And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died…
A fragment of the song “American Pie”, by Don McLean
JOHN LENNON
9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980
John Lennon was an English musician who gained worldwide fame as one of the founders of The Beatles, for his subsequent solo career, and for his political activism and pacifism. He was shot by Mark David Chapman at the entrance of the building where he lived, The Dakota, in New York City, on Monday, 8 December 1980; Lennon had just returned from Record Plant Studio with his wife, Yoko Ono.
Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where it was stated that nobody could have lived for more than a few minutes after sustaining such injuries. Shortly after local news stations reported Lennon’s death, crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of The Dakota. He was cremated on 10 December 1980, at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York; the ashes were given to Ono, who chose not to hold a funeral for him.
Photo of John Lennon signing a copy of his Double Fantasy album for Mark David Chapman, taken by Paul Goresh, 8 December, 1980.
Read more about the dead of John Lennon at Wikipedia.
Read more about John Lennon at Wikipedia.
Official site: http://www.johnlennon.com/
WATCHING THE WHEELS
JOHN LENNON
People say I’m crazy doing what I’m doing,
Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin,
When I say that I’m o.k. they look at me kind of strange,
Surely your not happy now you no longer play the game,
People say I’m lazy dreaming my life away,
Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me,
When I tell that I’m doing Fine watching shadows on the wall,
Don’t you miss the big time boy you’re no longer on the ball?
I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round,
I really love to watch them roll,
No longer riding on the merry-go-round,
I just had to let it go,
People asking questions lost in confusion,
Well I tell them there’s no problem,
Only solutions,
Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I’ve lost my mind,
I tell them there’s no hurry…
I’m just sitting here doing time,
I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round,
I really love to watch them roll,
No longer riding on the merry-go-round,
I just had to let it go.
SEE THIS VIDEO FOR WATCHING THE WHEELS ON YOUTUBE:
EMPTY GARDEN: A TRIBUTE TO JOHN
“Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)” is a hit ballad from British pop-rock performer Elton John’s 1982 album “Jump Up!”. He dedicated the song in memory of John Lennon. John and Elton were good friends. As part of his 1982 “Jump Up!” tour, Elton performed the song live at Madison Square Garden, with Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono and their son Sean in the audience. Elton is Sean’s godfather, but he rarely performs the song live, as he has said it brings back many painful memories of Lennon’s death. The “Empty Garden” referred to in the song is Madison Square Garden, where Lennon performed a duet with Elton in 1974.
EMPTY GARDEN (HEY HEY JOHNNY)
ELTON JOHN
Music: Elton John
Lyrics: Bernie Taupin
What happened here
As the New York sunset disappeared
I found an empty garden among the flagstones there
Who lived here
He must have been a gardener that cared a lot
Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop
And now it all looks strange
It’s funny how one insect can damage so much grain
And what’s it for
This little empty garden by the brownstone door
And in the cracks along the sidewalk nothing grows no more
Who lived here
He must have been a gardener that cared a lot
Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop
And we are so amazed we’re crippled and we’re dazed
A gardener like that one no one can replace
And I’ve been knocking but no one answers
And I’ve been knocking most all the day
Oh and I’ve been calling oh hey hey Johnny
Can’t you come out to play
And through their tears
Some say he farmed his best in younger years
But he’d have said that roots grow stronger if only he could hear
Who lived there
He must have been a gardener that cared a lot
Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop
Now we pray for rain, and with every drop that falls
We hear, we hear your name
Johnny can’t you come out to play in your empty garden
© 1981 Big Pig Music Limited
SEE EMPTY GARDEN VIDEO ON YOUTUBE:
All you need is love. Enjoy the gallery. Peace.
“It was like being in the eye of a hurricane. You’d wake up in a concert and think, Wow, how did I get here?”
“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”
“Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.”
“Everything is clearer when you’re in love.”
“I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?”
“War is over … If you want it.”
“Christianity will go.. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” – 4 March 1966
“I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have gotten away with it. I’m sorry I opened my mouth. I’m not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I wasn’t knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it’s true more for England than here. I’m not saying that we’re better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it’s all this.” – Lennon apologized for the comment above, 11 August 1966
“Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”
“For our last number, I’d like to ask your help. Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands. And the rest of you, if you’ll, just rattle your jewelry.” – Royal Variety Performance in London (4 November 1963) attended by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret.
“As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.”
“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.”
“It was just a gradual development over the years. Last year was “All You Need Is Love.” This year it’s “Give Peace a Chance.” Remember love. The only hope for any of us is peace. Violence begets violence. If you want to get peace, you can get it as soon as you like if we all pull together. You’re all geniuses and you’re all beautiful. You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are. Get out there and get peace. Think peace, live peace, and breathe peace and you’ll get it as soon as you like. Okay?”
“My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.”
“I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.”
“Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.”
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
“We’ve got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.”
“I’ve always considered my work one piece and I consider that my work won’t be finished until I am dead and buried and I hope that’s a long, long time.”
“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.”
“The postman wants an autograph. The cab driver wants a picture. The waitress wants a handshake. Everyone wants a piece of you.”
“Love is the answer, and you know that for sure; Love is a flower, you’ve got to let it grow.”
“I don’t believe in killing whatever the reason!” – November 21, 1980, New York: John Lennon and Yoko Ono come out of 5 years’ seclusion to promote their new album, “Double Fantasy”; they walked around Central Park and posed in front of the Dakota building.
“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.”
“That’s part of our policy, is not to be taken seriously, because I think our opposition, whoever they may be, in all their manifest forms, don’t know how to handle humor. You know, and we are humorous, we are, what are they, Laurel and Hardy. That’s John and Yoko, and we stand a better chance under that guise, because all the serious people, like Martin Luther King, and Kennedy, and Gandhi, got shot.”
“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.”
“Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.”
“I’m not afraid of death because I don’t believe in it. It’s just getting out of one car, and into another.” – On the afternoon of 8 December 1980, photographer Annie Leibovitz went to Ono and Lennon’s apartment at 2:00pm to do a photo shoot for Rolling Stone magazine.
“Happiness is just how you feel when you don’t feel miserable.” – Annie Leibovitz recalled that “nobody wanted Yoko on the cover” of magazine; John then insisted that both he and his wife be on the cover.
“If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.”
“If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.”
“When you’re drowning, you don’t say ‘I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,’ you just scream.”
“These critics with the illusions they’ve created about artists — it’s like idol worship. They only like people when they’re on their way up … I cannot be on the way up again. … What they want is dead heroes, like Sid Vicious and James Dean. I’m not interesting in being a dead (expletive) hero. … So forget ’em, forget ’em.”
“Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.”
All That I Love 