In Memory of John Lennon
30 years ago today the world lost John Lennon. He was an inspiration to countless people who penned such memorable songs as Imagine (my personal favorite Lennon song), Instant Karma, #9 Dream, and many more.
In celebration of John Lennon’s life and legacy, and to honor his memory, I’m re-posting an article I wrote almost 2 years ago about what John Lennon can teach us about creativity. I planned on writing another John Lennon-related post for today, but things got busy and I didn’t get around to it. Better late then never though.
RIP John Lennon, 1940 – 1980
What Can John Lennon Teach Us About Creativity?
Every weekday at 4:35pm, the local oldies station here in Chicago showcases a song by the Beatles. Before the song plays, however, the host tells the story behind the song (without actually giving away the song’s title). These are always very interesting stories that show how the Beatles struggled to create many of their hit songs, and how the group was often filled with a lot of internal strife, especially in the later years.
I have come to look forward to 4:35 for a variety of reasons: The interesting Beatles story, the good music, and the realization there are only 25 short minutes until I can jump into my car and speed home to resume my normal life.
A few days ago, the broadcast really caught my attention. It focused on John Lennon, who I think it’d be safe to say, knew a thing or two about being creative. The song that they featured was Nowhere Man. Although I don’t have an exact quote of what the radio host said, this Wikipedia entry is pretty darned close:
Lennon, however, claimed that he himself was the subject of the song. He wrote it after racking his brain in desperation for five hours, trying to come up with another song for Rubber Soul. “I’d actually stopped trying to think of something,” he said. “Then I thought of myself as Nowhere Man — sitting in his nowhere land.
The article continues with this interesting quote from Lennon himself:
“I’d spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then ‘Nowhere Man’ came, words and music, the whole damn thing as I lay down.”
Five hours of racking his brain and he couldn’t produce anything! Then, laying down, the song comes to him, almost like an epiphany.
Creativity isn’t a faucet that can be turned on and off
Sometimes when you want to sit down to write that short story or novel, the creativity just doesn’t seem to be there. I have always advocated that you should just write, whether you feel creative or not, and I still believe that. Even if you write 20-pages of pure crap, at least you got something down on paper. And who knows, maybe there will be a few gems among those 20 pages.
However, creativity itself is a fickle thing. Few people have ever been able to just turn on their creativity at will. The rest of us have to wait for that spark. Yes there are certain activities and exercises one can do to nudge creativity along. A few “herbal” drugs have even been known to spur a few creative thoughts.
In my own experience, I have found that when I sit down and say “I’m going to write a short story”, without any specific ideas, the result is never good. I usually just give up after about a half hour and do something else. But when I’m doing everyday things, like the dishes or walking through the cafeteria at my local college, great ideas for fiction, poetry and even blog posts have struck with great intensity – and
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