In lieu of it being the eve before his 70th birthday, I feel it is necessary to elaborate on the life of one of the most influential, talented, and important musicians of the last half-century: John Lennon. Even though it has been thirty years since his he was tragically taken from us at the hands of a murderous fool, the influence that Lennon has had on not just popular music, but viewpoints ranging from war and peace to environmental and health issues, is still as apparent today as it was when he was just a young Liverpudlian playing on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964, and this is influence is rooted in his strong leadership qualities.
John Lennon leadership career began very early, at the bright young age of 15 years old. In the mid-1950s, Lennon formed his own "skiffle" group called the Quarrymen, for which he directed the direction of the band through member changes, song selection, and gig listings. One of the most important connections of all time was made possible by John Lennon, when in 1957 at the age of 17, he invited a lad two years his minor to join his little band. His name was Paul McCartney, and as the saying goes, the rest is history. Further additions to the band were made under Lennon's direction, including the addition of 14-year-old George Harrison and the elder Ringo Starr, which rounded out the final Beatles line-up. Described by other members as the leader figure, McCartney later said "We all looked up to John. He was older ... the quickest wit and the smartest."
Throughout the Beatles' career, John Lennon continued to assert himself as a leader. In the early part of the Beatles' career, Lennon established referent power, as the other members looked up to him and wanted him to have faith in their abilities to continue with the band. As the other members gained more notoriety, this power faded, but Lennon still used expert power to maintain control of the group. As the main songwriter for the Beatles, many times with Paul McCartney, Lennon's expertise and amazing talent gave him a lot of credibility within the band, and catapulted him to a recognizable status that was almost greater than the band itself. While Lennon did have reasons to control every function of the band, he acted more as a democratic leader than an authoritarian leader. He ceded many managerial tasks to Brian Epstein until his untimely death in 1967, and respected producer George Martin's opinion in almost any musical situation. Lennon also did not control who wrote or sang songs on records, as McCartney and Harrison wrote songs and sang lead vocals on them, and towards the late Beatle years even Starr contributed songwriting credits on a selection of albums. Lennon, while in a position to make himself a celebrity outside of the band, elected to put the interests of the band first, partly because of his desire to keep his private life private, but also because he was a very practical thinker and saw that breakups of bands are inevitable if the members do not work together towards the common goal.
Lennon's leadership qualities were also apparent in his outspoken activism for and against many political and cultural movements of the time. Lennon was seen as one of the leaders of the hippie movement of the late 1960s and many times publicly spoke about his disagreement with England's and the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, as well as his advocation for civil rights movement. I admire this quality of Lennon the most because he was unafraid of what anyone thought of his opinions or ideas and simply spoke his mind. While this may have hurt his public image in the eyes of government and religious officials, it made him more accessible person to the world public. I wish that I had been alive during his lifetime, so that I too could have had the chance to feel connected with him as did millions and millions of people had the chance to.
I believe Lennon's biggest flaw, however, was the same quality that made him so great. By being so outspoken, he became an enormous target for people to speak out against him, and left a good number of people who actually disagreed with his viewpoints. This eventually led to his shocking demise, as as Mark David Chapman, a mentally unstable fan/stalker, murdered him on December 8, 1980.
Lennon was truly one of the greatest musicians, thinkers, leaders, and overall human beings of this past century, and his untimely death has only increased his overarching influence on us exponentially.
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VERY well written post, Tom. I really enjoyed this. I also appreciate that it was a very timely post. Did you catch Google's redesign of its logo to pay tribute to Lennon?
ReplyDeleteFor future reference, don't stick to Wikipedia as a source. There's a lot out there... Wikipedia should be a good jumping off point, but you should explore a bit more to see what else others have written about the topic.