Patina of fascination' for fans of all ages

John Lennon: 'Patina of fascination' for fans of all ages - Almost 30 years have passed since John Lennon was shot down at 40, sending shock waves of grief through a generation weaned on The Beatles. Since then, the reach of the rebellious peacenik's influence and popularity has grown beyond Boomer ranks, and on the eve of what would have been his 70th birthday, fans of all ages across the globe are paying tribute to a legend as renowned for his flaws and vulnerabilities as his music and activism.

John Lennon's ability to incite listeners started with the earliest Fab Four hits, says Beatles historian Matt Hurwitz.

"When someone famous dies young, there's a certain patina of fascination," says Beatles historian Martin Lewis, citing icons Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. "No disrespect to those performers, but none of them caused this kind of inspiration among young people. Lennon wasn't afraid to show his warts, and that speaks powerfully in this era. I can't imagine he'd be enthusiastic about how much popular entertainment has gone back to the synthetic fabrications of the 1950s. Kids now rebel against prepackaged confections, the same way Baby Boomers rebelled against Pat Boone."

Lennon's appeal to post-Boomers is no surprise, says Ken Sharp, author of Starting Over: The Making of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy (Simon & Schuster/MTV, $27), an in-depth oral history out Oct. 19.

"Music so strong, so powerful, so vital will always prevail," Sharp says. "It's real, it's authentic, it's brutally honest. His messages of peace and protest are as impactful today as when he first sang them."

Younger fans tap into the rage and anguish in Lennon's 1970 Plastic Ono Band and recognize it as source material for the sound and fury of Nirvana, he says.

"The wide-ranging stylistic scope of John's work as a solo artist is extraordinary," Sharp says. "His music touched all the bases, from the howling primal-scream simplicity of the Plastic Ono Band to utopian visions with Imagine, the lush dreamscape of Mind Games#9 Dream to a celebration of family and domesticity with the his final album, Double Fantasy." and

The issues he raised remain timely, says Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono.

"Gimme Some Truth, Power to the People, Woman Is the N----- of the World — songs he created then are still appropriate now," she says.

Lennon's ability to incite listeners started with the earliest Fab Four hits, says Beatles historian Matt Hurwitz.

"On Twist and Shout, here's a guy with a cold singing his heart out and it's still one of the most exciting rock 'n' roll records ever made," he says. "Lennon was the fire of The Beatles, and his solo work had much of that same fire. He was very charismatic and a motivating force. He said things the rest of us would think but never dare say for fear of looking stupid. He was a thumb in the face of the establishment."

That combination of agitator and musical diarist propelled him to rock's pantheon of revolutionaries.

"Nothing was sacrosanct with John," Sharp says. "His life was an open book reflected in song. As an artist, he never placed himself on a pedestal above his audience. He was one of us, which is one of the major reasons his work resonated so strongly then and today. We identified with him, we shared the same insecurities, vulnerabilities, raw emotions and dreams. It's all there in the music. Not only one of the most brilliant songwriters, John was real, he spoke the truth, and that's why we still love him today." ( ustoday.com )