Next month marks 40 years since his execution, and I don't like remembering it. It was a tough time economically in the US, and Lennon's death was just a long and deep, sharply burning wound.
He was only 40 years old when he died. By the time he was 32, he'd written Imagine, and that was really his last great song; keep in mind that I love some songs off Mind Games (1973) and Walls & Bridges (1974). The songs from Double Fantasy--Watching the Wheels, Beautiful Boy, Starting Over, etc--very good pop songs but sterile compared to earlier work. And the album sounds like Lennon went in and did his work, and then the sessions players came in to do the job, did it and left. It's not a Lennon album. It's a Jack Douglas album. I worked in a record store when the album was a hit. The WB rep told us that people at Geffen were tearing their hair out because Double Fantasy wasn't selling. They were relieved when, after Lennon died, the album finally started to sell.
I owe Lennon so much for what his music has done to make my life richer. Often, when I read interviews with him, I don't like him much--he's bitchy about anyone who'd ever been his friend, saying terrible things about them and arrogantly dismissing them. His last interview shows him criticizing The Stones and McCartney unnecessarily and in a very arrogant and nasty way. I totally dislike that Lennon. But I love Lennon the creator and eccentric.
Happy Birthday, John, you fucking hard-headed Scouse.
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