By and large, he had found his peace. He had survived his vices, his politics, his rages and his therapies, avoided the junkie's death unlike so many, only to meet a cheap little handgun in the hands of a sad case like so many others he had met, kids who believed in some desperate part of them that this man could actually pull them out of the pit. And he couldn't. All he could do was write and sing, and in those songs tens of millions did in fact find a real solace, a pushing back of the fog and the dark.I'm going to pick out a set of John Lennon songs to play it as I drive my car -- baby, you can drive my car -- in the next week. I'll reveal the song list later. If you care about John Lennon, tell me, what is your song list?
UPDATE: After collecting 35 songs from my various CDs, I selected these 17:
Happiness Is A Warm GunI'm going to put the second group of 18 in my car too:
Come Together
Tomorrow Never Knows
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!
Instant Karma!
Strawberry Fields Forever
Rain
Across the Universe
She Said She Said
Don´t Let Me Down
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Girl
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
In My Life
I'm So Tired
Revolution
A Day In The Life
A Hard Day's NightSome things about the sequencing I did on purpose. Others I find amusing now that I notice, like that I put the two songs with exclamation points together. These are all songs that appeal to me for one reason or another, and I didn't put them in the order that I favor them, though I did put my favorite one first.
Please Please Me
Not A Second Time
You Can't Do That
All I've Got To Do
I Call Your Name
Sexy Sadie
Julia
If I Fell
I'm A Loser
Ticket to Ride
I'm Only Sleeping
I Feel Fine
Help!
Mind Games
I Am The Walrus
All You Need Is Love
You Know My Name (Look up the Number)
UPDATE: Al Hurd remembers John and lines up 3 discs worth of songs.
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23 comments:
Any such set I would think would include "Julia", "Revolution", "Everybody's got something to hide...", and perhaps the last song of the evening should be "How do you sleep?"
Among my acquaintances, for some reason "Double Fantasy" is nearly universally dismissed. I always liked most of it; I think "I'm Losing You" and "Cleanup Time" are fantastic songs.
I've got a list of about 35 songs that I'm considering for the final compilation. Only two post-Beatles songs are on the list. I think it's very unlikely that you can guess which two -- though saying that should help.
In my opinion, John Lennon was never better than when he covered the greats (Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Little Richard...) on his 1975 album, "Rock 'n' Roll." The remastered original is even better, with four bonus tracks including Phil Spector's 'To Know Is to Love Her.' He makes it his own as he does with 'Since My Baby Left Me' and 'Stand By Me.'
Here's a public domain recording of the lads doing 'To Know Her..." from a live BBC radio show in (I think) 1965.
Dave: I agree. I am marking the quarter century since we lost Lennon. His murderer does not deserve to have his name linked to Lennon forever. He's a meaningless nothing who happened to cross the path of greatness.
hmmm...I'm betting "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" is NOT on Ann's list! Takers?
Ron: That would be a different list, the one with 'Working Class Hero' on it.
I don't own Double Fantasy, but just yesterday, for no apparent reason began singing "Beautiful Boy" to my son.
He corrected me and told me he was handsome. But those lyrics didn't quite fit.
Damn, we reach the 25-year mark.
Back then, I was 19 and wondered what in hell the world was coming to.
I still do.m
Although the Beatles are my fav`s I`ve always leaned to the later stuff. George and Paul really surprised me as musicians early on but Lennon seemed to be the voice,"We`re more popular than Jesus Christ."...
Sgt.Pepper..
Let it Be..
Dr Robert..
Instant Karma
Imagine..
Come Together..
Strawberry Fields..
The Dream is Over..
Love Me Do..
I miss `em
Saul- WOW !
Though its not my favorite Lennon song, I've always liked "Please Please Me." The first please is so innocent and polite, and the second so dirty, that its really quite a clever little song. When I look at those old tapes of the Beatles perfoming it live, with John singing and Paul and George sharing a single microphone off to one side and nodding their heads in unison, I can't help but think "wow, this audience had no idea what changes the next five years had in store."
"Jealous Guy"
"Revolution"
"Yer Blues"
"I'm So Tired"
"And Your Bird Can Sing"
"She Said She Said"
"Tomorrow Never Knows"
Richard: John Lennon's own quote about "And Your Bird Can Sing": "Another horror." Also: "Another one of my throwaways."
A lot of people are mentioning "Yer Blues," which didn't jump out at me when I went through the book "Beatlesongs" to quickly pick out the John songs. I guess people like the very raw emotional stuff. I cam close to including "I Want You," but scratched it off at the last minute.
Your car list:
Bull's-eye (Bang bang/shoot shoot)!
de rigeur to celebrate someone's murder? Jesus Christ, The Ides of March and Julius Caesar, Thomas Beckett, JFK, MLK RFK... we celebrate "murders" every year -- it is in the final analysis of ocurse -- a date oif death whether it's too soon like Lennon or natural causes at 102 surrounded by family.
My estimation of this group has been lifted by the absence of "Imagine" from the lists.
I would have to go with Happiness is a Warm Gun and I love "Julia" from the Beatles. Instant Karma! is great too and the Double Fantasy stuff is great.
Mr. L. was never the best judge of his own work.
But don't forget the early songs:
"Yes It Is"
"Every Little Thing"
"When I Get Home"
"All I Gotta Do"
"Anna"
"There's A Place"
And great cover vocals:
"Rock 'n Roll Music"
"Twist and Shout"
"Bad Boy"
"Slow Down"
And "Get Back," a Paul song, for John's lead guitar (squeak!)
Although he lacks the melodrama of being shot down in the streets, why not a George list on the 'anniversary' of his death? We just missed it -- Nov. 29.
It would be quite a nice list indeed...
I was listening to NPR all day today (as I tend to do on Saturdays, since their programming rocks then), and I heard a wonderful segment on remembering the day John Lennon died.
An interviewer was reminiscing about that fateful night, when he found out that his idol had been killed.
He was walking around NYC, near Central Park, when someone rushed up to him, and said,
"Hey! Did you know John Lennon was just killed??!"
Before he could reply, or even get his thoughts to make sense, the person said,
"Well. Either John Lennon or Jack Lemon. I'm not sure!"
And he just left him standing there.
I love that anecdote.
Cheers,
Victoria
A slight correction for RLC: "Anna" goes on the covers list, having been written by the great Arthur Alexander.
Sorry to be so late on this but I think "Blackbird" is the most beautiful and poignant of Lennon’s songs.
"Blackbird" is Paul's.
Dang. But it is still a very good song.
For the record, no pun intended: "I Call Your Name" was a Lennon-McCartney composition. The Mamas and the Papas did the cover version.
(Sorry I'm a year and a half late with the correction.)
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