With the anniversary of John Lennon's death yesterday and his birthday having recently passed in October, John Lennon and his music are always on my mind this time of year.

George Harrison was probably the deepest Beatle. Ringo Starr was the underrated one. Paul McCartney was just as good a songwriter as anyone who’s ever written a song. But more than the other three, John Lennon was “The Beatle.” The Beatles are always “the fab four,” but John Lennon is one of the first images that pops into my head when I think of “the Beatles.”

There are almost too many iconic songs and images of John Lennon to name. There’s “Twist and Shout” which is probably the best song the Beatles put out in their earlier part of their career. There’s his scene stealing performance in “Hard Day’s Night.” “Help!” seems like every other teeny-bop song that they put out at the time, yet the lyrics reveal that the Beatles were taking their music into deeper waters. “All You Need Is Love” showed off John’s genius to put what we’re all feeling into a relatively simple song. “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “A Day in the Life” are perfect examples of the pop-song as high art. “Revolution” and all of his “White Album” songs revealed a much darker side of John Lennon’s music. “Don’t Let Me Down” pretty much sums up what was going on within the group during their last few tumultuous years.

This obviously leads to “Imagine.” Has there ever been a better written song? Like “All You Need is Love,” “Imagine” really sums up my views on humanity. Both songs really demonstrate John Lennon’s ability to take these really difficult understandings and truisms, and make them seem totally accessible. If I were to discuss the imaginations outlined in that song with my friends, I’d probably come to all kinds of frustrating conclusions. My ponderings would run into a logical brick wall. But for some reason, when I hear “Imagine,” I thinking, “You know…why not?”

Many people are indifferent about his solo work, but I put a lot of it on equal footing as his work with the Beatles. Being a lover of all things socially aware and political, I of course love listening to all of the wonderful political songs that he put out. There’s rarely been such a wonderful combination of pop-music and politically charged lyrics. “Give Peace a Chance,” “Happy X-Mas: War Is Over,” “Working Class Hero,” “Woman is the Nigger of the World,” “Luck of the Irish,” “Power to the People,” and “John Sinclair” are all fantastic songs.

John Lennon’s solo work really ties in directly with the man himself. Where Paul McCartney sometimes squandered his immense musical talents writing stuff like “Silly Love Songs” and “Band on the Run,” John Lennon always seemed to be artistically ripping himself open and pouring salt into his wounds. “Mother,” “Jealous Guy,” “Cold Turkey,” “Instant Karma,” “#9 Dream,” “How,” and “God” are perfect examples of an artist really pouring himself into his music.

John Lennon’s music was wonderful, but part of the Lennon Legend is due to the fact that he’s no longer around anymore. As Elton John once sang, “Your candle burned out long before your legend ever did.” I bet that the music of John Lennon and the Beatles ends up transcending generations. It’s not too hard to imagine people in 2150 studying The Beatles the same way we study Beethoven and Mozart today.

“Legend” is always fuelled by thoughts of what could have been. If “Double Fantasy” is any indication, his solo work would have continued to be really good. I also have no doubt that the Beatles would have gotten back together in some fashion. I think that the gravitational pull of the Beatles would have been too much to resist, and we would have been graced by more great Beatles music.

I also think the world, the United States in particular, needed a person like John Lennon during the Reagan administration. With so much of the Boomer generation having already sold out to the greedy interests of the 1980’s and 1990’s, I think Lennon would have stuck to his guns and reminded the dreamers of the world that we can still all get them to come to our side. All it’d take would be a song; a song that only John Lennon could write.