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With John Gardiner

Remembering John Lennon....

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

So, it seems as if I'm on a bit of a run writing about some of rock idols from over the years – looking at guys like Neil Young and Ronnie Hawkins. And, really, I'm kind of enjoying writing about some of the kings of rock 'n' roll – hadn't really thought much about some of them before, but now realize that they played a big part in my life.
This week, I'm on about the guy who is likely my biggest hero as a rock musician and as a person – John Lennon. I must say first that I'm not particularly a Beatles' fan. I've come to appreciate their enormous significance as songwriters and innovators in the music business, but I was not really much of a fan back in the old days. Enjoyed Sergeant Pepper and would have bought the White Album if I could have afforded it, but not really into the Fab Four.
I admired John Lennon even back in those old days. I enjoyed his outrageousness – the granny glasses – the Beatle boots – he was the guy who was always challenging the establishment in one way or another. I always suspected that he was the guts of the Beatles and that while the rest of them were pop stars, Lennon was the real thing.
Nothing has happened over the last 30 years to make me believe differently. In fact, as I have revisited his music, from Mind Games to Cold Turkey to Imagine, I have come to realize that Lennon was/is pure substance. The guy didn't write fluff – he took his music very seriously indeed.
I really started to get into Lennon in the mid 1970's. I started to pick up a few of his records in the used bins at Records On Wheels in Guelph while attending university in the Royal City. I'd heard most of the stuff on the radio, but really didn't have a true appreciation for its greatness. As I re-listened to albums like Shaved Fish, I began to really like what I was listening to.
So, in the fall of 1980, I was primed for Lennon's first album release in about six years (I'm guessing on that). He'd been going through a bad period in his life during the mid 1970's, but had finally pulled out of it and managed to put together a new album. Word was that his turbulent spirit had finally been calmed and that he was writing some of his best stuff in years.
I was at ROW the first day the album went on sale, and picked up a copy of Double Fantasy, hardly able to wait to get home to give it a listen. I wept as I listened to tunes like Woman and Watching the World – I realized that here indeed was the heart and soul of the greatest musical experience in the 20th century. What an enormous talent!
A few days later, I wept again. John Lennon had been shot – killed in one of most senseless pieces of human sabotage in the history of the planet. I remember listening again to Double Fantasy that night, hearing the incredible melodies and thoughtful, gut-wrenching lyrics – I listened to his love for his son, his wife and, indeed, life itself. I could not believe the tragedy of his death. I thought of it as a loss to all of humankind. What could he have accomplished if given a more complete life?
Much has been written about Lennon and the rest of the Fab Four over the last three decades and I know I'm not adding much. But to watch Neil Young perform Lennon's Imagine at the post September 11 music benefit was to see one of the great performances of a lifetime. Read the words to that tune and I believe you will know the greatness of Lennon – that he saw it the way it could have been – should have been – not the sad mess things have turned into.
I thought for many years that perhaps I just had a soft spot for Lennon and that was why Imagine has meant so much to me over the years. Then, I was visiting a much younger couple – raised in a whole different era – and we got talking about music. I asked a sort of rhetorical question: "What's the greatest pop song ever written?" Without even a second thought, the young woman answered, "Imagine". There you have it – great in any generation.
I will silently remember John Lennon on December 5 this year – on the anniversary of his death. He was one of the good guys. He kept us honest. It saddens me to think that he's no longer with us. Think what could have been.



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.