My son and I meeting Julian Lennon at the "Touch the Earth" book signing event on Saturday morning, April 15, 2017. It was a thrill to meet him!
That's right!
Julian Lennon, son of the late Cynthia Lennon and legendary musician and ex-Beatle John Lennon, turns 54 today.
Julian was the inspiration for the song "Hey Jude", mostly written by Paul McCartney. It was an attempt to keep Julian's spirits up, as their parents were getting a divorce, and Julian's father, John, was in love with Yoko Ono.
The thing is that John was a very loving father to Sean Lennon, penning the "Beautiful Boy", a song that actually gets me pretty emotional when I think about it and my own son. In fact, I should mention that "Hey Jude" has the same impact on me at times, as well. Julian has expressed disapproval of the way that John responded to him as a father, however.
Everyone certainly has their flaws, and that serves as proof. John Lennon was a great and inspired musician and artist, and he really was brilliant with tying his life's work with a message of peace and acceptance, and a nonviolent, anti-war movement. His "Give Peace a Chance" still serves as an anthem at peace protests.
In any case, Julian has a point. He was largely ignored, although that was partly because manager Brian Epstein wanted to keep the fact that John was married with child secret, since it would seem to compromise the Beatles popularity and availability with screaming teenage girls.
Unfortunately, once the Beatles did make it really big, John was not as available as most fathers would have been, so Julian did get the short end of the stick in that regard as well. Once John got involved with Yoko, he seemed to distance himself from his former wife Cynthia, and of course, Julian.
But Julian followed in his father's footsteps by becoming an accomplished musician and artist in his own right. I enjoyed much of his music back in the eighties, and have been impressed with the photography work that I have seen from him, as well.
You can take a look at his work by visiting his webpage at:
In any case, here is wishing Julian a very Happy Birthday!
No comments:
Post a Comment