Musicians

I don't know why I would start this series on musicians with John Lennon. I love Lennon and the Beatles but he's not someone I listen to very often anymore.

Also I think a lot of his image has been fabricated by Yoko and the Lennon myth machine she created - frankly I think he had his head up his ass on a lot of issues - certainly towards the end of the Beatles - hello, Allen Klein... Magic Alex anyone?

Songs like working class hero, while sneering at the society that creates class distinctions, can't help sneering at the people in that class a bit at the same time - a kind of: "you're a dupe because you're part of an exploited class, and you're a doubly a dupe because you don't realize it." Pretty harsh for a guy who wasn't working class himself. It's pretentious.

On the other hand - he was a tough son of a bitch who took no shit from anyone. A wit as sharp as a razor and an imagination as big as the universe. He was fearless - or what it just naive? No had been the Beatles before the Beatles... in many ways they created a template for how not to run the business of a band - with John Lennon firmly at the helm - spiritually anyway.

But beyond the image, the hype, the iconic status - is still just a sensitive, funny, artistic soul who wrote great songs - someone who knew that deep down inside, he was a loser like the rest of us.. At least that's how he made us feel. Beautiful.