with two or three other ones, but I rarely listen to anything but the Beatles.
I remember a friend telling me in 1964 that “When you’re old and tired, play the chord (discord?) that starts “I’s been a Hard Day’s Night”, it’ll sound just as good then as it does now”. He was right.
I never before have given it much thought, but Derek Hunter has nailed why this may be so true, even though he didn’t even grow up with it.
Same here. The Beatles was the first rock / pop music that I became obsessed with. My first ever album (bought in ‘78 or ‘79) was Sgt Pepper when I was 9 or 10. When I came down to Breakfast that day and one of my parents said ‘John Lennon died’ I couldn’t believe it.
I'll bet you if Duane Allman had been asked to play on an album with John Lennon or George Harrison he'd have been walking on clouds. To musicians of that era the Beatles were royalty. Eric Clapton didn't think he was worthy of playing on 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' ... it's the Beatles fer crying out loud ... but George Harrison insisted.
The Beatles are more than their songs. They had so much variety and ubiquitousness that they were a major influence on virtually everyone in music at that time. It's even argued that 'Helter Skelter' is the original proto-metal song. You may not love them but a lot of the music you do love quite possibly wouldn't exist of not for them.
fwiw; it was 4; in the back, all fatal shots. A fifth bullet missed the mark.
In the years since, I don't listen to The Beatles very often. I still think they made great music. When I do listen to them, I like the 1965-1967 era the best. But in general, I no longer listen to music made for and about young people. Their music really spoke to me when I was young, but now their music (and that of other rockers) simply does not speak to me. Now I only listen to classical music or Sinatra.
It was the only time that I ever saw the newscaster lady crying on TV as the news was announced with a flower around her microphone.
“The single most astounding thing about The Beatles was how strong Lennon and Mccartney ‘s voices were in addition to all their songwriting talent …”
George too. Their 3-part harmonies are great. I need to listen to “Because” later on today.
Vocally, The Beatles were at their best when John was singing lead and Paul and George were singing backup..... Not saying Lennon was a better singer than Mccartney, but Mccartney was one of the best high harmony singers of all time....a pure high tenor
Oh, well, another sixties gas bag bit the dust.
Best band ever, their talent and fame inspired hundreds of other great bands.
If it was a prerequisite that members of bands had to be great and likeable citizens, there wouldn't be many bands.
But for some reason, people worship them.
Not me, I appreciate and recognize many for their musical talent, but I don't worship them or any other great talent. Often times it seems that those with some sort of genius has many other really bad qualities.
I saw the announcement on monday night football 40 years ago. Pretty devastating at the time. Liked the music a lot..... not so much the man. Music wise.... Paul or John??? Paul.
I agree with the writer, without all 4 the magic doesn't exist.
Probably right
That seems rather unlikely, given that Lennon had a friendship with Elton John and Elton is Sean Lennon's godfather.
The two actually sang together at Madison Square Garden in 1974. That's the only place where Elton will do live performances of his tribute to Lennon, Empty Garden.
Good backup by Paul on “The Ballad of John and Yoko.”
Paul was also on drums on that track.
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