Vanity Fair "interviews" John Lennon at 70

[Paul M]

Hey Tom,
I'm guessing that you've already seen this, but this terrible fan fiction/alternate history by a music journalist seems like something that needs to be discussed on The Best Show.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/09/john-lennon-at-70-201009

Here's a preview of SOME of the insanity:

Lennon further torpedoed his public image later that year when, upon taking his oath of U.S. citizenship, he announced that he would cast his vote in the ’84 presidential election for Ronald Reagan.

“I think we’re at a point where there’s too much government in everyone’s business and too many people looking for handouts,” he told NBC’s Lloyd Dobyns on the news program Monitor. “My father was a merchant seaman who walked out on the family. He couldn’t be bothered with me until I was a rich Beatle, and then he was suddenly coming ’round all the time, hat in hand. That’s where we’re at with America, you know—people knocking on Uncle Sam’s door, hands outstretched, [doleful voice] ‘Help me, man. Gimme, gimme.’ Ronnie, he understands that it’s time to bloody slam the door.”

[Sarah]

That made me feel a little ill, I'm surprised to report.  I'm also surprised that all the reader comments (twelve at the time I inflicted this on myself) were positive.

[Stupornaut]

That fifth paragraph is the most uncomfortable thing I've seen in ages. I don't want to read about fanfic-Lennon's septuagenarian old-man ghost penis.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

It's a stupidly written article.  But after reading about Neil Young briefly reinventing himself a right-wing, mainstream-country star (in between his new wave and Farm Aid periods), it's not entirely unbelievable.

[Sarah]

For me, there's just something really tasteless about someone making a buck off a silly, not terribly insightful story about how a dead guy's life might have turned out.  If I were a relative, I'd be pissed as hell.

Besides, everyone knows John Lennon would have been as bald as a grapefruit by age seventy.

[nec13]

It's a stupidly written article.  But after reading about Neil Young briefly reinventing himself a right-wing, mainstream-country star (in between his new wave and Farm Aid periods), it's not entirely unbelievable.

I think Neil has always been a little hard to pin down ideologically.

To wit, after 9/11 he released a song called "Let's Roll." Then, a few years later he released "Living With War," an explicitly anti-war album

[cavorting with nudists]

"Let's Roll" was an embarrassment, but even so I don't think he was suggesting we go to war with people who had nothing to do with 9/11, so there's not necessarily a contradiction there.

[fonpr]

"Let's Roll" was an embarrassment, but even so I don't think he was suggesting we go to war with people who had nothing to do with 9/11, so there's not necessarily a contradiction there.

I always took "let's roll" to mean:  Work together and take care of business.

Never read the lyrics, though.

[Sarah]

"Let's Roll"

I know I said I love you,
I know you know it's true,
I've got to put the phone down,
and do what we got to do.

One's standing in the iselway,
Two more at the door,
We've got to get inside there,
Before they kill somemore.

Time is runnin' out,
Let's roll.
Time is runnin' out,
Let's roll.

No time for indecision,
We've got to make a move,
I hope that were foregiven,
For what we got to

How this all got started,
I'll never understand,
I hope someone can fly this thing,
And get us back to land.

Time is runnin' out,
Let's roll.
Time is runnin' out,
Let's roll.

No one has the answer,
But one thing is true,
You've got to turn on evil,
When it's coming after you,
You've gota face it down,
And when it tries to hide,
You've gota go in after it,
And never be denied,
Time is runnin' out,
Let's roll.

Let's roll for freedome,
Let's roll for love,
We're going after satan,
On the wings of a dove,
Let's roll for justice,
Let's roll for truth,
Let's not let our children,
Grow up fearfull in there youth.

Time is runnin' out,
Let's roll.
Time is runnin' out,
Let's roll.
Time is runnin' out,
Let's roll.

Quoted typos and all, because the mistakes seemed appropriate.

[fonpr]

I was comfortable until this verse:

Let's roll for freedome,
Let's roll for love,
We're going after satan,
On the wings of a dove,
Let's roll for justice,
Let's roll for truth,
Let's not let our children,
Grow up fearfull in there youth.

Especially the Satan bit.  We all know who the devil is, right?  Neil?

We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores
and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes
for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people,
says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn,
got roads to drive.



Tanks get ten gallons per mile.

Let's roll.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Yeesh, it's even more embarrassing now that I know that it's evidently kind of a love song.

[amiright??]

I remember hearing Michael Caine once saying that his role in Children of Men was based on what he thought John Lennon would have been like at that age.

I prefer that to this article.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Wait, I guess that was about United 91 after all.  That'll teach me not to judge a song by the first two lines.  Still, it's not necessarily jingoistic.  Though maybe I should skim it again before I commit to that.  Nah, why bother!

[Sarah]

Believe me, it's jingoistic.

[buffcoat]

Believe me, it's jingoistic.

What isn't?