It's the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's murder. I am a Beatles' fan and when I was a child in the early 1960's and the Beatles' British Invasion conquered America and Ed Sullivan, I watched his program live on that historic Sunday night when they appeared on his program. And yes my father forbade my brother and me from letting our hair grow out and cut like the Beatles haircut which originally was quite conservative! But I think we did get a Beatles' wig!
Yes, I was shocked and saddened by John Lennon's tragic death on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception 30 years ago this very day. I will say a private prayer for the repose of his immortal soul today at our Immaculate Conception Masses.
AND YES, THE FOLK GROUP OF MY PARISH CHURCH IN THE 1960'S WHERE I GREW UP SANG THIS SONG FREQUENTLY AT MASS! AT THE TIME I THOUGHT IT WAS COOL, TODAY I WOULD PUKE! BUT I LOVE THAT SONG AND I LOVE THE VIDEO ABOVE. IT IS AN EXAMPLE OF SECULAR MUSIC THAT COULD BE USED FOR DEVOTIONAL PURPOSES BUT NEVER DRAGGED INTO THE MASS. THERE SHOULD BE A DICHOTOMY BETWEEN DEVOTIONAL AND LITURGICAL MUSIC.
18 comments:
Neat post. A meditation on the life of the spectacularly talented John Lennon should rid a person of all envy.
rcg
Well, I was always told by the "hip" crowd that "mother mary" was a code word for marijuana. That would certainly fit better with John Lennon's atheistic, Leftist, counter-culture persona. You'd better pray extra hard for his soul, Fr.
Of course when one needs many prayers, like requiem masses, etc, many should be offered, both prayers and requiem masses! In other words, when the need is great, the prayers should be greater!
RCG, I am disappointed in you. Lennon was a trouble maker and ne'er do well from his youth. He is another disordered soul from a wrecked family who found a public outlet for his rage during a propitious (for him) time. He was kicked out of school for shoddy work or violent behavior on several occasions, flunked out of art school, experimented with all kinds of drugs, was an avowed atheist ("Christianity will disappear; it has to disappear"), and he and his tin-panny, Liverpudlian, blue-collar, angry, chronically unhappy foursome were one of the major contributing factors to the cultural wreck of our society. Their music is some of the angriest on record, and even their so-called "love songs" were angry. "She Loves You" sounds like, "She loves you...yah, yah, yah." I consider them a little to no talent gang of delinquents, and most of us didn't even break our stride when it was announced he had been shot. We have heard more about this drugged out, Left Wing, rage-filled moron this week than we have heard about Pearl Harbor or the Blessed Virgin. I find it delightful that his idealized world, which he called "Nutopia," can be most aptly pronounced with a hyphen between the "t" and the "o." Sheesh! No envy here...only disgust.
Pinan, I must have made my point poorly. He had so much talent, wasted by vanity. I can admire his work and not be one bit jealous of it.
FWIW, I think McCarthy wrote 'Let it Be' during the waning years of the Beatles. They just took joint credit for legal reasons. Lennon's 'A Day in the Life' was mostly his own work and would be the secular counterpart.
rcg
RCG, I suppose it depends on how you define "talent." There is Mozart, Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, and Scarlatti; then there's Raphael, Da Vinci, Titian, and Michaelangelo. In the non-classical music realm, you have Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, Rogers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe and, for the more pedestrian, Jimmie Rodgers and Woody Guthrie. If you want to stay in the realm of pop and R&R groups, you have the Beach Boys (an equivalent band with a different venue), The Four Seasons, and The Platters (arguably the greatest pop group of all time). Then there is Elvis, who makes Paul McCartney sound like someone putting up pots and pans. Then,for you "id" oriented cats of course, there is John Lennon...bwahahahahahahah!
John Lennon was recently quoted by a local high school senior.
The recent student shared John Lennon's view of rejecting God as a father figure (fatherly creator and powerful judge)and considering God as something more like a prescence among all things.
Sounds like the hippies didn't really lose the concept of the Holy Spirit (although they'll never call it that), but rejected the other two persons. And it still lingers on today, that's why it's so easy to be totally secular.
It's totally amazing that an environment that played the Beatles at Mass could produce a priest. It's probably Father's parents that get all the credit, human credit, that is.
I would compare Lennon to Liszt in their self absorption. Raw talent? Hard to say, after all it is art.
Interesting thing, talent. Pinan, as you know, I play banjo. I was seeking instruction in the 'Old Time' style that is related to Appalachian, Celtic, and African roots. A local fellow was referred to me. Obviously skilled and very knowledgeable in music history and theory, he makes his living as meter reader for the local utility. Humble, hard working, salt of the earth. So one day I get a notice from the University of Chicago that they are hosting a music series of 'folk' music artists invited to appear to lecture, play, and record their art for posterity as the University wishes to capture performances of people they feel are the best in the world at their art. Lo, and behold: foremost among them is my friend. Later, he told me that he was going to play in Chicago and there were some good musicians playing with him, if I wanted to go. He loves music and understands it, and respects the people and cultures that birthed it. I can hear the Holy Spirit when he plays. As he says himself, "good music makes you want to dance".
I think that people like Lennon are indeed distorted and resentful of God and a list of other conscious sins. I also believe God acts through them anyway if for no other reason than to highlight their vanity. Good artists are humbled by their own gifts and, as we have discussed in other venues, point to their art and not themselves.
rcg
we're talking about music and the impact this music had on popular culture and baby boomers like me who loved this music, get nostalgic when hearing it and think back to simpler days when baby boomers mattered! That's all that counts.
To get back to Let It Be, it was clearly a Paul McCartney song, thought by many to be a tribute to his late mother, who died when he was a small boy. Lennon always hated the song.
Lennon and McCartney were good compliments to each other, McCartney balancing the rough edges of Lennon and Lennon sharpening the schmaltz of McCartney.
It's interesting to note that on the White Album there are two songs that were written by each member to sound like the other. McCartney told Lennon to write a song that sounded like something he would write and McCartney penned Helter Skelter. When Lennon tried to write a song in the style of McCartney, he came up with Good Night.
Pinan525 is correct about them being a bunch of delinquents and the world has watched them all grow up before our curious eyes. It's almost amusing to see McCartney as such a "fatherly" icon of respectability these days. I can still remember him being talked about like a criminal for his LSD use.
Oops, I meant Lennon told McCartney to write a song that sounded like something that HE (Lennon) would write and McCartney wrote Helter Skelter.
I'm with Fr M. I like the song, I like the Beatles, and still listen to them.
rcg
Well, ya'll...to quote H.L. Mencken,"No one ever went broke under-estimating the bad taste of the American public." *Bronx cheer*
LOL!
pinan525:
Mencken was quite correct, however, I will confess that I grew up listening to the Beatles and still enjoy a bit of their music, although I am rather sick of a lot of it too--probably the overexposure. Fact is, I get sick of just about anything if I hear it often enough, which has led me down some very odd paths in my music listening habits.
Mencken's observations also apply to today's music, much of which I question the very musicality of. Rap? Angry shouting and inane rhyming over a rhythmic beat. Top 40? Whiny sounding singers who can't stay on key. C & W? It's actually redneck rock. Classical: Sold to us now as background and relaxation music, with few new composers ever getting exposure. Jazz? If you can find a station that even plays it, it's mostly conventional standards. Rock? What rock? Classic rock? Heavy metal? Rockabilly? Punk? Doo Wop? R & B? What do you mean? Shrill-sounding angry women shouting that you "shoulda putta ring on it"? Heck, it's not even safe to go to Mass in most Catholic churches, because they still think it's 1970!
At least the Beatles were capable of writing melodies, something sorely missing from the airwaves today.
The music industry is a real mess because it has become an industry. But I still love music anyway.
Pinan, You may be right. I have contacted the Archdiocese concerning what I think is a miracle I witnessed associated The Platters' music. My office building plays music in the restrooms and there is no escaping it. One day I was answering the call and 'You've Got the Magic Touch' began to play causing me to enter a state of prayerful supplication. Suddenly a fire alarm, or was it Gabriel's Horn?, sounded ending the music. The paint locker had only minor damage.
Miracle? I am convinced.
rcg
RCG, Fr. probably would not allow me to post my comments on your "miracle." I will only refer you to St. Bernard who, while in his cell in deep meditation, was troubled by similar physiologic disturbances. He immediately went outside and, disrobing, cast himself into a snow bank. Ya'll have snow by now up there in Ohio, don't you?
Yes. It was 10 degrees this morning. I tried St Bernard's dedication and stuck to sidewalk. Ironically, my wife's first given name is 'Mary'. AS the crowd gathered she came to me and said, "Let him be'. But after a few minutes of begging I convinced her to pour warm water on me to rescue me.
rcg
Well, RCG, that just proves She Loves You...ya,ya,ya.
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