John Lennon

[marym625]

9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980


PEACE



Don't feed the trolls, please.

[logosoco]

1. And the world will live as one.

His spirit is still here!

[marym625]

2. I didn't want to put too many songs

And had a hard time choosing between Let It Be and Imagine. But I thought Let It Be was more appropriate for the moment.

But I might be wrong

John Lennon - Imagine (official video):

[logosoco]

4. Everybody add their favorite words!!! I don't know how to post videos! lol nt

[marym625]

6. oh, I didn't mean anything

Other than it was a difficult decision for me to honor him best with just one song and also speak to current times.

Perfect words you put

[logosoco]

7. Another old but even more timely one...Power to the People.

Hopefully the young folks out there in the streets today know this one!

[marym625]

13. Good one

I actually forgot about that

John Lennon-Power To The People-Offical Video-HQ:

[Blanks]

98. Personally, I like Imagine better.

Among my favorites if all time.

[marym625]

101. I don't think it was posted yet

John Lennon - Imagine HD:

[Cha]

3. Give Peace a Chance~

mahalo, marym

[marym625]

5. mahalo, Cha

John Lennon - Give Peace A Chance:

[Cha]

9. Not bad lyrics.. :) thank you! I remember listening to this song a lot on the Double Fantasy Album

before we got the news so many decades ago.

[marym625]

14. Thank you Cha

Last edited Mon Dec 8, 2014, 06:47 PM - Edit history (1)

34 years ago today. I remember exactly where I was when I heard it. My brother and I were listening to the radio and couldn't believe it

Still hard to believe

[Cha]

20. I was in California.. Indio and called my sister in Florida on a pay phone and she told me.. :(

It's too freaking shocking how evil is out there killing people who are a force of good on this Planet.

[marym625]

23. It sure is

I don't understand that kind of evil. I just don't

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

51. You wont find a bigger Beatles fan, know all the lyrics, am a musician myself, and I love John

and when we remember him it is incumbent of us to remember that he was a product of his times, not a bigoted bone in his body when it came to minorities, but he was a misogynist.

I still love him and still listen to his music, but we can learn many great things from John about what you can do, we can also learn what NOT to do...


I remember exactly where I was when that idiot fuck shot him, like when Belushi died.

(when I say I am a musician, it is because of The Beatles of course, everybody my age back then was... )

[easychoice]

52. Howard Cosell announced it on Monday Night Football

What a shock -- Really...

[marym625]

57. Don't know about that

I bet some others would say they are the biggest fans

Yes, he was everything you said

Peace

[KingCharlemagne]

8. My fav ("Working Class Hero"):

&feature=player_detailpage

[LiberalLoner]

11. +1 my favorite too.

[marym625]

15. Another excellent choice

Thanks for posting it.

Peace

[Cha]

21. Thank you for that, KC..

[Omaha Steve]

10. I was watching Tora Tora Tora...

When Marta came in and told me what happened.

[marym625]

16. One of those things

And there are only a few, that everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing



Peace

[logosoco]

44. My then boyfriend, now husband, were getting into a heavy "make out" session when we heard,

(I think his mom knocked on the door to tell us). Mood changed really fast!

My husband, being of English ancestry, resembled John quite a bit. Even when my grandson recently saw a picture of Lennon (I'm teaching them about the Beatles and they love it!), he said "He looks like Pa!".

To me now, he is looking more like Willie, but sometimes it's still there.

[KamaAina]

63. I, along with most of New England, was watching the then-Patsies blow a playoff spot

to Miami. And then that happened.

Bridgeport, Conn. did, however, manage to summon up a kick-ass memorial the next weekend, with people sparking up in public and everything.

[99Forever]

12. My one and only hero.

Never forgotten.

This sad world could really use some John Lennon right now.

Thank you for this post Mary.

[kpete]

17. Peace?

[marym625]

18. He was a hero

No doubt about it.

I keep thinking about him and the cops. He gave $100,000 to the NYPD for bullet proof vests. They dishonor him every single time they abuse, profile or needlessly pull their weapon

Peace

[The_Commonist]

19. Unfortunately... Imagine, Give Peace a Chance, Happy XMas...

...(War is Over), and so many of the other Lennon greats have been so overplayed, that I simply cannot listen to any of them ever again. Seriously, and I admit that it's quite sad, but I am completely sick of those songs, as they still come up at least once a day somewhere (particularly this time of year) and I have a visceral reaction and turn them off immediately.

I'm going to take it even one step (and possibly many steps) further than that. And I'm a 50-something year-old musician who has been playing since childhood and John was one of my biggest influences - I have trouble listening to ANY song by ANY artist. Particularly by new artists. Nobody has ever - or WILL ever craft a better song than Imagine, Give Peace a Chance, or Happy XMas (War is Over) and I'm at a point where I don't find shallow imitations or hipsters trying to be clever the least bit interesting any more. Nobody has ever or WILL ever express their feelings any better than in Mother, Jealous Guy or even Help!

I do, however, still listen to a lot of Jazz, Noise Rock, World Music and other genres, and have lots of jam sessions with fellow musicians where we seem to be creating a new type of music. So it's not ALL bad. There's still plenty of great music out there!

All that being said... here are two of my favorite Lennon songs, that haven't been as completely overplayed (I've only heard each of these one million times each as opposed to six million times, like Imagine), and that I can probably listen to one time each this year. And it would seem that (sadly) the messages in these songs are just as relevant now as they were 40 years ago:

Happy St. John the Martyr, King of the Hippies Day!!!

[marym625]

22. I love the St John the Martyr, King of the Hippies, Day!

I am sorry you can't listen to so many wonderful songs anymore. I'm a 51 year old and I can listen to them a million more times. But that's me. I am glad though, you are helping create a new kind of music and find enjoyment in it.

Thanks for posting the songs. Thank you too for your thoughts on his music.

Happy St. John the Martyr, King of the Hippies Day to you, too!!! 

[The_Commonist]

24. I am so glad you took my post in the spirit in which it was intended!

I was afraid that I might bum you out, and I certainly don't want to do that.

And I really do feel that John was a saint (and a sinner), a martyr and the King of the Hippies!
An individual with supernatural talent, who went through trials and tribulations that I will certainly never experience, or even really be able to understand. One of my heroes (even though I am well aware that he could be a giant asshole) and one of those rare people who literally changes the world without even trying.

Cheers!

[marym625]

25. How else could I take it?

Rhetorical. Let's keep it as is

Agree with every word

Peace

[Boomerproud]

83. I will always miss him.

I don't talk about him anymore because the younger generation doesn't care, but I will carry him in my heart always.

R.I.P, John, and I hope you and Julia and Fred are now the family you couldn't be in this life.

[marym625]

90. Yes they do

As I said elsewhere in this thread, he's my niece's favorite. She knows every word of every song.

Haven't had a talent like his since and probably won't in our lifetime

Peace

[Terra Alta]

96. I care.

I was born three months after he was killed. I love his music and his activism. The world lost a great man 34 years ago today, and there has never been another truly like him.

[freebrew]

28. I agree they're overplayed...

I bought some CDs of the songs, couldn't listen either. Not really 'couldn't' just didn't give me the same energy that they did. Too sterile? Whatever, and I'm 60+, I grew up with him.

Sadly, all of the boomers' heroes are leaving. The great ones seemed to leave prematurely.
Hoffman, Zappa, Nilsson, just a few that really stirred things up with Lennon.

I still have the vinyl, though. When the stylus hits the disk it feels like the 70s again...

well, it IS 70s technology ... and it still sounds better. hah, hah........

[CanSocDem]

33. A 'Saint' indeed.

The music in this thread attests to the genius of John Lennon and your testimonial speaks eloquently to the larger issue of 'What to do With It'. I can still listen to the old songs but I'm not comfortable witnessing these 70 some-things replaying their biggest hits on their 50th Anniversary Tour.

Beatles music stands on its own. It started simply and grew into the voice of a generation. And, as you say, is still 'relevant'. And its influence is still growing in your creative jam sessions...

As for your "...the Martyr" title, I think you're right on.

After the Beatles broke up, the individuals couldn't go anywhere for years without being hounded by pleas for a 're-unification'. Lennon, in particular and though they all said it one way or another, said the Beatles were growing and '...it was time their fans moved on as well...'. One could say the death of Lennon made this possible.

In the end all we have left is the Message.

[napkinz]

61. great version by Pearl Jam

[Cha]

26. Elton John - Empty Garden official(Song for John Lennon) .. this is nice, marym

Roy Rolling http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=230969

[marym625]

30. Thank you, Cha

[Cha]

32. I just told Roy about your tribute over here in GD.. he should be along shortly..

[marym625]

38. Thank you again!

[Roy Rolling]

55. Followed the breadcrumbs! LOL

Great tribute marm625. Happy St. John the Martyr, King of the Hippies Day. For me, with all due respect to Buddy Holly, December 8th is "the day the music died".

I think we're all just realizing how important a turning point in history that 1980 was. The end of the Lennon era, the beginning of the Reagan era coincidently.

[marym625]

67. It was the end of the

Sexual revolution too.

Thanks! Happy St. John the Martyr, King of the Hippies Day to you as well!

[The_Commonist]

50. Another way of looking at that...

...is that he was a giant hypocrite, and in time, he became aware of that fact.
And he tried to do something about it, with varying degrees of success.
If he had lived longer, he might have evolved even more.
We'll never know.

Also, his hypocrisies make us look at our own hypocrisies (if we choose to do so).
You might want to think about that a little bit.

[The_Commonist]

56. I honestly don't think that anyone on this thread is unaware of his history.

Yep. He was a royal jackass and a lousy father.
We all know that.
I've read all the books and articles and seen all the movies about what a royal jackass and a lousy father John Lennon was.
You don't need to convince me.

You know who else was a royal jackass and a lousy father?

Siddhartha Gautama aka Buddha
Mohandas K Gandhi - aka Mahatma ("Venerable One&quot
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
The_Commonist

And well, pretty much everyone else who has ever lived and died on this planet. OK, maybe not everyone was a "royal jackass and a lousy father," but everyone has his or her own hypocrisies that he or she can either accept and try to change and hopefully evolve, or try to deny and well... live their lives in denial.

I don't think John's being a royal jackass and a lousy father takes away from his message, which was basically "all you need is love" and "give peace a chance." I like that message, and one day a year I am happy to celebrate the life and death of a man who evolved enough to be able to say those things...

[Orrex]

66. Okay.

Fair enough.

[marym625]

68. Thank you. I do appreciate that.

[Orrex]

77. .

[marym625]

79. Always good

[progressoid]

29. Made this a few years ago for DU

[marym625]

31. That's awesome!

Thank you for sharing

Peace

[Cha]

34. Oh wow.. that's beautiful.. I got to visit there when I lived in New York..

mahalo progressoid

[karynnj]

40. Lovely picture of the Imagine from Strawberry Fields

Being Beatles fans and living just out of NYC, we had often walked through the lovely area created on the edge of Central Park. A couple years ago, we took a NYC walking that was focused on both sides of Central Park.

One interesting thing about the imagine mosaic is that it is a sundial -- but a sun dial with nothing raised to allow a shadow to show the time. This was a Yoko idea intended to indication timelessness or infinity. Hearing that added an element of thought to what was always a beautiful, calming piece of work.

Incidentally, one major take away from the walking tour was the difference between the buildings on either side of the park. The east side developed first and had incredible residences of the elite. There were very strict architectural rules that the architects followed, leading to a very consistent, harmonious appearance. Some of those homes still exist and some are embassies. The west side, also very expensive now, was the less exclusive side. It was on the west side, where developers built the first luxury apartment - including the Dakotas. The west side did not have the same restrictions on style - allowing the gargoyles and other design features not allowed on the east side. The east side did bend and allow the construction of luxury apartments, but they had to be designed to meet the architectural rules the mansions had.

[sinkingfeeling]

35. Still greatly missed and admired.

[marym625]

70. my niece's favorite band

Is The Beatles. She was born in 1989. Her dad taught his kids what good music is from a very early age.

John Lennon lives on.

[Terra Alta]

97. They're my favorite, too.

I was born in 1981. I'd take the Beatles over any band from today or the past 50 years. They are truly legendary.

[marym625]

100. ain't that the truth! n/t

[mulsh]

36. Before people turned him into St. John he was a damn good rhtyhm guitarist. I never could

stand Imagine, in spite of the lyrics it always sounds like other end of the Beatle dirges; Let IT Be, Long and Winding Road. It's probably just my inner Beatlemaniac reacting.

Sometime in NY City contained a petition page for you to gather signatures supporting Mr. Lennon's US citizen ship. I d up collecting 10 full pages and mailing them to his attorneys.

Here's one of Lennon's post Beatle tunes. This is how I like to remember him. A bit more complex than St. John of Immaculate Political Affiliations. (most of which I enthusiastically support)

[link:

&feature=share|

[marym625]

45. Thanks for this

Great piece.
Peace

[mountain grammy]

37. A loss to the world. Who can forget..

a month after the election. Reagan was the president elect and Lennon was dead. I was sure it was the end of the world, turns out I wasn't so wrong.

[marym625]

46. nope. not too far off

And, if I remember correctly, a Pope died both right before and right after John Lennon was murdered. But I could have that wrong

Peace

[RoccoR5955]

39. A day that I will always remember.

I will remember it as much as I will remember the JFK assassination.

[Martin Eden]

43. Me too. I got injured on the job about the same time John was killed.

The foreman drove me to the ER to get stitches (nothing too serious). He was in the waiting room watching TV, and his first words to me when I came out was "John Lennon is dead."

I was 5 when JFK was killed. I remember the funeral, but I have no memory of hearing the news.

[LeftInTX]

60. I was driving to work and thought I heard something on the radio

I asked co-workers about John Lennon and they refused to acknowledge my question. (I worked at a horrible, horrible place )

I wondered about it all day at work.

I didn't know anything until I got out of work.

[LiberalElite]

86. I didn't find out until the next morning -

heard something about they guy who shot John Lennon - my reaction: "Which John Lennon?" I would have called in sick but I was afraid of my boss. I regret that to this day.

[joshdawg]

41. Thanks to all who have posted here.

The comments and especially the music videos have brought back so many good memories of Mr. Lennon, a hero to all peace-loving folks.

[stone space]

42. "Happiness is a warm gun"

[marym625]

48. One of my favorites

Thank you

Peace

[Enthusiast]

47. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch!

“Declare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will
have peace... we just need to declare it.” —John Lennon

[marym625]

49. Thank you!

A whole bunch!

Peace

[onehandle]

53. Gun Culture made it possible to kill this peace warrior. nt

[marym625]

71. yep. so sad. Something he was against, guns

[Lolita46]

62. 9:52

[Long Drive]

84. Your Point?

Are you perfect?

[Lolita46]

87. Not perfect.

Not a beater, either!

[Long Drive]

91. Why dont we talk about your imperfections?

Beating is horrible, but do you gorge, drink, or tailgate or any other crappy behavior? And have you written some fabulous music and influenced generations?

[4Q2u2]

103. Hamburger

It seems that some Sacred Cows make better Burgers than others. Funny how that works?

[hifiguy]

64. I still remember the belly drop I experienced

when Cosell made the announcement on the Monday Night Football game I was watching at the time.

Coming so soon after the election it was like a double hit in the head.

[napkinz]

65. Cosell interviewing Lennon in 1974 on MNF, then Cosell announcing his death in 1980 on MNF...

[marym625]

72. Yeah. I remember. well, not the game

I remember the double whammy.

Peace

[woo me with science]

69. Thank you for this.

No words. It still hurts, and resonates today more than ever.

[marym625]

73. It does.

We could sure use some kind of influence like him and his music about now.



Peace

[Vinca]

74. 34 years? Really? It seems like only yesterday.

I really loved the guy.

[marym625]

75. I had said

24 years up the thread. Wasn't a typo either. I guess my mind wouldn't go there. 34 years. Damn!

[yallerdawg]

76. My favorite!

More than any other album, goodbye Beatles...goodbye silly love songs.

Spare minimalist primal scream.

[marym625]

78. That's definitely an emotional song

So very different than he wrote not too many years before that. This is one of my favorite. But Julia was my grandmother's name

The Beatles - Julia - Lyrics:

[napkinz]

80. love Yer Blues

[MrMickeysMom]

81. I happen to be reading a book on the Beatles from the earliest of times...

After being such a huge Beatle fan (just come see my home, and you'd know), I've gotten to probe the early John Lennon, who held as much pent up anger stemming from what post WWII Liverpool could offer after a trying time with parental role models. It's amazing that the Beatles came together, but together they were meant to be.

Lennon had just reached that pinnacle in life where he began to see what must be done to give the world a chance.

It seems that heroes are made and destroyed too often, so thanks for the thread about John Lennon tonight. I know exactly where I was and what frame of mind I was in when hearing that he was gunned down. I'm glad I've moved from that place in my head.

We have more work to do on that peace thing, don't we?

[marym625]

82. such a nice post

And yes, we sure do.



Peace

[LiberalElite]

85. Nobody Told Me - (a big fave of mine)

[marym625]

92. Oh good one!

I had forgotten about this. Thank you for posting!

[LiberalElite]

93. I had it set as a ringtone once nt

[CBGLuthier]

88. I thought he was incredible and cried the day he died but then

I found out what an absolute asshole he was especially to the women in his life but I do think he had started to change and leave that horrible baggage behind so it is still a sad day.

[MrMickeysMom]

89. Well he WAS one of those...

So was I (I'm pretty sure) at some points in my life, and definitely people I've known who took that assholery and turned it into something… like he did.

As I said down-post, I'm reading a pretty good book, and I see where that stuff came from. The funny thing was that at the very time he was changing the world one step at a time as so many musical people have done (who were also assholes once), he was cut down.

Just saying…

[yallerdawg]

94. Message for John Lennon

Kid Rock recently commented in the documentary "Sellebrity" during closing credits:

If Jesus Christ came back, and someone took a photo, and put it on the internet, the first comment would be "JESUS CHRIST IS A F***ING DOUCHEBAG!!!"

I laughed so hard, I nearly pissed myself. So true, so true!

Something Lennon might have said!

[Blue_Tires]

95. Jimmy Breslin's column written that same night at deadline:

ARE YOU JOHN LENNON?

That summer in Breezy Point, when he was eighteen and out of Madison High in Brooklyn, there was the Beatles on the radio at the beach through the hot days and on the jukebox through the nights in the Sugar Bowl and Kennedys. He was young and he let his hair grow and there were girls and it was the important part of life.

Last year, Tony Palma even went to see Beatlemania.

And now, last night, a thirty-four-year-old man, he sat in a patrol car at Eighty-second Street and Columbus Avenue and the call came over the radio: “Man shot, One West Seventy-second Street.”

Palma and his partner, Herb Frauenberger, rushed through the Manhattan streets to an address they knew as one of the most famous living places in the country, the Dakota apartments.

Another patrol car was there ahead of them, and as Palma got out he saw the officers had a man up against the building and were handcuffing him.

“Where’s the guy shot?” Palma said.

“In the back,” one of the cops said.

Palma went through the gates into the Dakota courtyard and up into the office, where a guy in a red shirt and jeans was on his face on the floor. Palma rolled the guy over. Blood was coming out of the mouth and covering the face. The chest was wet with blood.

Palma took the arms and Frauenberger took the legs. They carried the guy out to the street. Somebody told them to put the body in another patrol car.

Jim Moran’s patrol car was waiting. Moran is from the South Bronx, from Williams Avenue, and he was brought up on Tony Bennett records in the jukeboxes. When he became a cop in 1964, he was put on patrol guarding the Beatles at their hotel. Girls screamed and pushed and Moran laughed. Once, it was all fun.

Now responding to the call, “Man shot, One West Seventy-second,” Jim Moran, a forty-five-year-old policeman, pulled up in front of the Dakota and Tony Palma and Herb Frauenberger put this guy with blood all over him in the backseat.

As Moran started driving away, he heard people in the street shouting, “That’s John Lennon!”

Moran was driving with Bill Gamble. As they went through the streets to Roosevelt Hospital, Moran looked in the backseat and said, “Are you John Lennon?” The guy in the back nodded and groaned.

Back on Seventy-second Street, somebody told Palma, “Take the woman.” And a shaking woman, another victim’s wife, crumpled into the backseat as Palma started for Roosevelt Hospital. She said nothing to the two cops and they said nothing to her. Homicide is not a talking matter.

Jim Moran, with John Lennon in the backseat, was on the radio as he drove to the hospital. “Have paramedics meet us at the emergency entrance,” he called. When he pulled up to the hospital, they were waiting for him with a cart. As Lennon was being wheeled through the doors into the emergency room, the doctors were on him.

“John Lennon,” somebody said.

“Yes, it is,” Moran said.

Now Tony Palma pulled up to the emergency entrance. He let the woman out and she ran to the doors. Somebody called to Palma, “That’s Yoko Ono.”

“Yeah?” Palma said.

“They just took John Lennon in,” the guy said.

Palma walked into the emergency room. Moran was there already. The doctors had John Lennon on a table in a trauma room, working on the chest, inserting tubes.

Tony Palma said to himself, I don’t think so. Moran shook his head. He thought about his two kids, who know every one of the Beatles’ big tunes. And Jim Moran and Tony Palma, older now, cops in a world with no fun, stood in the emergency room as John Lennon, whose music they knew, whose music was known everywhere on earth, became another person who died after being shot with a gun on the streets of New York.

http://thecityroom.wordpress.com/tag/jimmy-breslin/

[marym625]

102. wow.

Thank you for this. Heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking.

[napkinz]

99. kick

nt