# Dear John, Sorry about last night..... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 3, 2001, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-john-sorry-about-last-night/85162 "2001-10-03T12:04:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spritle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Spritle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spritle)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-john-sorry-about-last-night/85162/1 "2001-10-03T12:04:31Z")
Dear John, Sorry about last night; I guess the whole “help out New York” thing got out of hand. Sure it was for a good cause and all, we just couldn’t cover the bet, as it were. We wanted to do right. We wanted to help out New York. We tried to go back to the “Live Aid” era with the big benefit show. In planning stages, it was decided that we needed a peace-loving icon that somehow represented New York. I know you lived here less than 10 years, but your music was so profound we latched on. I don’t know what we were thinking. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Benefit concerts are tougher to set up than you might think. You see, with the “telethon” the other week, great stars crawled out of the woodwork to help out. Our resources were spent. We had to settle for Natalie Merchant and her incredibly warbly voice. Heck, we had go dig up Dave Stewart (remember him?) to round out the pack. We were so hard up for performers, we had to get the emcee to sing a song. I fear that what happened was a great debacle. We looked foolish. Second tier performers forcing your words into discourse. I’m truly embarassed. Forgive us? Spritle ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-john-sorry-about-last-night/85162/2 "2001-10-03T12:14:03Z")
John who? 😕 [Julie Brown] Johnny? Like, who’s Johnny? [/Julie Brown] ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-john-sorry-about-last-night/85162/3 "2001-10-03T12:26:23Z")
Lennon. Used to be in a group with Paul McCartney before Paul sung with Wings. ---
**Author:** ![Spritle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Spritle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spritle)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-john-sorry-about-last-night/85162/4 "2001-10-03T12:43:43Z")
Yeah, like “The Beatles”. You know, Paul McCartney’s back-up band before Wings. They put out a lot of records on vinyl. Vinyl? Anybody? [sub]damn kids[/sub] 😉 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-john-sorry-about-last-night/85162/5 "2001-10-03T12:44:16Z")
Paul MacCartney was in a band before Wings? ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-john-sorry-about-last-night/85162/6 "2001-10-03T12:51:32Z")
From what I hear, it was hosted by Kevin Space Cadet ---
**Author:** ![Nymysys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f6c823/32.png) [@Nymysys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nymysys)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-john-sorry-about-last-night/85162/7 "2001-10-03T12:55:49Z")
With all due respect to the wit I enjoy so much here, I had no clue what the OP was about either. Yes, I’m old enough to remember the Beatles. Barely. 😃 Regardless, I don’t have TV, nor live in NYC, nor have I checked the news yet today. I was wooshed as well. ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-john-sorry-about-last-night/85162/8 "2001-10-03T13:11:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Spritle \* > **We wanted to do right. We wanted to help out New York. We tried to go back to the “Live Aid” era with the big benefit show. In planning stages, it was decided that we needed a peace-loving icon that somehow represented New York. I know you lived here less than 10 years, but your music was so profound we latched on. I don’t know what we were thinking. It seemed like a good idea at the time.** Actually, that show was planned well before the Sept. 11 attack. Although, I don’t know what else they changed besides some of the copy the celebrities read. I wasn’t very impressed. Dave Matthews sang a song (“In My Life”) that was too high for his voice to handle, Yolanda Adams butchered “Imagine” to the point that it was unrecognizable, Alanis Morrisette seemed to have a little trouble with “Dear Prudence” and I just had to turn off the TV after Cyndi Lauper’s first line of “Strawberry Fields”. The only redeeming factor (of the portion of the show I saw) was Stone Temple Pilots doing “Revolution”. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-john-sorry-about-last-night/85162/9 "2001-10-03T14:02:03Z")
…if someone said “John” or “Paul” or “George”, you automatically assumed they were referring to a particular Beatle. I’d say that only applies to Ringo now, and only because there just aren’t too many Ringos in the world. The part about representing New York would have completely thrown me off anyway. I knew Lennon and Yoko had a domicile there for a few years, but if you’re basically a citizen of the world, New York’s a handy place to have a residence. I would never in a million years think of him as a New Yorker, in the way I associate Paul Simon and Billy Joel with that city. ---
**Author:** ![Spritle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Spritle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spritle)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-john-sorry-about-last-night/85162/10 "2001-10-03T14:11:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RTFirefly \* > \*\* > I would never in a million years think of him as a New Yorker, in the way I associate Paul Simon and Billy Joel with that city. \*\* Hear, hear!