I was surprised, puzzled and even a bit shocked to see the London Symphony Orchestra and the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir showcase John Lennon's atheist anthem "Imagine" during the closing ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
And that white death-masklike portrait of Lennon in the center of Olympic Stadium? Pretty ghastly — and especially so when it dissolved (decomposed?) at the end of the song. But that's a separate issue.
Don't get me wrong: Sadly, while I attended many California rock concerts featuring such Lennon contemporaries as the Byrds, Iron Butterfly, B.B. King, Cream and the Rolling Stones, I never saw the Beatles in a live performance. But I've been a wildly enthusiastic fan almost all of my life, and John Lennon was far and away my favorite of the four. (Living in Cairo, Egypt, when the shocking news of his death arrived, I felt as if Mark David Chapman had also murdered my youth.)
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