Commemorating the death of John Lennon on December 8 is like commemorating June 4, or going to the Lunar New Year fair at Victoria Park, no matter how busy you are, you still squeeze time to do something for it.    

 

Around this time every year, it’s natural to feel unease. This moment in December - such an important month, apart from Christmas and farewell for the year, John Lennon is certainly a theme as well.

 

The story of The Beatles is rich in content and much more interesting and … sad, compared with what you can see in a movie or TV program. But to visualise the band's journey, you have to listen to their songs, read their books, understand the rock and roll culture some five decades ago, particularly in schools and clubs.

 

And Liverpool.

 

John Lennon will not be John Lennon if he was born somewhere else. The depression-hit Liverpool had profound impact on Lennon’s subsequent productions during and after the late Beatles. I always want to go to this city, maybe someday when I have enough money, I will land to the Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which has a slogan – Above us only sky.

 

Some background: Vocalist and rhythm guitarist John Lennon, playing in clubs in England in early 1960s, met bassist and vocalist Paul McCartney who later introduced guitarist George Harrison to the band. Drummer Ringo Starr later joined the band after the original drummer fucked up.

               

Inspirations flooded in as Lennon and McCartney started to compose. The Beatlemania, highlighted by such songs as I Wanna Hold Your Hand and A Hard Day’s Night and the fab four’s hair style, swept through England and conquered America. Lennon and McCartney wrote a song in a cab when they went touring in 1963, while they wrote the Sgt Pepper album in the studio ‘eyeball to eyeball’. 

 

In 1965, the band began some musical experiments and indulged in drugs, meditation and later had a vacation in India where they found new inspirations - after being fed up with the gigs and their usual catchy tones.

 

Tensions in the studio grew gradually with the band mates heading to different music directions and Lennon’s growing indifferent attitudes towards the band after meeting his second wife Ono Yoko in her art exhibition. Not appreciated to have Yoko, a female, in the studio when they were recording songs, the other members simply ignored and humiliated her - a major reason for the band’s split in 1970. The band’s last performance was on a rooftop in Liverpool.

 

Then John began his new life in America, where he had great difficulty in gaining the citizenship and was being identified as a politician involved in treason activities when he openly criticized the America’s involvement in the Vietnam war. He also got through hassles in fighting for the custodial right of Yoko’s daughter, but their effort proved in vain.     

 

In 1980, when he finally returned to the studio, he was assassinated. After the killing, fans around the globe, with candles in their hands, mourned the working class hero.

Lennon, 40, was shot dead in Manhattan on December 8, 1980, by Mark David Chapman, who said in 1991 that he was under "total compulsion" to kill Lennon. "It was like a train, a runaway train, there was no stopping it," said Chapman, who shattered hopes for a re-union of The Beatles.

The other three ex-Beatles, together with Lennon's widow Yoko, completed his three unfinished songs, including Grow Old Along With Me and Real Love.

However rich but short his life is, ultimately it should be the lyrics and melodies that have captured the essence of the life journey and turned people on. Here are some of my favorites:  

- ‘Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see’ - Strawberry Fields

 

-‘So this is Christmas,

And what have you done’ – Happy X’mas 

 ‘All these places had their moments

With lovers and friends, I still can recall

Some are dead and some are living

In my life, I loved them all’ – In My Life

Each of the songs has its background, but what appear in the songs are something universal, something that can trigger your thought about your life, the world, a generic event or a particular event. Your mind can simply follow what the songs take you to.   

Humor is the other thing that makes John Lennon a genius and stands out among other genius. Humor makes him more ‘human’ than other geniuses. John was on his way back home and was asked by a fan when the band would re-unite. John said “Tomorrow”. 

He was staging a “Bed Peace, Hair peace” campaign in which he and wife Yoko stayed in bed to peach peace. A maverick went messing around his campaign and said John did not write songs for him. John, in response, said he wrote songs especially for him. 

But talent and wealth couldn’t make Lennon happy after the release of his landmark album Imagine. His regrets included not being able to see McCartney again after the band’s split (as blocked by Yoko), not spending enough time to his son Julian Lennon.     What Lennon lacked was the courage to get things done. Indulgence in smoking, drugs, sex and alcohol, Lennon could not set his focus on anything, despite the fact that he always want to compose. 

Okay, so much history now. I would let Lennon’s lyrics to end this article.  

‘And so this is Christmas

For weak and for strong

For rich and the poor ones

The world is so wrong

And so happy Christmas

For black and for white

For yellow and red ones

Let's stop all the fight’ - Happy X’mas 

‘Grow old along with me

Two branches of one tree

Face the setting sun

When the day is done

God bless our love

God bless our love’ - Grow old along with me

 

‘Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup

They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe

Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my open mind

Possessing and caressing me

Jai Guru Deva OM

 

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

Nothing's gonna change my world

 

Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes

They call me on and on across the universe

Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box

They tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe

Jai Guru Deva OM

 

Nothing's gonna change my world

 

Sounds of laughter shades of live are ringing through my open ears

Inciting and inviting me

Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns

It calls me on and on, across the universe

Jai Guru Deva OM

 

Nothing's gonna change my world’ – Across The Universe

 

 ‘Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace’ - Imagine

 

‘People say I'm lazy dreaming my life away

Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me

When I tell them that I'm doing fine watching shadows on the wall

Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball?

 

I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round

I really love to watch them roll

No longer riding on the merry-go-round

I just had to let it go’ - Watching The Wheels

 

ENDS