How To Disappear Completely

"I'll Always Love John!"

--my aunt, sometime in the mid-1960s.

Thursday, Dec. 8, marked the 25th anniversary of Lennon's death. To commemorate the event, I went to a concert put on by the local artists. The venue was small, dark, and close, and since I sat at a table right in front, I was practically on stage with the performers. Can't get much better than that. Two grad students joined me at my spot, and since they reminded me of Tiffany A. and the Jolly Swan, we immediately made friends. The former played violin and guitar and knows nearly every Bob Dylan album by heart; the latter was a cellist. However, as they were physics and astronomy grad students, respectively, no amount of common musical interest could prevent me from feeling rather out-left-brained.

Nobody can do Beatles' songs like the Beatles. But each performer brought a unique interpretation to the particular songs they chose. Some of the covers were more successful than others. For instance, playing "Ticket to Ride" on the banjo was just a bit....odd. Yet an acoustic guitar rendition of "Julia" was arrestingly beautiful. One of the electric guitarists effectively plucked his way through the "Bach" riff in the middle of "In My Life" and a flute filled in the melody for the "Mersailles" intro to "All You Need Is Love." And though I sorely missed Ringo, one particular rendition of "Hard Day's Night" on acoustic guitar made me pay more attention to the vocal line. A female duo calling themselves the Beat Elles performed "Run for Your Life," noting that such was the only way to side-step the extremely unPC lyrics.

None of the songs that featured strings were performed: no "Eleanor Rigby" or "Yesterday" or songs from Yellow Submarine.

But "Norweigian Wood," "Strawberry Fields," "I Am the Walrus," "Help!," and "Come Together" were all there. Schloop-a-bum-bum.....stzzz...Schloop-a-bum-bum....stzzzzzz.
Here come old flattop, he come grooving up slowly.

Also a whole bunch of stuff from Imagine, but I must admit to not having followed John too closely post-Beatles, and thus recognized very little of this material.

"You can tell a lot about a person by the Beatle he/she likes," said one of the performers. "If you like Ringo, you're normal. If you like George, it means you're spiritual. If you like Paul.....well, now, it means, it means you're ('Popular!' came a shout from the crowd)..yes, popular. But if you like John...if you like John, it means you're edgy."