Bobber has a great point. Yoko is all about image, always has been. John (and the other Beatles) certainly had an "image" at the beginning, but they delighted in puncturing it. "Yeah, we drink and smoke. Yeah, I've dated a fan-- what of it?" This honesty only added to their charm. Later, when the Beatles were breaking up, John in particular went after the Beatles' image with a sledge-hammer: "Look at us! We're flawed, faulty human beings!" Of course, it wasn't so charming then; everyone was too hurt to enjoy it. (And John did work out of this phase eventually.)
The only thing that I can think of that would qualify Lennon for "amazing and special" was his dedication to the peace movement.
He doesn't get any marks for drive, wit, and talent?
their efforts seem to owe more to Yoko's Performance Art background than to John. He seems more a hanger-on than an instigator.
I'd agree with this. John's friends were saying to themselves, "Whoa, where did
this come from!" I think John really wanted some strong direction in his life at that time. The other Beatles were busy with their own concerns, so were not busy "activating" John. When they came together in the studio, there were those growing musical differences that put tension on what used to be their former binding aspect.
I'm not quite as cynical as BlueMeanie. I think John dropped the peace thing because it couldn't hold his attention, not because it didn't "sell". John always moved through phases: his "making it to the top phase" and his "Dylan phase" and his hippy phase and meditation phase and conceptual artist phase, and on to his "party animal, free at last!" phase and househusband phase so on.
Yoko, on the other hand was a relatively (by all accounts) fulfilled conceptual/performance artist without an audience.
Wow, this is an interesting sentence. I never thought of Yoko in this way before. I'm going to ponder. Thanks!
The fact that some people look upon Lennon as some kind of God has everything to do with those 3 years (1969-1972) and the fact that he was murdered, than to any of his abilities as a musician.
I'll grant you that his murder really focused people on his loss ("You don't know what you got til it's gone"), but was it really all about peace? I can't help thinking people were feeling tremendous gratitude for the Beatles music and how those good memories had been part of their growing-up period. But then, I don't really know about this group that "looks upon Lennon as some kind of God" so perhaps the 3 peace years bit is true for them.
