December 8th. Sigh. Today is a very sad day for me and for a lot of others. Today is the 30th anniversary of the death of John Lennon. I'm sure you all probably already knew that, but I'm just explaining why I might not be in the cheeriest of moods. No, I didn't know him, and I was really young when he died, but I was already a Beatles fan and I remember waking up and hearing the news. I was devastated. If you can be devastated at the age of 9. Still, at the time, I was too young to truly comprehend what a major loss Lennon's death was to the music world and to the world in general. I do now.
John Lennon was one of the most gifted and prolific songwriters in history. More than that, he was a humanitarian. He truly cared about the world and the people in it and tried to make changes for the better. He always stood up for what he believed in and used his celebrity to spread his message. He didn't get dressed up in expensive designer clothes and hold benefits and so forth like celebrities do today. Not that I'm discounting the efforts of today's celebrities who DO raise a lot of money for charities and people in need. They do a lot of good and deserve credit. I'm just saying that John Lennon put his whole heart and soul into his causes. They were a part of him and you just don't see that today. He raised awareness and spoke out, even when it was not the "popular" or "safe" thing to do. He protested the war in Vietnam even though it pissed of the U.S. Government who tried to have him deported and kicked out of the country for doing so. He always fought for what he believed in and was always ready to face the consequences.
John Lennon was no saint. There are stories of his sometimes cruel sense of humor that he would unleash on Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles, and others, and his neglect of his first son, Julian. He, of course, cheated on his first wife Cynthia and eventually left her for Yoko Ono. He wasn't perfect, but who is?
This is probably cliche, but John Lennon is definitely one of my heroes. I am just so sad at the loss we've all suffered because Mark David Chapman is a nutjob who shot one of the greatest men of the 20th Century. We'll never know what songs he might have written or what impact he might have made on the music industry in general. If John Lennon had lived would we have had to be subjected to the likes of Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga.
It's a heady thought, isn't it?
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