MEMORIES OF JOHN LENNON

Imagine a John Lennon tribute that doesn’t serve as a mild sedative.

Because this one, edited by Lennon’s widow, Ono, takes the same wearisome, anodyne tack as the plethora of Lennon-eulogizing sundries that have accumulated in the years since his death. The majority of the entries, many from warmed-over celebrities such as Bono, Elton John and Carly Simon, follow a maddeningly predictable template in which the contributor notes Lennon’s sharp wit, remembers a small personal kindness and wistfully suggests that we could sure use a guy like him today. A significant number of these reminiscences have been cut-and-pasted from old interviews, giving the book a somewhat shoddy, opportunistic feel. Many respondents are compelled to rhapsodize over Lennon’s peace anthem, “Imagine”—presumably its cozy utopian homilies are worthier of consideration than audacious, disturbing works like “A Day in the Life” or “I Am the Walrus” that made Lennon worth talking about in the first place. Some pieces are worthwhile: A cousin of Lennon amusingly recounts Lennon’s horror of physical labor; session musician Andy Newmark gives a revealing account of Lennon’s demeanor in the recording studio; musician and artist Klaus Voorman touchingly describes and illustrates Lennon’s “house husband” phase; and activist Tom Hayden provides a useful summary of the Nixon administration’s role in Lennon’s immigration problems. In an unintentional high point illustrating the collection’s general pointlessness, Ray Charles hilariously praises Lennon and the Beatles’ musical genius with a list of songs written by Paul McCartney. Speaking of the Cute One, he and Ringo are conspicuously absent, perhaps to make space for Paul Reiser.

Largely useless as biography, musical analysis or gossip, this flavorless warm-fuzzy seems like a book Lennon would have shunned. The sort of thing a well meaning grandmother might pick up in an airport gift shop for her little Jeremy, who likes the rock music.