AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING

You tell me that you heard every sound there is
And your bird can swing
But you can't hear me
You can't hear me

He'd always publicly dismissed it as a throwaway song through the years but hearing it on WABC one frosty November morning in New York City in 1980, John realised he'd effectively killed two birds with one stone (pun most definitely intended).

“Sinatra is the embodiment of the fully emancipated male, perhaps the only one in America. The man can have anything he wants.”

The first bird came about after he'd read Gay Talese's eye opening article on Frank Sinatra enitled 'Sinatra Has A Cold' for Esquire magazine in March/April of 1966 in which the middle aged crooner had been alleged to refer to his reportedly large manhood as a bird. The old crooner had also frequently dismissed The Beatles with their "mop top hair" and appeared to mock them along with his Rat Pack co-horts at any opportunity he could in his desperate attempt to cut them down to size. Maybe it was his own reliance on toupees that made him do it, or just the standard mid life crisis that brought about the unwarranted bitterness, either way John didn't give a fuck. He'd always been an Elvis and Buddy Holly man anyway.

When your bird is broken, will it bring you down?
You may be awoken
I'll be 'round, I'll be 'round

The second bird flew a little closer to home as everything John wrote back then typically had more than one inspiration driving it. Lennon had always felt that McCartney, who he considered a square compared to him, would always be the band member most likely to sell the band out, even if he did pretend to be hip to the mind bending opportunities the band's experimentation with drugs and spirituality had afforded them at a young age.

Laying down the supposedly throwaway track in the studio in a dope filled haze with Paul sitting next to him, it would sometimes trip John out to see the irony of McCartney singing the song alongside him thinking it was just about Sinatra when it was also about him.

The bird in this case was McCartney's incessant inner song bird that chirped away with its relentless upbeat melodies and tyrannous optimism. For all Paul's flirtation with avant garde happenings, John considered it phoney and lightweight in relation to the genuine generational zeitgeist taking place. Later, when John expressed his feelings more explicitly about Paul in his 1971 song "How Do You Sleep?", he made certain to leave no room for ambiguity.

So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise
You better see right through that mother's eyes
Those freaks was right when they said you was dead
The one mistake you made was in your head

A pretty face may last a year or two
But pretty soon they'll see what you can do
The sound you make is muzak to my ears
You must have learned something in all those years

He could just imagine Paul being the same sort of reactionary crank as Sinatra as he got older, rallying against the new upstarts in the music business whilst he continued to pedal his elevator muisc. He would never be like that. He was a revolutionary and knew how to read the shiting sands of culture better than anyone. At 40 years of age, he was still very much the zeitgeist. There was a reason he had the entire CIA trying to remove him from his newly adopted US of A.

Rock and Roll was always about danger and McCartney resisted it.

As for Frank, he was still holding onto his toupee and singing Beatles songs (none of John's) in his increasingly weakened voice in those seedy Vegas casino joints.

The irony amused John very much.

Walking out of his apartment building after a late breakfast, John suddenly thought of himself resembling Dylan in his iconic album cover for "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan". There was a cold bite to the air and sidewalks covered in golden brown leaves that recalled the image to his mind. Since his emancipation from The Beatles he had freed himself from the cage so he could sing his song now.

And his bird was still very much in flight.

Soaring in fact.

December 7th 1980

Scoping the apartment building from the opposite side of the street, Mark Chapman watched Lennon walking down the sidewalk with zero security protection and almost felt tempted to carry out his plan right then and there.

It was just too easy.

But he'd resisted the temptation and decided to wait until dark, enjoying the powerful feeling of knowing history was just a squeeze of his 38.caliber pistol away.

It was within his sights now and it gave him a great sense of satisfaction to know that the old phoney's life was in his hands.

He was more powerful than any of the pedestrians walking past him would know right now.

But they would know tomorrow.

When Lennon would be yesterday.

Look in my direction
I'll be 'round, I'll be 'round