Turn Me On, Dead Man: 26 Things I Miss About John Lennon 26 Years Later

"*RJ Eskow begins:*":http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/turn-me-on-dead-man-26_b_35894.html

Blogger "*Pen-Elayne*":http://elayneriggs.blogspot.com/2006/12/silly-site-o-day-while-its-not-at-all.html (obviously a Beatles fan, by the name) reminds us this is the 26th anniversary of John Lennon's death. Last year, to commemorate that sad 25th anniversary, I wrote up 25 reasons I still miss him so many years later. I was compelled to mark the day by modifying the list slightly - and adding a 26th reason as a way to count the years.
It speaks to John's genius as a communicator that "Imagine," which is so clearly hostile to God and religion, is so widely popular in our heavily theocratic society. It's not my favorite Lennon song by any means, but that's not because of any beliefs I hold. It's just that, while it is beautiful, it's not as soulful or dynamic for me as some of his other tunes.
Atheists looking for an anthem should track down a bootleg copy of "Serve Yourself," his answer song to Dylan's Christian hymn "Gotta Serve Somebody." It's hilarious, profane, and cuttingly anti-religious.

"For the rest, go to the *original blog post*":http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/turn-me-on-dead-man-26_b_35894.html.Can't recall if i've mentioned here before that i was sitting at the typewriter (it *was* twenty-six years ago), trying to compose my thoughts and write about having just come from the open-casket viewing for my grandfather, who had died on Pearl Harbor Day, when i looked up at the AP News Wire crawl that my cable system ran, and saw that Lennon had been shot.
A bad, bad week.
But, like "*Joe Hill*":http://mog.com/fairportfan/blog_post/20972 (and *Phil Ochs*, in *Billy Bragg*'s rewrite, I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night), John Lennon was as much the living representation of an idea as he was a mortal man... and you can't kill ideas with bullets.(See also *You Can't Kill Me*, by The Washington Squares)