Working Class Hero

This evening, I took the family for yet another lepak session in Starbucks. Another new thing they have on sale is an ever-widening range of music CDs. I have already purchased albums by Thelonious Monk and Billie Holiday from the Starbucks collection. This is to satisfy my urge to listen to some cooling jazz while driving through the madness that is Kuching.

But this evening, they had on sale a collection of songs by John Lennon, and were playing it over the sound system. And I happened to make a comment about Lennon, and how wonderful he was, when my 18 year old nephew Boboy asked me "is he British?". I replied that he was indeed British, and that he was one of the Beatles, and that he was murdered in the prime of his life. My nephew looked a bit puzzled, but nodded his head politely anyway, as young Malaysians often do in these circumstances.

It's at times like this that I realise just what a cultural and generational gap there is between me, a middle-aged Brit living in a foreign country, and just about anyone who is younger than 30 in this country. This is especially the case with music.

For instance, I cannot stop myself from feeling pity, and a slight frisson of indignation, when young people reveal to me that they don't know anything about the Beatles. I mean, it's like not knowing who your parents are. How can you not know about the Beatles? Does not compute!!

To me, the Beatles, even though they split up when I was only 5, are one of the most important bands who ever existed. They have indeed gained legendary status, through ceaseless imitation, musical influence and death. Without the Beatles, so many modern bands would not have existed, and the city of Liverpool would be just another Northern English city with an average football team!!

So I was very happy to be listening to John Lennon's songs on the sound system in Starbucks. I went right over and bought the CD. I want to hear once again those mournful chord progressions, the echoing vocals and beautiful messages of peace that characterised much of what Lennon produced.

Lennon was by far the most gifted of the Fab Four because he spoke to a generation who wanted peace, and still speaks today, just as loudly and clearly. He was more than a gifted singer and songwriter, he was a movement, a political force who wanted to change the world.

When he was tragically gunned down in New York in 1980, the whole world stopped spinning for a moment. One of its very best had passed on. I remember feeling curious, at the time, and had a strong urge to find out more about Lennon's music, and to listen to the Beatles for the first time, which I did, and I discovered wonders.

At the time, I was fifteen, and didn't know much about music. And the Beatles were definitely uncool because everyone was into Punk and the beginnings of electronic pop, and I was listening to Stevie Wonder and the Jacksons. Yet it's true, that it often takes the death of a great artist to make people aware of his or her greatness. So around that time I purchased a boxed set of Beatles singles, and listened to every one of them.

The Beatles suddenly became cool for me. I loved the way they were able to combine perfect vocal harmonies with truly original melodies and lyrics that spoke about life, and love, and the effects of LSD. This quartet of working-class lads from Liverpool came together to produce something greater, and more profound, than themselves. And there was always Lennon's voice, marvellous yet doomed, shining out brighter than the others.

I've almost come to the end of this little ramble about four young working-class heroes who changed the world, who are now only two. I just want to say that I am sorry for my young friends and family members, and students, who do not have the same connection that I have with Lennon and the Beatles. Maybe you should download their songs as soon as they are available on the net. You will not be disappointed. Your life will change.

All things must pass, as Lennon said once, and indeed they do. But somehow, Lennon and McCartney's songs seem to last forever. I predict that a thousand years from now, there will be space ships travelling through the galaxy, and those ships will carry recordings of all the music and movies ever created by human beings, perhaps for the crew to enjoy on their long journey.

And one of the crew members will access an old file from the 20th Century marked 'Beatles'.

And the golden voice of John Lennon and his three scouse mates will echo through the long night of space, and there will be peace........