John Lennon: Across the Universe

Twenty-five years ago, my sister and I awoke to our alarm clock/radio set to WPLJ, which for some reason early that morning was playing nothing but John Lennon songs; she and I had been playing the new Double Fantasy album for almost a month, so we thought it was just publicity for the record. Some time later, my mother came into the room and found us both sobbing, with Beatles music still coming from the radio. Unlike a lot of other New Yorkers that day, I didn’t go to the Dakota, not that day, not that week, not that month. I just couldn’t. And if you had told me then that 25 years on I’d still feel such a depth of emotion about what had happened at the Dakota that morning, I wouldn’t have believed it.

Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,
They slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe.
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind,
Possessing and caressing me.

Jai Guru De va. Om.
Nothing’s gonna change my world, nothing’s gonna change my world.
Nothing’s gonna change my world, nothing’s gonna change my world.

Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes,
They call me on and on across the universe.
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box,
They tumble blindly as they make their way
Across the universe.

Jai Guru De va. Om.
Nothing’s gonna change my world, nothing’s gonna change my world.
Nothing’s gonna change my world, nothing’s gonna change my world.

Sounds of laughter, shades of earth are ringing through my opened ears,
Inciting and inviting me.
Limitless, undying love, which shines around me like a million suns,
And calls me on and on across the universe.

Jai Guru De va. Om.
Nothing’s gonna change my world, nothing’s gonna change my world.
Nothing’s gonna change my world, nothing’s gonna change my world.

Jai Guru De va.

Repeat and fade.

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