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Daily Journal April 30, 2020, ‘A loneliness infected’ version

Strange days, indeed.’ –John Lennon.

A Loneliness Infected; Searching for meaning in quarantine

What are you doing? My wife asked.

“Just thinking.”

Its the umpteenth day of working from home and I feel a loneliness to my bones. And I got other people in the house, the aforementioned Catherine, my wife, and my daughter, Hannah, and her husband, Tom.

Just thinking.

Humans are social animals. We love to connect with other people. My daughters in their teen years would run out the door. Where ya going I’d holler from a comfy chair in front of a sports game.

Just hanging out , bye daddy, they’d say.

Call me, I’d yell back.

I was happy knowing they were happy ‘just hanging out.’

My wife was a pastor at a church in San Francisco so weekends she was always working. But I was happy knowing I’d go play basketball with ‘the guys.’ Hangin’ with the guys. And get home just as the daughters were running out of the door.

I had a soft chair, cold beverage and a TV. I was content.

I have to admit I’m having difficulty now finding that content spot as I quarantine against the coronavirus. Things are different now. I’m older, we all are older. I’m at special risk because of my Lewy body dementia diagnosis.

Maybe it’s self evident or too obvious that a little fear has creeped into my psyche.

Since the virus, I’ve often wondered and even asked people,: ‘What about the people who live alone.?’ I think there are many people lonely in a way they’ve never been before.

It’s a loneliness infected.

It comes with the exposure of our overwhelming vulnerability as humans on this planet. We are brought to our knees by a bug that we can’t see. COVID-19, like all viruses, are not exactly living beings, according to scientists.

FULL STORY CLICK HERE FOR WHAT’S POSTED ON AL.com

Keep checking myvinylcountdown.com for more countdown vinyl record reviews. I have Queen as the latest. Just before Queen ther was P.J. Proby, who has a story that is pretty rock and roll.

Here’s a couple of pertinent song from John Lennon.

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John Lennon — 353, 352, 351

ALBUMS: John Lennon/Plastic Ono band; (1970); Imagine ( 1971); Greatest Hits (1978)

MVC Rating: JL/Ono– 5.0/$$$$$; Imagine — 4.5/$$$$; Hits 4.0

I’ve been putting this one off. What can be added to all that has been written about John Lennon?

He was possibly one of the world’s most influential persons. “Bigger than Jesus” he said to one reporter, describing the millions of enthusiastic young Beatles’ fans. That comment led to worldwide controversy, and John said he was just making the point about what was true. Not that it was wrong or right.

In Birmingham there were bonfires to throw Beatles records into the conflagration, fuel for the fire.

White albums turned black.

(OK, don’t call and tell me they hadn’t put out the White Album before the bonfires. It’s too good a line to let the facts get in the way. Some albums may have been ‘shattered’. Or so I hear.)

Some of Lennon’s best work, his first solo album and Imagine, the follow-up, asked the big (frustrating and depression inducing they could be) questions:
If the Beatles had more influence than Jesus or parents, and teachers — Why?

In the song ‘God’ I think Lennon is saying you can’t count on many things. For him, he feels safe and happy with himself and Yoko

‘God’ comes with a recital of what he doesn’t believe in. Here’s a random mix, but it sure seems to be his intention to say I don’t believe in anything or anybody: I don’t believe in Zimmerman: I don’t believe in Beatles; I don’t believe in I-Ching; I don’t believe in Buddha… And so on (Zimmerman is the birth name of Bob Dylan). He ends this piano-backed ballad declaration of adoration for Yoko witth what he does believe in: “Yoko and me, that’s reality.”

John also wrote “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.” Sounds like he’s not a big believer in the God presented by various churches, Islamic mosques and Jewish synagogues.

But in a video clip, Lennon was asked about death. Standing by two cars in a parking lot, he got into one and then into the other saying death is getting out of one car and into another, he said.

I am giving the basically untitled first solo album a rare 5 stars. Ironically I can’t listen to it a lot. So much emotion is layered into that album. Lennon was using primal scream therapy and shows off his angst-ridden screams several times through-out, especially on “Isolation,” ” Found Out’ and “Mother.’

Sample lyric: ‘Mother, you had me, but I never had you.’

His mother was struck and killed by a car at a crosswalk in 1958; His father was a Merchant Marine who was not home much and finally quit coming home at all. So John was raised by his aunt. John’s edge was nicely counterbalanced by McCartney’s silliness. Both had amazing songwriting abilities — though despite Lennon/McCartney being on most of the credits, in the later years, they filed their songs separately. In other words, John wrote “Day Tripper” for example, and Paul wrote. “Get Back.” But all were credited with Lennon/McCartney.