John Lennon: Proto-Punk Progressive
http://www.belltownmessenger.com/122010/86-mondo-culture-o.html
by Gillian G. Gaar
November 25, 2010
The fall is the time for reissues, as record companies endeavor to
notch up big sales during the holiday season. And how do you market
physical CDs in a download-happy world? It's easy if you're dealing
with old schoolers like myself who appreciate the concept of "hard
copy" (I know too many folks who lost their entire music collections
because their hard drive crashed). But to reach other folks, reissues
are being placed in increasingly lavish packaging.
John Lennon is no exception. He would've turned 70 this year, if he
hadn't been murdered in New York City in December 1980 (ironically
after having fought a lengthy battle to become a legal US resident).
And I've been happily deluged of late with all manner of Lennon
"product." There have been a couple Lennon bio pics (Nowhere Man, on
his childhood, not bad; Lennon Naked, about the late '60s, not so
good), and a new documentary, LENNONNYC, which aired as part of the
American Masters series on KCTS, about the post-Beatle years and well
worth watching (if you missed the November screenings there's more
this month: 12/8, 9 pm; 12/10, 10 pm; 12/15, 3 am).
There's also a nice new packaging of his two books, In His Own Write
and A Spaniard in the Works, in a single edition, 96 pages of stuff
and nonsense, that'll have you "dancing with wild abdomen," as the
author himself puts it. In an introduction written way back in 1964,
Paul McCartney offers a critique of the book other critics could
learn much from: "There are bound to be thickheads who will wonder
why some of it doesn't make sense, and others who will search for
hidden meanings ... None of it has to make sense and if it seems
funny than that's enough." Among the best lines he's ever written.
But of course the main reason people remember John Lennon is because
of the music. I discovered the Beatles as a wee child in the '60s,
and thus followed their solo careers when they split. John became my
favorite in those years. What particularly struck me was how the
media tended to focus on "crazy John and Yoko," but when I was able
to read a lengthy interview with them they didn't sound crazy at all;
rather, they came across as quite sensible and very interesting (an
early lesson in the media distortion of taking things out of
context). People took stunts like bed-ins and bagism so seriously,
when they actually were a brilliant mix of performance art and how to
use the media instead of being used by it. Of course John and Yoko
didn't expect to bring about world peace by inviting the media to
watch them sitting in bed during their honeymoon. But they reasoned
that since the media would be writing about their wedding regardless,
why not force them to have to put the word "peace" in every story? If
the media really felt such stunts were ridiculous, all they had to do
was stop covering them. But they couldn't resist.
As a solo artist, John Lennon was not afraid to risk failure. Take
"Some Time In New York" from 1972, the couple's most derided album
for what some called simplistic sloganeering. At the time, John was
unapologetic: "We could have sat on 'Imagine' [his last hit album]
for a year and a half ... we just wanted to share our thoughts with
anybody who wanted to listen. The songs we wrote and sang are
subjects we and most people talk about." The topicality does date
some of the songs, but "Woman Is The Nigger Of The World" remains
timeless, and "New York City" and "John Sinclair" still swing. I've
always had a fondness for Yoko's raucous "We're All Water," and the
live performance from 1969 is a stunning example of proto-punk.
And yes, there's "Imagine." John is rightly lauded for this lyric,
but the title alone underscores that it's not the pure utopian vision
some portray it as. All it does it ask you to imagine what a better
world might look like; it's not a blueprint for how to get there. A
similar tactic was used in the Lennon/Ono anti-war campaign, where
they posted billboards around the world reading "War Is Over," along
with the qualifying phrase "If you want it." The "Imagine" album also
contains sentiments that are a good deal darker. The anti-McCartney
rant "How Do You Sleep?" is the most notorious, but "Jealous Guy" is
just as disturbing in its way, with a beautiful melody wedded to a
disturbing apology: "I didn't mean to hurt you/I'm sorry that I made
you cry." At least John later owned up to such behavior, telling an
interviewer, "I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent
and regrets his violence. I will have to be a lot older before I can
face in public how I treated women as a youngster." In an interview I
did with Thurston Moore, he told me how impressed he was in the '70s
by John's interviews; the first man he saw on television talking
about feminism.
John's solo albums have recently been lovingly packaged in The John
Lennon Signature Box, all white, with a hardback book, and art print,
and there are scaled down sets (Gimme Some Truth and Power To The
People: The Hits) for those less flush. Or hit up the library; they
carry John's albums, though most copies are checked out at present
time (important albums not mentioned above; John Lennon/Plastic Ono
Band, and the "stripped-down" version of Double Fantasy). Deluxe box
sets are nice to have and fun to look at it. But it's the music
inside that's the most important. And John's music, in whatever
format you hear it, retains its power.
War is over. If you want it.
.
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