My timing is no accident. I cannot think of a more appropriate moment for a playback of Maroon 5’s fine cover of the John Lennon composition: Happy Xmas (War is Over). After all… it was on this very day, back in 1980, that a stalker / assassin opened fire to slaughter the totally unsuspecting Lennon.
One thing was certain… that year, there’d be no Happy Xmas for Lennon’s family, friends and fans. And when we consider how such a freethinker… a mega talented vocalist, lyricist, musician had been so abruptly, tragically silenced, well…
It’s safe to say that there are still millions of us, who loved all the good he stood for… who have yet to fully recover from our decades-old communal mourning.
I know I haven’t… my eyes did well up, briefly, a couple of times this day… first while playing “Imagine” on my piano at dawn and, later on, in the typing of this blog. Folks, it’s just that my memories of learning of John’s death still play out so vividly in my mind. Long sigh… moving on…
Lennon’s key Happy Xmas lyric, here, does remind us that “War is over if you want it”… yet… even though so many of us do want all war to end… the powers-that-be who are supposed to represent our wishes refuse to do so. The no-win war on terror rages on and on… and… ever since Inauguration Day ’17… the entire world has become threatened… more than ever before… by the prospects of nuclear war… i.e., because two bellicose, crybaby so-called leaders cannot manage to scrape up two sane braincells (between them) to rub together.
I could go on, but will reserve any further commentary for another blog… another day. Hopefully we’ll all survive long enough to witness its arrival.
For the moment, let’s focus more upon some fun, feel good stuff re the above vid. Particularly noteworthy is spotting America’s last, truly legitimate President of the United States, Barack Obama, seated in the audience along with his lovely family.
No Christmas would be complete without giving a listen to John Lennon’s original version of Happy Xmas (War is Over). And for any of you who’ll be attending parties and would like to try singing along, check out this Karaoke arrangement.
I invite you to stay with me throughout this entire holiday season. My plan is to get as many of us into the holiday spirit as is possible. Towards that future, I’ll continue presenting faves from my Christmas music library… classics all… counting ‘em down one-a-day… from now until the 25th. You can expect some of my future tracks to contain spiritual content and social commentary… others will be secular. And yes… a few will even be downright silly.
Till the next time we meet… let me echo Mr. Lennon’s lyrical sentiments as I… as we… wish you all…
A very Merry Christmas
And a happy new year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear!
Hope you’ll be stopping by, daily, to hear out my entire
Top 20 Countdown “2” Christmas,
as well as give a listen to my regular monthly BlogCast,
slated for Sunday, December 24, 2017.
FYI, my past musical presentations are archived within my BlogCast and music categories.
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CommonSenseTom 