"I'm interested in expressing myself in a way that will mean something to people in any country, in any language, and at any time in history."
From "Lennon Remembers"
John Lennon would have been 70 tomorrow. The movie "Imagine" will be aired as the tiresome, hagiographic view of Lennon persists. Cynics will dismiss the birthday as another pathetic occasion for baby-boomer nostalgia about the 1960s. Some enthusiasts will remind us that Lennon was a rebel with a cause — to be in a great rock band.
Although Lennon became one of the foremost artists of the anti-war/social justice movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was anything but a saint. His life was mostly a mix of fascination, energy and trouble. An acerbic wit, quick to throw a punch or perturb an adult, the young Lennon was never the kid Liverpool's parents wanted to see with their own. Predictably, teenagers were often drawn to Lennon's wild antics and compelling charm. Three of them — Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — disregarded their parents' fears and joined Lennon to become The Beatles. That he and the group still matter is why tomorrow's birthday is celebrated.
Beatles' statistics reached Ruthian levels. Their record for the most No. 1 singles and No. 1 albums is still unchallenged. One week in 1964, they owned the top five singles on the Billboard charts. Periodic surveys of the greatest 500 rock albums invariably find The Beatles having five in the top 15. Incredibly, from 1965's "Rubber Soul" to 1969's "Abbey Road," they annually produced an album considered a classic by today's critics and fans. Perhaps only Beethoven's symphonies match such an accomplishment.
The Beatles remain the most revolutionary force in modern popular music. They first demonstrated the viability of an autonomous band whose members wrote, played and sang their own music. U2, the Dave Matthews Band, Green Day, REM — all are unthinkable without the Beatles. Even rap artists find inspiration in how the Beatles continually developed new sounds as they stopped touring and transformed into a studio group.
Lennon and his collaborators invented the rock album. They envisioned a collection of 12 to 14 songs that presented their best work rather than offering inferior material to back a hit song or two. Lennon and McCartney felt their fans should not pay twice for the same song, so they often left hit singles off their albums. The group saw each new album as an opportunity to experience and experiment with new sounds. A Beatles album was neither a sequel nor an afterthought — it was an event.
Some purists dismiss the Beatles as money-makers who sold out. They became the Fab Four or trippy eccentrics whom even parents could tolerate or enjoy. These purists might learn that when the Beatles went to Hamburg in 1960 to perform in its notorious Reeperbahn (a red light district), they began anticipating later forms of rock music. The striking film "Backbeat" depicts the Beatles in Hamburg as raucous and raw, mastering every form of rock 'n' roll and becoming forerunners to punk and grunge.
The Beatles were unabashed champions of American music. They admired Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Buddy Holly and the Crickets (hence their name), and the girl groups of the early 1960s. With America mired in segregation, it was the Beatles — not the Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan — who convinced international audiences of the beautiful music being made by Ray Charles, The Shirelles and Smokey Robinson.
Current artists continue to be influenced by the Beatles. Gnarls Barkley says their music changed his life. His renowned Grey Album interweaves fragments of Beatles sounds and words with contemporary rhythms and beats. Win Butler, lead singer of Arcade Fire, whose CD "Suburbia" just hit No. 1, remembers how listening to "A Day in The Life" evoked a different part of the universe.
In a 1970 interview, Lennon explained his love for Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry: "They're like primitive painters." Lennon and the Beatles, as disciples of such masters, became masters themselves through their own rebellious and creative musical paintings of the universe. The enduring richness of this mastery is why the band still matters and why John Lennon's birthday, 30 years after his untimely death, is still something to celebrate.
Alexander E. Hooke is a professor of philosophy at Stevenson University. His e-mail is ahooke@stevenson.edu.