May 16, 2007
John Lennon Day.
ADDED (THOUGH IT SHOULD BE UNNECESSARY): This post is about... well, first, Phil Spector. He's on trial for murder, you know! And second, the absurd notion that there should be a national holiday for every hero. Come on! I love John Lennon, but he shouldn't have his own holiday. Martin Luther King, Jr.... that was special. Basically, there's no Duke Ellington Day, no Louis Armstrong Day, no Bessie Smith Day, no Buddy Holly Day, no Elvis Day. Get it? And John Lennon wasn't even an American! There's only one "Day" for a nonAmerican in America. 2, if you count Christmas. The category is closed.
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Lennon had a unique talent, but I've always been of the opinion that the real genius of the Beatles was the one who was happy to let his ego disappear and support the others-- but ultimately was the most talented of them.
That would be George.
Fascinating!! I wonder if his creativity was helped by the fact that he had to read novels in school?
Our featured kookalamonza said that John Lennon Day "is just like remembering Martin."
At that very instant I feared that the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth Beatle (depending on who's counting) might have passed on without my sensing a great disturbance in the Force®.
Boy, what a sense of relief Sir George must have felt.
"Fascinating!! I wonder if his creativity was helped by the fact that he had to read novels in school?"
Oh Jesus Christ, another stupid meme for the stupid trolls to latch onto? For all your supposed intellectual curiosity, you so-called liberals sure aren't open to new ideas.
And besides, musicians are far more likely to be influenced by poetry rather than potboilers painted with the gloss of academic approval. The great literature of history had meter and rhyme, something I'm sure that Lennon (and McCartney) appreciated.
And creative people don't waste their time reading 400 pages of someone else's turgid prose fantasies- their own fantasies and imaginations are far more interesting.
In the poetic words of Ann Althouse, quit bitching.
Did Althouse say anything about poetry in her post? Nope. I sure hope the future John Lennons and Paul McCartneys of the world are inspired by science, logic and history.
And, if you consider F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, J.D. Salinger and Ernest Hemingway to be "potboilers painted with the gloss of academic approval," then I don't know what to tell you.
Wait, this post is about... well, first, Phil Spector. He's on trial for murder you know! And second, the absurd notion that there should be a national holiday for every hero. Come on! I love John Lennon, but he shouldn't have his own holiday. Martin Luther King, Jr.... that was special. Basically, there's no Duke Ellington Day, no Louis Armstrong Day, no Bessie Smith Day, no Buddy Holly Day, no Elvis Day. Get it? And John Lennon wasn't even an American! There's only one "Day" for a nonAmerican in Amerca. 2, if you count Christmas. The category is closed.
Was St. Valentine an American?
if you consider F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, J.D. Salinger and Ernest Hemingway to be "potboilers painted with the gloss of academic approval," then I don't know what to tell you.
I've no idea what motivated any of the other authors to write, but "A Christmas Carol" is the definitive potboiler (having been dashed off quickly to pay a debt) and most of Dickens' stories were written more for profit than for artistic reasons.
Dickens is still a good read, of course.
Was St. Valentine an American?
Not according to this
Christopher Columbus is the only non-American in whose honor there is an American National holiday.
Wait, this post is about... well, first, Phil Spector. He's on trial for murder you know!
Yes, like the murder trial Truman Capote wrote about in "In Cold Blood." So getting back to the point, what about non-fiction novels? Does their historical content make them worthwhile? If so, is it more important than the style, expression and pacing that most people find appealing about them? Aren't the universal qualities of "In Cold Blood" more important than the particular details of the crime it documents? And if so, wouldn't that apply equally to Capote's fiction novels?
Christopher Columbus is the only non-American in whose honor there is an American National holiday.
Jesus is another one.
Well, who's this guy Labor you have a day for? Sounds Polish to me.
I am pretty sure there will be no "John Lennon Day" when you have the infamous Phil pitching it.
Let me get this right:
Are there people who are actually stating that musicians are never inspired by books, and specifically books of fiction?
Want I should start throwing out examples?
If there has to be a John Lennon Day, then they better not put it on Casmir Polaski Day.
Now THERE was an American!
Of course, I realized that opinions vary as to who qualifies as artists/musicians, etc., but surely at least one or two of the following might catch the eye of a commenter or two here:
Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Natalie Merchant, Al Stewart, Anthrax, Glenn Frey , Animal Logic, U2, Warren Zevon, Woody Guthrie, Yes, Iron Maiden, Yo La Tengo, Green Day, Jackson Brown, Jimmy Buffett, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush ... and ... wait for it ... John Lennon.
(See, Ann, I did bring it back to your original post, and no, I don't think we need a John Lennon Day.)
Btw, my list is in no way complete. It's just a small sampling, and I specifically included examples of artist who did work based on NOVELS (there are many others, of course, based on classics of poetry, theatre, Greek lit, and etc.).
And, yes, I think you might be surprised by some of the fiction authors (of NOVELS), that match with the artists above.
Palladian: You might or might not find it of interest that three of the names on my list based work on Stephen King novels, of all things.
Can you tell you hit a subject area of a little bit of ongoing interest to me?
The whole point here is that John had Phil produce some of his records. Since John thought Phil was a genius, Phil thinks he should get a national holiday. Phil is amazingly narcississtic, to the point that he began insisting that the writers and singers of the songs on records he produce only get paid as session musicians no matter who they were. The Ramones, the Beach Boys, all no talent nobodys in Phil's ego.
Having said that, the man had amazing talent and created much of the sound of great rock and roll. Try these on for size: Da Doo Ron Ron, Then He Kissed Me, Be My Baby, Baby I Love You, Walking in the Rain, You've Lost That Loving Feeling, River Deep Mountain High and both John Lennon and George Harrison's first solo albums. Quite impressive.
Then the drugs and the ego took hold and he was a washed up has been by age 30. Sad really, but it would be unwise to underestimate his ego in looking at anything he does.
Trey
readeriam: Well, one of my favorite movies of all times, Kubrick's "The Shining", is based on a Stephen King novel, but movies do novels much better than songs usually do. Songs based on novels (or more usually the plots of novels) have to translate them into poetry to fit the song form.
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