John Lennon

[froy]

26 years ago today we lost a great man.
To this day there is a hole in my soul because of his passing.
I never forgave god for letting it happen.
Even though I know he had nothing to do with it,

Imagine all the people living life in peace.

John Lennon
We miss you.

[bugsymalone]

Suite and I visited the Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park. People to this day flock to it and leave flowers and messages. Very affecting to see it.

I was watching Monday Night Football the night Howard Cosell announced that John Lennon had been shot. I simply did not believe it when I first heard it.

I was always a fan of the Beatles and still am to this day. It is sad to me to know both John and George are gone. Way too soon.

Thanks for the reminder, Froy.

Bugsy

[NealIsGod]

Yeah, I remember waking up on Tuesday morning when my alarm clock radio came on with the news (I was 14). I just laid there in shock for a long time. Definitely one of those moments that you remember where you were when you heard the news.

[froy]

Yeah, I remember waking up on Tuesday morning when my alarm clock radio came on with the news (I was 14). I just laid there in shock for a long time. Definitely one of those moments that you remember where you were when you heard the news.

I was with Colleen my Irish queen by lovers lane doing the dew.
All of a sudden I heard the radio break in with Beatles music which was great,
After I heard it I to was in shock so much that I did not even think it was real.
It was the worst thing that I ever could have experienced one of The Beatles getting murdered
To this day I still can't believe someone would be stupid enough to do that
I mean what the hell did John do ?
All he kept saying was Peace and Love.
Thats my kinda guy.

John Lennon is my Hero.

[brywool]

well said Froy.
I was Christmas shopping. They were playing Beatles music in the store. I'm the biggest Beatles freak I know, so I was delighted. Then the store announced that John had been killed. The department store was COMPLETELY silent. What a sad night.

[Saint John]

26 years ago today we lost a great man.
To this day there is a hole in my soul because of his passing.
I never forgave god for letting it happen.
Even though I know he had nothing to do with it,

Imagine all the people living life in peace.

John Lennon
We miss you.

John Lennon was NOT a "great" man. Quite the contrary, actually. Here is a factual read. While I wholeheartedly condemn his murder and do recognize that he had quite an impact on the music world, I don't miss him at all. Enjoy the read:


The most famous and influential member of the famous and influential Beatles is the late John Lennon.

Lennon’s mother and father (Fred) had gotten married without her parent’s approval, and Fred left his little family to join the merchant marines when John was very small. John’s mother later lived with another man and had two daughters, though she never divorced Fred. In later life Lennon expressed great hatred for his mother. His father’s second wife, Pauline, testified that the mere mention of her name “triggered a vicious verbal attack on [his mother], whom he reviled in the most obscene language I had ever heard…” (Giuliano, Lennon in America, p. 17). John was raised largely by his mother’s sister, his Aunt Mimi. She sent him to an Anglican Sunday school, where he sang in the choir. By age 11, though, he was permanently barred from Sunday services because he “repeatedly improvised obscene and impious lyrics to the hymns” (Rock Lives, p. 114). Lennon testified that none of his church experiences touched him and that by age 19 he “was cynical about religion and never even considered the goings-on in Christianity.” It is sad that all Lennon experienced was corrupt Christianity in the form of dead Anglicanism. By 1964, McCartney testified that none of them believed in God and that religion “doesn’t fit into my life.” Their drug experiences changed that, but the “god” they came to believe in was not the God of the Bible. Lennon said, “We’re all God.”

By the late 1950s, Lennon was a profane and brawling street youth. He shoplifted, abused girls, drew obscene pictures, lied “about everything,” despised authority, and was the ringleader of a group of rowdies. The young Lennon was also very cruel. He tried to frighten old people and made fun of those who were crippled or deformed. The new music called rock & roll fit his licentious lifestyle. Later Lennon described himself as “a weird, psychotic kid covering up my insecurity with a macho façade” (Giuliano, Lennon in America, p. 2).

The Beatles were powerfully influenced by American bluesmen and by Elvis Presley, and they formed a rock band called the Quarrymen in the mid-1950s. Lennon testified that “nothing really effected me until Elvis.” McCartney said: “[Elvis] was the biggest kick. Every time I felt low I just put on an Elvis and I’d feel great, beautiful.” Ringo said, “Elvis changed my life.” By late 1957, the band included Lennon, Harrison, and McCartney, plus other young men on bass and drums. They combed their hair and dressed like Elvis and played rhythm & blues and Chuck Berry/Little Richard/Elvis type music. The group changed its name to the Silver Beetles in 1960, then simply to the Beatles. “John Lennon changed the name to Beatles to accent the drive of their music, the BEAT” (H.T. Spence, Confronting Contemporary Christian Music, p. 78). Drummer Ringo Starr joined the group in 1962 just before they recorded their first single.

The Beatles set the tone for rock music and for the hippie youth culture in the 1960s until the band broke up in 1969. They led a generation of rebellious youth from marijuana to acid to “free sex” to eastern religion to revolution and liberal political/social activism. David Noebel observes: “The Beatles set trends, and their fans followed their lead. They were the vanguard of an entire generation who grew long hair, smoked grass, snorted coke, dropped acid, and lived for rock ‘n’ roll. They were the ‘cool’ generation” (David Noebel, The Legacy of John Lennon, p. 43).

LENNON’S IMMORALITY. Lennon’s 21st birthday party was “a huge drunken noisy orgy” (Davies, The Beatles, p. 177). Lennon called marriage a stupid scene” and a mere “bit of paper.” He frequented prostitutes even in his teenage years, living in immorality before he was married, and then in adulterous relationships during his two marriages. His first wife, Cynthia, was pregnant with a child when he finally married her in a clandestine ceremony in August 1962. No parents attended and the other band members dressed in black. On their wedding night, John hurried away for a performance. Lennon and Yoko Ono lived together for a year while he was still married to Cynthia and Ono was still married to an American filmmaker. When Cynthia returned from a vacation in Greece, she found Ono living with her husband in her own home. Ono was still married to another man when she announced that she was expecting a baby by Lennon. The mocking Two Virgins album cover featured the nude photos of Lennon and Ono on the front and back. (The album, which had no songs, was composed of sound effects and random voices.) Ono had been married several times and had a number of abortions before her alliance with Lennon. Lennon said, “…intellectually, we knew marriage was a stupid scene, but we’re romantic and square as well as hip and aware. We lived together for a year before we got married, but we were still tied to other people by a bit of paper” (Davies, The Beatles). The two finally got married in March 1969. Ono wore a short mini-skirt and sunglasses. On their honeymoon, Lennon and Ono spent seven days in a public bed in Amsterdam, “to protest violence.” Later Lennon spent 18 months with his and Yoko’s secretary, May Pang, while he was still married to Ono. Lennon was involved with an adulterous relationship with the wife of the Beatles’ manager, Malcolm Evans (Giuliano, p. 107). In his last year, he was addicted to pornography movies and other vile things.

The Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, was a homosexual. After hearing the Beatles in a London pub, he become obsessed with making John Lennon his lover. Two years after the Beatles’ wildly successful 1964 America tour, Lennon accompanied Epstein to Barcelona, Spain, for a weekend that possibly included homosexual activity (Hunter Davies, The Beatles, introduction to the 1985 edition). There were probably other homosexual episodes in Lennon’s life. Biographer Geoffrey Giuliano, who had access to Lennon’s diaries, concluded that there was “a pronounced homosexual element in Lennon’s makeup” (Giuliano, Lennon in America, p. 13).

LENNON AND DRUGS. The Beatles began taking drugs during their earliest band days before they became popular. They started by taking slimming pills to stay awake during long performances. They were high on “prellies,” a form of speed called Phenmetrazine and marketed as Preludin. John Lennon was so out of control one night, that “when a customer over-enthusiastically approached the stage, he kicked him in the head twice, then grabbed a steak knife from a table and threw it at the man” (Harry Shapiro, Waiting for the Man, p. 107).

Many of the Beatles songs were about drugs. In fact, their 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s album heralded the drug revolution in America (“Approbation on Drug Usage in Rock and Roll Music,” U.N. Bulletin on Narcotics, Oct.-Dec. 1969, p. 35; David Noebel, The Legacy of John Lennon, pp. 56,58).

Lennon admitted that he began taking LSD in 1964 and that “it went on for years. I must have had a thousand trips … a thousand. I used to just eat it all the time” (Rolling Stone, Jan. 7, 1971, p. 39; cited by Jann Wenner, Lennon Remembers, p. 76). John Lennon read Timothy Leary’s book The Psychedelic Experience in 1966, after Paul McCartney took him to the Indica, a hip New Age bookshop in London. Lennon wrote “Tomorrow Never Knows” after taking LSD and wrote the songs “Come Together” and “Give Peace a Chance” for Leary.

Lennon claimed that he had been on pills since he was 17 and soon after turned to pot. He said: “I have always needed a drug to survive. The others, too, but I always had more, more pills, more of everything because I am more crazy, probably (Noebel, The Marxist Minstrels, p. 111). Lennon admitted to a Rolling Stone interviewer that there were “a lot of obvious LSD things in the music.” Lennon said, “God isn’t in a pill, but LSD explained the mystery of life. It was a religious experience.” In an interview with Playboy in 1981, Lennon said the Beatles smoked marijuana for breakfast and were so stoned that they were “just all glazed eyes.” The Beatles took out a full-page ad in the London Times (June 1967), calling for the legalization of marijuana. In 1969, Lennon said: “If people can’t face up to the fact of other people being naked or smoking pot … then we’re never going to get anywhere” (Penthouse, Oct. 1969, p. 29, cited in The Legacy of John Lennon, p. 66). Paul McCartney told Life magazine that he was “deeply committed to the possibilities of LSD as a universal cure-all.” He went on to say, “After I took it, it opened my eyes. We only use one-tenth of our brain. Just think what all we could accomplish if we could only tap that hidden part. It would mean a whole new world. If politicians would use LSD, there would be no more war, poverty or famine” (Life, June 16, 1967, p. 105).

In 1968, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were arrested for marijuana possession. The drug conviction nearly cost Lennon the right to live in the United States.

LENNON AND REVOLUTION. The Beatles promoted the revolutionary overthrow of authority and communism in songs such as “Revolution No. 9,” “Working Class Hero,” Back in the USSR,” “Power to the People,” “Sometime in New York City,” “Give Peace a Chance,” “Bloody Sunday” (which called British police “Anglo pigs”), “Attica State” (“now’s the time for revolution”), “Angela” (which glorified communist Angela Davis), and “Piggies.” Lennon performed at anti-America rallies and called upon America to leave Vietnam to the communists. He said: “I really thought that love would save us. But now I’m wearing a Chairman Mao badge, that’s where it’s at. I’m just beginning to think he’s doing a good job” (Lennon, cited by Wenner, Lennon Remembers, p. 86). Lennon gave the violent Students for Democratic Society (SDS) $5,000, hoping it would assist those who were being sought by police for bombings. Though Lennon later characterized his radicalism as “phony” and motivated by guilt for his wealth (Newsweek, Sept. 29, 1980, p. 77), “its effect was deadly real” (Noebel, p. 78).

LENNON AND PAGAN RELIGION. In the summer of 1967, the four Beatles and other rock stars, including Brian Jones and Mike Jagger of the Rolling Stones, visited Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during his trip to North Wales and listened to the teachings that he called the “Spiritual Regeneration Movement.” This false teacher claimed to have a path of regeneration other than that of being born again through faith in Jesus Christ. Later the Beatles, along with Donovan, Mia Farrow, Beach Boy Mike Love, and others, visited the Maharishi’s ashram on the banks of the River Ganges in India to study Transcendental Meditation. The Beatles soon split with the Maharishi. But though he rejected the Maharishi, Lennon continued to believe in yoga till the end of this life. “If John’s energy level and ambition were running high, a half hour or more of yoga was next on the agenda. . . . Outside of walking, yoga was the only exercise he ever did. But spiritual rather than physical reasons motivated him to continue meditating. . . . [He believed yoga could help him achieve his greatest ambition, which was] a state of spiritual perfection by following The Way of The Masters: Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Krishna and Gandhi. . . . John believed that if he meditated long and hard enough, he’d merge with God and acquire psychic powers, like clairvoyance and the ability to fly through the air. And he wanted those powers as badly as he wanted anything” (Rosen, Nowhere Man, p. 18).

The song “Tomorrow Never Knows” was inspired by John Lennon’s “drug-addled readings of the Tibetan Book of the Dead” (Stairway to Heaven, p. 140). The lyrics say: “Turn off your mind relax and float downstream. It is not dying. It is not dying. Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void. It is shining. It is shining. That you may see the meaning of within. It is being. It is being.” As we shall see, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were heavily involved in occultism toward the end of Lennon’s life.

Lennon “was strongly influenced by Van Gogh and Marcel Duchamp [depraved artists and philosophers who taught that life is meaningless]; these men were the textbook teachers of Lennon when he attended the Liverpool Art School. Both he and Yoko Ono were much involved in avant-garde art, and their music certainly reveals this fact” (H.T. Spence, Confronting Contemporary Christian Music, p. 41). In 1965 Lennon was asked, “What will you do when Beatlemania subsides?” He replied: “I don’t suppose I think much about the future. I don’t really [care]. Though now we’ve made it, it would be a pity to get bombed. It’s selfish, but I don’t care too much about humanity—I’m an escapist. Everybody’s always drumming on about the future but I’m not letting it interfere with my laughs, if you see what I mean” (Stairway to Heaven, p. 128).

Lennon and Yoko Ono were fascinated by the occult. He purchased entire sections of occult literature in bookstores (Hellhounds on Their Trail, p. 181). Occultist John Green was hired by Yoko Ono in 1974 to be her tarot card reader. “As time went on he became Lennon’s advisor, confidant and friend. Until October of 1980, he worked closely with them. They did everything according to ‘the cards.’ He advised them on all of their business transactions and investments, even to the point of how to handle the problems Lennon was having with Apple, the Beatles record company” (Song Magazine, Feb. 1984, p. 16, cited by More Rock, Country & Backward Masking Unmasked, p. 105). “People were hired and fired based on the findings of the tarot card reader, Charlie Swan; the Council of Seers, an assortment of freelance astrologers, psychics and directionalists; and Yoko’s own consultations with the zodiac and Book of Numbers” (Rosen, Nowhere Man, p. 38). Yoko followed the Asian philosophy of katu-tugai, which combined numerology with cartography. According to the tenets of katu-tugai, traveling in a westerly direction ensures good luck. In 1977, Yoko spent a week in South America studying magic with a seven-foot-tall Columbian witch, who was paid $60,000 to teach Yoko how to cast spells. “The Lennons saw magic as both an instrument of crisis management and the ideal weapon” (Rosen, p. 62). They cast magic spells against their opponents in lawsuits (Giuliano, p. 119) and even against Paul and Linda McCartney when they simply wanted to visit the Lennons in 1980 (p. 208). Lennon also believed in UFOs, and he religiously read the tabloid reports on these. He claimed to have seen a UFO hovering over the East River in 1974, and his song “Nobody Told Me,” which appeared on his Milk and Honey album, was about UFOs over New York. Lennon was fascinated with a book called The Lost Spear of Destiny, which was about the spear used to pierce the side of Jesus Christ when He was on the cross. Lennon fantasized about finding the spear. When asked what he would do with it if he found it, Lennon replied that he could do anything in the universe (Giuliano, Lennon in America, p. 81). Lennon and Yoko participated in séances, and Yoko believed that she was a reincarnation of a 3,000-year-old Persian mummy that she had purchased in from Switzerland (Giuliano, p. 157). She collected Egyptian artifacts, believing they possessed magical powers.

Yoko Ono believed the Hindu myth that a son born on his father’s birthday inherits his soul when the father dies. Thus, they arranged to have their son, Sean, delivered by cesarean on Lennon’s 35th birthday, October 9, 1975 (Hellhounds on Their Trail, p. 183). She “was convinced the baby would be a messiah who would one day change the world” (Giuliano, p. 101).

Lennon and Yoko’s prognosticators frequently gave false predictions. When Yoko was pregnant, I Ching predicted the baby was a girl; but it was actually a boy (Giuliano, p. 88). In 1976, Yoko’s psychic advisers suggested that Lennon should not resume his musical career until 1982, but he died two years before then (Giuliano, p. 108). A psychic Yoko consulted in 1977 in Rome predicted that Lennon would become musically productive again in 1980 and that this phase would last two years, but Lennon died in 1980 (Giuliano, p. 144). In 1979, only a year before Lennon’s death, Yoko’s advisers forecast that she and John would have two more children (Giuliano, p. 192).

LENNON’S VIOLENCE AND LACK OF LOVE. The man who sang about love (“all you need is love”) and peace (“give peace a chance”) was actually very noncompassionate, self-centered to the extreme, and violent. His biographers speak of “the infamous Lennon temper.” He frequently flew into rages, screaming, smashing things, hitting people. He admitted, “I was a hitter. I couldn’t express myself and I hit. I fought men and I beat women” (Giuliano, Lennon in America, p. 20). On one adulterous weekend fling with his secretary, May Pang, Lennon “accused her of cheating on him, and flew into a rage, trashing the room and trampling her eyeglasses” (Giuliano, p. 16). Lennon admitted: “I was a very jealous, possessive guy. A very insecure male. A guy who wants to put his woman in a little box and only bring her out when he feels like playing with her” (Ibid.). When the owner of a nightclub said something that upset Lennon, he “beat the poor man mercilessly” (Giuliano, p. . At a party in California in 1973, Lennon “went berserk, hurling a chair out the window, smashing mirrors, heaving a TV against the wall, and screaming nonsense about film director Roman Polanski being to blame” (Giuliano, p. 57). During the recording of his Rock ‘n’ Roll album, Lennon “was so out of control he began to kick the windows out of the car and later trashed the house” (Giuliano, p. 59). Lennon confided to a friend, “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to kill a woman, many women! It was only becoming a Beatle that saved me from actually doing it” (Giuliano, p. 20). When Yoko was pregnant with their son (Sean Ono Taro Lennon), John Lennon once kicked her in the stomach during an explosive confrontation; Lennon later hit the young Sean, even kicking him once in a restaurant (Giuliano, pp. 111, 138). In 1979, Lennon flew into a rage and trashed his apartment while “filling the air with a stream of profane invective” (Giuliano, p. 179). As for love, even Lennon’s celebrated relationship with Yoko Ono was filled with everything but love. After 1971, “John and Yoko’s great love was pretty much a public charade designed to help prop up their often flickering careers” (Giuliano, p. 147). In 1972, the Sunday Mirror described John Lennon and Yoko Ono as “one of the saddest, loneliest couples in the world . . . two people who have everything that adds up to nothing.” On their 10th wedding anniversary in 1979, Lennon thought Yoko was mocking him when she gave him a sentimental little poem referring to him as the ruler of their kingdom, and he flew into a selfish rage when she gave him an expensive pearl-and-diamond ring, claiming that “she never got him what he really wanted.” After that, Lennon retreated to his room and fell into a narcotic-induced slumber. After Lennon’s death, his son Julian (the son by his first wife) perceptively asked: “How can you talk about peace and love and have a family in bits and pieces, no communication, adultery, divorce?” (Giuliano, p. 220).

LENNON’S NEAR INSANITY. There were many evidences of insanity during Lennon’s final years. In the early 1970s, Lennon and Yoko underwent psychological therapy at the Primal Institute in California. Dr. Janov testified: “John was simply not functioning. He really needed help” (Giuliano, p. 18). The therapy consisted of giving oneself over to hysterical outbursts in an attempt to purge the psyche. Lennon would scream and wail, weep, and roll on the floor. “John eventually confessed to several dark sexual impulses: he wanted to be spanked or whipped and he was drawn to the notion of having a spiked boot heel driven into him. . . . Later in his life, John gathered together a collection of S&M-inspired manikins, which he kept tucked away in the bowels of the Dakota. These dummies, adorned with whips and chains, also had their hands and feet manacled. John’s violent sexual impulses troubled Yoko” (Giuliano, Lennon in America, p. 19). Lennon was plagued by nightmares from which he awoke in terror (Giuliano, pp. 83, 137, 142). Though never really overweight, Lennon was obsessed with his weight and when he found himself overeating, he would hide in the master bedroom and force himself to vomit (Giuliano, p. 92). After the couple moved into the Dakota apartments in New York in 1973, Lennon spent most of the time locked indoors. He referred to himself as Greta Hughes, referring to Greta Garbo and Howard Hughes, famous recluses. “More and more, the increasingly reclusive Lennon began to shun his friends. . . . Lennon’s anxieties were rapidly getting the better of him. . . . Everybody’s working-class hero was sliding steadily into a morass of hopelessness and solemnity” (Giuliano, pp. 84, 97, 105). He “quietly slipped into a dark hibernation,” spending entire days in bed (Giuliano, p. 129). To help him conquer his $700 per day heroin habit, Yoko introduced him to a form of therapy involving self-hypnosis and “past-life regression.” He thought he was actually traveling back into his past lives. In one session he discovered that he had been a Neanderthal man. In another, he was involved in the Crusades during the Dark Ages. Lennon was so paranoid that when he visited Hong Kong in 1976, he did not leave his suite for three days. He thought he had multiple personalities, and he would lie down and imagine that his various personalities were in other parts of the room talking to him. “In doing so, Lennon was in such a state of mind that the slightest noise or shadow would terrify him” (Giuliano, p. 122). When he went out into the crowds he would hear “a cacophony of terrible voices in his head” which filled him with terror. When he returned to New York, he became a virtual hermit, “retreating to his room, sleeping his days away, mindlessly standing at the window watching the rain. Once Yoko found him staring off into space groaning that there was no place he could go where he didn’t feel abandoned and isolated…” (Giuliano, p. 142). In 1978, Lennon “locked himself into his pristine, white-bricked, white-carpeted Dakota bedroom. Lying on the bed, he chain-smoked Gitane cigarettes and stared blankly at his giant television, while the muted phone at his side was lit by calls he never took. . . . he stayed in a dark room with the curtains drawn…” (Giuliano, pp. 173, 174). By 1979, at age 39, “John Lennon was already an old man haunted by his past and frightened by the future” (Giuliano, p. 177). He swung radically “from snappy impatience to bouts of uncontrolled weeping” and could only sleep with the aid of narcotics. Yoko talked Lennon into visiting their Virginia farm in 1979, but he became so paranoid and shaken from the brief excursion into the public (they rode a train) that when they arrived back at their home in New York he “erupted violently, reducing the apartment to a shambles.” The man who is acclaimed as the towering genius behind the Beatles had “all but lost his creative drive and confessed he’d sunk so low he had even become terrified of composing” (Giuliano, p. 130).

LENNON’S ANTI-CHRIST BLASPHEMY. Their press officer, Derek Taylor, testified: “They’re [the Beatles] completely anti-Christ. I mean, I am anti-Christ as well, but they’re so anti-Christ they shock me which isn’t an easy thing” (Saturday Evening Post, August 8-15, 1964, p. 25). We have seen that by age 11, John Lennon was permanently barred from Sunday services in his aunt’s Anglican church because he “repeatedly improvised obscene and impious lyrics to the hymns.” He did things even cruder and viler than that, such as urinate on members of the “clergy” from second floor windows and display homemade dummies of Christ in lewd poses. In 1966, Lennon created a furor by claiming: “Christianity will go, it will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that. I’m right and will be proved right. ... We’re more popular than Jesus now” (Newsweek, March 21, 1966). Though he claimed that he was misunderstood and gave a half-hearted apology (after learning that his remarks might financially jeopardize their United States tour), it is obvious what the head Beatle thought about Christianity. In his 1965 book A Spaniard in the Works, which was published by Simon and Schuster, Lennon portrayed Jesus Christ as Jesus El Pifico, a “garlic eating, stinking little yellow, greasy fascist bastard Catholic Spaniard.” In this wicked book, Lennon blasphemed the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by calling them “Fahter, Sock, and Mickey Most.”

Lennon’s 1970 album, Plastic Ono Band, contained two anti-christ songs. On “I Found Out,” Lennon sang, “I told you before, stay away from my door. Don’t give me that brother, brother, brother, brother. . . . There ain’t no Jesus gonna come from the sky.” In the song “God,” Lennon boldly said, “I don't believe in magic. I don't believe in Bible. I don't believe in tarot. I don't believe in Jesus. I just believe in me. Yoko and me. That’s reality.”

George Harrison financed Monty Python’s vile and blasphemous Life of Brian, which even Newsweek magazine described as “irreverent.” Time magazine called it an “intense assault on religion” (Time, Sept. 17, 1979, p. 101).

Paul McCartney described himself and the other Beatles as “four iconoclastic, brass-hard, post-Christian, pragmatic realists” (Time, Sept. 5, 1968, p. 60).

Aliester Crowley’s photo appeared on the Beatles’ Sargent Pepper’s album cover. The Beatles testified that the characters who appeared on the album were their “heroes.” John Lennon explained to Playboy magazine that “the whole Beatles idea was to do what you want … do what thou wilst, as long as it doesn’t hurt somebody” (Lennon, cited by David Sheff, The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, p. 61). This was precisely what Crowley taught.

Lennon claimed that the Beatles knew exactly what they wanted to do. “We know what we are because we know what we’re doing. … There were very few things that happened to the Beatles that weren’t really well thought out by us whether to do it or not” (Rolling Stone, Feb. 12, 1976, p. 92).

LENNON’S BRIEF FLIRTATION WITH CHRISTIANITY. In 1977, Lennon made a short-lived profession of faith in Christ while watching television evangelists. (This information was published recently in two different books—Robert Rosen, Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon and Geoffrey Giuliano, Lennon in America). Lennon began to use expressions like “Praise the Lord” and “Thank you, Jesus”; attended some church services; wrote a never-released song titled “You Saved My Soul”; took his son, Sean, to a Christian theater performance; called The 700 Club help line to request prayer for his troubled marriage; and tried to get Yoko Ono interested in Christianity. (Her first husband, Anthony Cox, had become a Christian in the 1970s, but she wanted nothing to do with it.) Even though he briefly professed faith in Christ, Lennon did not turn from his occultism. He continued to perform magical rites, consult the horoscope and prognosticators, and celebrate Buddha’s birthday (Giuliano, p. 133). Lennon’s Christian profession lasted only a few weeks. When two missionaries confronted Lennon with fundamental doctrines of the Bible such as the deity of Christ and a literal and fall, he rejected these (Giuliano, p. 134). In 1979 Lennon wrote a song titled “Serve Yourself,” in which he instructed his listeners: “You got to serve yourself/ Nobody gonna do it for you/ You may believe in devils/ You may believe in laws/ But you know you’re gonna have to serve yourself.” In interviews in December 1980, just before his death, he described his beliefs as “Zen Christian, Zen pagan, Zen Marxist” or nothing at all (Steve Turner, “The Ballad of John and Jesus,” Christianity Today, June 12, 2000, p. 86). He testified that he had never met a Christian who wasn’t actually a sanctimonious hypocrite (Giuliano, p. 134). Lennon also said that he did not believe in the Judeo-Christian doctrine that God “is some other thing outside of ourselves” (Spin, February 1987, p. 46). Thus to the very end of his short life Lennon continued to lead his followers into eternal destruction.

LENNON’S DEATH. Lennon was shot to death in December 1980 outside his apartment building in New York City. He was 40 years old. In an interview with Gannett News Service, Lennon’s murderer, Mark David Chapman, testified of how he prepared for the crime: “Alone in my apartment back in Honolulu, I would strip naked and put on Beatles records and pray to Satan to give me the strength. … I prayed for demons to enter my body to give me the power to kill” (cited by Evangelist Richard Ciarrocca, Observations, Dec. 1990). Chapman had also imitated Lennon, even taking his name for awhile, and marrying a Japanese woman.

Just hours before he was killed, Lennon had posed naked in a photo that was published on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

At the beginning of the Beatles song “Come Together,” Lennon mutters, “Shoot me.” One of the Beatles songs was “Happiness Is a Warm Gun.” The lyrics are: “When I hold you in my arms (Oh, yeah)/ And I feel my finger on your trigger (Oh, yeah)/ I know nobody can do me no harm (Oh, yeah)/ Because happiness is a warm gun, bang, bang, shoot, shoot.” Since Lennon’s death, Yoko Ono has attempted to contact him beyond the veil of death. The cover to her album It’s Alright shows Yoko and her son, Sean, standing in a park with a spirit form of Lennon standing next to them. Lennon’s other son, Julian (his only child by his first wife, Cynthia), claims in his song “Well, I Don’t Know” that he has communicated with his dead father (Muncy, The Role of Rock, p. 364).

When Lennon died, his estate was estimated to be worth $275 million.

In summarizing the influence of John Lennon, rock researcher David A. Noebel stated: “The present rock ‘n’ roll scene, Lennon’s legacy, is one giant, multi-media portrait of degradation—a sleazy world of immorality, venereal disease, anarchy, nihilism, cocaine, heroin, marijuana, death, Satanism, perversion, and orgies” (Noebel, The Legacy of John Lennon, 1982, p. 15).

Lennon released his hugely popular song “Imagine” in 1971. He described it as “an anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic song.” Note the blasphemous words.

“Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try/ No hell below us, above only sky/ Imagine all the people living for today. 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 in peace. Imagine no possessions; I wonder if you can/ No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man/ Imagine all the people sharing all the world. Chorus. “You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one/ And some day I hope you’ll join us/ And the world will be as one” (“Imagine,” John Lennon).

After Lennon was murdered, a memorial to him was set up in Central Park across from his apartment. Inscribed in the heart of the memorial is the word “Imagine.” When a crowd gathers every year to observe the anniversary of Lennon’s death, they sing this anti-christ song.

[Zan]

John Lennon was NOT a "great" man. Quite the contrary, actually. Here is a factual read. While I wholeheartedly condemn his murder and do recognize that he had quite an impact on the music world, I don't miss him at all. Enjoy the read:

So, aside from hitting people (which I don't condone), all he did was take drugs (an admitted addict), have promiscuous sex (gosh, a rock star?), and flirt was various religions. "Anti-Christ" song? I am so happy that not everyone in this world is as ignorant as the author of this article. By the way, he was NOT a communist, but a socialist. There is a difference, although many narrow-minds don't acknowledge it. What is that expression - People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they will never forget the way you made them feel? I'd say that sums John up in a nutshell. He impacted more than the music world, he impacted people from all walks of life, he had a vision, and while far from perfect in his personal life, he tried the best way he knew how to spread a message of peace. What defines great? I's say someone whose mere presence in the world managed to impact millions is great. Someone who is able to make something of himself after a traumatizing and difficult childhood is great. Agree with his personality or not, he achieved great things. I for one, certainly miss him and wish he were still around today making music and marrying headstrong, selfish women half his age who take him for everything he has.

[stmonkeys]

John Lennon was NOT a "great" man. Quite the contrary, actually. Here is a factual read. While I wholeheartedly condemn his murder and do recognize that he had quite an impact on the music world, I don't miss him at all. Enjoy the read:

well... there's 2 minutes of my life i won't get back... good thing i stopped reading that drivel after the first few paragraphs. imagine (heh) how many minutes of his life the author wasted "researching" and composing THAT! :::shudder:::

[RedWingFan]

Interesting read saint john. I knew some of that but it really filled in the missing pieces. Lennon called Christians "hypocrites" when he was one himself. As a Christian myself, I wake up every morning with the goal to be Christ-like, knowing every night when I lay my head down that I will fail!!!! If that's a hypocrite then what is singing about peace, love, and the greatness of socialism, while starting families and leaving them at will, and living life in free nations.

[Moon Beam]

Zan I like what you had to say about that very
long winded read.

saint john thanks for posting this, though I don't
share your views here.
I like to remember John Lennon fondly for
the way his songs warmed my heart as a child.
Double Fantasy was the first album I bought
by myself in the store.
He was far from pure and innocent but aren't
we all?, I would rather not lace hatered around
a departed soul.
I have always felt the most sorrow for Julian and Sean.

[Jazz]

"St. John"--you say all of that as if it's a bad thing. John Lennon had his faults like every human being, but overall he brought joy to millions with his music, and inspired millions to think of peace and love.

Jo

[brywool]

Geoffery Gulliano is a known Shit biographer in the same mold as Albert Goldman. He's the guy who also said George was into Hitler, etc. He's totally wrong in many of his books. He also interviews mostly people that have a Beatle Axe to grind.
Many of the things you site in your post are completley incorrect.

[froy]

26 years ago today we lost a great man.
To this day there is a hole in my soul because of his passing.
I never forgave god for letting it happen.
Even though I know he had nothing to do with it,

Imagine all the people living life in peace.

John Lennon
We miss you.

Thank You Ace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLZYEEgDXZg

[Saint John]

"St. John"--you say all of that as if it's a bad thing. John Lennon had his faults like every human being, but overall he brought joy to millions with his music, and inspired millions to think of peace and love.

Jo

Peace and love were convenient ways to mask his drug abuse. Morally, he was empty and hypocritical. Not to mention he never spent any significant amount of time with his children. And for someone who tried to "Imagine no possessions" he sure had a lot of them. Musically, a talented man but overall a vile human being.

[stmonkeys]

"St. John"--you say all of that as if it's a bad thing. John Lennon had his faults like every human being, but overall he brought joy to millions with his music, and inspired millions to think of peace and love.

Jo

Peace and love were convenient ways to mask his drug abuse. Morally, he was empty and hypocritical. Not to mention he never spent any significant amount of time with his children. And for someone who tried to "Imagine no possessions" he sure had a lot of them. Musically, a talented man but overall a vile human being.

i think sean would disagree... he spent many YEARS at home with him. No tours, interruptions etc. john even called himself a "house husband". john and his fellow beatles called much attention to the plight of needy people around the world, (the bed-ins for peace, and concerts for kampuchia to name a few). your view of JL is quite a bit "skewed". No, he wasn't a saint. but somehow the term "vile" is exceptionally harsh. but go and believe what you want to believe. its obvious no one here will change your narrow mind.

[Saint John]

"St. John"--you say all of that as if it's a bad thing. John Lennon had his faults like every human being, but overall he brought joy to millions with his music, and inspired millions to think of peace and love.

Jo

Peace and love were convenient ways to mask his drug abuse. Morally, he was empty and hypocritical. Not to mention he never spent any significant amount of time with his children. And for someone who tried to "Imagine no possessions" he sure had a lot of them. Musically, a talented man but overall a vile human being.

i think sean would disagree... he spent many YEARS at home with him. No tours, interruptions etc. john even called himself a "house husband". john and his fellow beatles called much attention to the plight of needy people around the world, (the bed-ins for peace, and concerts for kampuchia to name a few). your view of JL is quite a bit "skewed". No, he wasn't a saint. but somehow the term "vile" is exceptionally harsh. but go and believe what you want to believe. its obvious no one here will change your narrow mind.

Sean would disagree, huh? Here ya go:


To date neither son seems particularly enamoured of their famous father.

Sean once said: "I think of my dad as a huge asshole. The only thing that made it okay was that he could admit it."

Julian posted musings on his website about his father's inadequacies on his website.

But the brothers at least maintain solidarity with each other.

On his website Julian expressed his love for his brother Sean and said: "I hope that he's able to cope with his destiny."




Here's what Sean got from his wonderful father:


"His relationship with John was never close and he saw little of him after his marriage to Yoko Ono."

and:


"Julian was left nothing by his father and ended up fighting a protracted legal battle with his stepmother to get some of his father's estate, ending up with an estimated £20 million in 1998.

There is little love lost between the two with Julian claiming his father was a "manipulated soul" on his website."

[brywool]

"Julian was left nothing by his father and ended up fighting a protracted legal battle with his stepmother to get some of his father's estate, ending up with an estimated £20 million in 1998.

There is little love lost between the two with Julian claiming his father was a "manipulated soul" on his website."

I hardly think that was John's doing. I would lay odds on Yoko's hand being in that.

[Saint John]

"Julian was left nothing by his father and ended up fighting a protracted legal battle with his stepmother to get some of his father's estate, ending up with an estimated £20 million in 1998.

There is little love lost between the two with Julian claiming his father was a "manipulated soul" on his website."

I hardly think that was John's doing. I would lay odds on Yoko's hand being in that.

I'll agree with you on that one. But when you're that rich you SHOULD have a will. I think she had him completely brainwashed into being who SHE wanted him to be, not what he wanted for himself.

[Zan]

I wish I had a dollar for each time I called my mother or father names throughout my life, particularly, when I was a teenager. Spare me this drivel. Only cynics and assholes continually focus on only the negatives about people, rather than the good they were able to achieve.

[RedWingFan]

Only cynics and assholes continually focus on only the negatives about people

Or you could call them realists

[froy]

I'll agree with you on that one. But when you're that rich you SHOULD have a will.

Do you think John thought he was going to be dead at 40?
I am 45 and have no will and no plans on going anywhere
Im rich to right Zan.

[Zan]

Only cynics and assholes continually focus on only the negatives about people

Or you could call them realists

Well, most cynics call themselves realists because it sounds so much prettier. However, a true realist sees everything in the picture, not just the negative. This "reporter" is not a realist. Nor is the person trying to sell us on his tripe.

[shaka]

Only cynics and assholes continually focus on only the negatives about people

Or you could call them realists

Well, most cynics call themselves realists because it sounds so much prettier. However, a true realist sees everything in the picture, not just the negative. This "reporter" is not a realist. Nor is the person trying to sell us on his tripe.

I've stayed out of this until now. You just can't win when arguing about John Lennon.

John is one of my all-time favorite songwriters/musicians. His importance to music cannot be understated. However, even as a child I was able to recognize that he wasn't really good person. While it true that you can't completely judge a someone by their failings you certainly have to take them into consideration when judging the whole. I love a story of redemption as much as anyone and admire those who recognise problems in their lives and work hard to overcome them. I never saw John Lennon as one of those people. To me he was a legendary musician who was a hedonist and on a scale much larger than you and I, a hypocrite. John loved to tell everyone else how they should be approaching life and politics but he certainly was lazy about practicing what he preached.

The worst thing about the anniversary of John's death ( other than the fact that he was murdered) is that so many put him on such a high pedestal without any regard to his failings which, in my opinion, came really close to overshadowing his great music.

I mourn John Lennon the musician. I don't find a lot to mourn in the rest of what was John Lennon.

[Zan]

Only cynics and assholes continually focus on only the negatives about people

Or you could call them realists

Well, most cynics call themselves realists because it sounds so much prettier. However, a true realist sees everything in the picture, not just the negative. This "reporter" is not a realist. Nor is the person trying to sell us on his tripe.

I've stayed out of this until now. You just can't win when arguing about John Lennon.

John is one of my all-time favorite songwriters/musicians. His importance to music cannot be understated. However, even as a child I was able to recognize that he wasn't really good person. While it true that you can't completely judge a someone by their failings you certainly have to take them into consideration when judging the whole. I love a story of redemption as much as anyone and admire those who recognise problems in their lives and work hard to overcome them. I never saw John Lennon as one of those people. To me he was a legendary musician who was a hedonist and on a scale much larger than you and I, a hypocrite. John loved to tell everyone else how they should be approaching life and politics but he certainly was lazy about practicing what he preached.

The worst thing about the anniversary of John's death ( other than the fact that he was murdered) is that so many put him on such a high pedestal without any regard to his failings which, in my opinion, came really close to overshadowing his great music.

I mourn John Lennon the musician. I don't find a lot to mourn in the rest of what was John Lennon.

You speak as if none of us are even aware of the things John said and did. I just think it's a little disturbing to dwell on those things, and even moreso, to feel the need to bring them up when others are expressing their thoughts or mourning his loss. The fact that nobody bringing up what a terrible person he was knew him personally only adds to that disturbance. Let the people mourn how they want and stop pissing on it. That's all.

[shaka]

Only cynics and assholes continually focus on only the negatives about people

Or you could call them realists

Well, most cynics call themselves realists because it sounds so much prettier. However, a true realist sees everything in the picture, not just the negative. This "reporter" is not a realist. Nor is the person trying to sell us on his tripe.

I've stayed out of this until now. You just can't win when arguing about John Lennon.

John is one of my all-time favorite songwriters/musicians. His importance to music cannot be understated. However, even as a child I was able to recognize that he wasn't really good person. While it true that you can't completely judge a someone by their failings you certainly have to take them into consideration when judging the whole. I love a story of redemption as much as anyone and admire those who recognise problems in their lives and work hard to overcome them. I never saw John Lennon as one of those people. To me he was a legendary musician who was a hedonist and on a scale much larger than you and I, a hypocrite. John loved to tell everyone else how they should be approaching life and politics but he certainly was lazy about practicing what he preached.

The worst thing about the anniversary of John's death ( other than the fact that he was murdered) is that so many put him on such a high pedestal without any regard to his failings which, in my opinion, came really close to overshadowing his great music.

I mourn John Lennon the musician. I don't find a lot to mourn in the rest of what was John Lennon.

You speak as if none of us are even aware of the things John said and did. I just think it's a little disturbing to dwell on those things, and even moreso, to feel the need to bring them up when others are expressing their thoughts or mourning his loss. The fact that nobody bringing up what a terrible person he was knew him personally only adds to that disturbance. Let the people mourn how they want and stop pissing on it. That's all.

This is exactly why I didn't post initially. I think it's fine for people to mourn how they want but if you listen to some you'd think John was about to be annointed with sainthood. I think this bothers some people who have lost loved ones who were much better people. Case in point: I lost my mom two weeks ago. She may not have written pop music but she was a very well respected member of the community, a fine school teacher, and a wonderful mom. Up until the week before cancer took her she was putting together humanitarian aid kits and sewing dresses to be shipped to Africa, Iraq, and other parts of the world that need such things. You could wander around my community and state and not find one single person who had something bad to say about her. As people there is no comparison between the two. While I never intended to bring up my mom in this post I do to illustrate the point that I can understand why there are those who may have a problem with the hero worship of John Lennon and have a hard time stomaching the way some people mourn his passing.

One other thing. My post was my way of mourning John Lennon. I think it has just as much validity as those who worship John. I personaly do not find anything disturbing about noting the good AND bad of the deceased, especially those that are public figures. If people remember only good then we will never learn a thing.

Eric

[Zan]

This is exactly why I didn't post initially. I think it's fine for people to mourn how they want but if you listen to some you'd think John was about to be annointed with sainthood. I think this bothers some people who have lost loved ones who were much better people. Case in point: I lost my mom two weeks ago. She may not have written pop music but she was a very well respected member of the community, a fine school teacher, and a wonderful mom. Up until the week before cancer took her she was putting together humanitarian aid kits and sewing dresses to be shipped to Africa, Iraq, and other parts of the world that need such things. You could wander around my community and state and not find one single person who had something bad to say about her. As people there is no comparison between the two. While I never intended to bring up my mom in this post I do to illustrate the point that I can understand why there are those who may have a problem with the hero worship of John Lennon and have a hard time stomaching the way some people mourn his passing.

One other thing. My post was my way of mourning John Lennon. I think it has just as much validity as those who worship John. I personaly do not find anything disturbing about noting the good AND bad of the deceased, especially those that are public figures. If people remember only good then we will never learn a thing.

Eric

I'm really sorry to hear about your mom, Eric. I have no doubt she was everything people said she was and more.

As for hero worship, speaking only for myself, I can honestly say that I have no such thing for John Lennon, or any celebrity for that matter. Some people have contributed more to the entertainment world than others, however and deserve proper recognition. Attempting to drag someone's name through the mud (like this reporter who is obviously biased on one side) in the middle of a thread where people are expressing their loss is tacky, regardless of being irritated with the "ways" people are expressing themselves. It's all opinions, anyway. if people want to believe John Lennon was a deity, let them. What's it hurting anyone?

[shaka]

This is exactly why I didn't post initially. I think it's fine for people to mourn how they want but if you listen to some you'd think John was about to be annointed with sainthood. I think this bothers some people who have lost loved ones who were much better people. Case in point: I lost my mom two weeks ago. She may not have written pop music but she was a very well respected member of the community, a fine school teacher, and a wonderful mom. Up until the week before cancer took her she was putting together humanitarian aid kits and sewing dresses to be shipped to Africa, Iraq, and other parts of the world that need such things. You could wander around my community and state and not find one single person who had something bad to say about her. As people there is no comparison between the two. While I never intended to bring up my mom in this post I do to illustrate the point that I can understand why there are those who may have a problem with the hero worship of John Lennon and have a hard time stomaching the way some people mourn his passing.

One other thing. My post was my way of mourning John Lennon. I think it has just as much validity as those who worship John. I personaly do not find anything disturbing about noting the good AND bad of the deceased, especially those that are public figures. If people remember only good then we will never learn a thing.

Eric

I'm really sorry to hear about your mom, Eric. I have no doubt she was everything people said she was and more.

As for hero worship, speaking only for myself, I can honestly say that I have no such thing for John Lennon, or any celebrity for that matter. Some people have contributed more to the entertainment world than others, however and deserve proper recognition. Attempting to drag someone's name through the mud (like this reporter who is obviously biased on one side) in the middle of a thread where people are expressing their loss is tacky, regardless of being irritated with the "ways" people are expressing themselves. It's all opinions, anyway. if people want to believe John Lennon was a deity, let them. What's it hurting anyone?

Well, I thought the reporter thing was kind of lame. I myself miss John because of his tremendous songwriting ability. It would have been fun to see what he would have come up with later in life. It also might have been fun to see how he dealt with age.

Those who worship John Lennon perpetuate the myth that he was an amazing person in more than just his songwriting. It's kind of a combination of delusion and revisionist history. I like accurate historical portrayals not those that have had sugar dumped on them. I think those who do not recognize the problems with Lennons life hurt not only themselves but paint an innacurate picture of who John was, which, maybe not entirely harmful, isn't honest either.

Thanks for the comments about mom. It wasn't my original purpose to bring up her death but I thought using her example might illustrate why there are those who think John Lennon wasn't a good person.

[Classic Rock]

I mourn John Lennon the musician. I don't find a lot to mourn in the rest of what was John Lennon.

I feel the exact same way. I understand to a certain extent why St. John posted the article because most of the people that miss him are casual fans. Even the casual fans have some knowledge of how John Lennon was as a person but there were some deeper issues that were largely unknown. The article made an attempt to uncover those but the end result was a horrible mess of quotes that may have been stated out of context if some were even stated at all. I’m only 20 but I have done my fair share of research on one of my favorite musicians and that article was just horrible. I’m a rightwing conservative and disagree with a lot of his views but he was still an amazing musician and contributed a lot to the world. It really would have been interesting to see what would have happened if he had lived, hell there might have even been a Beatles reunion. It is a damn shame we will never know.

[Saint John]

26 years ago today we lost a great man.
To this day there is a hole in my soul because of his passing.
I never forgave god for letting it happen.
Even though I know he had nothing to do with it,

Imagine all the people living life in peace.

John Lennon
We miss you.

I'd like to make it CLEAR why I posted what I posted. The best way to do this, I guess, is to break it down line by line.

The first line reads: "26 years ago we lost a great man." I disagree. Someone who was widely considered a "great" musician, someone who was a "great" influence on the music world was murdered. He wasn't a president or Mother Theresa. He was a revolting drug addict who basically hated America and capitalism yet lived here and accumulated all of the wealth and luxuries it provided. Quite hypocritical. Yoko was said to be anti-possessions also. Yet she tried her best to see to it that Julian Lennon didn't receive even a cent of his father's estate. Again, quite hypocritical. As for "we" please be more specific.

Line 2 reads: "To this day there is a hole in my soul because of his passing." Ludicrous. Did you know him PERSONALLY? And what did he do for you that, TO THIS DAY, your soul has a hole in it? I'd bet you have aunts, uncles and other relatives/friends that have passed and were FAR closer to you than John Lennon and, moreover, had more of a role in shaping your life. Yet, your soul has a "hole in it" because of the passing of someone you never met. Seems creepy to me. Far better "everyday people" pass away daily.

Line 3 reads: "I never forgave god for letting it happen." Why isn't "god" capitalized? It should read "God." The word is a proper noun. I hope this was a typo. If it wasn't, Lennon would be proud!

Line 4 reads: "Even though he had nothing to do with it." Well then forgive him (God), dammit!!

Line 5 reads: "Imagine all the people living life in peace." That's kind of hard to do considering since the advent of time, it hasn't happened. Just a way to justify his illicit use of LSD, marijuana and other drugs. A way of promoting his "everyone should be stoned like me and not face reality" agenda. Sad at best.

To close, I again condemn the man's murder. However, the use of "great" seemed, to me, so far from the truth that I felt the need to comment. Nothing more, nothing less.

PS Shaka, my condolences on the passing of your mother.

[NealIsGod]

If I may assist you, froy? Yeah, I know, but it is Christmas.

The first line reads: "26 years ago we lost a great man." I disagree. Someone who was widely considered a "great" musician, someone who was a "great" influence on the music world was murdered. He wasn't a president or Mother Theresa. He was a revolting drug addict who basically hated America and capitalism yet lived here and accumulated all of the wealth and luxuries it provided. Quite hypocritical. Yoko was said to be anti-possessions also. Yet she tried her best to see to it that Julian Lennon didn't receive even a cent of his father's estate. Again, quite hypocritical. As for "we" please be more specific.

Lennon's impact on the world through his music is obvious. Sure, he was human. Sure, he spurned capitalism and luxuries. Those two concepts also spur GREED. Lennon saw the big picture and had the guts to risk his reputation for his beliefs. Just a rare human being. I don't know what he saw in Yoko. I still think she brainwashed him.

Line 2 reads: "To this day there is a hole in my soul because of his passing." Ludicrous. Did you know him PERSONALLY? And what did he do for you that, TO THIS DAY, your soul has a hole in it? I'd bet you have aunts, uncles and other relatives/friends that have passed and were FAR closer to you than John Lennon and, moreover, had more of a role in shaping your life. Yet, your soul has a "hole in it" because of the passing of someone you never met. Seems creepy to me. Far better "everyday people" pass away daily.

Lennon's music was such that it did touch people's souls. And it meant something, unlike today's music. Of course, we didn't know him personally. But that doesn't make his work and the effect it had on people any less.

Line 3 reads: "I never forgave god for letting it happen." Why isn't "god" capitalized? It should read "God." The word is a proper noun. I hope this was a typo. If it wasn't, Lennon would be proud!

Interesting. I wonder if that was intentional myself. If so, pretty slick.

Line 4 reads: "Even though he had nothing to do with it." Well then forgive him (God), dammit!!

Line 5 reads: "Imagine all the people living life in peace." That's kind of hard to do considering since the advent of time, it hasn't happened. Just a way to justify his illicit use of LSD, marijuana and other drugs. A way of promoting his "everyone should be stoned like me and not face reality" agenda. Sad at best.

True to an extent. But Lennon believed that man should be moving forward, and violence should be a thing of the past. Is that so wrong?

To close, I again condemn the man's murder. However, the use of "great" seemed, to me, so far from the truth that I felt the need to comment. Nothing more, nothing less.

No human being is truly "great". We can do great things, which Lennon did through his music. I agree that we shouldn't sugarcoat his flaws, but the man had an impact on the world that few human beings ever will. And it's a shame that we didn't get to see what else he could do.