Originally published at: Watch wonderful new footage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono rehearsing "Give Peace a Chance" | Boing Boing
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I heard a younger-than-millennial teen girl say she couldn’t stand John Lennon recently because he was abusive To his kids and partners. This is pretty common knowledge now, I wonder how much this diminishes all the positive art and peace movements Lennon did, at least in the eyes of younger people today . All heroes have faults no doubt , but I got chastised recently in what I thought was an innocuous Instagram post about Ronnie Wood because he was awful to his first wife among other people.
It is the unfortunate history of so many famous people , amazing at their art but in person kind of awful. Will this be the ultimate cancel culture, diminishing all the accomplishments because of their major personal shortcomings ?
Historically it’s easy for me to separate the artist from the personality, but then you hear about modern artists that swing politically in the opposite direction you thought (Ariel Pink was definitely a weird one to hear about), Ted Nugent has purposely killed his career it seems (Not that he was a particularly great artist but seemed to be a good time 70s rock guy at least).
Sorry to be long winded, just Seems like the internet wheels spin on major overdrive these days
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The sad thing to me is that he got killed before he might have matured, thought better of his useful mistakes, and taught others a useful lesson.
There’s no particular reason to think that would’ve happened, but I’m still sad and angry about his murder.
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Nothing new. cf. Thomas Jefferson: slaveholding rapist; brilliant author of the ultimate Enlightenment document, one which laid the foundation for freeing the people he abused.
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Enjoy his music if you like. Many people do. He’s in no real danger of being “canceled”…
But can we at least acknowledge that men (famous or not) still regularly get away with abusing their families (or other people) because we don’t value women or children as much as grown men who write songs. Why should our celebration of music by assholes come at the expense of the people they often hurt very much? Why is that more important that acknowledging the humanity of the people who suffer that abuse? Why is even TALKING about it, and some people making the choice NOT to engage with that artist, so very upsetting for some, when it’s very much about truth-telling and even humanizing people, in this case, both Lennon and his first family. Humanizing someone doesn’t mean deifying them - it means acknowledging them in all their complexity. And if that complexity means some make the choice not to listen to them, why do you even care if YOU have made the choice to still enjoy his music despite what you know? 
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I find that when a lot of people say that they’re simply glossing over some aspects of what they make, because it is hardly new for artists to put a lot of themselves into their creations, both good and bad.
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John & Yoko waiting for the maid to make the bed so they can continue protesting against the system:
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I’m just glad young people today are prioritizing not-abusing-partners over rock-star worship. That actually wasn’t a thing when I was young. Just “some people are too important to criticize and they get to do whatever they want” was the standard line. Gives me a lot more hope than anything Lennon ever wrote TBH. It’s not like his legacy is gone or anything, but definitely a correction to the norm feels justified. I mean he got to be bigger than Jesus for a few years right? 
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It’s not just that Lennon was an asshole, it’s also that he was the most overrated Beatle, in a band that itself is going through a backlash among younger people as the most overrated band in history.
Older folks who have studied music can argue No, you don’t understand, they really are that good, but the kids are not listening. It’s not just a matter of technical merit, it’s that Millennials and Gen Z are totally sick of Boomers and their shit. They’re done.
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…Yes, boomers, that entitled generation with their fetishization of the times they where young, completely forgetting all the supposed enlightenment they experienced and proclaimed, sticking their nose deep the trough and growling “MINE!” to all the younger people. Fucking over the planet for future generations, while ridiculing the older ones who broke their back and saved the money to put them where they are.
Oh how they rage against their slip into obscurity; voting for brexit and trump and the likes.
Singing “imagine” but doing the polar opposite, forgive us for not idolizing your heroes anymore, we have our own.
Generalizing of course, some of my best friends are boomers…
They won’t be if they read that.
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Calling the Beatles overrated is so fucking edgy.
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That’s just silly. There are plenty of reasoned critiques of the Beatles’ music, but “It’s not just a matter of technical merit, it’s that Millennials and Gen Z are totally sick of Boomers and their shit” is vapid at best.
And within that critique, to deny the huge direct influence they had on music in the 1960s through the 1990s (at least) is myopic. The list of musicians who got into music because they heard the Beatles and thought “I want to do that,” and then themselves became hugely influential, is very long.
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Same for other bands. I think in another thread I was discussing with @Mercenary_Garage the famous Brian Eno quote about the Velvet Underground. If you ask me, there is more direct influence from VU from the mid-70s on than directly from the Beatles. And famously, Lou Reed wasn’t a fan, so… I’d also say Kraftwerk is probably incredibly important in modern music, given how much electronic music is out there.
Influence in popular music is just more complicated than some straight line from the Fab Four to everyone else.
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Agreed. Lou Reed got his start before, and then just as, the Beatles really took off, so it’s not surprising they weren’t a huge influence. And, as you note, there are plenty of bands that didn’t like the Beatles, didn’t care, or whatever.
Couldn’t agree more.
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Here’s a track by Ed Hamell with a story about about Ed’s hero John Lennon. Taken from a tribute album dedicated to Lennon.
The song illustrates what an asshole Lennon was and I’m confused whether that’s ironic or un-ironic.
Personally, I think Lennon was full of shit.
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Well, this song illustrates one person’s perception of John Lennon’s reaction after getting bum-rushed by anxious fans while at a party. [I had the same experience when I met Tim Leary–a few of us crowded in on him after an event, and he was a total dick. Hard to say if he was that way all the time, or just tired and “over it.”]
There are plenty of other, better examples of Lennon being a horrible human being, including his own testimony.
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