Wednesday, June 29, 2011
John Lennon was a closet Republican?
His former assistant thinks so. I’m not convinced. He was probably more of a closet Reagan Democrat, with a surprisingly strong conservative streak in him. A lot of people felt the same way after four years of Jimmy Carter. … Also, read this Wikipedia post about Lennon’s ‘Revolution’ song in 1968. Kind of undercuts the notion that Lennon was rejecting his “earlier radicalism” only toward the end of his life. The lyrics to Revolution are actually anti-radical, and he got criticized by some lefties for writing them. … The guy was just complicated.
Update -- From Reader AM:
Update II -- From Reader No. 1:
His former assistant thinks so. I’m not convinced. He was probably more of a closet Reagan Democrat, with a surprisingly strong conservative streak in him. A lot of people felt the same way after four years of Jimmy Carter. … Also, read this Wikipedia post about Lennon’s ‘Revolution’ song in 1968. Kind of undercuts the notion that Lennon was rejecting his “earlier radicalism” only toward the end of his life. The lyrics to Revolution are actually anti-radical, and he got criticized by some lefties for writing them. … The guy was just complicated.
Update -- From Reader AM:
Of course "Revolution" is politically .. let's say less than radical: "if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao/you an't gonna make it with anyone anyhow" - but the American Legion tried to get it banned from the airwaves. And "Born in the USA" is a protest song, but Reagan (I think) tried to adopt it. And "I Will Always Love You" is a breakup song, played at half of the wedding receptions I've attended. Nobody listens to lyrics.
Update II -- From Reader No. 1:
Liberal - leftwing guy who preferred Reagan to Carter in 1980? Sounds like a Massachusetts voter!
Memo to Todd Feinberg: start playing "Revolution" as WRKO show's lead-in music, suggest as new Tea Party anthem (thereby irritating Tom Petty).
Memo to newspaper editors: assign babyboomer columnist to write navel-gazing column about the nuance and ambiguity of Lennon, what it means for the next Presidential election, and how great those old Beatles songs were/are.
