October 10th, 2004

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The Arts
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While You Are Busy Making Other Plans

As you probably know, John Lennon would have been 64 years old today. This poster–a gift from my brother–hung in my room for much of my adolescence.

Lennon has always been a hero of mine. Not only was he an exceptional songwriter (if Paul was their heart, he was the Beatles’ soul), but he was a political activist. Like his drawings, he had great, simple ideas. “Imagine” gets tremendously overplayed and co-opted for the cause du jour, but if humanity’s still around in 1000 years, future musicology students will study it for as an important 20th century song.

I was reminded of this date by this profile in The Tyee.

Comments: 3 Responses so far

Richard
October 11th, 2004
12:16 am

For my favourite anti-Lennon rant:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/457nnwrz.asp

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donna
October 11th, 2004
12:53 am

psst — you’re a day late, his birthday was yesterday. :)

I can’t help but think of his song… “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m sixty-four…” Of course the answer is “No, motherfucker, you’re dead!”

And here’s where he was shot:

http://snapshots.arwen.org/album24/vacation_102

:(

[Reply]

Sean O Sullivan
October 15th, 2004
9:24 am

Ah yes. I remember wearing a black armband in school when he was shot - for a week! The misery. I still have an attic full of newspapers I kept from the time - which I should dust off and take a look at.

Also a hero of mine (fanatic about the Beatles when I was growing up, somewhat obsessive on Lennon in school), I voted for him as Best Briton in that thing the BBC did.

I didn’t remember his birthday, but I did buy a compilation cd of his two days ago out of the blue (for the bargain basement price of EUro 9.99 fact fans), and now I feel a “completist” moment coming on - when I’ll order all remaining albums that I don’t have on CD and get them ripped and on my playlists, pronto!

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