A
Actress101
Guest
Lovely thing to say.My Opinion of John Lennon…
HE"S DEAD!
- Status
K
KatieD
Guest
I think Beatles music was great. However, whoever said that John Lennon was a poor role model was exactly right. He was a terrible husband to his wife Cynthia, and he was a father who completely ignored his son Julian once he was with Yoko Ono. In fact, I believe that “Hey Jude” was written by Paul McCartney because of the difficult time that Julian experienced due to his father’s neglect. Not the kind of person any of us would like to have as a dad, and certainly not someone to admire
.
As far as who was better, John or Paul, I think they brought out each other’s talents in their work. Their work together, in my opinion, was much stronger than their work apart. Each of them had a few nice songs once The Beatles broke up, but it can’t compare to the work they did together.
.
As far as who was better, John or Paul, I think they brought out each other’s talents in their work. Their work together, in my opinion, was much stronger than their work apart. Each of them had a few nice songs once The Beatles broke up, but it can’t compare to the work they did together.
A
Actress101
Guest
I do agree that John wasn’t the best role-model…but I do think in the sense of fighting for peace and love, he was a great role model for myself.
J
Jennifer123
Guest
Weird - that’s my experience too. I mean, I love the Beatles, but don’t find them quite as enlightening as I did when I was young, idealistic, and yes, foolish. Imagine was a favorite Lennon song until my husband really showed me how it’s antithesis to Christian faith. He hated Imagine and all that in high school, but he was always more conservative. I was the proud liberal…
He collected tons of Beatles stuff too, but wasn’t necessarily a John fan - more the milquetoast Paul… 
Learning more about Lennon too and his tendency towards violence, well, he’s certainly a flawed man with many contradictions. We all are for sure, but the Lennon “worship” as a man of peace and all that, it’s misguided. He’s a human being whose belief systems were pretty flawed. Peace be with him.
B
bethe51
Guest
never thought of that… good point!
But I think it is odd how noone has said anything about “the ballad of John and Yoko” Thier gonna cruixify me…? I always hated that song but I love some of there other songs. I think when the first started they were good but then the got to much into the hippie movement and their songs wernt so great especilly the white alblum
Q
qmvsimp
Guest
This is a good point. Role model usually does not mean role model in all aspects of one’s life. If that were the case, Jesus and Mary would be the only role models.
K
koda
Guest
I don’t think you can be genuine in your fight for peace and love if you ignore your own son. It sounds hypocritical to me.
Q
qmvsimp
Guest
It is definitely hypocritical. But, Lennon died in 1980 before these revelations regarding his son, came out. Thus he never had a chance to respond to them. Let’s be careful to not pass judgement.
A
Actress101
Guest
Well…we don’t know what emotions John had towards his first son. We don’t know what happend between them, or between John and his son’s mother. I agree that it wasn’t right to ignore your own son, but it’s not always as simple as ‘well he ignored his son’. There could be things that happend that we don’t know about that did bring this about. It didn’t mean that he didn’t love him.
S
siamesecat
Guest
Re: Imagine. It is Communist, anti-Christian, idealistic, and impractical, but I think it’s true. If there were no countries where people got caught up in patriotism, and no holy wars over religion, etc. there wouldn’t be wars. I doubt that would ever happen, but if people stopped forming groups so they had to choose sides, there’d be nothing to fight over. Religion and nationalism aren’t bad things, but they are a major cause of strife.
S
sk32900
Guest
Interesting quotes on this thread. I have to comment on this, though: Mother Mary, from what I read, was Paul’s mother. No other meaning there (another side note: the “Let It Be” phrase was from when he was meditating, and he saw one of his managers in a trance saying those words to him. Weird, huh?).
I all but worshiped the Beatles growing up (it happens when your older sisters play their records 24/7). I liked John the best, but they were all very talented. They were the best all-around band, but in specific categories you could find others who did a better job (e.g.: Paul Simon’s “Sound of Silence” was, IMHO, probably better than anything Lennon and McCartney turned out for the entire 60s). I’m sometimes still facinated by John’s introspective songs—for example, at the height of the Beatles success, he wrote about being a “Nowhere Man.” No, he was no Christian, but it’s hard to find a better illustration of having the world at your feet and still having an empty heart and making “nowhere plans” without Christ.
I’m kind of eclectic with my musical tastes anymore—although I’ve found myself somewhat bored with contemporary Christian music (sorry, IMHO, not meant to offend). Rich Mullins is the only one I REALLY like to listen to anymore in that genre. Other than that, I’m all over the map sometimes (last week I even listened to one of my Gregorian chant albums. Very peaceful to me!). God bless!
M
miguelo
Guest
T
thechrismyster
Guest
at my wedding reception, the last song of the night was Lennon’s “grow old along with me” - great song.
like all artists, he had his hits and he had his misses. not every work an artist does is a Mona Lisa.
“Imagine”, like an earlier poster said, makes me cringe with it’s socialistic ideals and communist hippie leftist overtones… Regardless of how much history has romanticised them, hippies were usless to society, lacked proper hygiene, destroyed repect for authority, undermined family values with leftist propaganda, were a catalyst for new age thought in America and encouraged a drug infested culture that continues to plague their children and grandchildren in a ironic and interesting way.
The ills of America’s youth? thank a Lennon era hippie.
like all artists, he had his hits and he had his misses. not every work an artist does is a Mona Lisa.
“Imagine”, like an earlier poster said, makes me cringe with it’s socialistic ideals and communist hippie leftist overtones… Regardless of how much history has romanticised them, hippies were usless to society, lacked proper hygiene, destroyed repect for authority, undermined family values with leftist propaganda, were a catalyst for new age thought in America and encouraged a drug infested culture that continues to plague their children and grandchildren in a ironic and interesting way.
The ills of America’s youth? thank a Lennon era hippie.
C
Chris7
Guest
"Imagine":
L
lindsays
Guest
I think the Beatles were very talented musicians and their popularit proved that as well as their song writing.
As far as Imagine is concerned, i never really picked up on the religious side of it until much later. When you get down to it, it’s like the song is asking us to “imagine” there’s no God.
That implies that humans should take a holiday from God once in a while to reflect on the state of the world.
That’s when i have a problem with the song, it seems like a contradiction to me that we should try to bring peace and love into the world without the help of God.
It’s actually a little scary to think that we should be away from God for even a second.
Anywayz, that’s just my two cents.
As far as Imagine is concerned, i never really picked up on the religious side of it until much later. When you get down to it, it’s like the song is asking us to “imagine” there’s no God.
That implies that humans should take a holiday from God once in a while to reflect on the state of the world.
That’s when i have a problem with the song, it seems like a contradiction to me that we should try to bring peace and love into the world without the help of God.
It’s actually a little scary to think that we should be away from God for even a second.
Anywayz, that’s just my two cents.
S
sk32900
Guest
Well said. Sadly, Lennon seemed very anti-God for most of his life. The Beatle song “Girl” was actually a slam at the church—at least that’s what I remember Lennon saying in a Rolling Stone interview. Then there’s the vicious song “God” (from an album before “Imagine”) where he denounces belief in everything except himself and Yoko. And in 1979, he penned a REALLY awful tune “Serve Yourself” (I read the lyrics; take my word for it), where he was ridiculing Bob Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody” (“It may be the devil/or it may be the Lord/but you gotta serve somebody”) which really must have gotten under Lennon’s skin. However, on Double Fantasy, in the song “Beautiful Boy” (written for his son Sean), there’s the line: “Before you go to sleep/say a little prayer…” I had read in the NY Daily News after Lennon was killed that his bodyguard was a Pentecostal minister, who said that Lennon liked the choir music tapes the minister would give him (BTW, the night Lennon was shot, he had sent the bodyguard home early). Maybe Lennon started having second thoughts towards the end? Ultimately, only God knows the answer to that one. God bless.
E
empacae
Guest
Imagine is overrated anyway. And Lennon, being a Rock 'n Roll rebel stays true to form. Anti-establishment. “What are you rebelling against?”
“What’ve ya got?”
emp
“What’ve ya got?”
emp
E
epower
Guest
Their songs are all about atheism and drugs. They also like to ridicule religion.
I used to think that “Let It Be” was a religious song. It is not. I heard Paul or John saying that it was a song about his mother,
That really infuriated me. My brother told me that the “Fool on a Hill” was about God.
I could go on and on.
I used to think that “Let It Be” was a religious song. It is not. I heard Paul or John saying that it was a song about his mother,
That really infuriated me. My brother told me that the “Fool on a Hill” was about God.
I could go on and on.
S
SemperJase
Guest
Look a bit deeper Actress. The peace and anti-war movements were not about peace or against war. They were (and remain) only against American involvement in war.
Lennon railed against the U.S. fighting in Vietnam. But when the U.S. did withdraw, and the communists began slaughtering a million South Vietnamese, Lennon didn’t write any songs or protest against it.
Peace isn’t peace if you are ruled by tryanny. Lennon didn’t seem to have any problems with that. Bascially he considered peace to be an absence of war - more specifically absence of Americans fighting in war. That just is not true.
J
JW10631
Guest
I was a young child when the Beatles reached the highest point of their fame, and I was 7 when they broke up.
I can listen to their earliest music. Their later music is something I cannot stomach.
I despise “Imagine”. I used to like rock 'n roll - don’t listen to it much anymore, but that is absolutely the worst “rock” song I have ever heard.
Rock musicians who take themselves seriously are jokes.
Since I won’t speak ill of the dead, I will withhold my opinions about John Lennon. He has certainly faced judgement before the God who he apparently denied for much of his life. That should be enough.
I can listen to their earliest music. Their later music is something I cannot stomach.
I despise “Imagine”. I used to like rock 'n roll - don’t listen to it much anymore, but that is absolutely the worst “rock” song I have ever heard.
Rock musicians who take themselves seriously are jokes.
Since I won’t speak ill of the dead, I will withhold my opinions about John Lennon. He has certainly faced judgement before the God who he apparently denied for much of his life. That should be enough.
- Status