The Gospel According To Yoko

Yoko 3:16: For God so loved the world she sent her only begotten son, John. So that the world can be encouraged to live in everlasting peace.

December 8 is the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's death.

On 10:50 pm, December 8, 1980 in the Dakota, New York City, John Lennon was shot five times in the back with a Charter Arms .38 Special Revolver. The assassin was Mark David Chapman. Since then, the popularity of Lennon massive increased, and so was cultivated the legend of the musical prophet of peace slain by a madman.

Several memorials would be made in honour of the late musician. A memorial in Central Park near the site of his death, a  posthumously Grammy Lifetime Achievement award in 1991. The John Lennon Museum in Saitama ,Japan in 2000. Shoot, even Cuba had its very own bronze Lennon statue in Havana, courtesy of then President Fidel Castro. In 2002, Liverpool, where Lennon was born in, changed its airport name to Liverpool John Lennon Airport, adopting the motto, "Above us only sky". Perhaps the greatest and most  recent memorial is the Imagine Peace Tower in Viðey off the coast of Iceland in 2007, which would release a beam of light on the birthday and the day he died. This basically means, that on the day this post was produced, the prior time it lit up was 2 months ago, tomorrow. One thing I find really interesting is that the memorials, nearly all of them seem to revolve around this song:



I can only presume that this was such an idealistic song, that it was all the better to immortalize him as a musical prophet of peace. Indeed, this article from the Guardian pretty much solidifies this hypothesis by one quote from a 19-year old fan:

"John is the Jesus of music. He came to save us."

Y-y-yeah. This is the thing. I know that he's dead and its predictable he'd receive a tremendous surge in popularity, especially as a Beatles member, but the literal messiahfication of John Lennon is to me, totally unwarranted. I'm not sure about this Lennon being the musical equivalent of Jesus, since well, the Gospels themselves gave opposing tales on the character of Jesus, conveniently 70 years (at least) after he died, so that alone makes its hard to say that John was like Jesus, of course assuming the latter existed at all (Though if he did, going by Mark, Jesus would've at least been as sarcastic as John, as in John Lennon).  However, in the case of Lennon's death, we can give a very accurate assessment of what the person was like, and whether the popular perception of him has any basis in reality. While I would usually ignore, or even enable the "peace prophet" propaganda image of Lennon, unfortunately I made the mistake of naming my blog: Opposing Bullshit. So, with a heavy heart, I'm going to take this on. Don't worry! I won't be harsh to Lennon. In fact, that's the beauty of being dead, you can't be personally hurt as much by utter falsehoods about you. Ironically like this "John Lennon is Jesus" tripe. I personally think he would've been offended by that. In fact, my real critique goes to the people who created this caricature based on literally one facet of his personality.

Sorry fans, but the real John Lennon was not the completely pacifistic musical saint we all know and love (although at one point, he did claim to be Jesus reincarnated after a freaky LSD trip, which he later didn't remember). Indeed, he'd probably be the first to tell you this, and would likely disregard such a perception. He was in fact, a sarcastic, tempermental, often violent jerk...who was an advocate for world peace. It's the latter image that I would prefer, since firstly, while not Jesus, he firmly represents Nietzsche's quote "human, all too human", and secondly, he sounds crazy awesome that way.

(Before I begin, I'd like to point out that every example I give on Lennon's jerkassery, are confirmed by those who were associated with him, or from Lennon's own mouth.) 

Born on October 9, 1940 in Liverpool, when he was only five years old his parents got into a heated arument, in which John was forced to choose between his parents eventually going with his mother, and his father abandoning them to the point he'd not see him again for 20 years (conveniently after he became famous). At age 17, his mother died after being struck by a car across the road. He would later dress up like a teddy boy and became involved with Cynthia Powell. During said relationship, he was rather possessive of her, and even quite violent towards her. Lennon was however good friends with Paul McCartney, and joining with two other mates George Harrison and Peter Suthcliffe, they became "the Beatles" in 1960. Adding a drummer Pete Best, they soon met Brian Epstein, who became their manager, despite being a total newbie in artist management. Soon, Suthcliffe left, and Best was fired (with approval from every remaining member), and was replaced by Ringo Starr becoming the recognisable Famous Four.  Around July, Lennon found out Cynthia was pregnant. Lennon then decided to marry her in response. After the group's single was released "Love Me Do" in August 1962, Lennon would marry Cynthia. The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein would keep this secret to the general public, for obvious reasons (you know, rabid fangirls, aging the group etc.) The Beatles their first album in February 1963. After being on tour following recent success in the U.K., Lennon's first son, Julian, was born on 8th April 1963, in Sefton General Hospital in Liverpool. Lennon would later see his son three days later.

Now on to the serious "jerk" moments. I've pretty much described the guy's early life, and knowing how long it would take to actually write his history down, it's preferable if they were bullet pointed. So, without further adieu (in chronological order):

• Pretty much being dismissive of Paul Best when the Beatles were called out on it saying "We were always gonna replace him. We just needed a drummer". He would later make an apology to Best, along with Paul McCartney and George Harrison. But not Ringo Starr. He wasn't the one who threw Best out, anyway.
• Making cruel jokes about Paul Epstein, about his homosexuality and his Jewishness, referring to him as a "queer Jew". (Although they were actually just jokes, and kept at great lengths to keep his sexuality secret outside his close friends)
• Beating the ever-loving shit out of MC Bob Wooler after he quipped "How was your honeymoon, John?" (referring to Epstein). Or as John put it, "He called me queer, so I battered his bloody ribs in."
• More of less, leaving behind his wife and child Cynthia, as the Beatles went off to Wales to study under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Transcendental Meditation. While he didn't exactly leave her, and it was more about her not being identified as Lennon's wife and missing the train, and deciding not to try and find another means of joining them, it should be noted that John had made little effort in contacting Cynthia either.
• Lying to his wife about what was going on between him and Yoko Ono, the conceptual artist he met around 1965 (or 1966?). Cynthia found out they had a relationship when she returned home from Greece, found her slipper outside the apartment door, and Ono was wearing her bathroom robes as they stared at each other.
• Filing for a divorce with Cynthia after during said discovery of John and Yoko's relationship. Cynthia returned from Italy to find this out from Alex Mardas, an associate of Lennon's, who informed her the decision was made on the grounds of adultery allegedly with Mardas. Considering Lennon's own relationship with Yoko Ono, and liaisons with groupies, friends and "thousands of women around the globe", this would make John Lennon, at least as defined on Planet Earth, a hypocrite.
• During said divorce, Cynthia was given £100,000, which was the equivalent of John's monthly wages at the time, plus £42,000 for custody for their son Julian. Initially it was only going to be £75,000, with Lennon shouting over the phone "It's like winning the pools, what are you moaning about? You're not worth any more."
• Leaving very little to his first son, Julian in his will. To be fair, he did make an effort to make a relationship with him. 

I've ignored many of the relationship issues he had in his marriages, since well, while (not very) interesting, I'm not that much of a fan of marriage. And Lennon obviously provides some of the main arguments against it.

And to balance it out, here's some of the crazy awesome things that he did:

• Coming on stage with a toilet seat around his neck in Hamburg (pre-fame), goosestepping around and shouting "stupid fucking Nazis" at them. They loved it.
• The aforementioned freaky LSD trip.
• The anti-war week long "bed-in for peace" calling the popular press and announcing them of this, with his new wife Yoko Ono on their honeymoon in 1969. And the bag-in moment.
• Writing a song about a random drawing by his son Julian. The song? "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
• Wrote a song called "Woman is the Nigger of the World", and pretty much receive the thumbs-up from black activists (If you're too dumb to get that it was a song protesting for equality, maybe you're the one with the problem).
• Pissing off President Richard Nixon, or as I like to call him, President Dick Dastardly; with his anti-war message. It led to him masterminding many schemes to get the singer deported by some bogus drugs charge.

As I mentioned already, the guy was a genuine anti-war activist. But he wasn't this Bob Dylan-esque activist, Oh Haruhi, no. When I say, this guy was a radical who called the Establishment out on its bullshit, I mean it. He was very vocal on his opposition to the hanging of James Hanriatty, saying that those condemning him "were the same bastards running guns in South Africa and killing blacks on the streets. ...The same bastards are running everything...This whole bullshit bourgeois scene." Also, when John Sinclair, an anti-war activist and leader of the White Panther Party was sentenced to 10 years for possessing marijuana, he attended a concert  calling for his freedom, calling on the authorities to "Let him be, set him free, let him be like you and me". This wasn't to say he didn't have a sense of realism in the anti-war movement. Or rather, he was pretty radical. When asked if he was to choose between the British forces and the IRA, he said he'd side with the latter (Considering this was just after Bloody Sunday, and the question was posed in a manner that peace wasn't an option, I'd personally agree with him). The guy was even a target for COINTELPRO, which puts him on par with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X that the FBI has spied on.

So why was this saintly image of Lennon being presented? Well, the biggest reason was his widow Yoko Ono. after his death, a public statement was made that "There will be no funeral for John" and ending with "John loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him." While this statement was short and rather heartfelt considering she saw her husband gunned down, even then you can almost see the beginnings of the messianic image being created around him, from that statement alone. While it was known that John was devoted to Yoko; to the point that her influence on Lennon was blamed for the break up of the Beatles, which is not necessarily true (At least not entirely), it really sank in that Yoko was devoted to Lennon as well. It got to the point where Ono withdrew from public appearances for an extended period.

Five years later, Ono would give Lennon his first memorial in Central Park, opened on 8 October 1985, when Lennon would've been 45. Then, memorials were pretty much popping around the globe, and Lennon's memory became pretty much into the peaceful saint of pop music. In fact it would be accurate to say that the image of Lennon; expressed through songs like "God", "Working Class Hero", "Jealous Guy", "Woman", "Mother", "Save Yourself" and others was pretty much reduced to "Imagine" (and possibly "Merry Christmas (War Is Over)". I don't know about you, but I think that in this world, one can be a peace activist while remaining a rude sarcastic, quirky badass. Just ask the Doctor.

It's possible this image would've eventually being absorbed into popular culture, but my issue with Ono (and technically only issue since she's done a wonderful job as an activist for feminism, AIDS victims and LGBT rights) was that she not only enabled the saint image, she bloody fostered and cultivated it. Seriously, like in 2002 in that Imagine... documentary on BBC, she spoke in terms like the world can be put in a simplistic dichotomy of "the peace industry, and the war industry". That literally sounds like it comes about of the "Imagine" song. Seriously, what about the photography industry? Or the media industry? Or the music industry? You know, the industries that you and John were pretty familiar with huh, Yoko? *Sigh* I can't stay mad at you. Tell you what, whenever you feel the need to put a memorial of your late husband, at least put more imagination than "imagine" or "peace". In fact, I'm starting a movement on whenever you get the John Lennon memorial feeling, just place a statue of him in Trafalgar Square, and title it "I Am The Walrus". In fact, since you're not even subtle about enforcing Lennon worship, just introduce a 900ft statue titled "John Lennon -God". At least it references one of his songs.

In summary, its more preferable if John Lennon was remembered as the deeply flawed, ballsy, with a deep sense of love for the human race, instead of the perfect almost soft-spoken icon. Part of that might even be the fault of TV since most of the stuff we see of him is in "watershed programming". That makes him a human being, not a god of any sorts. Indeed, not coming to terms with seeing Lennon for what he was is what led to his death in the first place, as the story is about some uber-religious Christian/Beatles fanatic with a god complex (not accurate terminology in psychology, but bear with me) who was butthurt over Lennon's openly critical views on religion, the dichotomy between singing about "a world without wealth" while being very wealthy, his success in general; all while refusing to sort out his own issues deciding to kill him and be famous. In the end, he wasn't slain for his anti-war views, but for not being perfect in the eyes of some deluded fan. I say if you want to remember John Lennon, don't go for this "John is the Messiah" crap. Instead, remember him for being imperfect, but trying his best .And having the balls to stand up for what he believes in. In that sense, the peace ideals are legit. But he's far more interesting as the lovable jerk who was human enough to make a stand against inhumanity. Oh and to me, "Imagine" is good, but it is not the greatest song Lennon ever made, let alone worthy of winning the best song ever 30 years running. (My personal favourite is "God", but that's a little too controversial for some)

Fin.

So, which other 60's icon shall I demythologize? Maybe I should go for another John, as in John F. Kennedy. Or maybe, Che Guevara...

(Oh, and for those who still don't get it...)

"I'll probably be popped off by some loonie."

- John Lennon, after being asked how he'd likely die in an interview in the 1960s. Eerie, huh.

"It's like idol worship. They only like people when they're on their way up. I cannot be on the way up again,... What they want is dead heroes, like Sid Vicious and James Dean. I'm not interested in being a dead hero. So forget 'em."

- John Lennon

"By the end you'll want to imagine this programme  was less abysmal. But that would be difficult. Imagining the cynical, caustic John Lennon spinning in his grave at 5,000 r.p.m. is surprisingly easy."

- Charlie Booker, reviewing (*sigh*) Arena: Imagine Imagine.