Sunday Morning Post (V.2, #40) - “It’s Johnny’s Birthday…”
So sang George Harrison and others while recording songs for the All Things Must Pass set to mark John Lennon’s birthday whatever year they recorded it. On Friday, October 9, Lennon would have been 80 years old. I doubt that he would have lived to be 80, but it would be nice to report that he did live a nice full life as an artist, activist and leading voice of his generation against global injustices. It be would be nice to state that he lived to a ripe old age, but…
So today let’s enjoy two from Lennon:
Have a safe week everyone and as always, thank you for reading.
posted by todd gunther | 10:13 AM
8 Comments:
Hard to believe he would be 80 now! RIP
It's fascinating to conjecture what John would have been like had he lived another few decades. Would he have continued on the path of rightful indignation at the world's unfairnesses and downright nastiness in so many places, and continued his campaigns? Who knows? What would he have thought of the current President, especially if he was still living in the U.S.A.? Could he even have turned reactionary in his old age, as so many do? [Yet we haven't!] Would he and Yoko still have been together? We can all ask this type of question and leave them hanging.
I recall watching this TV broadcast of 'All You Need', which for us was in b/w, colour TV yet to arrive for another couple of years - and, everyone was together hearing this song for the first time. I was singularly unimpressed by it at the time, coming just after the double-sided release of 'Penny Lane' and 'Strawberry Fields Forever', one of a sequence of their releases, every one of which left me breathless with admiration, so my disappointment was severe - an opinion which I was soon to revise - though I still don't care for that silly extended ending with everything thrown in just for the sake of it, every bit as spoiling as the end of 'Hey Jude'.
Incidentally 'Penny & Strawberry' was their first single not to get to the top since they became HUGE, kept at #2 by Engelbert Humperdinck's 'Release Me', a fact which remains one of the more fascinating oddities of British pop chart history. [For some time I'd though it had been John singing 'Penny Lane'].
Anyway, happy 80th, John. You made an impression on so many as very few have - one might almost fairly say, even moreso for some than Jesus!
Btw: I'll be passing a thought in your direction next Thurs, RTG, healthwise and more.
Thanks for these gems.
Happy Birthday John. I would have loved seeing what you might have done if ....
and as always thank you for posting.
Yes, Debra, hard to believe though it would have been nice to have him around.
Thank you, Raybeard. Little did you know at the time that you were witnessing broadcast history.
Thank you Bob. We would have had a grand party if he was still alive.
You're welcome, Spo.
Oh, we knew alright, RTG. It was a segment of the first simultaneous round-the-world TV broadcast - must have been Telstar? - shown in every country that could take it. I was aware at the time that the moment would be looked back on forever, and that's why I felt [only at the time] that the song ought to have been more representative of the Beatles' phenomenal talent.
No, my mistake. That tv transmission wasn't via Telstar which had been some five years prior. What it was was when three telecommunications satellites were synchronised so that the same image could be transmitted to to the entire world simultaneously. Just for the record.
Thank you Raybeard for the additional post script. I never realized how they were able to transmit the performance world wide until now.
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