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| Foto courtesy Gary Firstenberg |
--John Lennon, "Yer Blues"
The amazing thing about the amazing Beatles was how amazing each one was as individuals. When they finally broke up and went their separate ways after Let It Be, it became apparent that The Beatles of the Sixties was just a launch pad for each of their different futures.
There was a sense in which I related to each of their paths. Paul formed Wings because he enjoyed the performance of his art. George was freed to allow his spiritual quest to continue to flower. Ringo must have enjoyed being celebrity because we soon saw him in Hollywood.
John went further inward, seeking treatment for his inner pain through Primal Therapy, and outwardly expressing the themes he found there, Yoko by his side. "Give Peace a Chance" became a mantra for all who were weary of the Vietnam War. He asked us to "imagine all the people living life in peace" in another of his songs that became an anthem.
* * *
40 years ago today I was in Mexico City standing on the Zócalo, the plaza or main square at the center of Mexico City. Even before the Colonial period this was the central meeting place for the Aztecs. At the time, there were magazine and newspaper stands all around the perimeter of the spacious plaza. I was sauntering across the the plaza in a leisurely manner taking it all in when ahead of me a newspaper headline caught my attention. All of the newspapers screamed the same news. "LENNON MUERTE."
Muerte is the Spanish word for death. I was stupefied.
* * *
John would have been 80 this past October. Any hope of a Beatles reunion concert was permanently quashed that day.
John was not a Beatle any more. Yet he remained a man who had played a role in a lot of peoples' lives, who wrote songs that many could relate to. When I was in high school I found comfort in "Yer Blues" blues because it expressed some of my own feelings after the loss of my closest friend. Confusion. Pain. Alienation.
Nevertheless, life goes on and somehow we have to work it out.
* * *
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