-- John Winston Ono Lennon (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980)
(a reprint from 09 October 2009)
John Lennon didn’t invent rock and roll, nor did he embody it as toweringly as figures like Elvis Presley and Little Richard, but he did more than anyone else to shake it up, move it forward and instill it with a conscience. As the most daring and outspoken of the four Beatles, he helped shape the agenda of the Sixties - socially and politically, no less than musically. As a solo artist, he made music that alternately disturbed and soothed, provoked and sought community. As a human being, he served as an exemplar of honesty in his art and life.
As Jann Wenner wrote in the foreword to a collection of writings entitled The Ballad of John and Yoko, “Of the many things that will be long remembered about John Lennon - his genius as a musician and singer, his wit and literary swiftness, his social intuition and leadership - among the most haunting was the stark, unembarrassed commitment of his life, his work and his undernourished frame to truth, to peace and to humanity.”
A tribute to John Lennon in the words of John Lennon
“Life goes on within you and without you”
Question: Would you like to walk down the street without being recognized?
John: We used to do this with no money in our pockets, there`s no point in it.
Question: Does all the adulation from teenage girls affect you?
John: When I feel my head start to swell, I look at Ringo and know perfectly well we`re not supermen.
"We were all on this ship in the sixties, our generation,
a ship going to discover the New World.
And The Beatles were in the crow's nest of that ship."
“Song writing is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won't let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you're allowed to sleep.”
"If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music,
then in that respect you can call me that...
I believe in what I do, and I'll say it."
"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - rock and roll or Christianity. "
"I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?"
"I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people."
"If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal."
"My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all."
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it."
"Rituals are important. Nowadays it's hip not to be married. I'm not interested in being hip."
"We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it."
“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”
“I'm not going to sacrifice love, real love, for any fuckin' whore or any friend, or any business, because in the end you're alone at night.”
"The thing the sixties did was to show us
the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had.
It wasn't the answer.
It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility."
"You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are.
You are what you are."
"Your way of life is a political statement."
"When you're drowning, you don't say
'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have
the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,'
you just scream."
“Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.”
"Listen, if anything happens to Yoko and me,
it was not an accident."
"All you need is love. Love is all you need."
John Winston Lennon (October 9, 1940 - December 8, 1980)
Image & Quote Sources: www.rockhall.com, www.john-lennon.com, www.rollingstone.com
Photos from two new books about John Lennon - "John & Yoko: A New York Love Story" (Insight Editions) by Allan Tannenbaum, and "Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon" (St. Martin's) by former girlfriend May Pang.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/galleries/john_and_yoko_and_may/john_and_yoko_and_may.html
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