John Lennon...

Supersonic 1994Supersonic 1994 Posts: 165
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... is the most talented man ever lived.


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  • fezxenakisfezxenakis Posts: 900
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    ....apart from Paul McCartney.
  • digit aldigit al Posts: 1,124
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    mmmmm, very subjective this one, talented indeed but the most talented?
    you've got me thinking!:)
  • wombat79wombat79 Posts: 1,157
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    In the field of music? Or just anywhere, ever?! Either would be a large claim, I think he'd be in my top 10 of talented musicians/songwriters though, possibly top 5.
  • xxtimboxxtimbo Posts: 8,870
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    John Lennon,

    Beatlemania began England in the autumn of 1962
    when the Beatles released Love me Do .
    The Beatles made their first ever TV appearance on October 17th. 1962 in Manchester, at the Granada TV Studios.
    'Please Please Me' was released in the spring 1963
    then in May they released ... 'From Me to You.'
    In July 1964 .... 'She Loves You ' was released and by then Beatlemania was becoming a phenomenon sweeping the country, the Beatles were mobbed wherever they went, every venue was sold out with masses of screaming girls drowning out their singing.
    There had never been anything like the Beatles and the mass hysteria that they inspired among their growing army of fans.
    Their pictures were in every newspaper and magazine, their TV , radio and live appearances were major events, eagerly awaited by their millions of fans.
    The Beatle songs were so fresh and new, 'Please please me,' 'She loves you'.....etc there was an excitement and energy in these pop songs that was unique , almost magical ......and two of the Beatles, John and Paul, were writing them !

    The Beatles were young, good looking guys with a disarming humour, they were becoming rich and famous with their music and having a ball along the way.
    Suddenly the British showbiz world of Alma Cogan, Cliff and the Shadows, Tommy Steele, Lonnie Donegan etc, appeared old fashioned and out of date.

    The Beatles were a breath of fresh air, something new and different, like the beginning of a New Age.
    1963 was a fabulous year for the Beatles, it was the year they achieved nationwide fame and a unique status in British showbiz. There had never been such mass hysteria and mass worship for a singing pop group before.

    Their status was confirmed on the night of November 4th 1963 when they appeared at the Royal Variety Performance in front of the Queen Mother , Princess Margaret and the show biz elite.
    It was a glittering occasion, televised to the nation ...... eagerly awaited by Beatles fans up and down the land............ and the Beatles stole the show !

    All this excitement and musical innovation was going on in the UK, meanwhile....... across the Atlantic, the Americans were blissfully unaware of the very existence of the Beatles.
    America had Elvis, they had The Beach boys, the Ronnettes, Chuck Berry, they had a hot music scene, without doubt the hottest on the planet.

    All too soon that fateful day.... November 22 1963 ...... came around, that day when time stood still, that dreadful day when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas Texas.
    It was a world shaking event that traumatised America and shocked the entire world.

    In late December the Beatles released ' I want to hold your hand.' The boys had done it again and it was yet another Lennon / MacCartney composition........ was there no end to their amazing talent ?
    'I want to Hold Your Hand' is significant because it was the song that went on to break the Beatles in America ..... the song that made Americans prick their ears up. It became the fastest selling British release in America and by February 1st 1964 it had reached No 1 in the American Billboard charts, (selling 2 million copies along the way.)

    February 7th 1964 ......... the Beatles land at Kennedy Airport to be greeted by 3000 screaming fans.
    The fan hysteria and idol worship had followed them across the Atlantic...... only ..... this time the hysteria was on a massive American scale.
    America, that mighty continent, that home of the brave.......... was also the home of pop music, Hollywood and mass consumerism.
    America was rich, its thriving economy the envy of the world. By Feb 1964 the post war baby boomers were coming of age and they wanted to party.

    The Beatles mesmerised America with their music and style when they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. They played before an audience of 73 million ! ........... this was the big time, the big , big time !
    It seemed that the long years of touring round seedy venues in Britain and Hamburg had all been worth it, they had all been a preparation for this moment.
    The Beatles were broadcasting to the American Colossus they were there on TV in in every city, in every home.
    And the Beatles were well prepared..... and they had a fabulous catalogue of songs to sell to their legion of American fans.

    I can t help thinking that it was really John Lennon who generated all this mass hysteria on two continents.
    I feel that so many of the early songs are his alone, songs like ' I want to hold your hand ' and 'She loves You' for example.
    I don t think Paul had very much to do with them.
    John was the mastermind behind Beatlemania in the early days, he was the driving force , the dynamo.
    It was John's musical genius that supplied the rocket fuel behind the Beatles meteoric rise to success and world fame.

    Later, during the calmer, hippie days of Sergeant Pepper and 1967 , the power had shifted over to Paul. The handsome, diplomatic Paul became the driving force behind the Beatles with his clever, innovative songs, songs like 'Fixing a Hole,' 'Meter Maid', and ' With a little help from my friends'.
    Songs that were so different from the earthy, gutsy, visceral songs of John Lennon , whose burning genius generated the phenomena known as ......... Beatlemania !
  • xxtimboxxtimbo Posts: 8,870
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    Cant help thinking that both John and Yoko were big into the occult....
    Yoko was obviously a witch and used occult means to get her amour.
    John tried to emphasize that their meeting was by chance..... bullcrap... she hunted him down.

    John was outspoken and political....
    I think he would have loved the internet too... if he d lived to see it... and would have been a big conspiracy nut.... probably with his own mega site.
  • Mr. FahrenheitMr. Fahrenheit Posts: 9,911
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    John was certainly great, but there are a lot of at least equally talented men, such as David Bowie, Bono, Freddie Mercury, Elton John...
  • meglosmurmursmeglosmurmurs Posts: 35,104
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    Don't know if he's the most talented, because John Lennon went deeper than that I think, at least for me. ;)

    He had a way of affecting and fascinating people in a way that none of the other Beatles and no other musician has. Just going for the jugular and opening up his wounds and his thoughts in his lyrics and his music. I've never seen or heard anyone do that so successfully.

    He was certainly one-of-a-kind and I wouldn't want to cheapen it by giving him a title such as 'most talented', 'talent' sounds too much like a textbook word.
    I agreed with Q magazine when they listed him as the number 1 most 'influential' artist of all time. ;)
    How talented you are could be measured with mundane facts and figures, whereas there's no way of putting your finger on exactly what causes someone to affect and influence you, who reaches you on a sub-conscious level above and beyond any other musician.
    That's what John Lennon does for me.
  • beatlesaintbeatlesaint Posts: 677
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    Don't know if he's the most talented, because John Lennon went deeper than that I think, at least for me. ;)

    He had a way of affecting and fascinating people in a way that none of the other Beatles and no other musician has. Just going for the jugular and opening up his wounds and his thoughts in his lyrics and his music. I've never seen or heard anyone do that so successfully.

    He was certainly one-of-a-kind and I wouldn't want to cheapen it by giving him a title such as 'most talented', 'talent' sounds too much like a textbook word.
    I agreed with Q magazine when they listed him as the number 1 most 'influential' artist of all time. ;)
    How talented you are could be measured with mundane facts and figures, whereas there's no way of putting your finger on exactly what causes someone to affect and influence you, who reaches you on a sub-conscious level above and beyond any other musician.
    That's what John Lennon does for me.

    Great post, sums it up perfectly for me. :)
  • hypervisorhypervisor Posts: 959
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    one good song, not my cup of tea.
  • xxtimboxxtimbo Posts: 8,870
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    Pity he ever left Kenwood... his luxury home in Weybridge.
    It was on a very private .. exclusive estate... no riff raff...
    Looks like Yoko was hankering for New York though...
    and getting to the centre of the action.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,215
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    30 years ago this month, John Lennon died:cry:
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
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    He's not the most talented to live, I'd hand that to Paul and John together á la Lennon/McCartney.
  • xxtimboxxtimbo Posts: 8,870
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    Wasn't 1956 a big year for Elvis... ? was that his big breakthrough year ?
    Rock and Roll was taking off... the guys must have been getting ideas of the new wave.... the new beat....
    suddenly those jazz students in their duffle coats were looking squaresville...

    The Beatles finally met up in 1957 ...

    shiney new guitars were in the shops.. big, powerful amps...
    it was all there just waiting....

    America was the big influence.. the big shiney cars... the blonde movie stars.... Little Richard... Elvis... Jerry Lee... Buddy Holly.....
    I bet John and the guys were sold on the American Dream back then....
  • gomezzgomezz Posts: 44,505
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    Musically it is hard to look past Mozart.
  • xxtimboxxtimbo Posts: 8,870
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    I wonder if John was big mates with Mike Pinder.... founder of the Moody Blues.

    Without Mike there would have been no Moody Blues, without John there would have been no beatles.

    John had a mellotron at Kenwood and Mike was an expert on that wierd keyboard....
    maybe he gave John a little advice back then ?
    That expensive ( and very heavy ) machine must have been a big inspiration to John as the 60s drifted into psychedelia......and hippiedom... and the beautiful people .....
  • mushymanrobmushymanrob Posts: 17,992
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    John was certainly great, but there are a lot of at least equally talented men, such as David Bowie, Bono, Freddie Mercury, Elton John...

    dont agree with the last three there... they didnt change the way people think, they were not looked up to as leading lights in social change and they were not part of a youth revolution that changed the face of music..... (bowie has) indeed lennon was a defining force together with mccartney.

    however...

    part of his acheivements were made because he was lucky (as well as talented) enough to be there at the birth of pop/rock music as we know it.
  • Mr. FahrenheitMr. Fahrenheit Posts: 9,911
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    dont agree with the last three there... they didnt change the way people think, they were not looked up to as leading lights in social change and they were not part of a youth revolution that changed the face of music..... (bowie has) indeed lennon was a defining force together with mccartney.

    however...

    part of his acheivements were made because he was lucky (as well as talented) enough to be there at the birth of pop/rock music as we know it.

    I was answering the question of talent, as in vocals, songwriting, performance, etc.:)

    But in terms of influence and iconography, I would agree that John outstrips Elton and Bono.

    But Freddie and David? Not so much.
  • John DoughJohn Dough Posts: 146,259
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    gomezz wrote: »
    Musically it is hard to look past Mozart.

    It's years since he did anything new though.,,,,,:rolleyes:;)
    I like Beethoven as well, the miserable old sod that he was.:o
  • xxtimboxxtimbo Posts: 8,870
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    Strange to think that John would be age 70 right now...
    had he lived.....
  • John DoughJohn Dough Posts: 146,259
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    I remember his death so clearly. 30 years eh?:eek::(
  • Robbedin73Robbedin73 Posts: 7,859
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    Remember turning on R1, my Dad was cooking breakfast, and i told him the News(no Brekfast tv in 1980) , and the DJ telling us what happened, both of us looked stunned and couldnt believe it .
  • xxtimboxxtimbo Posts: 8,870
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    Its a tragedy... he wrote some brilliant
    songs in the 70s... Imagine etc and by the time of the
    Peebles interview he was just getting back into the swing of things.
    Im sure he would have mellowed out and wrote a ton of brilliant songs in the 1980s had he lived......
    Maybe even an autobiog ?
  • mushymanrobmushymanrob Posts: 17,992
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    a workmate stuck up a tribute to lennon at work on the wall. he didnt fix the top properly and it fell, onto a electric oven and burst into flames.... lol... ok it wasnt funny then.. but the irony...
  • mr. mustardmr. mustard Posts: 48,888
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    xxtimbo wrote: »
    Its a tragedy... he wrote some brilliant
    songs in the 70s... Imagine etc and by the time of the
    Peebles interview he was just getting back into the swing of things.
    Im sure he would have mellowed out and wrote a ton of brilliant songs in the 1980s had he lived......
    Maybe even an autobiog ?
    It would have been interesting hearing John's contribution to the Anthology film series. I always found him by far the wittiest of the four in interviews and his take on the band's time together would have been fascinating. Not that he liked dwelling on the Beatle years too much.

    Regarding his 1980 comeback, I was very disappointed that Double Fantasy was a duet with Yoko. I appreciate her massive impact on John, but I've never liked her music or singing voice, apart from a few tracks which were above average. If John had continued making albums half-him, half-Yoko I feel it would have diluted his talent a lot.
  • pmw_hewittpmw_hewitt Posts: 1,193
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    There's a documentary about his death on ITV1 tonight at 10:35pm. Knowing ITV, it probably won't be brilliant but I'll be watching anyway. Apparently Cilla Black (there's a surprise) and Liam Gallagher are interviewed too.

    Personally, he's a hero of mine. I had always been fascinated in him through childhood but never got round to seriously listening to him until I was about 13. A huge Beatle fan, and John's solo career is my favourite of the four.
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