The (music) gospel according to John

MANILA, Philippines - This October, John Lennon would have been 70. Months before even, Lennon and Beatles fans all over the globe have been paying tribute to the man by putting up festivals drawing artists and people, by pointlessly scurrying for some news to be in the loop even if events are happening thousands of miles from home, by reflex buying any new releases predictably marketed for the occasion, or by browsing through pages of books unread from the collection trying to discover new things, or angles in the life of this wonderful man with his music in the background. There simply are many ways to indulge in when celebrating the life of one you admire, idealize and look up to; incoherent a lot of times for others, but perfectly sensible for the distant fan.

Speaking of festivals for John, fans and businessmen alike have it all. A public screening of a new film, LennoNYC, on Oct. 9 at the Rumsey Playfield, in Central Park at 7 p.m. was announced jointly by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Yoko Ono. This promises new unseen footages and unheard recordings and will be commercially available in late November this year. The Los Angeles Times wrote, “Yes, it seems like you know everything about us. I thought so too,” Ono said. But when she saw the footage being pulled together by the producers of the movie, she was shocked by how much she hadn’t seen before or even known (that) was being filmed at the time.”

Earlier on, BBC came out with Nowhere Boy detailing the teenage life of John Lennon prior to stardom. Paul McCartney disagrees with some scenes in it, but overall Yoko hails the production as a faithful portrayal of John’s teens.

New merchandises will also underline the day. The John Lennon Signature Box, an 11-CD collection of John’s eight solo works, will see the light that day. “The project also includes Double Fantasy Stripped Down, an unvarnished version of the Lennon/Ono’s 1980 “comeback” album that came out just three weeks before his death,” reports Gary Graff. Plus there are two more CDs of non-album singles and a compilation of rare recordings. Some fans in Beatles e-groups are not happy with the Lennon box set’s leaving out Menlove Avenue and Live in New York City, two posthumous releases from his estate, but what the heck. Fans would want to scrape the bottom of John’s creative vault if only to know more and own more of his legacy.

Accompanying this release is The John Lennon Vision of Box comprising an album that could hold up to 32 CDs and “a 166-page hard-bound book containing all of the John Lennon, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono, LP artwork, brilliantly restored in pristine new LP-size art prints,” tips Steve Marinucci. The limited edition has additional Lenono-adorned blank DVDs and CDs.

Completing this package is what promoters call The John Lennon Time Capsule project whereby three time capsules will be sealed on Oct. 9, 2010 and will remain sealed until Oct. 9, 2040. His post-Beatles works will be kept in these capsules plus contributions of special wishes and personal thoughts from fans. A capsule will be housed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Ohio and two more places until they are opened 40 years later. A rather creative way of preserving John’s musical legacy for the next generation to appreciate!

Of course, there will be lots of music. In London, a concert dubbed Lennon at 70 Concert, London will take place at the Castle Rocks, on Finchley Road on the same day for three hours from 6 p.m. starring Sgt. Pepper’s Only Dart Board Band and featuring special guests James Warren (Stackridge and the Korgis), Alan Clayson (author and singer), The Oz (Russian Punk Lennon specialists) and Mosquito - B (From Canada). Sgt. Pepper’s Only Dart Board Band would move to Bournemouth the following day for another tribute gig.

In Los Angeles, the tribute band The Fab Four will perform Lennon’s greatest solo hits live on stage at Club Nokia. Meanwhile in John’s hometown, the Marcus Cahill Presents Imagine The Tribute, Liverpool has been going on and on. It repeats every week at The Cavern in Matthew St. Cahill is touted as the permanent John Lennon resident to The Cavern.

A big concert is expected to be the 30th Annual John Lennon Tribute concert at the Beacon Theater in New York City on Nov. 12, timed between John’s 70th birthday and 30th death anniversary on Dec. 8. It is meant to “honor the memory of John Lennon and celebrate his music, his passion for peace and his love for New York City.” Performers would include Jackson Browne, Patti Smith, Cyndi Lauper, Aimee Mann, Keb’ Mo’, Joan Osborne, Taj Mahal, Alejandro Escovedo, among others.

We Are Plastic Ono Band went ahead with a two-night concert last Oct. 1 and Oct. 2 at the Orpheum in Los Angeles under the musical directorship of Sean Lennon. This is a project that is “part concert and part tribute” to John and Yoko. Iggy Pop and Mike Watt were special guests on the first night, while Lady Gaga and Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, both from the iconic alternative band Sonic Youth, showed up the following night. An earlier show in New York several months ago had the original Plastic Ono Band members, Eric Clapton, Jim Keltner and Klaus Voorman performing with Yoko and Sean.

Back in Liverpool, Cynthia and Julian Lennon will unveil on John’s birthday a European Peace Monument at the Chavasse Park Liverpool One Shopping Center. This was commissioned by the Global Peace Initiative, an American arts organization devoted to global peace. Julian specifically requested art prodigy Lauren Voiers, the designer, to include a white feather in it. “One of the things my father said to me was that should he pass away, if there was some way of letting me know he was going to be okay, it was by, in some shape or form, presenting me with a white feather,” explains Julian.

On the same day, the Merseybeat Story is organizing “a personalized unique Lennon bus tour of his old haunts on both sides of the river. These will include his childhood homes, schools and college, the site where he first met Paul McCartney plus many of the interesting locations culminating in a visit to the famous Philharmonic Pub, one of John’s favorite watering holes.”

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Grammy Museum opened a week prior to Oct. 9 the exhibit John Lennon, the Songwriter, putting up artifacts from John’s vault for public appreciation. This was preceded by an intimate interview with Yoko Ono about John’s creative contributions as part of the Museum’s series of An Evening With.

There are also publications honoring John. The respected British magazine Uncut produced a commemorative 148-page John Lennon special issue this September dubbed Lennon: The Ultimate Music Guide. This provides purportedly the best reviews on John’s solo songwriting career from the vault of this magazine conglomeration.

Author-musician Ken Sharp is coming out with a new book Starting Over: The Making of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Double Fantasy” documenting his last recording sessions and underlining one most fulfilling period of John’s solo career.

But what would have moved John was the appropriate coming together of both his first family with Cynthia and Julian and second family with Yoko and Sean. In the 1990s, bitter wrangling between Julian and Yoko about the first son’s share of his father’s estate grabbed the headlines, which came to a head when Julian thought it was sabotage on the part of Yoko to have Sean’s debut album released on the same date as his final album in 1998 with Yoko brandishing her own as the real son of John’s.

That is over now. Both families, along with old friends like Patti Boyd, had a reunion of sorts last September 17 when all of them came down together for the opening of Julian’s photo exhibit at the Timeless Morrison Hotel Gallery in New York. Julian finally managed to found a career not associated with his famous father’s.

In the runup to John’s birthday, Julian joined Yoko and Sean in CBS Sunday Morning to talk about John’s legacy, where Julian got the respect he deserves from no less than Sean: “Julian is the reason I started playing music actually. Because when I was a kid I remember when his record came out. And he was, you know, the biggest thing that existed in the world.”

Now they can all join John in chorus, “All you need is love... Give peace a chance...,” eight words that more or less sum up John’s career-spanning message to the world.?