Today marks 34 years since the world lost one of its most beloved musical souls and an inspirational leader for a generation. My biggest memory of the time was that I had just begun playing keyboards in a wedding-club band called the "Sound of Gold". I was the newbie in the band barely out of high school, and this was my first real working band experience. Along with the band leader Mark, who was a huge Lennon fan, we put together an extra large selection of John Lennon and Lennon-led Beatles songs to play for our shows that month. For the Beatle tunes, I got to do the Paul McCartney parts although I don't think my voice was totally up for that challenge yet. I later grew into a higher tenor range :)
It definitely felt therapeutic to share those songs with our audiences that month and into the new year. I remember we also played some of John's newly released songs including "Woman" and "Starting Over". and it still amazes me today how talented John still was as a writer and performer. One of the last songs he ever wrote and recorded, but didn't release, was the song "Grow Old Along with Me". Written for his wife Yoko, this song later became a huge hit for Mary Chapin Carpenter. Despite whatever people thought of Yoko, I think its important to remember that if John really loved and cared about Yoko, then it never should have mattered what we thought of her. She was his soul mate and that was that. Its just like we should tell our own children some day. If they love their spouse and as long as their spouse is good to them, it doesn't really matter what us the parents think of the them. That's my mini-sermon creeping in a bit here sorry :)
Collectively we all firmly believe that we lost much more than a talented songwriter and musician that day. John was one of our biggest musical heroes and perhaps the most important voice of that generation. I happened upon an article written by Candy Leonard who is also the author of Beatleness that spells out very well why John was so important to the 60s generation and why he is still so important to many of us today. NextAvenue.Org - Why We Still Mourn John Lennon
I'll leave you with the John Lennon song that I still play today at many of my shows and will see and hear audience members singing along with me. I think more than anything else, the song "Imagine" embodies what John was all about: Imagining how beautiful our collective future could be, if only we could escape the trappings of life that many of us hold too dear. Enjoy the music and feel free to post your favorite John Lennon memories here:
Peace, Love & Laughter:
Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com
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