Yoko Ono says she continues to listen to the songs of her late husband, John Lennon, but the memories conjured up by doing so remain painful. “I play John’s songs all the time,” she said, speaking to USA Today, “mainly because [musicians] are asking if they can do this song or that. But I don’t listen for pleasure. When I do, it chokes me up to remember when it was written.”
Ono was speaking from Tokyo, where she was attending a concert being staged by Japanese musicians performing Lennon’s works. She alluded indirectly to the Occupy Wall Street movement, saying Lennon undoubtedly would be supporting such causes if her were alive today. “John was about making the world a better place,” she said. “He sang ‘Gimme Some Truth,’ so when I see all the activism out there, I feel like we will turn the corner soon.”
She added that Lennon’s impact, in death, is of a different sort than the impact he had when he was alive. “Now that John’s a spirit, he has a different effect on people than when he was alive,” she said. “Spirits talk on a pure level and don’t get distracted by people saying things like, ‘That’s nice, but why’s he wearing that?’ Of course, it would still be better if John was around.”
Lennon’s to-do list consists of the same kinds of rituals that fill the lives of a lot of people. Among Lennon’s list of tasks – dated for May 22 with an unknown year – is meeting with the “HBO guy,” making sure “both cars have full gas tanks” and fixing the hook on the bathroom door. Going through the note, you get the absolute idea that Lennon, really, was just a normal guy.