re: John Lennon would have been 84 today.....

The responses in this thread are some of the most blinkered I have ever seen.

Politics: everyone is grafting their own modern day understanding and biases onto him. At heart, he was deeply anti-establishment - and he in fact fought the establishment at his own peril. He was deeply anti-war - and had the courage to call out the establishment in real time, which likely did impact the latter 1/3 of the war. He did go through a very brief "Mao" period, but in general, the elite cultural left was incensed by his refusal to go along with their party line. He was not a communist. He was much closer to an anarcho libertarian.

Stupid for picking Yoko: You have to realize that Lennon was buried under an absolute avalanche of A-grade pussy for 10 years before he met Yoko. I understand how the simps in this thread who have never scored more than a 4 would find it unthinkable to not settle down with a super model. He had more than drunk from the fountain of casual sex with models to know that it was leaving a hole in him. A big part of the reason he fell for Yoko is that she didn't worship him - she challenged him. And since he was such a deeply damaged child at heart, she likely filled in as a proxy for his mother. In the big 1971 interview, he answers the question directly: why are you two together? So we won't be alone at night. Groupies can't fill that hole. She's not my cup of tea, but they clearly had something together that was vastly meaningful - and tortured and frustrating. Also, she didn't break up the band.

Not talented: what a fricking howler. Lennon is one of the most gifted songwriters of all time. McCartney is probably the single most gifted melodist of all time. Their voices - individually and together - are singular and top tier. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison were all gifted instrumentalists - with McCartney being a generational talent both on bass and guitar.

Paul a better frontman: Lennon willed the band into existence with his charisma, presence and autocratic ways. Every observer that was close to the inner circle - whether they liked Lennon or not - speaks explicitly of how he was the undisputed leader of everything. That clearly shifted - especially after Epstein died in 1967. Paul was no slouch and it could never have been done without him. But to act as if it could have been without Lennon is laughable.

Hypocrite and shitty father: Yes, who among us isn't a hypocrite? It's terrible how he handled being Julian's father.

He didn't live Imagine: this is one of the dumber butthurts on this topic. An artist wrote a beloved song invoking some potential platonic ideal...and then didn't LOCK STEP LIVE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THEIR ART!!!! THE SHOCK AND HORROR!!!! Next thing you know Skynyrd won't be living as simple men.

Spared 40 years of woke: I think it's unlikely Lennon would have thoughtlessly appended himself to all the modern agenda. More likely, he would always be a burr in the saddle of whoever was in power. And very likely the Beatles would have done plenty together over the years.

For all the invective hurled at this person, it's amazing how little compassion a bunch of supposed Christians can muster. This was a child born during the war that was essentially abandoned by both parents - and who suffered other terrible tragedies as a youth. By sheer will, he put together the most successful artistic group in the history of the world. In the very early years, the great bulk of the songwriting was on his back.
He was open-minded to a fault. e.g. He didn't just "try LSD" - he basically committed to deconstructing his entire being over several years, somewhat ceding control of The Beatles to Paul. Still, in that state, he managed to generate some of the most timeless tunes of all time. He went on to a solo career that - IMO - clearly features more all-time classics than the others put together.

And BTW, when he was 23, essentially the entire world showed up on his doorstep and asked for a piece of the action. It should be entirely unsurprising that he didn't handled every aspect perfectly. That goes for the other 3 as well. Nobody else will ever know what it was actually like to have lived through such.

Most overrated band of all time

If all that he did wrong was sing "Imagine" ...that would be enough to dislike John. That's the must nauseating tripe played. The fact that the Olympics makes it a focal point of their last several opening ceremonies is comical " imagine there's no countries"
...no Olympics