9 Days Of Lennon: Day 9 "In My Life"

Today marks John Lennon's 73rd Birthday!

For the short forty years John was with us he accomplished more than anyone could ask for from him. He was the perfect role model, disregard the drug uses and things like that, but John Lennon become successful by doing what he loved, music, and has honestly changed the world with his natural talent. He became a figure that people can look up to and someone who influenced everyone, without even realizing it.The last post of "9 Days Of Lennon" is based of tributes for John. From McCartney, Elton John, statues, parks, and more.

"My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role is to try and express what we all feel. Not as a preacher, but as a reflection of us all."-John Lennon

To fans John Lennon is an inspiration and an idol, he's someone we all want to be and means a lot to us even though we don't know him. Sir Paul McCartney falls under that category, saying he's the biggest John Lennon fan. John and Paul had a friendship like no other and really define the word music. Paul still misses The Beatles days;

 "Are you kidding? Of course I bloody miss it. I'm sitting in the room with John, him with me. Believe me, we're both pretty good editors. We were young turks. We were smartasses. And we did some amazing things. I would love him to be here now, saying, 'Don't bloody do that!' – or, more wonderfully, 'That's great!' So yeah, I really had the greatest writing partner."

 Paul McCartney shows his respect to his great friend in a tribute song, "Here Today". The lyrics consists of Paul telling John how much he loves him and at concerts, for example at this past Out There tour when Paul played Boston he started the song by saying something on the lines of, "Sometimes you don't have the opportunity to say you love someone and how much they mean to you and next thing you know they're gone. Here's to you John". Paul even tears up when singing his song.  One line in the song is "What about the night we cried, because there wasn't any reason left to keep it all inside" is from a story of The Beatles being in Key West due to a hurricane and they were stuck there. The two, Lennon and McCartney, had nothing better to do but get drunk and then eventually talking in depths and connecting on some deep personal feelings and just cried.

"I seem to remember we had some time off in Key West, Florida, and it was because there was a hurricane, and we'd been diverted, I think, from Jacksonville.
So we had to spend a night or two in Key West, is where we ended up, anyway. And at that age, with that much time on our hands, we really didn't know what to do with it except get drunk.
And so that was what we did. And we stayed up all night talking, talking, talking like it was going out of style. And at some point early in the morning, I think we must have touched on some points that were really emotional, and we ended up crying, which was very unusual for us, because we - members of a band and young guys, we didn't do that kind of thing. So I always remembered it as a sort of important emotional landmark."- Paul McCartney, 2001 interview with Terry Gross (Read more of the interview here).

"I can't tell you how much it hurts to lose him. His death is a bitter cruel blow. I really loved the guy."- Paul McCartney

"I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people." -John Lennon

 George Harrison also pays respect to his band-mate with "All Those Years Ago". The song was originally written about Ringo but when John was assassinated he changed the lyrics to now say how much he looked up to John. Al Kooper remembers seeing George reacting to John's death,

"George was in the kitchen, white as a sheet, real shook up. We all had breakfast. He took calls from Paul and Yoko, which actually seemed to help his spirit, and then we went into the studio and started the day's work. Ray and I kept George's wine glass full all day..."

Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, and Denny Laine (from Moody Blues and was part of  McCartney's  Wings) played on the song.

George also worked with Lennon on several other occasions after The Beatles, playing on John Lennon Plastic Ono Band's Imagine album for songs like "Crippled Inside. Also, for Lennon's "Oh My Love".

"Interviewer: John wasn't an angel.

George: He wasn't, but then again he was."

Jim Keltner, drummer for Lennon and Harrison (later The Traveling Wilburys) had said;

"George was very, very heavily influenced by John, all of John's thinking and the way John did things in the world, and the way he handled his Beatledom, you know. I think that George was very affected by that. I got to have the best of all of that by being friends with both of them, and it's just been a tremendous ride. I can't ever describe properly what it's like to have been so close with all those guys."

 "Reality leaves a lot to the imagination."- John Lennon

After John's death Yoko had come up with some unfinished tapes of John and asked the remaining Beatles to do something with them. The three added music and backings to songs like "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love"-which was originally  "Girls and Boys".  Ringo remembers the event as difficult to not have John with them and calling the process very emotional.

"And we came to the conclusion that, well, what we'll do is we'll just feel like - you know, we'll just sort of say, well, John's gone on holiday for a while, or he's gone for a cup of tea. And that's how we got into it. So it felt okay, you know."

Ringo pays his respect to John at the end of his concerts. Every concert Ringo ends with John's "Give Peace A Chance" and even has John's vocals in 'Yellow Submarine" played instead of having his All-Star's sing Lennon's part.

Ringo also released a song on his album "Ringo Rama" called 'Imagine Me There" written about John and even says in his lyrics, "When I find myself in frantic situations, I imagine you there" saying he thinks of John when things get rough and is able to go on.

"My friends call me John, but you can call me 'Tonight'" -John Lennon

Elton John was a big John Lennon fan and friend. John and Elton worked together in 1972 on each others songs and then later preformed a concert on Thanksgiving of 1972 (Read more about their friendship here).
After the loss of his good friend Elton John went on to write "Empty Garden", a song about him walking to John's door and having no answer and just asking John to come out and talk to him. He even says that when he preforms the song in concert he can't look at the screen behind him, which is showing pictures of Lennon in fear of tearing up and not being able to carry on.

“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.”- John Lennon

  There are many tributes to the great musician like tribute bands, memorials, statues, and others. Some of the major John Lennon ones can be found in New York City and Mathew Street in Liverpool. One of the major tourist attractions in Central Park, New York is Strawberry Fields, a section dedicated to John Lennon named after The Beatles song "Strawberry Fields". The memorial is located directly across from


the Dakota apartments where John and Yoko lived for several years and where John was assassinated outside of. The memorial  was originally 'Peace Garden" and is 5.3 acres dedicated to John.
Yoko Ono started the creation of Strawberry Fields in 1981 and on John's birthday in 1985 the project was finished.
 If you're a Beatles fan you must know what is located on Mathew Street in Liverpool. The Cavern Club is said to be where The Beatles got their big break (read more about The Cavern here). On the corner of Mathew Street is a dark statue of a young John Lennon leaning against a building. 

'If There's such a thing as genius - I am one. And if there isn't, I don't Care"- John Lennon

  
Ten Songs by John Lennon that I like (Not my favorites because I can't choose only ten):

• God
• Isolation
• (Just Like) Starting Over
• Mind Games
• Gimme Me Some Truth
• In My Life
• No Reply
• Across The Universe
• Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out)
•  Bad To Me

Personally, John Lennon has effected my life in many ways and I wouldn't be who I am today without him. He had forty short years to make a name for himself and that's just what he did. Rest in Peace John Lennon. You're sorely missed and will never be forgotten.

"Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more"