Still dreaming with Lennon

MANILA, Philippines - I was asked recently what it is that I like in John Lennon who would have been 75 years old this month. All thoughts rushed to my mind trying to figure out the best way to answer that young lady very concisely, in a one-liner maybe. I decided against it and just enumerated what I had in mind. I told her that it is John’s immortal music, kind of an artistic, profound intellect at a young age, with a sharp but dry wit and a natural humor that’s sometimes satirical, and his advocacy for peace and the unconventional means of protest that he utilized. I would not have become an activist, I told her, were it not for John Lennon. Whether my answer sank in, I would not know in full.

First, of course, is the music. John would not have been popular as a writer, artist, political activist or lifestyle setter if it were not for his music as a Beatle and as a solo artist. His music was the gateway to stardom and, like it or not, John was primarily a singer-songwriter. His other aspects as an artist and a person though added to his legend and, for some, his myth.

His songs are integral part of a whole, his life. John himself said this in a series of interviews he gave shortly before he fell to the bullets of Mark David Chapman that fateful night of Dec. 8, 1980, almost 35 years ago. For example, I don’t know anybody of my age who would not feel nostalgic, sentimental, agitated or at least moved, when they hear In My Life, Strawberry Fields Forever, A Day in The Life, Come Together, Don’t Let Me Down, Happy Christmas (War is Over), Imagine, Oh My Love, (Just Like) Starting Over, or Woman — the most accessible songs in his broad catalog of songs.

Art tribute to John Lennon’s Imagine

Looking at his works as a continuum, his songs reflected his thoughts and feelings at different periods of his career and life. “We influence as much as we are influenced,” he said at one time. That was also mirrored in his work. Take it or leave it, he may have dared us though he was deeply affected by detractors and naysayers.

John was proud of his body of work. His first book, In His Own Write, was mostly written long before he became John Lennon, the rock star. It came out at the right time and with enough confidence. His writing was unique. Its humor, irony and satire are woven together by his deliberate and hilarious misuse of the English language. One recent publication of his letters made available to the public for the first time for most of these showcased the same humor found in his published books.

John’s doodling that graduated to lithographs was well received, and for the greater part of the two decades after his death, many people around the world were given the chance to view his art. I myself got to see the exhibit in Manila in the late ’90s. It may be obvious though that a significant part of his art work was influenced by his relationship with Yoko so John became more introspective and descriptive of his life with her and Sean.

But aside from his music, his greatest influence for me was his unique brand of activism. This happened only when he became one with Yoko. Bed-in for peace, charity concerts even before the “Concert for Bangladesh” was staged, newspaperman-like attitude towards recording (Sometime in New York City).

People may have described his activism as contaminated radicalism, having been associated with some leftist personalities on both sides of the Atlantic. But John was his own man and cannot be boxed in any narrow-oriented politics. He trashed what he called “middle class manifestos that nobody reads.” His songs Give Peace a Chance, Power to the People and Imagine all carry universal themes. He tried to be a songwriter-journalist in Sometime in New York City with songs like Angela, John Sinclair and Attica State, all of them carrying specific advocacies, yet, Woman is the Nigger of the World remains undeniably universal in message.

He was ridiculed in his bed-ins for peace but John only shrugged this off, willingly taking the risk of becoming the world’s clown with Yoko if only for the cause of peace. He joined a march or two and spoke in at least a rally, or gave impromptu performances in a few but could never be typecast with the rest. With Yoko, he planted acorns for peace as a means of artistic activism, met with a leader of the advanced world way before Bob Geldof and Bono ever did. Like Bob Dylan, he shied away from the glitz and glamor that the title of a leader of whatever movement there was would have added to his credentials. Not that he didn’t want to assume any responsibility, but he was just more effective doing things in his own terms supporting any cause through do-it-yourself arrangement whether through passive or active non-violence. In other words, he dived into his quixotic search for peace regardless of how people would look at his antics and methods.

But no one can dispute his sincerity and honesty for the causes he embraced. If there are more musician-activists trying to think out-of-the-box, I am pretty sure John Lennon’s example had something to do with them. The lesson for me? Don’t copy. Just innovate without losing sight of the big picture.

Other activists still choose to belong to the discipline of an organization. That is okay for as long as the very concept of a progressive, dynamic activism remains the essence of what one is doing.

That is why it was difficult to answer what drew me to look up to John, because it’s not only his songs, artworks, quotable quotes, or self-styled activism taken separately that captivated me to this man, but his totality of a being.

One question that always crops up in write-ups about John is, “What would he have further done if John was not shot dead that December?” This is no longer a question to me as we are not capable of changing history (like the Marcoses and their cohorts for example may be thinking).

For me, John Lennon’s work is complete; he gave us his brand of music, art and activism. And that’s more than enough as far as this admirer is concerned.