I am watching the John Lennon in NYC American Masters episode...

[WCGreen]

I remember when all of this was happening. The immigration battle, the Nixon enemy list, the afternoon appearances on the Dick Cavet Show.

But the details that John and Paul were hanging out like brothers, the record guy commented, I did not know. There were pictures of them together in LA when John split from Yoko for a while in the early 70’s. Ringo was there as well and George came by to see him to record some tracks with Phil Specter.
If you didn't live through the Beatles, you can't really experience what it was like.

First of all, AM radio played everything. There was no segmenting of genre music. Whatever charted was played. I remember Sinatra, the Beatles, that horrible Green Beret Song, Dean Martin, the Supremes, Sly and the Family Stone, Mamas and the Papas and the Monkees could very well have been heard within minutes of each other.

The Beatles were so far above the rest of them. They started the singer songwriter stuff, they took rock and roll out of the muddle that was doo whop and surfer noise and turned it into an art form. And they kept getting better, they evolved and then when they hit the very pinnacle, they were no more.

This particular show chronicles John's New York Decade and his love for Yoko. You can see that Yoko isn't what we were, at the time, told she was. Yoko was just a head of the experimental music curve that the likes of Laurie Anderson and the Talking Heads popularized.

I am rambling and I apologize.

It's just that a big chunk of my youth was dominated, defined by the Beatles that I feel a little overwhelm reliving all of this sitting watching this show alone.

John was not my favorite Beatle, but, looking back, he influenced me to get involved, speak out; do not take crap from the people in charge.
So if you have gotten this far into my life, thank you. It’s important to me. They helped, those Beatles my dad hated, shaped me into the political animal I am, for better or worse, today.

Thanks for indulging me and if you can get a chance to see this two-hour show, go for it.

There is a lot of joy but a deep sense of loss as it ends, well, we all know how it turns out...

[H2O Man]

1. Recommended.

The Beatles were outstanding. Unlike anything before or since.

I also like the Plastic Ono Band.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Coming of age stories are always fascinating...

Recommended.

[tridim]

3. The "jug of vodka" thing kind of freaked me out.

I knew about John's lost weekend, but I didn't know it got that bad.

I like to remember the 66-69 John when I think about him.

[WCGreen]

4. I went through a period very much like that....

[Lint Head]

5. When John was murdered I cried for days. I'm a guitarist and had to play

a show that day in Dallas TX. We wore black armbands. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done.

[cui bono]

6. I remember the night Lennon got shot.

Went to my neighbor's and watched reruns of the Tomorrow Show with him being interviewed. A few years ago I bought a DVD of the week of the Mike Douglas Show hosted by John and Yoko. Haven't watched it yet, maybe I'll find it and pop it in.

Where did you get that American Masters episode? Is it on DVD?

[WCGreen]

7. Oh crap, I just watched the end....

Oh crap...

[Seedersandleechers]

8. Was this the BBC documentary

John Lennon the New York City Years? I watched that last week and it was great.