TL;DR:
- John Lennon mentioned what may need occurred had President John F. Kennedy lived.
- He in contrast individuals’s emotions towards the previous president with their emotions towards The Beatles.
- John sang about Kennedy and different necessary individuals in a single of his songs.
John Lennon had loads to say about President John F. Kennedy. As well as, he in contrast Kennedy to Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. John even talked about Kennedy in a single of his well-known solo songs.
John Lennon mentioned President John F. Kennedy was ‘a big dream for everybody’ for 1 purpose
The e-book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon contains an interview from 1980. In it, John mentioned Kennedy at size. “Kennedy is a big dream for everybody because he didn’t live to fulfill or let us down,” he mentioned.
“It’s not to negate what Kennedy was and what he means to people, but the reality is, had he lived, how do you know how well he would’ve done at the time?” John added. “Right? Or how the war would’ve gone and how everything would’ve gone?”
The previous Beatle in contrast President John F. Kennedy with President Jimmy Carter and incoming President Ronald Reagan
Subsequently, John mentioned the then-recent election of Reagan. “So Reagan’s gonna go in there,” he mentioned. “All of the so-called rightists are all gonna be waitin’ for him to do what they need.
“And when he doesn’t because it’s impossible, because the presidency is such a vast, awe-inspiring position for any man to be in, and it means a lot more than some local right/left group, that he cannot possibly fulfill the dreams of the right wing, the same way as Carter or Kennedy could never have fulfilled the dreams of the left wing,” John added. “It is too much invested in one man, one group, and I don’t believe in that.”
John Lennon didn’t appear to love the way in which a quantity of necessary individuals have been romanticized
The e-book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono options one other interview from 1980. In it, John appeared to take situation with nostalgia. He didn’t like the concept of The Smothers Brothers coming again for the particular The Return of the Smothers Brothers the identical manner he didn’t like Beatles followers ready for the return of the Fab 4.
As well as, John mentioned individuals wished to dig up Kennedy. The “Imagine” singer criticized individuals for wanting Ted Kennedy to be his brother and for wanting The Beatles to nonetheless be who they have been within the Nineteen Sixties. For context, Ted was a politician and failed presidential candidate.
Maybe John’s most putting assertion about Kennedy got here in his tune “God.” In it, the previous Beatle lists a quantity of issues he doesn’t consider in, together with the Bible, magic, Buddha, Jesus, Elvis Presley, yoga, and Kennedy. John sang that each one he believed in was himself and Yoko Ono, explaining “That’s reality.”
John didn’t wish to “negate” the previous president’s legacy however he didn’t have a very optimistic view of him both.