Why we still remember John Lennon

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

John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Brings Unique Music Experience to Schools

For 17 years, the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus has brought music recording and video production experiences to students all over the USA with their high-tech (and colorful) bus. With the assistance of three on-board engineers, students learn how to write, perform, record, and produce original songs, produce and shoot music videos and documentaries and complete a broadcast quality music video – all in a single day. Boy what I would have done to have experienced something like this when I was in school! Endorsed by John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, the bus is also supported by long list of corporate partners including Apple, Sony, Yamaha, Gibson and many more

From the LennonBus.org website:

The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus is highly adaptable, and is designed to provide students, their schools and communities with performances, demonstrations, remote recordings, and studio sessions customized for their needs, levels of experience and interest. The bus travels the country visiting schools, musical and technology conferences and events, and partners with newspapers and other media to host Battles of the Bands with the national winner selected online

I recently learned that the tour bus will be visiting a school just 10 minutes from where we live, so we are hoping to get a up close glimpse of what they are doing and will do another post about it.

I can remember very clearly the time period when John Lennon passed away. I was playing in a wedding & club band called "The Sound Of Gold" and we played many Beatles songs with the band leader Mark Tully taking the Lennon parts and me doing my best with the McCartney parts (my voice was definitely still developing then :)). I remember we played a New Years Eve event just 3 weeks after he passed and performed a tribute to Lennon with a heavy dose of Lennon influenced Beatles songs along with some Lennon solo tunes. To this day I still perform "Imagine" whenever, wherever I can. This song along with "Let There Be Peace On Earth", perfectly embody what each and every person in this world need to fully embrace, one by one. I can only hope that through music, arts and other non-violent means we can slowly move towards this end for the human race.

I'll leave you with the song that John Lennon is most remembered for.

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
No religion too
Imagine all the people, living life in peace..

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

I hope you have a wonderful day and stay tuned for some more fun posts coming this week on "how music can help you!" :)

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com www.facebook.com/KeepMusicAliveMission