Strawberry Fields Forever...

Strawberry Fields Memorial in Central Park

"The Mayor of Strawberry Fields" Gary dos Santos

I spent a couple of hours in the park today singing songs with a bunch of strangers who were celebrating the music of John Lennon (and The Beatles of course), and what would have been his 79th birthday. It was a beautiful day, and it was a beautiful way to spend some time. It's amazing to see so many different generations gathered around- everyone knows the words to these songs! It must be an amazing feeling to know that something you created will live on forever, to know that you will be remembered through music. Perhaps Lennon died too soon to realize that, but I think George (my favorite of the Fab Four) departed, and the other two still living lads from Liverpool will depart understanding the impact they had on the world.

The wildly eccentric man above is Gary dos Santos, aka The Mayor of Strawberry Fields. We've all no doubt seen many photos over the years of the floral designs covering the Imagine mosaic; petals arranged in a peace sign being the most common arrangement. Well this is the lovely man responsible for that. He is a performance artist, and he has been adorning the memorial with flowers for almost twenty years.

Here we are, singing our hearts out to the Lennon penned Happiness is a Warm Gun, from the 1968 album The Beatles (aka The White Album):

Yours truly at Strawberry Field in Liverpool, England, 2009

Pic from my 2008 visit to the now defunct Ashram in Rishikesh, India where The Beatles stayed in 1967; inspiration for The White Album.

What is your favorite Lennon song? Who is your favorite Beatle?

"Living is easy with eyes closed / Misunderstanding all you see/ It’s getting hard to be someon/ But it all works out/ It doesn’t matter much to me" --John Lennon (The Beatles), Strawberry Fields Forever