Happy Birthday, John

First things first.

I'm a Beatles fan.

So of course I'm gonna dedicate an entire blog post in celebration of John Lennon's 75 birthday (which is today, in case you haven't noticed).  Heads up.  This post is probably gonna ramble on for a while.

So where do I start?

The beginning is as good a place as any.

John Winston Lennon was born on the 9th of October, 1940. Flash forward 17 years and now we're at the 6th of July, 1957. Why is this date important?  This, the day of all days, was the day that John met 15-year-old Paul McCartney at St. Peters Church in Liverpool.  This meeting would evolve into a friendship and musical partnership that would become part of the world's most successful band. 

A few years later, on October 5, 1962, the Beatles released their first single "Love Me Do/PS I Love You" on the Parlophone label. In 1963, they released their second single "Please Please Me" in the UK on January 11th.  This single hit the Music Week Top 20 list at number 16 on the chart. However, when it was released in the US, it didn't do well on its release on February 11, 1963.  Ten days later, though, the song peaked in second position on the Music Week chart.  They continued to release some singles.  Some did well.  Some didn't.

I'm gonna leave it up to you to learn what those singles are.

Now we're jumping to 1964. This is the year that the Beatles released their first most successful album A Hard Day's Night, which was mainly a soundtrack for their film of the same name. Through the next years, the Beatles continue to release albums, each more successful than the last.

Now let's turn our attention to John.

What a wonderful smile that is.  Could light up a room, that one. 

The world loves John more than he could ever know.  He was such an icon in his time and he still is. His musical genius inspired and awed people then and it still does.  He was accused of being so many things that he wasn't, simply because he discovered what it meant to have a voice and not be scared to tell others what he thought.  He had a wit as sharp as a knife.  He often contradicted himself at times by being aggressive and determined to do things his own way at times, yet surprisingly gentle and deeply sentimental at others.

An ill end to someone who didn't deserve it, John's death jarred the world to its core and left many people in shock. Sometimes the world is a mad place, but I think John would be one of the few people to love it for its madness.  Many centuries from now, the love he shared will still be remembered. People won't forget his influence on the world.  He made the world seem brighter, even though some would disagree. 

Here's a fact:

John wasn't killed soon after his supposed "bigger than Jesus" statement.

John said in an interview in March of 1966, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink ... We're more popular than Jesus now -- I don't know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity."  At the time, in England, Christianity was on the decline.  The remark went practically unnoticed in England, but caused quite the uproar in the US when republished by a separate article five months later, with different context.  It also included portions of the Jesus quote out of context from the original article.

John was quite startled by the reaction in the US, which included mass groups of people burning Beatles records and death threats made against John.  John said about Christianity, "I'm not knocking it or saying its bad.  I'm just saying it seems to be shrinking and losing contact."  Cynthia Lennon, John's wife at the time, would later state that "John was very bewildered and frightened by the reaction his words caused in the States."

So then, let's take a look at the 8th of December, 1980.  This is the day that John Lennon died.  Shot four times by extreme Christian fanatic, Mark David Chapman, who became outraged at the "bigger than Jesus" remark made by John in the 1966 interview.  

John Lennon was shot over an offhand remark that he made 14 years before he was murdered. 

You would think that some people wouldn't become obsessed with one small comment to the point of killing the person who said it.

You would think.

But that's enough bitterness for one post, don't you think?

So happy birthday to you, John.  Let us remember your best of times and your worst.  Wherever your soul may rest on the star Mary Julia, I'm sure your memory will carry on and on across the universe. Who would think that one young lad from Liverpool could change the world like you did?

We all love you, John, and we miss you so very much.