Remembering 20th century's greatest peacemakerToday (December 8) is the 30th death anniversary of John Lennon. It was on this day that Lennon fell to the bullets fired by a lunatic. I think it fit to reflect on a wonderful biography of Lennon which I read recently. The book must be the most authentic one, for Ray Coleman Coleman, a music journalist, was a close friend of Lennon and experienced first hand the musician so intimately right up to his tragic death.
Coleman’s sensitive approach to minute details of Lennon’s various facets is praiseworthy. Teddy bear, rebel student, pop star, propagandist for peace, song writer, oddball, loving husband, doting father…Without eulogizing or denigrating Lennon, the biographer provides an honest and unvarnished portrayal, dissecting Lennon in myriad ways. It’s a definitive biography of a musician and a great philosopher who influenced the 20th century anti-war resistance movement and the ideals of a generation.
One gets a detailed description of things like his bitter rivalry with co-singer Paul McCartney (amplified in How do you sleep in which he takes a dig at Paul), his troubled formative years, post-Beatles days, efforts for world peace, his voracious appetite for women, etc. Though an ardent Lennon fan, I felt bad to read that he mercilessly abandoned wife Cynthia to live with Yoko Yono, the Japan woman who went on to change his life in so many ways. Of course, John wasn’t a fickle lover. It was only that he decided to live with the Yoko the moment he saw her, for, he realized that it was the Woman of his Life.
Jesus Vs Beatles
The book throws light on the controversy that Beatles once claimed themselves to be superior to Jesus Christ. The whole controversy is irrelevant as it was the result of the universal phenomenon of quoting out of context.
The controversial quote appeared in an interview Lennon gave to Maureen Cleave for Evening Standard in the spring of 1966. Lennon said: “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right, and I will be proved right. We are more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - rock'n'roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."
It didn’t cause any stir in England, used to an overdose of Lennonism. All hell broke loose when the article was republished in an US magazine, Datebook, after four months. This time, instead of getting submerged in the context of a general article, it was front-paged: Lennon was claiming that the Beatles was bigger than Jesus!
It caused a storm across America, especially the American South, the Bible belt, with anti-Beatles demonstrations – the deadly Ku Klux Klan marched - and the bonfires of Beatles records. Radio stations banned their records. The church was irked; a minister even threatened to excommunicate any member of his congregation who attended Beatles concert tour which was to begin in two weeks time.
In London, Maureen was trying her best to place Lennon’s remarks in their true perspective. “He was simply observing that so weak was the state of Christianity that Beatles were, to many people, better known. He was deploring, rather than approving, this.”
But nothing damped down the flames. Finally Lennon was forced to apologize. In a press meet in Chicago, Lennon said: “I just said they (Beatles) are having more influence on kids and things than anything else, including Jesus. But I said it in that way which is the wrong way.”
For the British clergymen John was simply telling the truth: witness the number of people who attended the Beatles’ concerts and bought their records, compared with the Church attendance figures.
It reminded me the popular Karl Marx’s religion-opium quote, often used to denounce religion and religiously repeated to argue that he was vehemently anti-religious. What he really meant is the fact that religion gives the masses a means to forget their woes like opium: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature,” Marx had said in the same breathe.
Similarly, anyone who goes through Lennon’s comments can figure out that he was simply trying to drive home the point that the youth of England in the 1960’s were more interested in music and that religion was less appealing to them.
Some claim Lennon was seeking popularity. It is simple nonsense, because Lennon and Beatles were already popular. They didn’t need a cheap trick to draw attention.
Ever since I started listening to Lennon, and got to know more about his political life and deep dedication for world’s peace (Imagine still gives me ………..) Lennon has assumed a cult status in my mind. His marvelous vocals apart, what is so exciting about him is the fact that he was one of the greatest humanists who strived for peace in the 20th century.
I read those last lines of the biography with awe and a heavy heart, with tears welling up my eyes. I was eager to know how Coleman would finish it, which made me edgy: “As a twentieth century philosopher, he set an example of imagination and humanitarianism. Though he would hate to be deified, a light went out on 8 December 1980. but his music and his spirit shine on.”
True. John Lennon’s spirit still lingers on. Through his music and extraordinary life. Lennon, we all miss you!
