Thursday, December 08, 2005

Imagine A Day in the Life of Revolution No. 9

My favorite was George. 

It was probably because he was the least heralded, the afterthought, at least at the beginning.  The guys in the background have always appealed to me more than the larger-than-life stars—Entwistle, not Townsend or Daltry; Casady, not Slick or Balin; Wyman, not Jagger or Richard.  That George was the guy in the background while playing lead guitar made it all the stranger.

But this essay is about John Lennon, murdered in front of The Dakota twenty-five years ago today. 

If Paul was the sentimental heart, George the spiritual soul, and Ringo the silly sense of humor, John was the studious, worldly mind of the Beatles.  Do we have any clue of the political viewpoints of McCartney or Starr?  Did Harrison’s thoughts about the world’s sociopolitical relationships matter to anyone? 

Not so Lennon.  In his last years among us, he was an activist of the highest order.  Whether that was a result of his union with Yoko, or whether instead his burgeoning thoughts and beliefs led him into her circles, we may never know.  And, in the end, it doesn’t much matter.  The fact is that John’s politics were progressive, if not radical and socialist.

We cannot know where John’s inquisitive, inventive intellect would have led him had he not run afoul of Mark David Chapman.  Would he have entered conventional politics?  Would he, say, have joined Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition?  Might he even have considered running for office himself?  He had become an American citizen, moved permanently to New York, dealt with American political issues.  For all the recent fantasy about Bruce Springsteen running for the Senate in New Jersey, the idea of Senator John Lennon seems somehow more conceivable to me.

Yes, George was my favorite Beatle.  But, in many ways, John was my favorite ex-Beatle.