John Lennon: Reaganite

I wish some celebrity would whip his dick out in public or one of the Kardashian tramps would do a panty flash, because this summer has been slooooooooow.   Except for death, of course, which is part of the reason for the sparse output here.   (I hate to hit the shit file before the weekend.)

"Imagine there's no liberals...it's easy if you try..."  

The big story today (just to prove how lean things are) is that John Lennon was showing conservative leanings before his death.  This according to the rock star's last personal assistant, Fred Seaman.
  

From the article:

"John, basically, made it very clear that if he were an American he would vote for Reagan because he was really sour on (Democrat) Jimmy Carter," he says.

"He'd met Reagan back, I think, in the `70s at some sporting event ... Reagan was the guy who had ordered the National Guard, I believe, to go after the young (peace) demonstrators in Berkeley, so I think that John maybe forgot about that ... He did express support for Reagan, which shocked me.

"I also saw John embark in some really brutal arguments with my uncle, who's an old-time communist ... He enjoyed really provoking my uncle ... Maybe he was being provocative ... but it was pretty obvious to me he had moved away from his earlier radicalism.

"He was a very different person back in 1979 and 80 than he'd been when he wrote Imagine. By 1979 he looked back on that guy and was embarrassed by that guy's naivete."

Now this could just be John Lennon "taking a piss" as the Brits say.  (As in, "Just kidding.")  Or Lennon suddenly came to the realization: "Holy shit!  I have a lot of money.  I better start supporting people who are going to let me keep some of it.  Goddammit, now how do I disavow all that shit I wrote in Imagine?"

Yoko Ono has not been reached yet for a screeching comment.  

Died on this date:

John Winston Lennon

Musician/Songwriter/Beatle

Oct. 9, 1940-Dec. 8, 1980

(Age 40)

John Lennon was the rocker to Paul McCartney's crooner.  These styles blended as well in their songwriting making them the most successful tunesmiths in modern music history.  Without a doubt the foundation of the most amazing rock group the world will ever see.  The phenomenon of Beatlemania will not be repeated as it was the perfect storm of demography, maturation of media, and the natural exuberance of the 60's.  It is fair to say that John Lennon and the Beatles were what made me go for broke in the rock and roll biz.  (And broke I ended up.  Haha.)

That being said, I am again about to commit boomer apostasy.  (My post on Janis Joplin is here.)  In my opinion, and I know it is a minority one, John Lennon should have hung up the gloves after the Beatles broke up.  Yes, I said it.  A great deal of Lennon's musical demise I blame, of course, on Yoko Ono.  I bet the other Beatles agree with me on this.  I hated all that Plastic Ono Band shit.  I hated the Bed-In for Peace and all that hippie dippie crapola that John Lennon, backbeat rocker extraordinaire, became the poster boy for.  (My love for hippies is expressed here.)  The Phil Spector produced album Rock & Roll was a rare beam of light in a murky swamp of boring "Woman is the Nigger of the World" simplistic political rant music.  Do I even have to mention Imagine?  The anthem of pimply, dreamy-eyed doofuses since 1971.  Easily my vote for the worst song in the history of mankind.  OK, maybe She Bang by William Hung is worse but not by much.

Lennon retired from the music scene around 1976 to help raise his son, Sean, before returning to record the Double Fantasy album with wife, Yoko.  Double Fantasy has a few highlights but that's about it. But by then Lennon's iconic status was so carved in granite that anything he put out was met with breathless, and in my opinion, witless praise.

John Lennon did not die a typical rock star death.  As everyone knows he was murdered by psycho Catcher in the Rye obsessed stalker Mark David Chapman in front of his Dakota apartment building.

From multiple gunshot wounds.

Here is one of John Lennon's best rock vocals.



Irony alert:  "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, co-founder and influential guitarist of heavy metal band Pantera was murdered by gunshot while onstage on this same date in 2004.