From Robyn on Patreon in 2023
60 years on and counting, the Beatles remain at the centre of my world. And not my world alone; millions of other people about whom I know nothing except that we’ll all be gone soon share that Fab-centric feeling. John Lennon died more than two-thirds of those years ago, yet he’s still at the heart of the Beatles - the man who started it all. Whichever Beatle is your fave you have to accept that their magic lies in their teamwork, no matter how gifted they are/were as individuals. Along with their talents come their characters, so ingrained in each of them that they seem like cartoon figures - which, for a while, they were. Paul was and is incredibly buoyant; in retrospect he was what kept them afloat so long, and this quality gave him the most successful solo career. George was deep, reflective and soulful, though he could get a bit waterlogged at times - his own solo career foundered badly after a great start, but he was a natural team player and became an honorary Python and a full Wilbury. Ringo is mournful, comic and charismatic - a personality even just standing there. And John? He was the angry, hilarious, insightful, impossible man who was blessed with the greatest voice in British rock’n’roll; “I think we were all a bit in love with John”, said Paul many years afterwards. “John made you care about him”, said Dick Lester, who directed the two Beatles movies made when the group was at its zenith. John, the vulnerable dragon: he was first to arrive, and the first to depart. As my wife Emma Swift says, anger is sadness on fire, and within John’s flammable rage lay his own unquenchable sadness. The little boy, born in an air-raid, abandoned by his parents, who died in a hail of bullets. He magnetised the eye even as his voice grabbed the heart: he was John Lennon. Just thinking about him makes me cry, on a good day. He remains a touchstone for my emotions, and keeps me human when I’d rather not be. Whether he was good or not is irrelevant; he was great. Happy 83rd, John!