John Winston Lennon 1940-1980

Eric Lampe


John Lennon


John Lennon: A Man of Faith

October, 30th 2006

 

            In many peoples opinion, the Beatles were and still are the greatest musical group of all time. I’ve been a fan of the Beatles my entire life. Within the Beatles the John Lennon-Paul McCartney duo was the most successful songwriting team in history. Lennon was always the more outspoken “intelligent” of the four Beatles. If we only counted Lennon’s career and success by what he did with the Beatles then we are really missing out on one of the most important parts of his life. What Lennon did after the Beatles is perhaps as important as to what he did with the Beatles.

           

            It was after the break up of the Beatles in 1970 that we really came to know John Lennon. John Lennon’s career was not as successful in the sense of records sold as was the career that he had with the Beatles. However, Lennon showed the world so much more of what he really believed in after the era of the Beatles. Lennon was a man who whole heartedly believed that peace could be achieved in the world. He had a vision of this Garden of Eden that could be achieved if the world would only really try. Lennon was constantly under the eye of all the media throughout the majority of his life. This gave him a powerful outlet into how he could work to achieve what he dreamed of; world peace, harmony and love. However, even more than constant media attention, it was Lennon’s music that was his greatest weapon. He was one of the most famous singer-songwriters to ever live and his music reached and touched millions upon millions of people.

           

            First off Lennon did more than just publish hit records that sang of peace. He used his enormous media attention to do countless long interviews protesting the Vietnam War and urging people to give peace a chance. On March 20th, 1969 John Lennon wed his girlfriend Yoko Ono. A week later they spent they’re honeymoon in bed, only this was no ordinary honeymoon. They used the press to have a “Bed-In” in which they would spend their entire honeymoon week in bed with the press unlimited access. The couple was known nudists so the press thought they were really in for a show. However they stayed in their pajamas all week and played songs and took the media time to speak out against the Vietnam War and pro-peace messages. Lennon even wrote a song about the week called “The Ballad of John and Yoko.” The song says:

 

Drove from Paris to the Amsterdam Hilton
Talking in our beds for a week
The newspapers said, "Say what you doing in bed?"
I said, "We're only trying to get us some peace”

 

Lennon worked for peace through his actions like this. He was putting himself on the line here because he was putting himself out in the open to be ridiculed by the millions of watchers. Ridicule he got plenty of. He actually goes on to say in the same song:

 

Christ you know it ain't easy
You know how hard it can be
The way things are going
They're going to crucify me

 

Lennon stayed fast with what he believed no matter how hard it was. Another thing Lennon did was to create a phrase called “bagism.” This meant that if everyone were to wear a bag over their entire body they couldn’t be prejudice against each other for race, hair length or sex. This originated when John and Yoko actually came out on stage when performing in a huge bag.

 

            Lennon did influence many people through his actions but he reached the most people through what he was best at, his music. Lennon wrote several songs in his career that preached against war and for peace. I will address three of those. One famous song is “Give Peace a Chance.” The refrain to this song is repetitious but simple, it is:

           

All we are saying

Is give peace a chance

 

During Christmas time Lennon came out with one of the most famous Christmas songs of that time and still today is played very often. The song “Happy X-mas” is a great song with a line that repeats itself over and over at the end of the song.

           

            War is over

            If you want it

 

The message that Lennon keeps getting at is peace can be attained if we play our part. Lennon’s most famous song he ever wrote without the Beatles was the song “Imagine.” This song has undeniably had an effect on so many people. Its simple piano chord progression lets the lyrics shine as it was meant to be. The lyrics sing of peace and if we could just imagine it and all be dreamers then we could attain this world of peace.

 

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 be as one

           

Lennon was assassinated on December 8th, 1980 walking home to his apartment building. Lennon was a man of faith because he held strong beliefs that there could be a world of peace and he was not afraid to back up his radical claims regardless his reputation being diminished. Maybe if we could just imagine as he did then someday we could attain a world of peace and love.




 

VIDEOS

Imagine...a tribute
Happy X-mas...not your normal christmas video

to watch the Give Peace A Chance video click here and then click on videos and go to Give Peace a Chance. This also provides footage of the Bed-In.

 

 

SOURCES

JohnLennon.com
Wikipedia.org
Oldielyrics.com

           

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