It's 41 years ago today since John Lennon was shot. I remember hearing the news on the radio as I was lying in bed and couldn't quite believe it. Double Fantasy had just come out and fans like me hoped that this album would be the first of many. It was not to be. Yet John Lennon's legacy lives on.
One of the sounds of Christmas every year is John and Yoko's 'Happy Xmas. (War is Over).' It was written as part of their peace activism and a wish for peace and that war be over forever. It's eminently sing-a-long-able (is that a word?) with a simple, overriding message of Christmas being for everyone and a hope that the coming year is lived without fear which is one of the reasons it does the rounds every Christmas season.
Ahh, that living without fear thing. That seemed like an easy thing to do pre-Covid. But with omicron arriving on our shores and doubling every 2 or 3 days, a government that is happy to gaslight the population, the NHS on its knees and living through climate change, it's not quite so easy to live without fear these days. Oh well, the song is still great. I love that combination of melancholy and hope in both the lyrics and the music. I will always wonder what music we've missed due to Lennon's untimely death.
Further links
Happy Xmas (War is Over) Wikipedia entry
Happy Xmas (War is Over) lyrics
Lennon's death, I was there. a BBC reporter's account of what happened.
The Murder of John Lennon Wikipedia entry
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep it clean please. Spam will be removed. And thank you for taking the trouble to read and comment. I appreciate it.