by Bryan Borzykowski
October 12, 2010
If John Lennon were still alive, you can bet there would have been
one hell of a party for the former Beatles' 70th birthday last
Friday. But instead, we have to read articles about what the peacenik
would have been like 30 years after he was shot dead by Mark David Chapman.
Lennon's legacy is a complex one. His wife, Yoko Ono, has made it her
mission to keep his music on the radio, in movies and, to some
controversy, in commercials. It's to her credit that the legendary
rocker is still as omnipresent as he is in some ways it feels as if
he's still making music in New York City.
Luckily, the singer-songwriter's tunes have stood up after all these
years, so Ono hasn't had too much trouble convincing people to keep
his music playing. What his been more difficult is pushing his
message of peace and love.
It's impossible to know what Lennon would have said about the Iraq
and Afghanistan wars, or 9/11 or the war on terror, but you can
assume he'd be angry about the growing body counts around the world.
It would be nice to think he'd do something as provocative as his
1969 bed-in to protest the Vietnam War he recorded Give Peace a
Chance in Montreal during one of his week-long hotel room stays but
it's just as plausible that he would have been disaffected by the
continued disregard for public opinion. (See Iraq War.)
Ono says Lennon would have still been active she says he'd take to
Twitter to voice his displeasure of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
That doesn't seem like the best way to inspire activism, but at least
he'd be doing something, and hopefully he would have followed up with
more provocative action.
But, we can speculate all we want, the fact is, it's this part of
Lennon's legacy that has been lost. These days, Give Peace a Chance
is more of a campfire tune than a protest song, and while other
artists have spoken out, no one's made it a central part of their identity.
Maybe we're all too cynical these days, but his messages of peace
feel quaint; they don't carry nearly the same weight as they did 40 years ago.
And that's a shame. If there's anything Ono should have been
reminding us about, it's that Lennon's wish to see everyone get along
still matters.
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