Speaking of Lennon’s 70th, have y’all been to Google today?
Yeah, I think the Beatles would have reformed for some concerts over the years. I mean, when the Haiti earthquake occurred or something like that, I can see that they may have gotten together to raise a huge amount of cash for charity.
Any new material? Unlikely. But seeing them play would have been cool.
Well, there was his stint as a 9-11 Republican, joining Ron Silver and Ed Koch in campaigning for Bush in 2004. Of course, he did support Obama in 2008.
Oh yes, and his joining the Episcopal Church in the late 1980’s- noting that they were way less stuffy than the Anglicanism he’d rebelled against in his youth, that Jesus was “more than all right” & that while His modern-day disciples were still “thick & ordinary”, John admitted he had been way too harsh on the original disciples.
Just to note, today is also the birthday of Lennon’s son, Sean, who was born on his father’s 35th birthday. Sean is now 35 himself. Happy birthday, Sean.
Decomposing
He absolutely would have gotten back together with Paul for a reunion, and if Paul and John were on board, George and Ringo would have been too.
It almost happened spontaneously. My wife remembers seeing an interview with Paul where he mentioned that a few years before John was killed he was visiting him at his apartment in New York. They were watching Saturday Night Live and someone on the show joked about giving the Beatles some ridiculous amount like $1000 if they would reunite on the show. He said he and John thought it would be really funny if they took a cab over to NBC and showed up before the show ended and played a set. But then they realized they would never make it in time so the greatest moment in TV history never happened.
Re: whether Yoko is loved now, probably not on a wide scale, but she’s a bit of an alternative icon, an influence on acclaimed artists like Bjork and Antony Hegarty, she’s had seven #1 hits on the Billboard Dance chart this decade (a huge number for any artist, let alone a woman in her seventies), released Yes, I’m A Witch in 2007 featuring collaborations with all sorts of “cool” indie-type musicians , she just did a highly publicised live show with Lady Gaga, she has over a million followers on Twitter…
In my experience the younger generations don’t have a problem with her and see her as a cool old lady who is continuing John’s legacy and working as an activist for peace.
I don’t think there would have been a Beatles reunion. And George would have been the hold-out, rather than John.
He and Bono would have had a field day putting their opinion out about EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD
I just hope he wouldn’t be a Scientologist.
Three words:
White Sequined Jumpsuit.
Actually, I’m plagiarizing myself. I told my kids that Jim Morrison would’ve ended up as a fat Vegas act. And that dying early was a great career move.
And I do think John would’ve kept enough of his integrity to stay out of sequins.
He would be turning down requests to do a Super Bowl Halftime show.
John also confirmed the story in an interview. It was SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels who made the offer on the air for $3000. He even had an actual check from NBC made out in the amount of $3000 to the order of “The Beatles.” He jokingly mentioned they could split it however they wanted. If John, Paul, and George wanted to keep $1000 each and leave Ringo out of the cut, that was all right with him.
This was also part of a VH1 movie called Two of Us, starring Jared Harris as Lennon and Aidan Quinn as McCartney. The movie is about Lennon and McCartney hanging out with each other in New York for the day and the bit with Lorne Michaels comes at the end. It includes the actual on-air pitch made by Michaels. If anyone wants to check it out, it is available on DVD. I thought it was enjoyable. Harris and Quinn captured Lennon and McCartney and according to Quinn, even McCartney enjoyed the movie.
Remember Michael Caine’s character in Children of Men? That’s your 70 year old John Lennon right there. As an added bonus, his wife is mute!
I would agree - I think this would have been the only time there might possibly have been a “Beatles reunion” to get donations at the time.
Since there’s no way of knowing for certain, I can say in acknowledgement of his musical achievements and contributions to pop culture I hope he would have become a happier person.
He was such a monumental self absorbed thoroughly unlikable prick for so much of his life (cite: everybody who knew him, but most especially his oldest son, his first wife, and Yoko herself) that one of the great tragedies of his death is it happened when he seemed to be becoming a better person. He still smoked like a steel mill but, if accounts are to be believed, had mostly quit the hard stuff. His doting on his younger son had mellowed him and he was taking a renewed interest in his older son who he had largely walked away from and forgotten about. (Julian says that by far his happiest memories of his father are from the “Lost Weekend” days with May Pang [Yoko’s handmaiden whom she gave him as concubine essentially]; May pretty much forced John to have a relationship with Julian, and which John did almost like a child being told to do so at first but then became a warm and loving father- which ended when he went back to Yoko.)
My guess: he’d have become bored with all the accolades and gazillions of dollars from his pop days and probably would have tried to branch out: an avante garde autobiographical Broadway musical perhaps, or a symphony. He and Yoko would have continued their performance art occasionally with well publicized antics but to dwindling interest and so perhaps he’d have devoted part of his fortune to doing something substantial. He probably would have had at least one major separation from Yoko and gone back to her- I can see her playing Sarai to his Abram again by deciding she wanted more children and so giving him a fertile young concubine to “bear children upon my knees” which would have led to a spectacularly well publicized custody battle when the baby-mama decided she wanted to be more than surrogate.
He’d have continually hinted he might regroup with the other Beatles and would have projects with one or the other of them from time to time but save perhaps for a couple of “all in the same place at the same time” events they’d never reform and they’d never have played together again. He and Yoko would have made some startlingly bizarre and controversial music videos (she had ample fame & fortune on her own to get into videos but would have need his clout for anything remarkable) and he’d have continued to give incendiary interviews and statements, though blessedly unlike most liberals who make gaffes he wouldn’t have apologized for or been particularly afraid of offending anybody, and if alive today he’d have risen a couple of notches on the “wise old curmudgeon wit” with the passing of Kurt Vonnegut and George Carlin but would never be considered the epigramic equal of either.
He’d probably still be at the Dakota and still bashing American politics and foreign policy and greed but you wouldn’t be able to blast him out of here with dynamite. He’d probably have a rambling suburban estate as well for the benefit of his many children [see handmaiden concubines] and a famous vacation home/artist colony where he’d go to retreat and be worshiped. He’d have an extremely active blog whose best droplets would be very quotable and the other 97% indistinguishable from those of Roseanne Barr or Rosie O’Donnell. He’d have released a bestselling album of covers of classic pre-rock songs and appeared on MTV’s Unplugged in the 1990s and would probably have done something really peculiar and unexpectedly cheesy sellout in spite of not needing the money like taking a recurring role on Yes Dear or being a judge on American Idol or going on Dancing With the Stars strictly as a lark, then withdraw halfway through the season (and because of his gigantism in the Q factor his contract would allow him to do that).
And most importantly he’d have reinvigorated the Colorforms industry and launched his own line of vegan luncheon meat.
NPR had an interview with David Sheff this morning. He spent 3 weeks with John and Yoko in August of 1980. They played some of the tapes from those days, and it’s great (and sad) to hear his voice again:
Viagra. And twins. I bet he can still find them.
WTF? Everyone I know from that generation pretty much hates her. Me included. Big time. John was so stoned he could have been doing anyone… Her art was crap and I can’t stand to look at her without thinking that it’s too bad she didn’t get shot instead. Of course, that wouldn’t have stopped John from doing drugs.
I loved both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones back in the day. I don’t think John could keep up with Mick now if he were still alive.