{"id":36,"date":"2010-10-05T10:52:28","date_gmt":"2010-10-05T14:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wpblog\/?p=36"},"modified":"2012-07-15T19:57:51","modified_gmt":"2012-07-15T23:57:51","slug":"does-anyone-understand-the-mona-lisa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/does-anyone-understand-the-mona-lisa\/","title":{"rendered":"John Lennon\u2019s Dream: His 10 Best Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John W. Whitehead
\n10\/4\/2010<\/h2>\n

\u201cAlways know sometimes think it\u2019s me\/but you know I know and it\u2019s a dream.\u201d\u2014John Lennon<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"JohnJohn Lennon was not just a great musician and songwriter. He was a dream-weaver who dared to imagine a world where human beings would put down their arms, stop warring and live in peace. \u201cYou may say I\u2019m a dreamer,\u201d Lennon sings in \u201cImagine,\u201d \u201cbut I\u2019m not the only one.\u201d<\/p>\n

No, John Lennon was not the only one to dream of a world without hunger and war, but he was enough of a realist to know that change does not happen overnight. It takes people coming together for a common goal, working together in harmony, and committing to make the world a better place for all. This was Lennon\u2019s dream. Thus, throughout his short and troubled life, Lennon\u2019s message to the world\u2014expressed in verse and deed\u2014focused on peace, love, active resistance to the establishment, and speaking truth to power. Thirty years after Lennon\u2019s life was prematurely ended by an assassin\u2019s bullet, it falls to you and me to make Lennon\u2019s dream a reality.<\/p>\n

October 9 marks what would have been Lennon\u2019s 70th birthday. In tribute, the following are my ten favorite John Lennon songs:<\/p>\n

Rain<\/strong>. This song marks the first appearance of a soon-to-be signature compositional device for John Lennon: the backward coda. The famous backward coda that ends this song was actually an accidental discovery. After listening to the song at home, Lennon forgot to rewind the tape. When he played it again, Lennon heard the entire song played backwards. Delighted with the effect, Lennon wanted to release the song that way, but producer George Martin and Paul McCartney were not as keen on the idea. The compromise: the last 30 seconds of the song were recorded backwards. Combined with the surreal lyrics, this was a mindblower when the song was released during the summer of 1966. \u201cCan you hear me that when it rains and shines, it\u2019s just a state of mind,\u201d sings Lennon. The psychedelic experience, as epitomized by LSD, was about to go mainstream.<\/p>\n

Strawberry Fields Forever<\/strong>. When he was young, Lennon, who had been abandoned by his parents, would climb over the wall to Strawberry Fields, an orphanage behind his aunt\u2019s house. There he would play in the gardens. This song is about childhood memories at a time when Lennon and McCartney were focusing on this theme. The lyrics are wistful and portray Lennon thinking out loud as his thoughts evolve: \u201cI think a \u2018no\u2019 will be a \u2018yes,\u2019 but it\u2019s all wrong. That is, I think I disagree.\u201d By this time, Lennon\u2019s style of writing had reached its surreal epitome: \u201cLet me take you down \u2018cause I\u2019m going to Strawberry Fields. Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.\u201d When Lennon played the song for the other Beatles, engineer Geoff Emerich recalled, \u201cThere was a moment of stunned silence, broken by Paul, who in a quiet, respectful tone said simply, \u2018That\u2019s absolutely brilliant.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

A Day in the Life<\/strong>. Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/em> is considered one of the greatest pop albums of all time. The album ends with a reprise of the title track that fades into the climactic classic \u201cA Day in the Life.\u201d The British Broadcasting Company banned this song, along with \u201cLucy in the Sky with Diamonds,\u201d because of what the BBC believed were drug references. As a postlude, \u201cA Day in the Life\u201d sets the other songs on the album and the Beatles\u2019 career in perspective. A collection of vignettes that are somewhat tragic, the song is punctuated with the phrase \u201cI\u2019d love to turn you on\u201d\u2014either a reference to drugs or the need to tune in to the Beatles\u2019 message. No doubt drugs were an intended reference in \u201cA Day in the Life.\u201d As author Mark Hertsgaard writes, \u201cIndeed, John and at least one other Beatle were tripping\u2014or flying, as John put it\u2014during the photo session for the Sgt. Pepper<\/em> album cover.\u201d The Beatles underscored the verses of the song with a dark, tumultuous orchestra crescendo. Lennon wanted the song to end with \u201ca sound like the end of the world.\u201d Thus, the Beatles simultaneously struck an E major chord on three grand pianos, drawing out the sound as long as possible with electronic enhancement. The effect of the crashing E major chord, followed by some 53 seconds of gradually dwindling reverberations, brings to mind nothing so much as the eerily spreading hush of the mushroom cloud\u2014visions of nuclear holocaust.<\/p>\n

I Am the Walrus<\/strong>. In my opinion, this song is John Lennon\u2019s masterpiece. Lennon, a voracious reader, was inspired by the writings of Lewis Carroll, in particular the tale of woe from Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland<\/em>, in which a band of young oysters are lured by the charms of the Walrus, who then begins to devour them. Obvious is the \u201cgoo goo g\u2019joob\u201d refrain which is the last line that Humpty Dumpty speaks when he falls to his doom in Alice\u2019s Adventures<\/em>. At times, Lennon said it was written on an acid trip, and at others he said he was inspired by the sound of an ambulance siren. Whatever the inspiration, the song is replete with amazing imagery: \u201cElementary penguin singing Hare Krishna. Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe.\u201d Producer George Martin, commenting on the song, said:<\/p>\n

He took a leaf out of John Cage\u2019s book, who long before had used a radio broadcast to create a \u201chappening.\u201d So we had a radio brought in, hooked it up to the recording console, and gave John the tuning knob to twiddle. In no time, he found what he wanted: a Shakespeare play, King Lear<\/em>, in full flow, going out live. It was by then so late in the evening that we were probably the only people listening to Will\u2019s drama; but it went into the mix all the same, and is there now forever.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Revolution<\/strong>. Paul McCartney made little effort to mark his distaste for some of Lennon\u2019s more political compositions, specifically \u201cRevolution.\u201d However, as Beatles biographer Bill Harry writes, \u201c\u2018Revolution\u2019 meant more to John at the time than any song he\u2019d written in years, and he was determined that it should appear as the A-side of the Beatles\u2019 debut release on their soon-to-be launched Apple Records. Apart from marking a return to the high-adrenalin, no-frills rock\u2019n\u2019roll that had always remained his first musical love, \u2018Revolution\u2019 was the first Beatles song to constitute an explicitly political statement\u2014which in turn is precisely why Paul felt so wary about it.\u201d But consider the times. It was the summer of 1968. Several months before, Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated and student arrests and riots were erupting throughout the Western world. And Lennon didn\u2019t want to remain silent. \u201cI wanted to put out what I felt about revolution,\u201d Lennon told Rolling Stone<\/em> in 1970. And the message was nonviolent resistance instead of violent revolution. \u201cYou say you got a real solution. Well, you know, we\u2019d love to see the plan. You ask me for a contribution. Well, you know, we\u2019re all doing what we can. But if you want money for people with minds that hate. All I can tell you is, \u2018Brother, you have to wait.\u2019\u201d As Lennon said in 1980: \u201cThe lyrics stand today. They\u2019re still my feelings about politics: I want to see the plan<\/em>….I want to know what you\u2019re going to do after<\/em> you\u2019ve knocked it all down. I mean, can\u2019t we use some<\/em> of it? What\u2019s the point of bombing Wall Street? If you want to change the system, change the system. It\u2019s no good shooting people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Give Peace a Chance<\/strong>. In late May 1969, Lennon and Yoko Ono staged a bed-in for peace in a Montreal hotel. A journalist had asked John what he and Yoko were trying to do. \u201cAll we are saying,\u201d John replied, \u201cis give peace a chance.\u201d Within hours, prompted by Yoko, Lennon had turned the phrase into a mantra. The verses are pure nonsense, spinning off rhymes from \u201cBagism\u201d (\u201cShagism, dragism, madism…\u201d) and \u201cRevolution\u201d (\u201cEvolution, mastication, flagellation, reputations, integrations…\u201d) and listing some of the celebrities who had joined the bed-in, together with others Lennon wished had done so (Timothy Leary, Tommy Smothers, Bob Dylan, Normal Mailer, Allen Ginsberg). On Sunday, June 1, Lennon, et al., began recording the song in his hotel room using a borrowed eight-track recorder with vocal help from Leary, Smothers, Ginsberg and others. \u201cThe companionable bedside choristers who joined him on \u2018Give Peace a Chance\u2019 had suggested an exhilarating new concept of recording and performing to John,\u201d writes Philip Norman in his biography of Lennon.<\/p>\n

Back in London, he and Yoko decided to keep alive the idea of a performing group that was not limited, like the Beatles, to a sacred four; not introverted, formula-bound, and hostile to outsiders, like the Beatles, but open to anybody, regardless of musical ability, appearance, age, or gender, and with as many or as few members as suited the moment. Its nucleus, moreover, would not be egotistical, quarrelsome humans, like the Beatles, but conceptual artworks which might have stepped straight from one of Yoko\u2019s shows.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This would eventually become the Plastic Ono Band. And \u201cGive Peace a Chance\u201d became a central peace anthem for the anti-war activist movement and showed Lennon\u2019s amazing influence. For instance, on November 15, 1969, during a peace rally in Washington, DC, folksinger Pete Seeger led nearly half a million demonstrators in singing Lennon\u2019s \u201cGive Peace a Chance\u201d at the Washington Monument. \u201cThe people started swaying their bodies and banners and flags in time,\u201d Seeger later recalled. \u201cSeveral hundred thousand people, parents with their small children on their shoulders. It was a tremendously moving thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Come Together<\/strong>. Originally written as a campaign song for LSD guru Timothy Leary, who was running for governor against Ronald Reagan in 1970, Lennon decided otherwise. And despite some legal wrangling because Lennon used a line from a Chuck Berry song, \u201cCome Together,\u201d as professor John Stevens notes, \u201cis a tour de force<\/em> in songwriting because\u201d it \u201chas only one section: verse\/refrain. There is no bridge or chorus in a verse\/refrain format. There is, in effect, nowhere to go.\u201d Supported by a smoky, swampy, New Orleans blues-style musical setting, this song is a chant that, while riveting, is in Lennon\u2019s words, \u201cgobbledy gook.\u201d But maybe more significant, this is the last song the Beatles recorded together as a unit. After the Let It Be<\/em> sessions, it looked like the group was finished. Then they decided to do one final album, Abbey Road<\/em>. It was in these sessions that the Beatles actually came together as a unit to produce the song. \u201cIf I had to pick one song that showed the four disparate talents of the boys and the ways they combined to make a great sound, I would choose \u2018Come Together,\u2019\u201d George Martin said. \u201cThe original song is good, and with John\u2019s voice it\u2019s better. Then Paul has this idea for this great little riff. And Ringo hears that and does a drum thing that fits in, and that establishes a pattern that John leapt upon and did the [\u2018shoot me\u2019] part. And then there\u2019s George\u2019s guitar at the end. The four of them became much, much better than the individual components.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instant Karma<\/strong>. On the afternoon of January 26, 1970, Lennon awoke from sleep with the words of a cryptic little song dancing in his head. \u201cInstant Karma,\u201d a hippie expression meaning instant punishment, struck a chord in Lennon\u2019s mind because of his belief that we must pay for the wrongs we do in this world. Jotting down verses on the paper he kept by his bed, Lennon bolted downstairs and banged out the basic song that day. The next day, Lennon summoned George Harrison and others to Abbey Road Studios. \u201c[John] said \u2018I\u2019ve written this tune and I\u2019m going to record it tonight and have it pressed up and out tomorrow,\u2019\u201d Harrison recalled. \u201cThat\u2019s the whole point\u2014Instant Karma, you know.\u201d With Phil Spector producing, the song is both a warning and a lament on the cosmic nature of the universe. \u201cInstant Karma\u2019s gonna get you. Gonna knock you right in the head. You better get yourself together. Pretty soon you\u2019re gonna be dead.\u201d And the plea for brotherhood: \u201cBetter recognize your brother, everyone you meet.\u201d The chorus, like Lennon\u2019s beliefs, returns to peace, nonviolence and optimistic togetherness. \u201cWe all shine on like the moon and the stars and the sun.\u201d The message: what we see happening around us\u2014war, violence, poverty, and mayhem\u2014are all the consequences of our actions. But to Lennon, that\u2019s not our purpose. As he asks: \u201cWhy in the world are you here? Surely not to live in pain and fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working Class Hero<\/strong>. Lennon revealed to Rolling Stone<\/em> editor Jann Wenner that he hoped this song would become an anthem for \u201cthe workers\u201d and those who keep them under their thumb. Lennon, by this time, was at war with the powers-to-be. \u201cYou gotta remember, establishment,\u201d he said, \u201cis just a name for evil.\u201d And Lennon used this song as ammo against the establishment. Here Lennon addresses his audience like an actor playing a scene. The music is a low-pitched guitar thrum, a folk ballad. Talking rather than singing, Lennon resurrects past deprivations and grievances: \u201cAs soon as you\u2019re born, they make you feel small…They hurt you at home and they hit you at school.\u201d Taking a swipe at the war machine, Lennon proclaims: \u201cThere\u2019s room at the top they are telling you still. But first you must learn how to smile as you kill.\u201d The underlying message of \u201cWorking Class Hero\u201d is that not only are we all enslaved like our forefathers were, but there is a new opiate of the masses: \u201cKeep you doped with religion and sex and TV.\u201d Dropping the \u201cF\u201d word twice, the virulence of every other word, it barely stands out except as a forceful reminder of the human condition. All in all, as Albert Goldman writes in his biography of Lennon: \u201cThe performance is one of Lennon\u2019s greatest because instead of surrendering to the temptation to rant and scream, he restrains himself, making his points by lowering rather than raising his voice, his anger flashing forth for only a moment at the end of each stanza, like a spark struck from a spur.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imagine<\/strong>. \u201cImagine\u201d is probably the most widely revered of Lennon\u2019s songs. The restful opening notes of this song still strike deep chords in people of all beliefs, despite its explicitly secular message. As a child, Lennon attended Sunday School and sang in the choir. And subjects the song covers were themes that nagged Lennon all his life. \u201cI\u2019m a most religious fellow,\u201d Lennon said shortly before his death in 1980. \u201cI only now understand some of the things that Christ was saying in those parables.\u201d But in 1971, religion to Lennon was something that causes conflict, so \u201cImagine\u201d envisions a world without heaven or hell. Besides Yoko Ono, one source of inspiration was a prayer book given to Lennon by comedian and activist Dick Gregory. \u201cAdvocating positive prayer, the book advised that to receive anything from God, we must first imagine it for ourselves. This idea impressed John greatly,\u201d writes author Paul Du Noyer. \u201cThe day before he died he was still expounding \u2018projection of our goals.\u2019 If we wish for a positive future we should exert our mental energy and visualize one. In 1980 he observed how this idea, once considered wacko, was now being adopted by everyone from business organizations to sports stars. If we conceive of the future as something violent, like Star Wars<\/em>, then we run the risk of creating precisely that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Lennon was not just a great musician and songwriter. He was a dream-weaver who dared to imagine…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[24,23,8,26,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3075,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/3075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}