December 8th 1980

 It didn't have to happen 

When it comes to icons and role models in my life, most of them have been musicians. Some have been a voice for me, and others have been a voice to me. But John Lennon was both. He said the things that I wished I could say, and he said things to me that I wished I could hear.

John Lennon was the first musician that I ever looked up to. John Lennon was the first man that I aspired to be like. John Lennon was and still is more popular than Jesus Christ.

I am not going to give you a history or a biography lesson about John Lennon.  Because frankly, If you don’t know anything about John Lennon, well then there is something wrong with you.

I mean really, He was in the most influential and scrutinized band in the history of the world.

But there are are so many things about John Lennon that are incredible, aside from being a Beatle. I figure that I can just give you a few tidbits, something that maybe you didn’t know. So its all info, that I consider common knowledge, but I am sure it isn’t . But these are just things that I pick up from various spots. I promise you though this is cool shit.

First things first, let’s get one thing straight right away, Yoko Ono, is not the reason that The Beatles broke up. The Beatles broke up because Brian Epstein died.

 Maybe it is just my opinion but if you read through everything that happened, when The Beatles lost their manager, there was no control anymore. 

Keep in mind these are 27 year old guys with the full weight of the world on their shoulders that  we are talking about.

Another interesting fact is that John Lennon is the only one of The Beatles that never became a full time vegetarian.   It seems like a weird thing to bring up, but that is pretty crazy.  Late in his life Lennon adopted a macrobiotic diet, but he was not very strict about it.

 Don’t think that this means that he wasn’t a peaceful man, he actually felt bad about it, but considered that meat  tasted too good to say no.

John Lennon hated his own voice, I know it sounds crazy but it is true. I know many people know this, but if you didn’t know this go have a listen to any of his solo stuff. He always has an effect over his voice.

This was the only way that he liked it. Just listen to Imagine, there is a delay on the vocals.  He asked his engineers to do whatever they could to fuck up his voice.

John Lennon was the best man at Peter Boyle’s wedding.  Maybe that isn’t even worth knowing but it is cool. I mean this is Peter Boyle that we are talking about. The older crowd will remember Peter Boyle as the Monster in Young Frankenstein. The Kids will know him as Frank Barone from Everybody loves Raymond. I mean  come on, that doesn’t seem likely but its true, they were friends, their wives were friends, it’s just weird to think about.

John Lennon is missing. That’s not to say he has been misplaced, that’s not to say we need to search for him.  But he was cremated 2 days after his death and his ashes were given to Yoko Ono, and that is all that is known.  Some legends say that she spread his ashes over the ocean.(Lennon loved the Ocean), other rumors say his ashes were spread in Central Park. Ono has never revealed where his remains were, and I like it that way.

 Fucking leave him alone.

It makes sense. 

He just needs his peace.

So another thing that is strange, is as far as I know of, John Lennon only played 3 Beatles songs live I don’t mean like 3 songs, I mean 3 whole times. He played Come Together on his own.  And then as a result of losing a bet he played I saw her standing there and Lucy in the Sky, at an Elton John concert. That’s it 3 times.  (Half of Paul’s  set list  these days was written by John)

Paul and John came together for a recording session in 1974. It was during John Lennon’s “Lost Weekend” era. He was in Los Angeles, hanging out with Harry Nilsson and getting thrown out of clubs.  When all of a sudden one night A crazy group of dudes got together and played some music.

Let’s be totally honest, everyone in the room was high as fuck on one thing or another, but nonetheless McCartney and Lennon were back at it. 

Now it is a complete bootleg and nothing is really useable from it, it is really just a jam session. Oh and Stevie Wonder is there playing the Keyboards, Paul McCartney played drums,( They actually were Ringo’s drums, Ringo was Nilsson’s drummer, but wasn’t invited to the jam.)  

This is one cool event that I wish would have turned into something more. 

I guess at this point, the Anthology is as close as we are ever going to come again.

I guess I just hope through all of this, you understand that 33 years ago, something happened that didn’t need to happen. Something happened that seems to always happen to people that support love and equality. I just hope we treat each other a little better for a while.  Use this weekend as your chance to give back in a way that you know you should.