It is not fair to remember people for what they are not.
The death of John Lennon is the only one I reacted to as a personal loss despite never meeting him. I walked passed him in Central Park once but I didn’t bother him. Never saw him play live.
I have reviewed all his solo work and all his Beatles work. He was a musical genius, better than McCartney (who is also a musical genius) not because he died but because he made the personal objective, the political subjective and did it all within the confines of rock music.
To put it another way: he could write about his most personal feelings and people felt he was writing about them, and he could write about the most important political matters and people still thought he was writing about them.
But I wanna remember him the way he was: sarcastic, rude, difficult, not the way Yoko wants me to. Fuck him. he was no saint.
1. he beat both his wives.
2. he was a drunk.
3. he was a junkie.
4. His solo career was a disappointment. He made two masterpieces but nothing else can withstand the scrutiny even A Hard Day’s Night can withstand.
5. He was an asshole.
6. He broke up the Beatles.
7. he was an extremist, embracing everything from the Hari Krishna’s to primal scream. I bet he’d be a scientologists today. John and Yoko used to go to an astrologist (that didn’t quite work out)
8. Arrogant beyond belief.
9. An insecure mess because his Mommy abandonment.
10. Deeply incestuous (he called Yoko Mother for a reason)
11. A crap father.
So fuck him. A musical genius and a fruit loop.
Fuck him, fuck him, fuck him.