the rix mix

John Lennon was my favorite Beatle. He was the only Beatle I really liked. After the band broke up, John released one album I thought was uniquely brilliant. None of his other albums spent much time on my turntable. But solo, he recorded some songs that struck me as excellent; or outrageous enough to enjoy ("Meat City" comes to mind). In fact, living as close as I do to New York, I got tired of hearing about the guy. At the time he was killed in 1980, even with "Starting Over," I couldn't envision much of a career ahead of him. But if I had made a list then of well-known people I believed were good to have on the planet, Lennon would have been on it along with Muhammad Ali, the Dalai Lama, & Allen Ginsberg. I would have just taken Dorothy Day off the list - she died on Nov. 29, 1980.