Imagine John Lennon: Mark Staycer Takes the Top Beatle‘s Show on the Road

July 24, 2002

“There are places I‘ll remember, all my life though some have changed,
Some forever not for better, some have gone and some remain.
All these places had their moments, with lovers and friends I still can recall,
Some are dead and some are living, in my life I‘ve loved them all.“
-- John Lennon

Mark Staycer still recalls the day he saw The Beatles for the first time on television at the age of 7 or 8 nearly 40 years ago. “I‘ve been a dedicated Beatles fan since 1963 when I saw a film clip of them on the Jack Paar Show before they‘d even toured the States,“ he says. “Paar ran this little clip of them performing in England and I‘d never seen anything like it.“
Staycer‘s first impression of The Beatles was echoed by hundreds of millions of instant converts around the world as the romantic harmonies and driving chords of the Fab Four detonated a cultural revolution in music, the arts and attitudes toward life which reverberate to this day. And if you don‘t believe that, then consider that the greatest hits Beatles “1“ album was last year‘s top-selling CD world-wide, nearly 40 years after many of its songs were recorded.
A gifted mimic and musician as well as a former disc jockey, Staycer has always carried a torch for The Beatles, particularly their leader John Lennon. This summer he‘s putting a lifetime of collecting their memorabilia and playing their songs on the line to launch his own one-man show, “A Tribute to John Lennon,“ which will offer the “heart, soul and humor“ of one of the 20th century‘s greatest musicians.
Staycer says his 90-minute show of 15-20 songs in full Lennon costume will offer Beatles songs written primarily by Lennon as well as some of his solo work and a tribute to George Harrison. “There will also be some surprises,“ he says. “I‘ll be reading some of John‘s poetry and I‘ve had access to some of his unpublished personal letters.“
After his Lennon tribute, Staycer plans to offer another hour of songs by favorite artists such as Elvis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins in a “Live Wire“ set of the kind of American roots music that inspired The Beatles in their Liverpool days.
The show kicks off at Gaylord‘s concert pavilion on Friday, July 26 at 6:30 p.m., with a performance planned at the Traverse City District Library on Wednesday, Aug. 7 at 7 p.m. Staycer will also be performing at Cleveland‘s Abbey Road on the River festival in August, a 3-day celebration for Beatles fans. Ultimately, he hopes to tour nationally.
“I‘ve been practicing and playing Beatles songs for years and lately I‘ve been fine-tuning the songs in John‘s own style to make them as accurate as I can,“ he says, adding that he started teaching himself the songs and how to play guitar back in grade school.
Those who recall Staycer‘s days as a DJ with WTCM-FM may be familiar with his dead-on ability to mimic a wide range of voices; he‘s particularly on target with that of Lennon. “His accent is easy to pick up,“ he says. “I had a lot of fun with it (his ability to mimic voices) growing up, fooling people in school and fooling girls with an English accent. It comes naturally.“
Then there‘s his costume. Staycer has a custom-made Lennon wig, wirerims and clothes of the sort the artist wore -- he even gave his wife Jan a start when he showed up unannounced at her office in full costume. He also plays the same model guitars Lennon preferred, such as an acoustic Gibson J160E which Lennon called “the jumbo.“
A Beatles memorabilia collector, at one time Staycer had a range of guitars preferred by the quartet, including models made by Gibson, Rickenbacker and Gretsch. “I‘d plug them into the right kind of Vox amp and get that exact same tone as on the records,“ he says.
Although he sold much of his guitar collection to help finance building a house, he still has a roomful of Beatles toys, dolls, publications, bubble gum cards, ticket stubs, tour books, wallpaper and other items purchased through the years.
Most of all, Staycer has memories. He saw The Beatles perform in 1964 at Olympia in Detroit and again at Shea Stadium in Flushing, NY, in 1965.
“I remember it was hotter than the blazes,“ he says of the Shea Stadium concert. “I remember the heat and the noise.“
Staycer says he was vacationing at his aunt and uncle‘s house on Long Island at the time and his cousin had tickets to The Beatles‘ concert.
“I was very angry afterward because you really didn‘t hear much of the music,“ he recalls. “There was just a constant loud scream from 55,000 screaming teenagers in a baseball stadium and it was nonstop for the whole show. Today on recordings, you can hear 2-3 minutes of nonstop screaming before the songs even begin, but that doesn‘t compare to what it was like being there -- it can‘t compare to the energy and force of the screaming. The Beatles couldn‘t compete with the roar -- it might have been the main reason they quit touring.“
Staycer says Lennon‘s song, “In My Life“ has a personal resonance since he has many friends in Northern Michigan who‘ve been influenced by The Beatles, including collectors and fans Steve Loveless of State of the Art gallery, David Fortney of WCCW, Chris Webb of TV 29/8, artist Sara Gauthier, author Walter Everett, and Nancy Sundstrom, who brought Lennon‘s art to Traverse City last year to name a few. “These are a few friends ‘in my life,‘ who‘ve been inspirations to me.“
What about Lennon‘s tragic death -- struck down by an assasin‘s bullet -- how will he handle that in the show? After years of personal problems, John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono were on a roll with a hit album, “Imagine,“ when a killer stepped out of the shadows of their home at The Dakota off Central Park and shot him down in December, 1980.
Even today, Staycer chokes with emotion at the memory of that day.
“From a professional aspect I treat it as if John‘s still alive and what it might be like if he still lived with no mention of that tragic day in 1980 when he had such hope for happiness,“ he says.
“But personally, I still hurt over it. It was very sad -- I didn‘t listen to any of the music for a long time -- it was very hurtful. At least when George Harrison died, in his own way he got the public ready for it with press statements that he knew life was temporary. He said ‘I‘m ready for it -- I‘m not fearful of death.‘
“But you can‘t help but think of how much more John Lennon would have given the world and how much he would have done. In his own life, he rallied for peace and he got a lot of people thinking about it.“