Many people agree that The Beatles music is almost timeless.

Today a simple statement triggered a reality check.

John Lennon was forty years old when he died. He has now been dead for forty-two years.

 

The passing of time is less impressive the older you get, forty-two years feels almost like yesterday (no pun intended) to me.

 

I try to think of the positive : at 82 years old he probably would have made more than his fair share of embarrassing statements. Look at John Cleese. Had he died young, he would have been remembered as one of the great comedic geniuses of all time. Now he's just a bitter old man not shying away from borderline racism. Lennon might have become something like that. Plus, maybe he had already given everything he could, and was destined to make only shitty music from that point onward? Maybe Double Fantasy was the highest peak of his creativity post hiatus? Look at what McCartney did in the 80s, it was a bunch of silly love songs (well, except No More Lonely Nights, which was a tasteful silly love song).

Yeah I'm grasping at straws, but what can we really do? He's dead, no more Lennon on this planet, we gotta deal with it someway, somehow

 

My 5 year old turned18 this week and John Lennon died 42 years ago. Today is yesterday's future, again and again at the speed of life. Don't blink or you might just miss it.

Check.

 

I do not believe you are grasping at straws. We see things according to who we are and how we were raised, and what we have learned along the way. We are the generation who saw a little of it, as will be our children's children to enjoy the fruits of their labours, now everything in society has changed.
As for Cleese, he was born into a generation where Chauvinism was commonplace, when a man went out and worked and one-third of his income could pay the mortgage. My father as good a man as he was, unfortunately, was a chauvinist. He was a product of his environment like Cleese. We are a product of our environment and of our peers. We are influenced socially and in attitude by those we associate with and what we believe in.

It took age to learn it for me, and MANY years at that, but I found I can no longer call anyone something a fool because their upbringing was different to mine. Acceptance I still find hard sometimes and the hardest thing is not calling someone a dick just because they do not know any better. Some people just are no matter the upbringing and fortunately, it becomes easier to work out, I agree with some of what you said, but FFS, the older I get the more I do not know. When we're young we think we're invincible and know everything. If anyone is honest with themselves, when they were a teenager and in their 20s, they were probably a smartass more than once.

Times change. We can adapt or not. Those that do not or feel they are too old to change/adapt, on the surface, become like Cleese. To some, he appears bitter and more when he very well may be simply someone who did not move with the times. I have to do a check on myself when I look at some things I say. I think "fuck that sounded caustic..." It's not meant in harm, but sometimes we truly are a product of philosophies we were raised with.

 

Most of the Beatles' songs suck ass.

Just my opinion, of course...

 

And I'm sure Musicologists of the future will look back agog and askance whilst marvelling at how the perspicacity of that particular review resonated through the ages.

 

Reggaeton is better than the Beatles.
I still to this day cannot understand why people love them.
I feel they have been brain washed.
Led Zeppelin was a tad bit better, at least they had 2 or 3 very good songs.

 

Please don't put your life in the hands of a rock and roll band.

 

You'd describe today's John Cleese as "just a bitter old man not shying away from borderline racism"?
Did you just read a few stupid clickbait headlines or did you take the time to understand what he said and what else he said?

 

Please. Enlighten me.

 

Sure! What exactly made you draw this conclusion?

 

Twitter.

 

We all have one... an opinion that is.... some of us have flatulence too....
Seriously, speaking purely impartially, I have looked at what was written and how... I'd agree that George Martin was definitely the fifth Beatle because some of it in counterpoint (e.g. piccolo in Penny Lane) and many other tunes were very musically written, and some, not so much. They consistently managed to release near-perfect pop tunes for their time. I do not have to like or dislike to acknowledge when something in its genre is good. I know people who thought some of the Rolling Stones tunes sounded like they were written by teenagers just learning to play but I also do not totally agree with that either, though both bands were exactly that when they started jamming together prior to their success.

We'd all love to be remembered 300 years into the future. Some random guy (ME) making a statement that simply made me go "That long ?!?!?!?".... I somehow doubt falls under the criteria of psychic historical advance awareness. I was being honest that it was truly a slap in the face - a reality check that life is tenuous and goes fast. Cool comment though

 

Last edited: Dec 12, 2022

Regarding the dearly departed and the ones who stay behind at the moment (no one gets out alive unless you are Mel Brooks' 1000-Year-Old Man):

You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.

Lennon died a hero despite his flaws. Cleese, and Gilliam now that we are on the subject, are turning into embarrassments by the minute. I can't quite blame it for their upbringing. I know plenty of their generation with similar backgrounds who either turned out to be the most decent and loving persons on the planet who I will miss when their time comes, or at least have enough gall and decency to keep their opinions to themselves and not having them throw their lives and careers down the toilet. Cleese and Gilliam don't give a fuck. To be a privileged, rich, white man. If only. I hear the "Freeze Peach" brigade coming and to them, I say, "actions meet consequences". They're free to say what's left of their minds. These days they can't quite escape what follows.

As someone posted earlier, artists are the worst heroes. Deeply talented yet deeply flawed. We are all human after all.

BTW, Darby Crash died the day Lennon was killed. Hell of an upstage for Darby.

Anyhoo, try to do something good and some good in your time allotted here. Too many assholes out there.

I'm a deeply flawed asshole concentrating on doing something good and some good. Redemption is a great character arc. Not doing it for me, but for the ones I leave behind

Over and out.

 

Last edited: Dec 12, 2022

Great post.

We are all flawed. In each of us, some of the flaws can do with a change and others that are only idiosyncrasies, seen as flaws by some, are often superficial and hurt nobody, often unknowingly hard-wired to the things that are the best parts of us.

 

Love them, or hate them, The Beatles changed the world.

Beyond the hype, the body of work they left behind will stand the test of time.

Perhaps you should ask yourself why?

 

That is a claim, but perhaps we should ask what it means to 'stand the test of time".

How does their music rank in popularity these days?

 

Living Colour - Cult Of Personality - Songtext

And during the few moments that we have left
We wanna talk right down to earth
In a language that everybody here can easily understand

Look in my eyes, what do you see?
The cult of personality
I know your anger, I know your dreams
I′ve been everything you wanna be
Oh, I'm the cult of personality

Like Mussolini and Kennedy
I′m the cult of personality
The cult of personality
The cult of personality

Neon lights, a Nobel Prize
When a mirror speaks, the reflection lies
You won't have to follow me
Only you can set me free

I sell the things you need to be
I'm the smiling face on your TV
Oh, I′m the cult of personality
I exploit you, still you love me
I tell you one and one makes three
Oh, I′m the cult of personality

Like Joseph Stalin and Gandhi
Oh, I'm the cult of personality
The cult of personality
The cult of personality

Neon lights, Nobel Prize
When a leader speaks, that leader dies
You won′t have to follow me
Only you can set you free

You gave me fortune, you gave me fame
You gave me power in your God's name
I′m every person you need to be
Oh, I'm the cult
Of person-ality

I′m the cult of, I'm the cult of
I'm the cult of, I′m the cult of
I′m the cult of, I'm the cult of
I′m the cult of, I'm the cult of personality

(Ask not what your country can do for you)

(The only thing we have to fear is fear itself)

Living Colour - Cult Of Personality

 

I’d say still being an influence 60 years later pretty much passes that ‘test of time’ standard, but art is subjective. Some people love them, others don’t. Paul and Ringo are doing quite well. Life goes on.