My comment was based on watching a couple minutes of a TV show in passing, in which I didn’t recognize him until I realized what show I was watching.

I wish him the best.

John had a streak a mile wide of the “Live fast and die young” rock’n’roller. Who was the Beatle most likely to be assassinated?

Though I see him as fighting to grow until the end. As problematic (cult-like) as his relationship with Yoko was, he was trying to find balance and happiness, to be a good husband and a good father, then re-emerge as an artist.

Life is so short and we are so limited.

More fun than talking about politics, for sure.

But speaking for the girls, it was much more Paul.

John seemed to me to be like a perpetual teenager.Maybe something would have changed for him if he’d been able to grow old. But fate dictated otherwise.

There were plenty of girls who wanted John. George and Ringo too, for that matter.

Yoko was later. She was the key which fit into John’s damaged heart. He called her mother and he meant it.

John was the indisputable founder and leader of the Beatles. Alpha male among three other alphas. “To toppermost of the poppermost!”, he exhorted the Lads. And that’s the way it was until the drugs and the unresolved pain brought John down.

Maybe I can’t speak for the girls, but for the guys … Paul? He was cute as hell and he was his own brand of girl-bait. We knew his kind.

However, John was the Guy who could cock a snook at authority, which we envied and was nowhere in Paul’s vocabulary. With Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret in the audience, it was John who made history:
____________________________________________

For our last number, I’d like to ask your help. Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And for the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewelry…
____________________________________________

That goes beyond snark. That’s an alpha male challenge. Perhaps foolhardy. In other times or places, John could have been exiled, imprisoned or killed for that impertinence.

BTW, I enjoy trading shots with you on this stuff. Good clean fun.

Once again, I must disagree.

I am of the exact age that the Beatles affected most – I was a teenage girl at the time. I remember the era very very well. I can assure you that nearly all my friends (and I) had only minor interest in John – it was Paul all the way, because he was “cute” and funny. Boys liked John best, because he was “cool” and edgy.

Also, having read quite a bit about John’s relationship with Yoko Ono later, she appears to have been very much the alpha in that duo.

I have nothing whatsoever against John, and I think he was mega-talented. But for me and the vast majority of the other girls I knew, he was not the Beatle with the sex appeal. That’s not to say there weren’t plenty of girls who had crushes on him – or Ringo or George for that matter. There was enough appeal to go around. And the girls I knew who were the biggest Beatles fans of all liked the entire group as a whole.

As for the Bee Gees, I was older in their heyday. But it was clear that Barry was the big heartthrob. However, it has become crystal clear to me also, from looking at a lot of YouTube comments about the BeeGees, that Robin had and has a huge group of female admirers who are utterly besotted with him. He changed his look a lot over time, by the way. If you’re interested, see this, for example (early 90s) or this. And read the comments to any video with Robin in it.

neo:

Wow! There’s no arguing about taste or masculinity. If that’s the way your meter reads, that’s the way it reads.

But for me, Lennon had alpha-male-bad-boy-girl-bait written all over him. I could not in a million years, read Robin Gibb that way.

Boys wanted to be John and girls just wanted him.

” I can think of younger days,
When living for my life
Was everything a man could want to do….

I could never see tomorrow,
No one said a word
About the sorrow….

I have no idea what you saw, but Barry Gibb has been doing a lot of interviews and appearances in recent years and he looks great for his age (he’s 74 now). He’s no longer reed-thin and has gained a little weight, but certainly isn’t fat, and seems tall enough. What’s more, in his interviews he’s quite articulate. Here’s a very recent interview.