as you can tell was watching johnny lennon last a night
on the old pox box via a dvd
hard to get a fix on that man
the songs he wrote….
jesus, i mean
i look at a lotta songwriters
most of em ya can sorta figure out how they did it
but with lennon..
how the hell would he have written strawberry fields in 1966
even after 40 years this song leaves me bewildered
as he wrote it he opened up a huge new category
a new way to rock
a way of incorporating irony
weariness
surrealism
existentialism
distance
detachment
hope and hopelessness
and believe me folks
there wasnt any o that in rock before lennon
strawberry fields
walrus
julia
#9 dream
instant karma
come together
across the universe
l i t s w d
who knows how he did it
not me
i dont care who you comin’ from
tthis stuff is the creme de la creme
of what ya can do within rock
dark beauty
the invocation of another state
another way to see things
goodbye 1950s hegemony narrow suitntie
shortbacknsides
momsapplepie
these songs demolished that paradigms ability
to say “this is all there is”
with a song
with a pop song…!
everything on strawberry fields
the strings
the mellotron flutes
the guitars
the indian instruments
its an introduction to the 5 million other pointsa view
other than cold war pleasantville
it was anathema to the “straights” who were
going along on the beatles thing
“oh yeah…those lovable moptops…”
but come rain on the b side of pback writer
and then fields itself
all the mums n dads jumped off the bandwagon
“dont know why they had to go all strange….”
because strange is what we need grandma
in strangeness lies individuality
because this humdrum mundane world is an illusion
got some people sucked in
and a song like this is an invitation
to open the door to that 99% of yerself
where you never been or even knew was there
an artistic form of shock
i tell ya s fields sounded like it was being beamed in
from another groovy world
in 1966
a place where maths n headmasters n work
seemed ridiculous
the rah rah rah of the rugger buggers
the bullying
the jockeying
the pressure to BE SOMEONE
make money
cope with the system
john lennon offered a glimpse of an alternative

i guess at some points it all went to his head
but who could judge a success on that scale
he put up with a lotta shit when he fell from grace
his life was routinely threatened
his wife was ridiculed and abused
he was fucking hounded by the fbi n cia
thats how powerful a threat his songs were
the “straights” turned on him
and they got him good
but he aint the first artist thats happened to
nor will he be the last
the gossip rags are turning it into an artform themselves
be all that as it may
i pay homage to the man
somewhere on a level with bob dylan
as to guys who created the framework
that all us other rock writers work within
but they can never be equalled
because they came first
with no precedents
and
that is rocks tragedy inna way
and that is why all those english rock mags
are always dylan lennon beatles stones
because an argument lennon had with his chauffer
is more interesting by far
than an interview with jack rockstar whos album
is number one this week
we all labour in these giants footsteps
thats just the way it is
you cant get bigger or better than those guys
thats a built in assumption
thats why it was all so silly with oasis
i mean
C’MON!!!
whats the point in pretending….
the gallaghers aint the beatles
they couldnt be

i still believe your number one saving grace is originality…..
to see if you can bend it
not reproduce it…
thats how the the big guys got big in the 1st place
anyway
i got bloggers cramp
adios, mein amigos