Tomorrow would have been the 80th birthday of John Lennon. Fans around the world feel poignant about it partly because his Beatlemate Ringo Starr celebrated the same milestone last July alive and drum-kicking. The band leader was only able to live half of four scores.
I read an article that posed for tribute-paying fans the question Lennon himself famously sang in the opening of “Happy Xmas (War Is Over):” And what have you done?
Early this year, I actually wrote an e-book homage to The Beatles, titled The Beatles’ Timeless Legacy. Its sub-title wishes to explain its position by saying it is a “Tribute to the Greatest Band from the 60s to the New Normal and Beyond.”
My book is set to be published come December, or barring any miscalculation, on the very day Lennon was assassinated 40 years ago.
The pandemic cause-lockdown somehow gave me time and focus to encapsulate my own fascination for the band and its legacy, as 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of their final album release Let It Be. Its tracks mostly recorded in January 1969, the Phil Spector-mixed album officially came out in May the following year, though the group only did one recording session the whole of 1970, minus Lennon at that.
The e-book is basically an avid fan’s work, as I felt I owe the band some full-length writing to show the depth of my immersion on the gems they created and the lives they led especially during their heydays.
The first chapter chronicles their “days in the life” as I sorted out 50 significant days in their saga. Based on my assessment, as a music journalist and musician myself, I ranked the 13 albums they released, from “Please Please Me” to “Let It Be.” I also included my list of worth-citing underrated Beatles songs and asked some certified Filipino fans and celebrities their one Beatles song choice.
I don’t ever wish to write a book about the fiasco that marred their visit to the Philippines in 1966. Most Filipinos had nothing to do with that sorry incident. In fact, a total of 80,000 thousand fans, a record for a single-day Beatles crowd turnout, watched the group play that July before the infamous scene at the Manila International Airport. With the exception of some barong-wearing thugs and a presidential child who reportedly preferred The Rolling Stones, we Filipinos are legitimate Beatles fans.
I wrote in my description of Lennon that he was a “frontman who charmed fans and critics with his outspokenness and devil-may-care attitude.” And that “without his rebellious behavior, The Beatles would have lacked the biting persona necessary for the band to be taken as cool by both teenagers and radicals.”
I grew up influenced by The Beatles in many ways and I currently play bass in a band named The Pub Forties. The Fab Four will always be in my life.
