# what would have happened to John Lennon... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 6, 2009, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-to-john-lennon/492155 "2009-04-06T19:05:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-to-john-lennon/492155/21 "2009-04-07T01:15:34Z")
I think John would have put protest music back in the forefront and helped mobilize Americans and British against the Gulf Wars and “War on Terror” or whatever this is. It’s not that we’re not vocal I just don’t think we have a single voice against the wars anymore. I think John woulda been it. And maybe it would have worked. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-to-john-lennon/492155/22 "2009-04-07T01:24:33Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I think John would have put protest music back in the forefront and helped mobilize Americans and British against the Gulf Wars and “War on Terror” or whatever this is. > > It’s not that we’re not vocal I just don’t think we have a single voice against the wars anymore. I think John woulda been it. And maybe it would have worked. Doubt it. Probably would’ve gotten Dixie Chicked if he’d tried. The internet can reach even more people than John Lennon and that didn’t help. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-to-john-lennon/492155/23 "2009-04-07T01:49:10Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Doubt it. Probably would’ve gotten Dixie Chicked if he’d tried. The internet can reach even more people than John Lennon and that didn’t help. That’d be way old hat for Lennon. He’d been there many times over when his “bigger than Jesus” comment was taken out of context. Now, not that I wish death upon Yoko, but this alternate timeline would be more interesting if Chapman missed and had killed her instead. I imagine it would’ve sent Lennon into a hell of a depression out of which - if he survived it - could have come some soul crushing music. I’m just thinking hypothetically here - not wishing harm. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-to-john-lennon/492155/24 "2009-04-07T02:11:37Z")
Emitt Rhodes would have killed him and Yoko and eaten both their hearts. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-to-john-lennon/492155/25 "2009-04-07T03:19:16Z")
> [@The\_Superhero](#): > > The best part of the whole thing is that John and Paul [were actually watching SNL together](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_lennon#The_former_Beatles) at John’s NYC apartment when that episode aired - it was the last time they saw each other. They briefly considered going down to the studio, but were too tired to bother. Can you imagine the reaction if they had actually gone? Yeah, I think that John Lennon was just about ready to come back out and do things. He had taken a big ‘time out’. I don’t know if he would have been very political, because I think that is what he was sitting out. He had learned something about fame and speaking out that he didn’t like. John and Paul probably would have written music together again. Performing together…probably not. The big circus would be too much. But the loss of what music he might have made, that is the true sadness. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-to-john-lennon/492155/26 "2009-04-07T03:35:03Z")
> [@The\_Superhero](#): > > The Superhero’s Controversial Secret Upside of the Murder of John Lennon Hypothesis: > > Lennon’s death, while tragic, did one good thing. It prevented what would have been the otherwise inevitable and and almost certainly disappointing Beatles reunion, circa 1995, which would have happened when they all four realized that there was simply too much money to be made by reuniting for it not to happen. They would have toured, which would likely have been decent, and then they would have made a new album, which would likely have been shitty - thus negating the fact that an actual reunion would have spared us the unbearable crappiness of the faux-reunion songs that actually did come out in 1995. > > That said, I’d much rather have Lennon alive and doing whatever he felt like doing than murdered by a lunatic. They, The Beatles, never put out a shitty album in their career, so why would the hypothetical next one be shitty? I think they would have eventually reunited too, perhaps even as early as Live Aid in 1985. I can picture them doing A Day in The Life, Here Comes the Sun, and Octopus’s Garden. Wouldn’t that have been something? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-to-john-lennon/492155/27 "2009-04-07T05:53:18Z")
I think the question is what do you do after Abbey Road? You certainly don’t top it. But what if they did? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-to-john-lennon/492155/28 "2009-04-07T15:38:26Z")
Well, one thing we KNOW would have happened: some other album would have won the Grammy, rather than the tepid, uninspired “Double Fantasy.” It wasn’t a horrible album, just a rather bland, dull one. The kind Lennon would have mocked mercilessly if Paul McCartney had made it. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-to-john-lennon/492155/29 "2009-04-07T20:15:04Z")
That’s true. I mean it seems the Who and the Rolling Stones have had plenty of “Farewell Tours”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-to-john-lennon/492155.md?page=1)