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Credit: Far Out \/ Tony Barnard \/ Los Angeles Times \/ UCLA Library<\/p>\n
There are many who would argue that\u00a0John Lennon<\/a>\u00a0is the coolest man to have ever lived. <\/p>\n In fact, get me on the right side of a Beatles listening session and in the depths of a pub conversation, and I\u2019m sure I would be one of those people \u2013 arguing that his tortured artistic outlook combined with proud social activism made him cooler than any of the supposedly aloof cultural icons he rubbed shoulders with.\u00a0<\/p>\n But more than that, this is a man who wrote some of the best songs in history. Because surely, if you can\u2019t be considered cool after writing \u2018Strawberry Fields Forever\u2019, then I fear being cool is an entirely unattainable pursuit. As Brian May put it<\/a>, he turned from \u201ca frankly less-than-glamorous teenager with a bit of a chip on his shoulder, developed into the coolest guy on Earth\u201d.<\/p>\n But maybe that coolness had an expiry date, which triggered into action at the end of the 1960s. Maybe, just maybe, when The Beatles broke up<\/a>, the jigsaw pieces of Lennon\u2019s coolness shattered and thus left a void of trendiness to be filled by his artistic successors. There were, of course, plenty of candidates in the \u201870s: David Bowie, Joni Mitchell and Marvin Gaye, to name but a few.\u00a0<\/p>\n But maybe the real answer was a little closer to home and came in the form of his son Julian. Born in 1963, Julian was the son of Lennon\u2019s first wife, Cynthia<\/a> and grew up under the bright spotlight of his father\u2019s own stardom in the \u201860s. He watched as his father became a cultural icon and, in turn, got a first-hand view into some of the greatest artistry ever created \u2013 in turn, making him one of the most underrated tastemakers of the era.<\/p>\n A fact that struck his father as entirely true came in the mid-70s, when he was no longer at the spearhead of innovation and instead found himself trying to craft an understanding of what was at the essence of new coolness, at the behest of his son Julian. <\/p>\n Lennon remembered one distinct moment, when Julian turned him onto a band he quite frankly, should have known already: \u201cI called him and he said, \u2018Have you heard Queen?] I said, \u2018No, what is it?\u2019 He says, \u201cOh, they\u2019re great.\u2019 and I said, \u2018Well, I\u2019ve heard of\u2026\u2019 not Slade. What\u2019s that other one? The one with a guy that looks like Hitler playing the piano, an English group. Sparks. You know, I\u2019m hip. I\u2019ve seen Sparks on American TV\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lennon added, \u201cSo I call him and say, \u2018Hey, have you seen Sparks? He\u2019s got Hitler on the piano.\u2019 \u2019Anyway, he says, \u2018No, uh, they\u2019re all right, but have you seen Queen?\u2019 I said, \u2018No, what\u2019s Queen?\u2019 And then he tells me, right.\u201d<\/p>\n So much for the coolest guy on planet earth, hey Brian May? When Queen were hitting the peak of their powers in \u201875<\/a>, Lennon had no idea who they were and had to consult his son in order to join the world in a state of cultural coolness.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n