A lot of people still remember what they were doing on the night of December 8, 1980—a night that marked modern history forever when John Lennon was assassinated.  The founder of the greatest rock and roll band of all times—and undisputed spokesman of the sixties and seventies—lay dead in a pool of blood, and with him a whole generation’s dreams. But the name grew also, and the dream Lennon and the Beatles set out to conquer acquired mythical proportions that, fortunately for us, were closer to the truth than the myth: their accomplishments were real, and have stayed with us through their music.

I was in fourth grade when my friend Ramón came to get me for school, and his face had a somber expression when he told me, “John Lennon was killed.”  I had been introduced to his music not too long before by the radio’s endless playing of “(Just Like) Starting Over,” and two or three days after his death I got to hear “Woman.” And from what I heard the following days, John Lennon had been a big deal because his death produced worldwide shock.  But, was the man as good as his myth had him to be? Or he was just overrated, living off his Beatles past?  Well, I guess we need to know who he really was as a Beatle in order to try to answer that question.

As a band, the Beatles music had unarguably all the right ingredients: harmony, rhythm, and melody; elements that they combined – all the four contributing to that – with such a natural grace that gave their sound a feeling of warm and ingenious simplicity that had John and Paul as the masterminds.  And with their penchant for experimentation they took their music to higher planes of innovation and inventiveness. According to Paul, it was him who introduced John –and we believe him -- to a more sophisticated and complex kind of music.  But it was Lennon who actually took initiative to make a style out of it, because while Paul was still busy putting out his catchy tunes, John was exploring a more esoteric, experimental aspect of recording.  And it was he also who contributed with most of the pieces that were paramount to the Beatles’ avant-gardish trademark in compositions like “Tomorrow Never Knows,” “A Day in the life,” “I’m the Walrus,” and “Revolution #9,” to name a few, because John always took things a step further to what most bands were doing.

After the Beatles split John Lennon was the most “promising” of the four, since he had already released “Instant Karma,” a single that made it all the way to number three in the charts, which wasn’t bad at all for a song that was completed in one single day.  At the time he was more active than the other three, not only with his own projects but also jamming around with all kinds of people in the rock scene.  Unfortunately, his “Plastic Ono Band” – one of his best works, by the way -- wasn’t the commercial success he expected, mainly due to its biographical and socially-conscious contents that made it the kind of material masses aren’t dying to collect.  And here resides part of the answer.  

With “Imagine,” he had a better idea of what he wanted, as far as making good music and money in the process. Both, the musical and ideological contents of the album were well-balanced, but the number-ones weren’t here yet. At this point it was obvious that Lennon’s political stances were affecting record sales and the concept that a lot of people had of him; especially American people, who didn’t see it right for a foreigner to attack their institutions, even in the form of a greatly corrupt President like Richard Nixon.  When we listen to tunes like “Jealous Guy” and “Imagine” we cannot help but wonder why two songs that are so well crafted and appealing to common taste don’t reach number one.  I mean, even Ringo had a number-one hit before John.

The rest is history; he kept making music, mainly going through the motions, because he seemed to have lost focus as he went along trying to prove himself he had what it took. And yet, another incidental factor was added to the equation: his separation from Yoko, which led to emotional and artistic chaos, with the erratic production – with none other than Phil Spector -- of some disjointed and confused music that became his “Rock ‘n’ Roll” and “Menlove Avenue” albums.

Another thing that contributed to a bad rating of his work was that he started overproducing his music, stripping it off its natural candor. Two of his records of that period, “Walls and Bridges” and “Mind Games” had Lennon’s essence hidden behind the extra polish that he added to some tracks like “One Day at a Time,” “Bless You,” and “Scared,” that would have been, otherwise, awesome works of art -- If you listen to the Lennon anthology, that contains some of the in-the-raw song recorded during band rehearsals, you’ll get my point.  Paradoxically, it was “Whatever Gets You thru the Night,” out of “Walls and Bridges” that would give him his first number-one – of the only two that he had in his solo career -- hit.  Still, he affected the seventies only partially because in 1975 he went into seclusion –a five year hiatus to raise his newborn son Sean.

In 980 Lennon made his big comeback with two albums: “Double Fantasy,” with which he closed the seventies forever; and “Milk and Honey,” the one he greeted the eighties – the most indicated for that -- with.  While the former still bears the candidness of the seventies in gems like “Watching the Wheels” and “Woman,” with their beautiful instrumental embellishments, the latter has a more simple approach, characterized by the fast tempos of choppy rhythm guitars in songs like “Nobody Told Me” and “I’m Stepping Out,” a sound that was representative of those days. He was ready to start over, and he did so in a big way, as his last works prove; sadly, the chance of giving any more input to his times was cut short by death.  But John Lennon’s musical and human legacy lives, and after all I think is safe to say that the man was as big as the name.

Music suggestions for appreciation (probably on YouTube):
“Isolation”
“How”
“How Can You Sleep”
“Oh My Love”
“Gimme Some Truth”
“Steel and Glass”
“Nobody Loves You When You’re Down and Out”
“I’m losing You”
“Now and Then”

Valoración de los usuarios: / 0
PobreEl mejor