Happy 70th, John

Screw Don McLean. Dec. 8, 1980 was the day the music died. Happy 70th birthday to one half of the greatest song writing team that has ever lived.

 

Amen to that. I know what my iPod will be playing today. And oddly enough, happy 35th to his son Sean.

 

Our local FM station is playing Lennon/Beatles at the top of every hour all weekend. The 8 AM PDT songs were "Across the Universe" and "Working Class Hero".

One of the greatest voices in rock history. See: "Money".

 

I've always been more of a Paul guy than a John guy (mainly because John basically quit caring about The Beatles after "Sgt. Pepper's" and started writing songs to impress Yoko), but you can't deny his greatness.

"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" and "She Said, She Said" might be my two favorite Beatles songs of them all.

 

I'm 38.

 

You kind of have to believe that John & Yoko would have had to break up -- which I think was unlikely -- for John to resume writing incredible songs.

But it's still sad to think about what we missed out on.

 

Personally, I think some of his best writing was for his post-Beatle, solo albums.

 

Boy, I don't know about that. Double Fantasy had a couple really good songs, none better than this one:

 

I'll back up Double Fantasy. Plenty of strong songs - Lennon was just finding his groove again by 1980 after taking his five years off as "househusband".

 

Puts a lump in my throat each and every time, especially his words at the end. Jesus.

 

I remember Dec. 6, 1980 as one of the only times I saw my parents both cry.

Here's hoping a guard gives another inmate a stick and lets him beat the hell out of Mark David Chapman today.