Time has been kind to John Lennon, the former Beatle who was killed 25 years ago on Thursday just as he was starting over.Despite some erratic solo work and questionable political alliances, the ‘‘smart one’’ in the Fab Four has been canonised by music fans as a thoughtful songwriter and courageous activist. His songwriting partner Paul McCartney lived long enough to receive a knighthood, but sainthood has been more elusive for McCartney, the “cute one’’, viewed by some as the lightweight half of the pair.Credit the imbalance to a handful of tunes that will never go out of style as long as there is war and injustice, anthems like All You Need is Love, Give Peace a Chance and Imagine. McCartney may have sold more records, been just as politically active and written Yesterday, Helter Skelter and Let It Be, but Lennon is the Working Class Hero.A good voice also helps, and Lennon’s was arguably thegreatest in rock ’n’ roll, said Interscope Records President Jimmy Iovine, who helped record the Lennon albums Walls and Bridges and Rock ’N’ Roll.“It never gets talked about. That guy sang his ass off,”Iovine said. “He was an extraordinary singer, very, very spontaneous, never needed a lot of takes, but always with such feel.”Lennon was not afraid to share his inner turmoil, singing about such painful chapters as the death of his mother, the demise of the Beatles or his turbulent relationship with Ono.“He rode life like a surfboard,” said Aerosmith vocalist Steven Tyler, whose band covered Come Together in 1978, “and when he got to the shore, instead of paddling straight back out again to catch the next wave, he sat there for a while and wrote it down. And I love that about him.” —Reuters
