the biography of john lennon

John Lennon

Famed singer-songwriter John Lennon founded the Beatles, a band that impacted the popular music scene like no other.

(1940-1980)

Who Was John Lennon?

John Winston Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, during a German air raid in World War II.

When he was four years old, Lennon's parents separated and he ended up living with his Aunt Mimi. Lennon's father was a merchant seaman. He was not present at his son's birth and did not see a lot of his son when he was young.

Lennon's mother, Julia, remarried but visited him and Mimi regularly. She taught Lennon how to play the banjo and the piano and purchased his first guitar. Lennon was devastated when Julia was fatally struck by a car driven by an off-duty police officer in July 1958. Her death was one of the most traumatic events in his life.

As a child, Lennon was a prankster and he enjoyed getting into trouble. As a boy and young adult, he enjoyed drawing grotesque figures and cripples. Lennon's school master thought that he could go to an art school for college since he did not get good grades in school but had artistic talent.

Forming the Beatles

Elvis Presley 's explosion onto the rock music scene inspired a 16-year-old Lennon to create the skiffle band called the Quarry Men, named after his school. Lennon met Paul McCartney at a church fete on July 6, 1957. He soon invited McCartney to join the group, and the two eventually formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in musical history.

McCartney introduced George Harrison to Lennon the following year, and Harrison and art college buddy Stuart Sutcliffe also joined Lennon's band. Always in need of a drummer, the group finally settled on Pete Best in 1960.

The first recording they made was Buddy Holly 's "That'll Be the Day" in 1958. In fact, it was Holly's group, the Crickets, that inspired the band to change its name. Lennon would later joke that he had a vision when he was 12 years old — a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, "From this day on, you are Beatles with an 'A.'"

The Beatles were discovered by Brian Epstein in 1961 at Liverpool's Cavern Club, where they were performing on a regular basis. As their new manager, Epstein secured a record contract with EMI. With a new drummer, Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey), and George Martin as a producer, the group released their first single, "Love Me Do," in October 1962. It peaked on the British charts at No. 17.

Lennon wrote the group's follow-up single, "Please Please Me," inspired primarily by Roy Orbison , but also fed by Lennon's infatuation with the pun in Bing Crosby 's famous lyrics, "Oh, please, lend your little ears to my pleas," from the song "Please." The Beatles' "Please Please Me" topped the charts in Britain. The Beatles went on to become the most popular band in Britain with the release of such mega-hits as "She Loves You" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand."

Lennon married Cynthia Powell in August 1962. The couple had one son together, Julian, who was named after Lennon's mother. Cynthia was forced to keep a very low profile during Beatlemania. She and Lennon divorced in 1968. He remarried the following year, on March 20, 1969, to Japanese avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, whom he had met at the Indica Gallery in November 1966.

Beatlemania

In 1964, the Beatles became the first British band to break out big in the United States, beginning with their appearance on television's The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. Beatlemania launched a "British Invasion" of rock bands in the United States that also included the Rolling Stones and the Kinks. Following their appearance on Sullivan , the Beatles returned to Britain to film their first film, A Hard Day's Night (1964), and prepare for their first world tour.

The Beatles' second film, Help! , was released in 1965. That June, Queen Elizabeth II announced that the Beatles would be named a Member of the Order of the British Empire. In August 1965, the foursome performed to 55,600 fans at New York's Shea Stadium, setting a new record for largest concert audience in musical history. When the Beatles returned to England, they recorded the breakthrough album Rubber Soul (1965), noted for extending beyond the love songs and pop formulas for which the band was previously well-known.

The magic of Beatlemania had begun to lose its appeal by 1966. The band members' lives were put in danger when they were accused of snubbing the presidential family in the Philippines. Then, Lennon's remark that the band was "more popular than Jesus now" incited denunciations and Beatles record bonfires in the U.S. Bible belt. The Beatles gave up touring after an August 29, 1966, concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park.

After an extended break, the band returned to the studio to expand their experimental sound with drug-influenced exotic instrumentation/lyrics and tape abstractions. The first sample was the single "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever," followed by the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), considered by many to be the greatest rock project in musical history.

The Beatles Break Up

The Beatles then suffered a huge blow when Epstein died of an accidental overdose of sleeping pills on August 27, 1967. Shaken by Epstein's death, the Beatles retrenched under McCartney's leadership in the fall and filmed Magical Mystery Tour . While the film was panned by critics, the soundtrack album contained Lennon's "I Am The Walrus," the group's most cryptic work yet.

Magical Mystery Tour failed to achieve much commercial success, and the Beatles retreated into Transcendental Meditation and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, which took them to India for two months in early 1968. Their next effort, Apple Corps Ltd., was plagued by mismanagement. That July, the group faced its last notably hysterical crowd at the premiere of their film Yellow Submarine . In November 1968, the Beatles' double-album The Beatles (also known as The White Album ) displayed their divergent directions.

By this time, Lennon's artist partnership with second wife Ono had begun to cause serious tensions within the group. Lennon and Ono invented a form of peace protest by staying in bed while being filmed and interviewed, and their single "Give Peace a Chance" (1969), recorded under the name "the Plastic Ono Band," became a national anthem of sorts for pacifists.

Lennon left the Beatles in September 1969, just after the group completed recording Abbey Road. The news of the break-up was kept secret until McCartney announced his departure in April 1970, a month before the band released Let It Be , recorded just before Abbey Road.

Solo Career: 'Imagine' Album

Not long after the Beatles broke up, in 1970, Lennon released his debut solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band , featuring a raw, minimalist sound that followed "primal-scream" therapy. He followed that project with 1971's Imagine , the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed of all Lennon's post-Beatles efforts. The title track was later named No. 3 on Rolling Stone magazine's "All-Time Best Songs" list.

Peace and love, however, was not always on Lennon's agenda. Imagine also included the track "How Do You Sleep?," a vehement response to veiled messages at Lennon in some of McCartney's solo recordings. The friends and former songwriting duo later buried the hatchet, but never formally worked together again.

Lennon and Ono moved to the United States in September 1971, but were constantly threatened with deportation by the Nixon Administration. Lennon was told that he was being kicked out of the country due to his 1968 marijuana conviction in Britain, but the singer believed that he was being removed because of his activism against the unpopular Vietnam War. Documents later proved him correct. (Two years after Nixon resigned, in 1976, Lennon was granted permanent U.S. residency.)

In 1972, while battling to stay in America, Lennon performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City to benefit mentally handicapped children and continued to promote peace. His immigration battle took a toll on Lennon's marriage, and in the fall of 1973, he and Ono separated. Lennon went to Los Angeles, California, where he partied and took a mistress, May Pang. He still managed to release hit albums, including Mind Games (1973), Walls and Bridges (1974) and Rock 'n' Roll (1975). During this time, Lennon famously collaborated with David Bowie and Elton John .

Lennon and Ono reconciled in 1974, and she gave birth to their only child, a son named Sean, on Lennon's 35th birthday (October 9, 1975). Shortly thereafter, Lennon decided to leave the music business to focus on being a father and husband.

Tragic Death

In 1980, Lennon returned to the music world with the album Double Fantasy , featuring the hit single "(Just Like) Starting Over." Tragically, just a few weeks after the album's release, Mark David Chapman, a deranged fan, shot Lennon several times in front of his apartment complex in New York City. Lennon died at New York City's Roosevelt Hospital on December 8, 1980, at the age of 40.

Lennon's assassination had, and continues to have, a profound impact on pop culture. Following the tragic event, millions of fans worldwide mourned as record sales soared. And Lennon's untimely death still evokes deep sadness around the globe today, as he continues to be admired by new generations of fans. Lennon was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: John Lennon
• Birth Year: 1940
• Birth date: October 9, 1940
• Birth City: Liverpool, Merseyside, England
• Birth Country: United Kingdom
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Famed singer-songwriter John Lennon founded the Beatles, a band that impacted the popular music scene like no other.
• Astrological Sign: Libra
• Quarry Bank High School
• Liverpool College of Art
• Death Year: 1980
• Death date: December 8, 1980
• Death State: New York
• Death City: New York
• Death Country: United States

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: John Lennon Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/john-lennon
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: April 14, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
• If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliché that should have been left behind in the '60s, that's a problem. Peace and love are eternal.
• The more that I see, the less that I know for sure.
• All you need is love.
• There is nothing conceptually better than rock.
• We're all responsible for war ... we all must do something, no matter what.
• The thing the '60s did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.
• If there is such a thing as genius, I am one. And if there's not, I don't care.
• I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity.
• What we got to do is keep hope alive. Because without it we'll sink.
• You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.
• Declare it—just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace ... we just need to declare it.
• Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
• Let it be. Whisper words of wisdom. Let it be.
• As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.
• Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.
• We're more popular than Jesus now.

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John Lennon

• Born October 9 , 1940 · Liverpool, Lancashire, England, UK
• Died December 8 , 1980 · New York City, New York, USA (murdered by gunshot)
• Birth name John Winston Lennon
• Height 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
• John Winston (later Ono) Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England, to Julia Lennon (née Stanley) and Alfred Lennon , a merchant seaman. He was raised by his mother's older sister Mimi Smith . In the mid-1950s, he formed his first band, The Quarrymen (after Quarry Bank High School, which he attended) who, with the addition of Paul McCartney and George Harrison , later became The Beatles . After some years of performing in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany, "Beatlemania" erupted in England and Europe in 1963 after the release of their singles "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me". That same year, John's first wife Cynthia Lennon welcomed their only son Julian Lennon , named after John's mother. The next year the Beatles flew to America to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) (aka The Ed Sullivan Show), and Beatlemania spread worldwide. Queen Elizabeth II granted all four Beatles M.B.E. medals in 1965, for import revenues from their record sales; John returned his four years later, as part of an antiwar statement. John and the Beatles continued to tour and perform live until 1966, when protests over his calling the Beatles phenomenon "more popular than Jesus" and the frustrations of touring made the band decide to quit the road. They devoted themselves to studio work, recording and releasing albums such as "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "Magical Mystery Tour" and the "White Album". Instead of appearing live, the band began making their own "pop clips" (an early term for music videos), which were featured on television programs of the time. In the late 1960s John began performing and making albums with his second wife Yoko Ono , as the Beatles began to break up. Their first two albums, "Two Virgins" and "Life With The Lions", were experimental and flops by Beatles standards, while their "Wedding Album" was almost a vanity work, but their live album "Live Peace In Toronto" became a Top Ten hit, at the end of the 1960s. In the early 1970s John and Yoko continued to record together, making television appearances and performing at charity concerts. After the release of John's biggest hit, "Imagine", they moved to the US, where John was nearly deported because of his political views (a late-'60s conviction for possession of hashish in the U.K. was the excuse given by the government), but after a four-year legal battle he won the right to stay. In the midst of this, John and Yoko separated for over a year; John lived in Los Angeles with personal assistant May Pang , while Yoko dated guitarist David Spinozza . When John made a guest appearance at Elton John 's Thanksgiving 1974 concert, Yoko was in the audience, and surprised John backstage. They reconciled in early 1975, and Yoko soon became pregnant. After the birth of their son Sean Lennon , John settled into the roles of "househusband" and full-time daddy, while Yoko became his business manager; both appeared happy in their new life together. After a five-year break from music and the public eye, they made a comeback with their album "Double Fantasy", but within weeks of their re-emergence, Lennon was murdered on the evening of December 8, 1980 by Mark David Chapman , a one-time Beatles fan angry and jealous over John's ongoing career, who fatally shot Lennon four times in the back outside his apartment building, The Dakota, as Lennon was returning from a recording session. Within minutes after being shot, John Lennon was dead at age 40. His violent death was a sudden and tragic end to the life of a talented singer and musician who wanted to make a difference in the world. - IMDb Mini Biography By: paulabb
• Spouses Yoko Ono (March 20, 1969 - December 8, 1980) (his death, 1 child) Cynthia Lennon (August 23, 1962 - November 8, 1968) (divorced, 1 child)
• Children Sean Lennon Julian Lennon Kyoko Ono Cox
• Parents Alfred Lennon Julia Lennon
• Relatives Mimi Smith (Aunt or Uncle) Julia Baird (Half Sibling)
• Round-framed glasses and army-surplus jacket
• Songs about personal issues, political and social themes
• His Rickenbacker 325 guitar (replaced later with an Epiphone Casino)
• Bizarre, humorous personality and outspoken, rebellious nature
• He frequently wrote songs about love being the answer to the world's problems
• During the 1960s he had attempted to instigate a live action adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien 's "Lord Of The Rings" books (of which he was a fan), starring himself and his Beatle bandmates. Lennon had expressed interest in the role of Gollum, with Paul McCartney playing Frodo, Ringo Starr playing Sam and George Harrison playing Gandalf.
• In a 2007 interview on the BBC Radio program Desert Island Discs, his wife, Yoko Ono , revealed what his last words were. She said that he wanted to go home and see son Sean before he went to sleep rather than go out for dinner after leaving the recording studio. According to Ono: "I said 'Shall we go and have dinner before we go home?' and John said, 'No, let's go home because I want to see Sean before he goes to sleep.'" Moments later, he was gunned down in front of the historic Dakota building where the family lived in New York City.
• Elton John is the godfather of his son Sean Lennon
• It was after hearing Paul McCartney 's new single "Coming Up" that Lennon decided to return to music in early 1980. His reported response was, "Oh shit, I've got to get back." Lennon loved the song.
• His mother Julia Lennon (44) was killed by a drunk driver when John was seventeen; his stepfather broke down at the news, and John had to go with the police to identify her body (he later named his first son [ Julian Lennon ] for her, and remembered his mother in the song "Julia", ten years after her death). His best friend and former band mate Stuart Sutcliffe died from a brain hemorrhage in 1962, when they were both 21; John asked Stuart's mother for the old scarf he'd worn to art school, and kept it as a memento.
• When real music comes to me - the music of the spheres, the music that surpasseth understanding - that has nothing to do with me, 'cause I'm just the channel. The only joy for me is for it to be given to me, and to transcribe it like a medium...those moments are what I live for.
• Will all the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? All the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry. [At Royal Variety Performance 4th November 1963]
• God is a concept by which we measure our pain.
• My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.
• Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

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Biography Online

Biography John Lennon

“If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliché that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.”

– John Lennon

Short Biography of John Lennon

John Lennon was born, October 1940, during a German air raid in Oxford Street Maternity hospital, Liverpool. During his childhood, he saw little of his father Freddie, who went AWOL whilst serving in the navy. For several years, John was brought up by his mother’s sister Mimi.

In his early years, John was a mischievous student, who would be quick to take the mickey out of teachers and other students. His school reports were often scathing. “ Certainly on the road to failure … hopeless … rather a clown in class … wasting other pupils’ time. ”

Whilst in his early teens he got his first guitar and would spend many hours playing. His aunt Mimi used to regularly say:

“The guitar’s all very well, John, but you’ll never make a living out of it.”

After the Beatles were famous, John presented Mimi with a silver platter with this quote written on.  He failed all his O-Levels but was still accepted to the Liverpool College of Art. However, he was expelled from College before his final year because of his disruptive behaviour.

In the late 1950s, John formed a rock group called the “Quarry Men Skiffle Band”, which was a precursor to the Beatles. In 1957, he met and formed a successful musical partnership with Paul McCartney . They complemented each other very well. Lennon focused on the more satirical aspects and McCartney veered towards the more optimistic cheerful qualities. Lennon was considered the leader of the Beatles, due to his superior age and also his musical abilities. It was, however, McCartney who persuaded Lennon to allow George Harrison to enter the band as lead guitarist.

The first concert of the Beatles was at the Cavern Club in Liverpool on 21st March 1961. After being rejected by many music labels, they eventually signed an agreement with Parlophone in 1962. George Martin who was responsible for signing the Beatles, later said he was not particularly impressed by their demo tapes, but liked their wit and humour – of which Lennon was usually at the forefront.

During the great success of the Beatles during the 1960s, John Lennon would often be seen as the figurehead for the group, although they maintained that the decisions of the group were democratic.

Paul, George and John Lennon

In 1961, the Beatles travelled to Germany, where they played many concerts in Hamburg. After two successful years, they returned to England and concentrated on recording singles. In 1963, the group’s profile took off with hit singles, such as “Please Please Me” and “She Loves You.” The popularity and enthusiasm for the Beatles were such that it led to the term “Beatlemania” being used. Lennon and the Beatles began a hectic schedule of recording, live performances and media appearances.

Despite his natural rebelliousness, Lennon agreed to the suggestion of manager Brian Epstein to dress smartly and have a similar haircut. In the early years of the Beatles, the smart-suited Beatles were part of their cultivated image.

In 1964, they released the single “ I Want to Hold Your Hand ” – it entered the US charts in early 1964 and soon sold over two million copies. Beatlemania was now a global phenomenon. It marked a shift in musical attitudes, especially in the US. The Beatles success of 1964, was known as the start of the “British Invasion”. In 1964, they toured the US for the first time, and in February appeared on the Ed Sullivan tv show.

The Beatles in 1964, JFK airport US.

John Lennon was no stranger to controversy. In 1966, he made an off the cuff remark in an interview with the Evening Standard.

“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink   … We’re more popular than Jesus now—I don’t know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity.”

He claimed this was a mere observation, which was probably true in England. Nevertheless, it led to a boycott in the US, especially in the deep south. There was also a wave of record burnings – although Lennon wryly remarked that to burn them they had to buy them first.

John Lennon and Meditation

In 1967, John Lennon and the Beatles became more interested in meditation and Eastern religions. They spent several weeks in the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi . Although John later broke ties with the organisation, he continued to advocate meditation.

“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.”

“I’m not a god or the God, but we’re all God and we’re all potentially divine — and potentially evil. We all have everything within us and the Kingdom of Heaven is nigh and within us, and if you look hard enough you’ll see it.”

– John Lennon, The Beatles Anthology (2000)

In India, they composed music for their albums The Beatles and Abbey Road . The visit also saw more Eastern musical influences begin to percolate into their music.

John Lennon Solo Career

John Lennon by Roy Kerwood

In 1969, the Beatles started to split up; Lennon was keen to branch out musically and develop his own solo career. There were also frictions over the presence of his wife, Yoko Ono in the Beatles recording sessions.  After the break-up of the Beatles, Lennon pursued a very successful solo career. His first album was released in 1970 with John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970).

“It was just a gradual development over the years. Last year was “All You Need Is Love.” This year it’s “Give Peace a Chance.” Remember love. The only hope for any of us is peace…. Get out there and get peace. Think peace, live peace, and breathe peace and you’ll get it as soon as you like.” (Statement to the press,  July 1969)

In the early 1970s, John Lennon also became a figurehead for those opposed to the Vietnam War. His song “ Give Peace a Chance ” became an anthem for the anti-war movement. Due to his anti-war stance, the Nixon administration tried to have him deported, but after a long struggle, he was able to gain a green card in 1976. His song “ Imagine ” has also become a tremendously influential song; it has been voted ‘the most popular song’ by the British public.

In 1975, he retreated from the music world, preferring to spend time looking after his new son, Sean.

John Lennon married Cynthia Powell in 1963, though the marriage was kept secret. They had one son, Julian. The marriage broke down in 1967. Lennon married Yoko Ono in March 1969.

In October of 1980, Lennon made a return to music recording. But, just two months later on 8 December 1980, John Lennon was shot dead in Dakota, New York. He was shot by David Chapman – an obsessed fan. He later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was imprisoned for life.

By 2012, John Lennon has sold 14 million solo albums, whilst the Beatles have become the best-selling group of all time – with an estimated 600 million recording sales worldwide.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of John Lennon” , Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net , 28th May. 2007. Updated 25 January 2018.

John Lennon: The Life

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JOHN LENNON

John Lennon is arguably the greatest songwriter of his generation. As founder and leader of The Beatles and also as a solo artist, Lennon has won seven GRAMMY® Awards, including two Lifetime Achievement Awards, Five BRIT Awards including two Special Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Music, 21 NME Awards, 15 Ivor Novellos and an Oscar (Academy Award). He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked Lennon in the Top 5 of the magazine’s “100 Greatest Singers Of All Time” list.

written by Anthony DeCurtis

‘ Gimme Some Truth ’ appears on John Lennon’s 1971 album Imagine , and in a sense it serves as the aesthetic and ideological counterbalance of that album’s legendary title track.

‘ Imagine ’ evokes a utopian world in which our heightened consciousness would make everything that oppresses us wither away, ‘Gimme Some Truth’ looks our real troubled world square in the eye and demands answers right now. If one song floats like a feather on a piano melody as gentle as an evening breeze, the other rides a droning, distorted guitar line and a searing slide-guitar solo. If one vocal sounds as intimate as your good angel speaking to you from someplace inside your own mind, the other pins you against the wall, so impassioned that the singer can barely take the breaths he needs to spit out his lyrics.

Those are two of the many sides of John Lennon, two expressions of the many truths that he came to know. These days we live in a world that to value an unthinking consistency above all other virtues. If you hold an opinion that contradicts something that you said twenty years before, it’s not assumed that you’ve simply matured or reconsidered your earlier views for perfectly good reasons. No, you’re a waffler, a hypocrite, a flip-flopper. People are not encouraged to ‘contain multitudes’, in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s immortal phrase. They are encouraged to be as small and one-dimensional as possible if they want to avoid controversy.

Lennon did not see himself or his world in those terms. He thought of his songs as snapshots of what he was thinking and feeling at the moment of composition. He believed that the one quality his calling as an artist demanded of him was complete emotional and intellectual honesty. And from his earliest years, he had no interest in disguising what he had to say to bring it into conformity with what anyone else thought his ideas should be, or even with points of view he may have felt at one time himself. If he was true to the emotion that had given birth to the song, that was enough.

‘I made the decision at sixteen or seventeen that what I did, I wanted everybody to see,’ Lennon explained in 1980. ‘I wasn’t going after the aestheticism or the monastery or the lone artist who supposedly doesn’t care what people think about his work. I care a lot whether people hate it or love it, because it’s part of me and it hurts me when they hate it, or hate me, and it’s pleasing when they like it. But, as many public figures have said, “The praise is never enough, and the criticism always bites deep.”’

From his undying love of rock’n’roll to his songs of social consciousness, from his devotion to women and family, to his eventual understanding of the fragility of all our lives, Lennon devoted his genius to chronicling the unvarnished experiences of one man’s journey through life. Whatever truths he found, he shared, and they are embodied in his songs. Well beyond his own tragic end, and even our own lives, they are his unending gift to us, and to everyone who comes after.

John and Sean Lennon playing frisbee, Japan, Summer 1977 Photo by Nishi F. Saimaru ©1977 Nishi F. Saimaru & Yoko Ono John and Julian Lennon, 1970 Photo by Richard DiLello ©1970 Richard DiLello

For better or worse, very few things remained constant in John Lennon’s life. In his early years that was not his fault. His mother and father bolted unpredictably in and out of his life, and then his mother was killed in a car accident when he was seventeen. After that he trusted very few people, fearful that they would leave him, so that truly loving anyone was an enormous risk, until he fully settled into his marriage to Yoko Ono.

But one love that lasted throughout Lennon’s life was rock’n’roll. In December of 1970, Lennon did the interviews with Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone that would eventually be published as the book Lennon Remembers . Having just undergone primal-scream therapy and completed his fiercely autobiographical Plastic Ono Band album, Lennon was subjecting every aspect of his life to unforgiving self-examination. Rock’n’roll, however, emerged unscathed.

When Wenner asked him, ‘What do your personal tastes run to?’ Lennon replied, ‘“ Wop-bop-a-loo-bop ”, you know? I mean I like rock’n’roll, man, I – I don’t like much else… That’s the music that inspired me to play music.

There’s nothing conceptually better than rock ’n’ roll. No group, be it Beatles, Dylan or Stones, has ever improved on ‘ Whole Lotta Shakin’ (Goin’ On) ’ for my money.

Maybe I’m like our parents, that’s my period. I dig it and I’ll never leave it.’ It’s no surprise then that when Lennon attempted to communicate the depths of despair in his song ‘ Yer Blues ’, he sang, ‘Feel so suicidal, even hate my rock’n’roll’. From his standpoint, what could be worse than that?

Earlier in that Rolling Stone interview, Lennon explained that ‘I only liked simple rock and nothing else.’ However, for Lennon, there was really nothing simple about rock’n’roll. For him, it was a style of music that got directly to the essence of things, without pretence or affectation. As ambitious as he became as an artist and activist, there was always part of him that grew impatient with overwrought complexity – whether embodied in the tangled, allusive lyrics of Bob Dylan; the semi-classical aspirations of George Martin (and Paul McCartney); or the endless realpolitik arguments of the best and brightest in government for why nations couldn’t achieve peace.

A product of the tough port city of Liverpool, Lennon prided himself on his no-nonsense demeanour, and he eventually became a New Yorker, a breed not exactly known for restraint in their opinions. In interviews and conversations, when he encountered overly elaborate explanations, Lennon would start to wonder if he was being conned. He came to view obscurantist “literary” writing as a form of dishonesty, a means of shielding yourself from the consequences of just saying what you mean. If everything in a lyric was open to interpretation then you didn’t have to take responsibility for it. Apart from a brief psychedelic period in the mid-to-late Sixties, Lennon always strove for honesty and directness in his lyric writing. He inherited that standard from the rock’n’roll songs he grew up loving. They were the core of his musical DNA.

‘I remember the old rock songs better than I remember my own songs,’ Lennon said in a 1980 Interview. ‘If I sat down in a room and just started playing, if I had a guitar now and we were just hanging out singing, I would sing all the early and mid-Fifties stuff – Buddy Holly and all. I remember those. I don’t remember the chords or the lyrics or anything of the Beatles stuff. So my repertoire is that. I still go back to the stuff the Beatles performed before they wrote, you see. I would still enjoy doing it.’

Still from the 'Ten for Two Concert' footage, Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan, December 10, 1971 ©1971 Yoko Ono Still from the 'One to One Concert' footage, Madison Square Garden, NYC, August 30, 1972 ©1972 Yoko Ono

But simplicity was far from the only gift Lennon received from early rock’n’roll. Even if lyricists like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Buddy Holly didn’t write lyrics that aspired to the sort of literary effects typical of the poetry Lennon might have read in school, they helped teach him about playfulness and a love of language purely for its own sake.

Lennon loved children’s poems, fairy tales, Mother Goose rhymes and the zany nonsense literature of such writers as Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. He read them voraciously as a child, and retained his fondness for them into adulthood. They are primary sources for the pun­wielding, wild and whirling words of his two splendid books of stories and drawings, In His Own Write (1964) and A Spaniard In The Works (1965).

So no wonder Lennon answered ‘Wop-bop-a-loo-bop’ when Wenner asked him about his ‘personal tastes’. Songs like Gene Vincent’s ‘ Be-Bop-A-Lula ,’ Lee Dorsey’s ‘ Ya Ya ’ and Larry Williams’s ‘ Bony Moronie ’ all revel in silly rhymes, light-hearted neologisms, and childlike, sing-song syllables. It was music that seemed to Lennon at once innocent and rebellious. In their playfulness such songs evoked the freedom of childhood, and in their raucous rhythms and refusal of adult language and decorum they posed an implicit – and occasionally explicit – threat to the established order. That grown-ups not only mocked the music but tried to stamp it out only provided undeniable proof of its power. That was another lesson from the early days of rock’n’roll that Lennon never forgot.

The insurgent force of rock’n’roll originated as adolescent rebellion – anything that kids did was good, anything adults did was bad. As bracing as it was, the culture surrounding the music even had a nihilistic strain. It was associated with juvenile delinquency, and an appetite for destruction. Teenagers became a social class of their own, and youth was not merely a chronological time period, but a state of mind and a set of values, even if that mostly consisted of rejecting the tepid conformity of Fifties post-war life. Rock’n’roll’s attitude was best summed by a line tossed off by Marton Brando in his role as Johnny Strabler, the leader of a motorcycle gang in the 1953 movie, ‘The Wild One’. When a girl asks him, “What are you rebelling against, Johnny?” Brando offhandedly replies, “Whaddya got?”

Such scenes were thrilling and Lennon constructed much of his early identity on their basis. But as the Sixties counterculture began to take shape, and Lennon found himself as one of its leaders, it became evident to him that a more sophisticated approach to changing the world around him was necessary. At first the Beatles were encouraged by their handlers to avoid controversy at all costs, but their intelligence and desire to engage the issues confronting their generation finally made that patronising strategy impossible to sustain. Lennon’s insistence on speaking his mind, beginning with his correct observation in 1965 that the Beatles were ‘more popular than Jesus’, generated shockwaves, and he came to understand that if his words were going to have such an impact, he needed to learn how to use that power to advance the ideals he believed in.

But first he needed to understand who he was, and that process of social, political and psychological self-discovery that makes such songs as ‘Working Class Hero,’ ‘God,’ ‘Isolation’ and ‘I Found Out’ absolutely gripping. Those songs all appear on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), Lennon’s first solo album after leaving the Beatles . It’s an undeniable, acknowledged masterpiece, widely recognised as one of the greatest albums in the history of rock’n’roll. But even at that, its true significance is often not fully understood.

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band front and rear covers

Among the album’s many sources, Lennon’s scarifying dive into the depths of himself in primal-scream therapy is the most obvious, which has lead to the album being heard almost exclusively in personal terms. But part of Lennon’s daring was his willingness to explore how social forces shaped him as fully as the terror of abandonment he experienced as a child. In the absence of more substantive options for forging an identity, accepting the chains that society provides seems like a worthwhile choice – or, as Lennon succinctly put it, ‘a working­ class hero is something to be.’ Still, Lennon’s songs didn’t simply indict “the Man” or “the system”, as so many protest songs did. Lyrics like ‘Keep you doped with religion, sex and TV/And you think you’re so clever and classless and free’ exploded the pretences of counterculture hipsters, and challenged them to question how “liberated” and free they really were.

Of course, Lennon also understood that every movement needs its slogans, and he made use of and even coined some of the best of them. ‘ Give Peace a Chance ’ ‘ Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) ’, ‘ Power to the People ’ and the lovely ‘ Happy Xmas (War Is Over) ’ are all intentionally meant to preach to the progressive choir, to keep the spirits of activists up and their hopes high. But even those songs are often more complex than they are thought to be. The conviction that ‘War is over if you want it’ suggests that if war persists perhaps we have not sufficiently desired its end, or done enough to bring that end about. (Just this year Robert Randolph and the Family Band recorded a torrid cover of Lennon’s anguished ‘I Don’t Wanna Be a Soldier Mama I Don’t Wanna Die’ about very different armed conflicts than the Vietnam War that Lennon had in mind.

Similarly, ‘ Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) ’ is going to get friend and foe alike. If you want to “shine on” you need to make sure your actions keep you on the uplifting end of karma’s ever­-turning wheel.

Finally, ‘ Imagine ’, too, is not merely a pastel vision of a utopian world. It is a challenge and a responsibility, a sentiment akin to Mahatma Gandhi’s statement that ‘We need to be the change we wish to see in the world’.

Sometime in New York City (1972) is Lennon’s most overtly political album, and its opening track, ‘ Woman Is The N***** Of The World ,’ is one of its most compelling songs. Co-written with Yoko, It is perhaps the first feminist anthem recorded by a prominent male rock star, and it marks both the impact his marriage to Yoko had on his evolving political consciousness, but also the deepening of his own understanding of women’s role in the world – and in his life. John and Yoko use of the charged term ‘n*****’ in the song was both a provocation and a deft bit of political analysis and guerilla marketing. Comparing the political oppression of women to the plight of blacks, and using the most racially incendiary term in the language to underscore the connection, incited heated and necessary debate, as it was intended to.

Some Time In New York City album cover Woman Is The N***** Of The World Single Sleeve Woman Is The N***** Of The World advertisement

Lennon knew as well that no truth is absolute, and that the presence of love can excite our deepest fears.

Many songs have been written about jealousy, but none match Lennon’s ‘ Jealous Guy ’ for insight and honesty. Declarations like ‘I was shivering inside,’ ‘I was swallowing my pain’ and ‘I began to lose control’ are rare in any style of popular music, let alone a delicate ballad. Lennon’s ability to plumb the depths of himself and state his fears so directly – with such a raw, eloquent beauty is one of his most profound gifts.

Meanwhile, ‘ I’m Losing You ’ explores those feelings of desperation in a musical context that reflects those emotions rather than soothes them. And, as always, Lennon could be caustic.

The fear of being abandoned and alone drives ‘ Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down And Out) ’, to its bitter conclusion: ‘I’ll scratch your back, and you knife mine.’

The serrated rhythms of ‘ Well, Well, Well ’ capture the mood of a couple – guess who – who are “nervous, feeling guilty” and talking about revolution ‘just like two liberals In the sun.’

Such moments of dread and self­-doubt require the gentleness and encouragement of ‘ Hold On ’ – ‘hold on, John; hold on, Yoko; hold on, world: It’s gonna be all right.’

The hard-fought optimism that love provides, the rock-solid conviction that, however difficult the struggle, you’re not in it alone, leads to the sweetness of ‘ Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) ’ – a paean to a true love child and the awareness, in one of Lennon’s most memorable lines, that ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.’ That acceptance of the world and its inevitable changes is the ultimate gift of love. The inability to control life makes it more precious, because it requires knowledge of life’s evanescence, even as love has made life so much more desirable.

Which is the beauty and poignancy of ‘ Grow Old With Me ’, Lennon’s lovely, deeply felt wish for a long life with Yoko. The song was inspired by Robert Browning’s poem ‘Rabbi Ben Ezra’, and replies to a song Yoko had written called ‘Let Me Count the Ways’, drawing on the well-known sonnet that begins ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways’ by Browning’s wife, Elizabeth Barrett. The nineteenth-century marriage of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning is among the most moving love stories in literary history, and John and Yoko clearly identified with them. Among the many reasons why ‘Grow Old With Me’ is notable is how strongly it counteracts the rock’n’roll mythology of living fast and dying young. It is a hymn to longevity, to the possibility that love can deepen and grow, that romance never has to end.

In one of his final interviews, Lennon described the central aesthetic question of his and Yoko’s life this way. ‘In a way,’ he told the New York Times critic Robert Palmer, ‘we’re involved in a kind of experiment. Could the family be the inspiration of art, instead of drinking or drugs or whatever? I’m interested in finding that out.’

While one of the innumerable tragedies of John Lennon’s death at the age of forty is that he never fully got the opportunity to answer that question, the fact that he asked it in the first place suggests that as far as he was concerned the ‘experiment’ he referred to had already reached an irrefutable conclusion. The life he had built with Yoko and their son Sean had provided plenty of material for great art. But as life became richer and more satisfying, its ephemeral nature became more apparent. When you’re experiencing so many moments that you wish would last forever, you are inevitably haunted by the awareness that they can’t.

The solution, Lennon understood, was a calm awareness that we are all living on ‘ Borrowed Time .’ That song’s gentle reggae lilt lightens the weight of its ideas, and captures the sense of wise acceptance that had increasingly come to be part of his world view. Lennon still lived his life with passion and intensity, still committed to his beliefs with conviction, but the anger that had been with him for so long had eased. Without question, there are many complex reasons for that welcome development, but the simplest reasons perhaps are the most determinative ones. He had settled into his marriage; he was enjoying fatherhood; he had come back refreshed to his music, and as he entered his forties, he had matured. He had discovered that many things could and should be important, but not everything had to be a matter of life or death. In short, he was happy.

Humour, always an under-appreciated aspect of Lennon’s music, was still very much a part of his new vision, hilariously, ‘ Crippled Inside ’ takes the serious theme of the lies of the world – and ourselves – to hide our vulnerabilities and fears, and sets it to a tinkly, honky-tonk beat. The song in that sense mirrors its subject – a cheerful surface genially concealing a scarier reality.

Similarly, the jaunty ‘ Nobody Told Me ’ comments on the confusion of living in confounding times (‘Most peculiar, mama!’) with such panache that it remains perfectly relevant as a soundtrack for today. ‘Scared’ and, particularly, the hauntingly beautiful ‘How?’ address the internal version of such confusion and terror, with characteristic honesty.

Perhaps Lennon’s greatest philosophical song is ‘ Watching the Wheels ’, which appears on Double Fantasy . It can be thought of as his explanation of his life to fans who had wondered what he’d been doing since 1975 when he had stopped making albums and devoted himself to his life with Yoko and Sean. ‘Ah, people asking questions, lost in confusion’ Lennon sings. ‘I tell them there’s no problems, only solutions.’ Given the tumultuous life he had lived to that point, that optimism was earned.

Without being at all self-righteous, the song also has a strong spiritual undercurrent. The wheel, being a circle, is one of the oldest symbols of unity in human history. The karmic wheel, the mandala, the wheel of fortune all spin, and, as the song suggests, peace of mind comes from neither panicking nor growing complacent with their turnings. That is the state of mind Lennon had achieved by the end of his life.

Acceptance is not necessarily passive. Lennon still believed the world could – be made a better place in both personal terms and for humanity at large. Speaking about Double Fantasy on the very day he was killed, Lennon describes himself as reconnecting with his audience in this way: ‘I’m saying “Here I am now, how are you? How’s your relationship going? Did you get through it all? Weren’t the Seventies a drag? Here we are, well, let’s try to make the Eighties good, because it’s still up to us to make what we can of it.”’

Double Fantasy album cover Watching The Wheels single cover

The confluence of those crucial events had a decisive effect on the remaining years of Lennon’s life. For the next five years he would disappear from public life almost completely, devoting himself to raising Sean and re-immersing himself in his life with Ono. It was an unprecedented move for a rock star of his fame and stature, and he characteristically threw himself into it without reserve. When he re-emerged again in 1980 to do interviews for Double Fantasy , an album dedicated to the ideal of family and domestic bliss that he had embraced with Ono, Lennon delivered spontaneous lectures on feminism and the importance of sharing gender roles in relationships.

When a reporter from Playboy asked if Lennon had been working on any ‘secret projects’ during this period, Lennon made it decidedly clear that his personal life was the only project he had been interested in – or had any time for. ‘Are you kidding?’ Lennon replied. ‘There were no secret projects going on in the basement. Because bread and babies, as every housewife knows, is a full-time job…And it is such a tremendous responsibility to see that the baby has the right amount of food and doesn’t overeat and gets the right amount of sleep. If I, as housemother, had not put him to sleep and made sure that he was in the bath by 7:30, no one else would have…Now I understand the frustration of those women because of all the work. And there is no gold watch at the end of the day.’

As strong a personality as you could encounter even on his most cooperative day, Lennon couldn’t stand the idea that some people viewed him as passively under Ono’s spell. ‘Listen, if somebody’s gonna impress me, whether it be a Maharishi or a Yoko Ono, there comes a point when the emperor has no clothes,’ he insisted. ‘There comes a point where I will see. So for all you folks out there who think that I’m having the wool pulled over my eyes – well, that’s an insult to me. Not that you think less of Yoko, because that’s your problem; what I think of her is what counts! But if you think you know me or you have some part of me because of the music I’ve made, and then you think I’m being controlled like a dog on a leash because I do things with her, then screw you. Because – fuck you brother or sister, you don’t know what’s happening. I’m not here for you. I’m here for me and her and the baby!’

For John Lennon, the truth was not a fixed category, but a shifting one that took into account all of the factors that determine the circumstances of our lives. He lived by a code of honesty, of self-revelation, of the belief that the best songs he could write were the ones that communicated a clear picture of who he was at the moment of their creation. That process of speaking person-to-person is how the truth took shape for him. His life and his work were continual experiments in discovery and rediscovery. His values remained constant. What changed were the times, the ways in which those values could best be presented and transmitted, and the definition of those values given the current state of the world.

Whether he was singing rock’n’roll songs or writing songs that captured how fragile our lives are, whether he was extolling the virtues of women or railing against the evils perpetrated by our governments, Lennon viewed his work as one rich story, one step on the journey to Creating a better world, one ongoing, never-ending search for truth.

‘I always consider my work one piece…and I consider that my work won’t be finished until I’m dead and buried – and I hope that’s a long, long time,’ he said on the last day of his life. ‘So to me it’s part of one whole piece of work from the time I became public to now…And the eighties is like, we’ve got a new chance.’

Every decade, every new year, every day, every moment constitutes a ‘new chance.’ As Lennon sings in ‘ Borrowed Time ’, ‘Now I am older/The more that I see, the less that I know for sure/Now I am older/The future is brighter, and now is the hour.’ Now, and whenever anyone hears any of these songs.

Written by Anthony DeCurtis Originally published in the John Lennon ‘ Gimme Some Truth ‘ 4 x CD Box Set

• Beatle people

John Lennon

You make your own dream. That’s the Beatles’ story, isn’t it? That’s Yoko ’s story. That’s what I’m saying now. Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It’s quite possible to do anything, but not to put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don’t expect Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself.

• An overview of John Lennon's life , with information on key events from his childhood through to The Beatles and his solo years.
• Detailed guides to all his solo songs , including recording and release dates and fascinating facts
• Info on all the essential John Lennon albums you need to complete your collection, from Live Peace In Toronto 1969 to Double Fantasy , plus posthumous releases such as Milk And Honey , John Lennon Anthology and the John Lennon Signature Box .
• Guides to the avant garde and experimental releases made with Yoko Ono : Two Virgins , Life With The Lions and Wedding Album .
• John Lennon photo gallery .
• A feature on John Lennon and the number nine .
• John Lennon discography detailing album and single artwork tracklisting and release dates for the US and UK.

John Lennon videos

Isolation. (raw studio mix) - john lennon/plastic ono band (5k official music video).

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John Lennon biography

He said he said…

"My defences were so great. The cocky rock and roll hero who knows all the answers was actually a terrified guy who didn't know how to cry. Simple." - John Lennon

John Lennon albums guide

Song of the day

Ain't that a shame.

John Lennon discography

Album of the day

Walls and bridges (1974).

John Lennon songs guide

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Sean Lennon's godfather is Elton John.

John Lennon photo gallery

On the Fab Forum

John Lennon and the number nine

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Lennon, John

John lennon.

Singer, songwriter, guitarist

Beatlemania

End of the beatles, politics and conceptual art, five-year musical hiatus, selected writings, selected discography.

John Lennon was born as German born bs fell on Liverpool during the Battle of Britain — a time many considered Britain ’ s “ finest hour ” until Lennon and the Beatles provided a finer one twenty-odd years later. He grew up in austere, depressed, postwar England . His father abandoned the family when John was a baby, and his mother never could bring herself to settle down to parenthood, leaving her son to be raised by his aunt, Mimi Smith, in a respectable, lower-middle class milieu in which he never really fit.

Lennon was a mediocre student, but his obvious intelligence and artistic talent enabled him to move through the rigidly stratified British school system in spite of poor grades. He went to high school and on to Liverpool Art College, but from the mid-fifties on, his attention was increasingly focused on music. In 1955, inspired by the popularity of skiffle — a sort of speeded up jug-band blues sound — Lennon persuaded his aunt to buy him a guitar. In the spring of 1957 he and some other students at Quarry Bank High School formed the Quarry Men; at one of their first performances, on July 6, he met Paul McCartney and invited him to join the group. George Harrison joined in February of 1958.

The Quarry Men ’ s style began to move from skiffle to rock and roll ; they graduated from playing youth club dances and church halls to pubs, nightclubs, and dance halls. Along the way they acquired amplifiers, a bass player, and a series of drummers. By the time they were booked into the Kaiserkeller Club in Hamburg, Germany , they were experienced, if not quite seasoned, musicians. Their two stints in Hamburg, in 1960 and 1962, made them professionals, though the crude recordings made at the Star Club in 1962 give little hint of the impact they were to have in only a few months.

In 1964 Lennon and the Beatles “ came out of the f — in ’ sticks to take over the world, ” as Lennon told Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner seven years later. They had taken over England the year before, exploding out of provincial, industrial Liverpool into a British pop music scene dominated by American rock and roll and jazz, and by feeble home-grown imitations. Almost overnight the Beatles ’ energy and originality made them the biggest stars in the history of British popular music. Skeptical Americans who doubted that foreigners could play such a distinctly American music as rock were won over almost as quickly.

The Beatles went on to revolutionize rock music several times over. “ The Beatles are a pivotal part of rock ’ s

For the Record …

Born John Winston Lennon, October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England; died of gunshot wounds December 8, 1980, in New York City; son of Alfred (a merchant seaman) and Julia (Stanley) Lennon; married Cynthia Powell, August 23, 1962 (divorced, 1968); married Yoko Ono (an artist and singer), March 20, 1969; children: (first marriage) John Charles Julian, (second marriage) Sean Ono Taro. Education: Attended Liverpool College of Art, 1957-60.

Learned to play guitar, 1955; formed group the Quarry Men, 1957; group performed as Johnny and the Moondogs, the Moonshiners, the Rainbows, the Nurk Twins, and Long John and the Silver Beetles; group ’ s name changed to the Beatles, 1960; performed in Liverpool area, northern England, Scotland , and Hamburg, Germany, 1960-62; group signed with EMI/Parlophone records and recorded first single, “ Love Me Do, ” 1962; recorded more than a dozen albums and numerous singles and EPs, 1962-70; toured Europe , America, and Asia , 1963-66; appeared in films A Hard Day ’ s Night , 1964, Help , 1965, Yellow Submarine, 1968, and Let It Be, 1970; group disbanded, 1970.

With Yoko Ono , released Two Virgins, Apple, 1968; with Ono and others, recorded several albums, 1968-80, and made occasional concert appearances. Author of books including In His Own Write, 1964, and A Spaniard in the Works, 1965. Graphic artist, works exhibited in Great Britain and the U.S.

Selected awards: With the Beatles, numerous Grammy awards and platinum albums; gold album for Imagine, 1971.

story, ” wrote Tim Riley in Tell Me Why, “ not just because their music can still dazzle but because their arrival as rock ’ n ’ rollers with an endless stream of original material challenged what anyone had imagined pop could become.... They may not be responsible for everything, but nearly everything that comes after would be impossible without them. ” As Griel Marcus wrote in The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll, “ What you heard was a rock and roll group that combined elements of the music that you were used to hearing only in pieces. … The Beatles combined the harmonic range and implicit equality of the Fifties vocal group, … the flash of a rockabilly band, … the aggressive and unique personalities of the classic rock stars, … the homey this-could-be-you manner of later rock stars, [and] endlessly inventive songwriting. … The result was that elusive rock treasure, a new sound — and a new sound that could not be exhausted in the course of one brief flurry on the charts. ”

Perhaps more significant than the Beatles ’ sound was the way in which they made the recording studio their instrument and the long-playing record their medium. Though some producers, notably Phil Spector , had expanded the concept of recording beyond merely the capturing of a live performance, the Beatles were the first artists to make records the focus of their work. “ The Beatles are our first recording artists, and they remain our best, ” Riley wrote. “ The Beatles ’ work came to be conceived with the studio in mind — all the production values a mixing board had to offer were used to serve the ideas conveyed in their music. A Beatles record is more than just a collection of songs: it ’ s a performance for tape … . As time went on, the Beatles weren ’ t so much songwriters as they were record writers; the studio became a lab where musical ideas were exchanged, reworked, and restructured for tape. ”

The core of the Beatles ’ brilliance was the musical relationship between Lennon and McCartney, a relationship that was as complex as the music it spawned. McCartney had begun writing songs before he met Lennon, and inspired Lennon to try his hand at it. They sometimes wrote songs together (Hunter Davies, in his biography of the Beatles, describes them sitting down at a piano to write “ With a Little Help From My Friends ” ) but seem at least as often to have served as each other ’ s editors, helping to fix or finish a song that the other was having a problem with. McCartney wrote the verses of “ We Can Work It Out, ” and Lennon contributed the bridge; Lennon wrote most of “ Ticket to Ride, ” but McCartney came up with the off-center drum pattern that anchors the rhythm. After the Beatles broke up, Lennon played down the importance of their teamwork, but in his final interview with Playboy he acknowledged, “ I said that, but I was lying … . We wrote a lot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball … . In those days we absolutely used to write like that — both playing into each other ’ s noses. ”

That was particularly true in the early days, from the time they first went into Abbey Road studios in London in 1962 — insisting to skeptical producer George Martin that they wanted to record their own songs — until the Beatles stopped touring in 1966. By that time, Lennon told Playboy “ the creativity of songwriting had left Paul and me … well, by the mid-Sixties it had become a craft ” Their personal relationship had become strained as well. According to Ray Coleman in Lennon, the tension began to build with the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, in 1967. Lennon was deeply into drugs, unhappy in his marriage, and bored with being a Beatle. McCartney took over the direction of the band, leading them into the ill-conceived and chaotically executed film project Magical Mystery Tour and taking the dominant role in most of their recordings.

Lennon reacted by withdrawing further from the Beatles and focusing on his relationship with artist Yoko Ono. He brought her to the 1968 sessions for The Beatles, the so-called White Album, breaking what Coleman called “ a rigid, unwritten rule of the group: that their women would never be allowed in the studios. ” The other band members resented her presence and treated her coolly, alienating Lennon further. The resulting album, with its fragmented sound, heralded the disintegration of the Beatles into four individualistic musicians rather than a band.

The release of The Beatles was followed a week later by the release of Two Virgins, an album of avant-garde music Lennon and Ono had recorded in his home studio. The cover photo, which showed the couple nude, was banned in some countries and sold in brown paper wrappers in the United States . The music, an aural collage of electronic sounds, attracted much less attention. The Lennon-Ono relationship had become public. Lennon ’ s divorce was in progress, and Ono suffered a miscarriage in November of 1968. They had also been arrested for possession of drugs, a hazard from which the Beatles had been considered exempt in spite of their public admission that they had used marijuana and LSD.

The Beatles ’ musical estrangement deepened and was documented in the movie Let It Be, filmed in 1969 as they worked on what was to be their last album. Their financial affairs were also in disarray: their company, Apple Corps, Ltd., was losing money rapidly, and Lennon said in an interview with Coleman in January of 1969 that “ if it carries on like this all of us will be broke in the next six months. ” It was the business crisis that brought things to a head: Lennon invited Allen Klein, an American promoter, to take over as the Beatles ’ manager, but McCartney refused to sign a contract with Klein. Late in 1969 Lennon informed the others that he no longer considered himself a Beatle, but was persuaded not to make a public announcement until the group ’ s financial position was stabilized. The breakup became public when McCartney released his first solo album in the spring of 1970.

Lennon had already moved on, forming the Plastic Ono Band with Yoko in 1969, releasing three singles, “ Give Peace a Chance, ” “ Cold Turkey, ” and “ Instant Karma, ” and performing at the Toronto Peace Festival in September of 1969. He released his first real solo album, Plastic Ono Band, in 1970. The record, made in the wake of his primal scream therapy with psychiatrist Arthur Janov, was as much a therapeutic as a musical exercise. Riley, in Tell Me Why, wrote: “ These confessional songs seek out the idealized state of childhood, the pain of individuation, the fragility of fantasies and the very real power of illusions … . The soul-baring leanness of the sound embodies the crux of what rock ’ n ’ roll is all about: a restlessness with the status quo, a hopeful dissatisfaction, and a gnawing sense of encumbrance that finds release as it expresses itself. ”

Lennon ’ s next album, Imagine, was much more successful commercially, and the title song became the most popular song of Lennon ’ s solo career. Ben Gerson of Rolling Stone, who considered Plastic Ono Band “ a masterpiece, ” found Imagine a disappointing follow-up, faulting it for it ’ s “ sloppiness and self-absorption. ” He wrote that Plastic Ono Band, “ in its singing and instrumental work, was as much a triumph of artifice as of art. It managed to sound both spontaneous and careful, while Imagine is less of each. Even though it contains a substantial portion of good music, on the heels of [Plastic Ono Band] it only serves to reinforce the questioning of what John ’ s relationship to rock really is. ”

Lennon was questioning that relationship, too. Freed from the confines of the Beatles ’ wholesome image — something he had resented and struggled against ever since Brian Epstein took the band out of black leather and put them in suits — he began branching out into other activities. Inspired by Ono ’ s conceptual art , he made several avant-garde films and exhibited a series of erotic lithographs entitled “ Bag One. ” He also began to speak out about politics, which had been another Beatle taboo. He had started to cross that line earlier with the song “ Give Peace a Chance ” and by returning the medal he had received when the Beatles were made members of the Order of the British Empire , partly as a protest against British support of America ’ s war in Vietnam . He became especially outspoken after moving to New York City in 1971 and falling in with a group of prominent American radicals.

The radicals wanted Lennon to join the protests at the 1972 Republican Convention in San Diego . Lennon, who suspected they were trying to provoke a riot similar to the one at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968, never intended to go. Nevertheless, rumors began to spread, and they were believed by some officials of the Nixon administration, who began a campaign to have Lennon deported as a convicted drug user. The FBI shadowed him, tapped his phone, and filled thousands of pages of files with notes on his musical and other activities. The case was finally settled in 1975 when a court declared that Lennon ’ s British marijuana conviction was not grounds for deportation under U.S. law.

While Lennon was still under the influence of, as he wrote in Skywriting by Word of Mouth, “ male-macho ‘ serious revolutionaries ’ and their insane ideas about killing people to save them from capitalism, ” he recorded a politically didactic single, “ Power to the People ” — which he recalled as “ rather embarrassing ” — and another album with Ono, Some Time in New York City . Rolling Stone ’ s Stephen Holden called the record “ incipient artistic suicide, ” while acknowledging that “ John sings better than ever. ” Holden observed: “ Some Time in New York City is … entirely devoted to propaganda. But as propaganda it is so embarrassingly puerile as to constitute an advertisement against itself … . The tunes are shallow and derivative and the words little more than sloppy nursery rhymes that patronize the issues and individuals they seek to exalt. ”

In 1973 Lennon and Ono separated, she staying in New York and he going to Los Angeles on what he later described to Playboy as a “ lost weekend that lasted eighteen months. ” Drinking heavily, Lennon was thrown out of nightclubs and was a staple of gossip columns for much of that time. He also released three albums. The first two, Mind Games and Walls and Bridges, turned away from politics, back toward the musical territory of Imagine . While neither was particularly well received by critics, Walls and Bridges did bring Lennon his first American Number One hit, the single “ Whatever Gets You Through the Night. ”

For his next record — which was to be his last for five years — he turned to legendary producer Phil Spector to make an album of old rock and roll songs. This was in part a legal obligation, part of an out-of-court settlement with Chuck Berry ’ s publisher who claimed that Lennon had lifted the line “ Here come old flattop ” in “ Come Together ” from Berry ’ s “ You Can ’ t Catch Me. ” To avoid a lawsuit, Lennon had agreed to record several Berry tunes, and he decided to fill out the album with other fifties classics. The sessions did not go well: Spector ’ s eccentric, paranoid behavior, combined with Lennon ’ s drinking, made the sessions prolonged, expensive, and unproductive. Finally Spector took the tapes and withdrew to his walled house with its armed guards and attack dogs and refused to give the recordings to Lennon. It took months to recover the tapes, and when Spector finally did relinquish them they turned out to be all but unusable. Eventually Lennon went into a New York studio to record ten songs in a week to complete the album. Rock ’ n ’ Rollwas released early in 1975 to lukewarm reviews and unimpressive sales, though a few critics, including Steve Simeis of Stereo Review, considered it among his best work.

At about the same time Lennon and Ono were reconciled, and the Beatles were finally dissolved as a legal entity. Chet Flippo recalled in The Ballad of John and Yoko that Lennon later remarked to him that it was “ the first time in thirteen years that he had not been under written contract to at least someone … . It was his desire now to exert that freedom by quitting rock & roll. ” Quit he did, resisting calls for a Beatles reunion from fans and promoters; he always insisted that he had no regrets about the breakup of the band and no desire to look back, and he believed that his solo work was as good as, if not better than, anything the Beatles had done. He retired to his apartment in the Dakota building on Central Park West to raise his new son, Sean, and dabble in house-husbandry. “ I ’ m a housewife who also has a nanny and an assistant and a cook and a cleaner, ” he told Playboy . “ I wasn ’ t a poor strugglin ’ housewife who had to cook three meals a day … . [But] it wasn ’ t a lark. The serious intent was to orchestrate what went into the baby ’ s mind and body for at least five years. ”

Lennon ’ s sabbatical came to an end in 1980 when, on a trip to Bermuda , he heard the music of the B-52s. “ It sounds just like Yoko ’ s music, ” he told Jonathan Cott of Rolling Stone, “ so I said to meself, ’ It ’ s time to get out the old axe and wake the wife up! ” Lennon and Ono wrote 25 songs in the next few weeks, and were soon in the studio recording. The resulting album, Double Fantasy, was different from their previous collaborations: it was their first album of pop songs on which they received equal billing, alternating writing credits and lead vocals throughout. Subtitled “ A Heart Play, ” it presented, as Rolling Stone ’ s Holden wrote, “ the Lennon ’ s marriage as an exemplary pop fairy tale. ”

Double Fantasy received mixed reviews, with some critics expressing disappointment that the pop music trends of the late seventies seemed to have passed Lennon by. As Steve Simeis of Stereo Review noted, much of the music on Lennon ’ s comeback album was nearer to “ what the industry calls Adult Contemporary ” than to the cutting edge of rock. Nevertheless, the single “ Starting Over ” went quickly to number one, and Lennon and Ono continued to spend many hours in the studio working on their next record.

Upon returning home from a recording session on December 8, 1980, Lennon was shot five times by a self-described fan, Mark Chapman, for whom he had signed an autograph earlier that day. He was dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital. Crowds gathered outside the Dakota as soon as the news broke, and many remained there for days, singing “ Give Peace a Chance, ” “ Imagine, ” and other Lennon songs.

Ken Tucker wrote in Rock of Ages: “ Lennon ’ s death was a crucial event in rock culture … . [It] was the ultimate example of the era ’ s fragmentation. All the media pundits repeated the same phrase — ‘ the dream is over ’ — and it was: Rock fans were forever separated from the myth of the Beatles. There was nothing left but to face the future. ” Lester Bangs, writing in the Los Angeles Times, noted that much of the grief was at odds with Lennon ’ s own attitude toward the past: “ John Lennon at his best despised cheap sentiment and had to learn the hard way that once you ’ ve made your mark on history those who can ’ t will be so grateful they ’ ll turn it into a cage for you.... The Beatles were most of all a moment.... It is for that moment — not for John Lennon the man — that you are mourning. ”

Stereo Review ’ s Simels summed up that moment: “ John Lennon was the coolest guy in the universe. Cooler than Elvis (dumb greaser!), cooler than Brando or James Dean or Lord Byron or Willie Sutton or Muhammad Ali or Cary Grant or Robert de Niro or Bruce Springsteen . Cooler than Elvis Costello even … . He had wit, style, and songwriting genius. He invented the world ’ s most exclusive men ’ s club and made millions of dollars thumbing his nose at the Establishment. He gave countless people joy and in the process changed the world a couple of times … . His finest work … constitutes an achievement as personal and innovative and moving as can be found in the history of the music he helped shape. ”

In His Own Write, Simon & Schuster, 1964.

A Spaniard in the Works, Simon & Schuster, 1965.

John Lennon ’ s Erotic Lithographs, edited by Ralph Ginzburg, Avant-Garde Media, 1970.

The Writings of John Lennon, Simon & Schuster, 1981.

Skywriting by Word of Mouth, Harper & Row, 1986.

With the Beatles

Please Please Me, Parlophone, 1963.

With the Beatles, Parlophone, 1963.

A Hard Day ’ s Night, Parlophone, 1964.

Beatles for Sale, Parlophone, 1964.

Help!, Parlophone, 1965.

Rubber Soul, Parlophone, 1965.

Yesterday … and Today, Capitol, 1966.

Revolver, Parlophone, 1966 .

Sgt. Pepper ’ s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Parlophone, 1967.

Magical Mystery Tour, Capitol, 1967.

The Beatles, Apple, 1968.

Yellow Submarine, Apple, 1969.

Abbey Road, Apple, 1969.

Let It Be, Apple, 1970.

Hey Jude, Apple, 1970.

The Beatles — Circa 1960 — In the Beginning, Polydor, 1970.

The Beatles 1962-1966, Apple, 1973.

The Beatles 1967-1970, Apple, 1973.

Rock ’ n ’ Roll Music, Capitol, 1976.

The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, Capitol, 1977.

The Beatles Live! At the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany: 1962, Lingasong, 1977.

Love Songs, Capitol, 1977.

Rarities, Capitol, 1979.

Dawn of the Silver Beatles, PAC, 1981.

Reel Music, Capitol, 1982.

Twenty Greatest Hits, Capitol, 1982.

Past Masters Volume One, Parlophone, 1988.

Past Masters Volume Two, Parlophone, 1988.

With Yoko Ono

Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, Apple, 1968.

Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With the Lions, Apple, 1969.

Wedding Album, Apple, 1969.

Some Time in New York City, Apple, 1972.

Double Fantasy, Geffen, 1980.

Milk and Honey, Polydor, 1984.

With the Plastic Ono Band

The Plastic Ono Band — Live Peace in Toronto , Apple, 1969.

Plastic Ono Band, Apple, 1970.

Solo releases

Imagine, Apple, 1971.

Mind Games, Apple, 1973.

Walls and Bridges, Apple, 1974.

Rock ’ n ’ Roll, Apple, 1975.

Shaved Fish, Apple, 1975.

The John Lennon Collection, Geffen, 1982.

Reflections and Poetry, Silhouette, 1984.

Menlove Avenue, Capitol, 1986.

John Lennon: Live in New York City, Capitol, 1986.

Imagine John Lennon: Music From the Original Motion Picture, Capitol, 1988.

Lennon, Capitol, 1990.

The Ballad of John and Yoko, edited by Jonathan Cott and Christine Doudna, Rolling Stone Press, 1982.

Bangs, Lester, Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, Vintage Books, 1988.

Castleman, Harry, and Walter J. Podrazik, All Together Now: The First Complete Beatles Discography, Ballantine, 1975.

Coleman, Ray, Lennon: The Definitive Biography, McGraw-Hill, 1984, revised, Harperperennial, 1993.

Davies, Hunter, The Beatles: The Authorized Biography, McGraw-Hill, 1968.

Goldman, Albert, The Lives of John Lennon, Morrow, 1988.

Lennon, John, Skywriting by Word of Mouth, Harper & Row, 1986.

Lewisohn, Mark, The Beatles: Recording Sessions, Harmony Books, 1988.

Martin, George, All You Need Is Ears, St. Martin ’ s, 1979.

Reinhart, Charles, You Can ’ t Do That: Beatles Bootlegs and Novelty Records, Contemporary Books, 1981.

Riley, Tim, Tell Me Why, Knopf, 1989.

The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock ’ n ’ Roll, edited by Jim Miller, Rolling Stone Press, 1986.

Sheff, David, and G. Barry Golson, The Playboy Interviews With John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Berkley Books, 1981.

Wenner, Jann, Lennon Remembers, Popular Library, 1982.

Wiener, Allen J., The Beatles: A Recording History, McFarland, 1986.

Wiener, Jon, Come Together: John Lennon and His Time, Random House, 1984.

Ward, Ed, Geoffrey Stokes, and Ken Tucker, Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll, Rolling Stone Press, 1986.

Periodicals

Los Angeles Times, December 11, 1980.

Rolling Stone, October 28, 1971 ; July 20, 1972.

Stereo Review, March 1981.

— Tim Connor

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Lennon, John, the first Beatle to perform and record outside the group while it was still nominally intact; b. Woolton, Liverpool, England, Oct. 9, 1940; d. N.Y, Dec. 8, 1980. John Lennon was certainly the most charismatic, controversial, and unorthodox of the group’s members. After leaving the Beatles Lennon often worked with his new wife, Yoko Ono (b. Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 18, 1933), a performance artist in her own right. The duo often recorded together, or released parallel albums that would comment on each other’s work. Lennon retired from active music-making in 1975 to become a househusband to his son, Sean (b. N.Y.C., Oct. 9, 1975); he and Ono were just returning to active recording when he was assassinated in December 1980. Son Julian Lennon (b. Liverpool, England, April 8, 1963), from his first marriage, enjoyed brief success as a recording artist in 1985; son Sean Ono Lennon has recently emerged as Yoko Ono ’s newest collaborator.

During 1966, while the Beatles were still intact, John Lennon met Japanese avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, when she had a solo art show in London. In 1968 the couple recorded Two Virgins , an album of tape collages that they assembled at Lennon’s home; the cover featured a photo of the nude couple, which sparked consternation among record retailers. In 1969 they recorded Life with the Lions (for the short-lived Zapple label) and, following their March 20 wedding, Wedding Album . After the wedding, John and Yoko continued their controversial ways with their bed-in for peace in Amsterdam. “Give Peace a Chance,” recorded with the loosely aggregated Plastic Ono Band in a Montreal hotel suite, became a major hit in July and was soon adopted by the antiwar movement as one of its anthems. That September Lennon, Ono, and the Plastic Ono Band— Eric Clapton (gtr.), Klaus Voorman (bs.), and Alan White (drm.)—played a rock festival in Toronto, producing a live album and a moderate hit with the ominous “Cold Turkey.”

In February 1970 “Instant Karma (We All Shine On),” recorded with George Harrison and Billy Preston under producer Phil Spector , became a smash hit for John Lennon. He and Yoko later underwent primal-scream therapy under radical psychologist Dr. Arthur Janov that produced, at least in part, the intense, raw emotionalism of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band . The album included such highly personal songs as “Mother” and “Isolation,” as well as the litany “God” and the caustic sociopolitical song “Working Class Hero,” banned by some radio stations for its use of obscenity. In the meantime, Yoko Ono recorded the album Plastic Ono Band . She recorded three more albums for Apple in the early 1970s, plus 1974’s unreleased A Story , which eventually surfaced on 1992’s Onobox .

Moving to N.Y, John and Yoko achieved a major hit with “Power to the People” in spring 1971. Lennon next recorded the relatively gentle and accessible Imagine album, essentially his first solo album. An instant bestseller, the album yielded a smash hit with the idealistic title song and contained the poignant “Jealous Guy,” the satirical “Crippled Inside,” and the vitriolic attack on Paul McCartney , “How Do You Sleep.” At Christmastime John and Yoko scored a smash hit with “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” recorded with the Plastic Ono Band and the Harlem Community Choir.

Subsequently embroiled in legal proceedings by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which sought to deport him (ultimately resolved in Lennon’s favor in 1976), John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and the Plastic Ono Band recorded a double-record set, Sometime in New York City , with the N.Y.—based band Elephant’s Memory. The politically charged album—featuring songs concerning the Attica Prison riots and Northern Ireland —and the profeminist anthem “Woman Is the Nigger of the World” (a minor hit) were critically attacked and sold modestly at best. Between August 1973 and January 1975 Lennon and Ono were estranged, and Lennon was better known for his drunken escapades in Los Angeles than for his recorded works. His Mind Games album was not well-received critically but nonetheless became a best-seller, yielding a major hit with the title song. The follow-up, Walls and Bridges , fared better, producing the top hit “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” and the near-smash “#9 Dream.” Lennon next recorded an album of remakes of early rock hits, Rock ’n’ Roll , such as “Stand By Me” and “Peggy Sue,” again working with producer Phil Spector . It was followed by the anthology set Shaved Fish . John Lennon and Yoko Ono subsequently reunited and retired from the music business, as Lennon served as househusband to his wife and newborn son Sean. Ono managed their business affairs.

During 1980 John Lennon began writing again, returning to the studio in August with Yoko Ono and a group of hand-picked session players to record Double Fantasy . Comprised of seven Lennon and seven Ono songs, the album and its first single, Lennon’s “(Just Like) Starting Over,” were instant top hits. The album also included the smash hit “Woman,” Lennon’s revealing “Watching the Wheels” (a near-smash), and the touching “Beautiful Boy.” The couple continued to work in the studio, but on Dec. 8, 1980, Lennon was shot to death outside the luxury apartment building the Dakota in Manhattan after returning from recording one night. Covered by the media in a manner usually reserved for world statesmen, Lennon’s death forever quelled rumors of a Beatles reunion and ended the career of one of this century’s most respected and profound artists.

A number of recordings by John Lennon were issued after his death. Milk and Honey , recorded in 1980, contained six songs by Yoko Ono and six by Lennon, including the smash hit “Nobody Told Me,” and “I’m Stepping Out,” “I Don’t Wanna Face It,” and “Grow Old with Me.” Live in New York City was comprised of Lennon’s final performance, Aug. 30, 1972, at Madison Square Garden (also issued on video), and Menlove Avenue was assembled from outtakes from the Rock ’n’ Roll and Walls and Bridges sessions. Imagine was taken from the 1988 film documentary of the same name.

Lennon’s life continued to be honored and celebrated through the 1980s and 1990s. In 1984 a favorite section of Central Park was renamed Strawberry Fields in his honor. On Oct. 9, 1990, Lennon’s life was celebrated in a brief ceremony at the United Nations in N.Y, after which his song “Imagine” was broadcast on more than a thousand radio stations in more than 130 countries to an estimated audience of one billion people. In 1991 Yoko Ono, Sean Ono Lennon, and Lenny Kravitz assembled an all-star cast to record Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” with new lyrics by Sean and Kravitz. The performers included Peter Gabriel , Bonnie Raitt , Steve Van Zandt, Iggy Pop , Randy Newman , Tom Petty , and Frank Zappa ’s three children. The recording, issued on Virgin as performed by the Peace Choir, became a minor hit. In 1994 Lennon was inducted individually into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (the Beatles were inducted as a group six years earlier).

Yoko Ono recorded several albums after John Lennon’s death, including 1981’s Season of Glass and 1982’s It’s Alright (I See Rainbows) . In 1984 Polydor Records issued Every Man Has a Woman , on which artists such as Elvis Costello , Rosanne Cash , and Harry Nilsson performed songs written by Ono. Following 1985’s Star-peace , Yoko Ono toured in 1986. Rykodisc compiled selections of her recordings, from 1969’s Life with the Lions to Starpeace , on the six-CD box set Onobox in 1992, followed by Walking on Thin Ice , which contained 19 songs from Onobox . In 1994 Capitol Records released the original cast recording of Yoko Ono’s Off-Broadway play New York Rock , loosely based on her life with Lennon. A year later a new album, recorded with son Sean’s band, was well-received critically if not commercially.

John Lennon’s son by Cynthia Powell, Julian Lennon , launched his own musical career in 1984 with Valotte . Julian was largely raised by his mother after his parents’ divorce in 1968. His father had given him a guitar at age 11, and he later formed his first rock group with guitarist Justin Clayton as a teenager. In 1983 he secluded himself in Valotte, France, to write and compose. Signed to Charisma Records (Atlantic in the United States ) on the strength of demonstration tapes, Julian Lennon recorded Valotte under veteran producer Phil Ramone. The album yielded the near-smash “Valotte,” the smash hit “Too Late for Goodbyes,” the major hit “Say You’re Wrong,” and the minor hit “Jesse.” He toured America in 1985 and launched a world tour in 1986 in support of The Secret Value of Daydreaming , which included the moderate hit “Stick Around.” Subsequent recordings by Julian Lennon have fared progressively less well.

Discography

john lennon and yoko ono: Unfinished Music #1: Two Virgins (1968); Unfinished Music #2: Life with the Lions (1969); Wedding Album (1969); Double Fantasy (1980); Milk and Honey (1984); The J. L. Collection (1969–1980) (1982). john lennon/plastic ono band: Live Peace in Toronto, 1969 (1969); Plastic Ono Band (1970); Sometime in New York (1972). john lennon: Imagine (1971); Mind Games (1973); Walls and Bridges (1974); Rock ’n’ Roll (1975); Menlove Avenue (rec. 1974-1975; rei. 1986); Shaved Fish (1975); Live in New York City (1986); Imagine—The Motion Picture (soundtrack; 1988); Lennon (1990). tribute album: A Tribute to J . L. (1995). yoko ono/plastic ono band: Plastic Ono Band (1970); Fly (1971). yoko ono: Approximately Infinite Universe (1973); Feeling the Space (1973); Season of Glass (1981); It’s Alright (I See Rainbows) (1982); Starpeace (1985); Onobox (1992); Walking on Thin Ice (excerpts from Onobox) (1992); New York Rock (original score) (1994); Rising (1995). yoko ono tribute album: Every Man Has a Woman (1984). julian lennon: Valotte (1984); The Secret Value of Daydreaming (1986); Mr. Jordan (1989); Help Yourself (1991).

Bibliography

Paul Young, The Lennon Factor (N.Y., 1972); Anthony Fawcett, J. L: One Day at a Time; A Personal Biography of the Seventies (N.Y., 1976); George Tremlett, The J. L Story (London 1976); Cynthia Lennon, A Twist of Lennon (London, 1978); Vic Garbarini and Brian Cullman, with Barbara Graustark, Strawberry Fields Forever: J. L. Remembered (N.Y., 1980); Ray Connolly, J. L, 1940-1980: A Biography (London, 1981); Jonathan Cott and Christine Doudna, The Ballad of John and Yoko (Garden City, N.Y., 1982); John Green , Dakota Days: The Untold Story of John Lennon’s Final Years (N.Y., 1983); Ray Coleman, Lennon (N.Y., 1985); Peter McCabe and Robert D. Schonfeld, J. L: For the Record (N.Y, 1985); Jon Wiener, Come Together: J. L. in His Own Time (London, 1985); Albert Goldman, The Lives of J. L . (N.Y, 1988); Andrew Solt and Sam Egan, Imagine: J. L (N.Y., 1988); Elizabeth Thomson and David Gutman (eds.), The Lennon Companion: 25 Years of Comment (N.Y, 1988).

—Brock Helander

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Short Bio » Rock Singer » John Lennon

John Lennon

John Winston Ono Lennon , MBE was an English singer and songwriter who co-founded the Beatles (1960-70), the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music. Lennon was born in war-time England, on 9 October 1940 at Liverpool Maternity Hospital, to Julia (née Stanley) (1914-1958) and Alfred Lennon (1912-1976), a merchant seaman of Irish descent, who was away at the time of his son’s birth.

Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager; his first band, the Quarrymen, evolved into the Beatles in 1960. When the group disbanded in 1970, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine , and songs such as “Give Peace a Chance”, “Working Class Hero”, and “Imagine”. After his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he changed his name to John Ono Lennon.

By 2012, Lennon’s solo album sales in the United States exceeded 14 million and, as writer, co-writer, or performer, he is responsible for 25 number-one singles on the US Hot 100 chart. In 2002, a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted him eighth and, in 2008, Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer of all time. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1994.

At around 10:50 p.m. (EST) on 8 December 1980, as Lennon and Ono returned to their New York apartment in the Dakota, Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back four times in the archway of the building. Lennon was taken to the emergency room of nearby Roosevelt Hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:00 p.m. (EST). Earlier that evening, Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman.

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John Lennon Biography

John Lennon, a legendary musician and songwriter, was one of the founding members of the rock band, The Beatles. Hailing from Liverpool, England, Lennon achieved great fame and success not just in his native country, but throughout the world. The Beatles, with Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, became the greatest and most influential band of the rock era, and also the most commercially successful one. Lennon’s childhood, marred by domestic instabilities, fueled his dream of becoming a famous musician. His poignant and evocative lyrics, influenced by his painful experiences, have entertained generations of music lovers. After the disbanding of The Beatles, Lennon enjoyed a thriving solo career and was actively involved in political and peace activism. Tragically, his life was cut short when he was shot to death at the age of 40.

Quick Facts

• British Celebrities Born In October
• Also Known As: John Winston Ono Lennon, John Winston Lennon
• Died At Age: 40
• Spouse/Ex-: Cynthia Lennon (m. 1962–1968), Yoko Ono (m. 1969–1980)
• Father: Freddie Lennon
• Mother: Julia Lennon
• Children: Julian
• Born Country: England
• Quotes By John Lennon
• Died on: December 8, 1980
• Place of death: The Dakota, New York, United States
• Ancestry: British American
• Notable Alumni: Liverpool College Of Art
• Cause of Death: Assassination
• City: Liverpool, England
• Education: Liverpool College Of Art

Childhood & Early Life

John Winston Lennon was born on 9 October 1940 in Liverpool, England. His parents were Alfred Lennon, a merchant seaman of Irish descent, and Julia Stanley. When Lennon was five years old, his parents had a bitter separation, and he went to live with his aunt Mimi and uncle George. Despite his family problems, Lennon’s mother encouraged his musical interests, while his aunt Mimi was against them. Lennon attended Dovedale Primary School and later Quarry Bank High School.

Formation of The Beatles

At the age of 16, Lennon formed a band called the Quarry Men, inspired by Elvis Presley. In 1957, he met Paul McCartney and invited him to join the group. Tragically, Lennon’s mother was killed in a car accident in 1958 when he was only 17 years old, which deeply affected him and led to a fear of abandonment. Lennon was a troublemaker at school and failed all his exams. He was accepted into the Liverpool College of Art but was eventually thrown out.

The Beatles and Solo Career

Lennon, along with McCartney, recruited other musicians like George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Paul Best to form the band known as The Beatles in 1960. They became popular in Britain with hits like “Please Please Me” and “She Loves You.” The Beatles achieved international fame and became superstars, surpassing the success of American rock bands. After the death of their manager in 1967, the Beatles disbanded, and Lennon launched his solo career. His debut solo album, “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band,” was released in 1970.

Legacy and Personal Life

Lennon is best remembered as the co-founder of The Beatles, the best-selling band in history. He married Cynthia Powell in 1962, but they divorced in 1968. Lennon then married Yoko Ono in 1969, who played a significant role in his career after the breakup of The Beatles. Tragically, Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman on 8 December 1980 and died from his injuries. He left behind a lasting legacy in the music industry.

Awards and Achievements

Throughout his career, Lennon received numerous awards and accolades. He won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1967 for “Michelle” and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award with The Beatles in 2014. The Beatles also won an Academy Award for Best Music for the film “Let It Be” in 1970. Lennon had 25 number one singles on the US Hot 100 chart as a performer, writer, or co-writer.

Personal Life & Legacy

Lennon married Cynthia Powell in 1962, but they divorced in 1968. He then married Yoko Ono in 1969, and they had one son together. Lennon’s life was tragically cut short when he was shot by Mark David Chapman in 1980. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in New York’s Central Park. Lennon’s influence and legacy continue to resonate in the music industry.

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John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s sons team up for new single

James McCartney’s acoustic ballad Primrose Hill, co-written with Sean Ono Lennon, was drawn from childhood vision in Scotland

The most famous songwriting credit in history, Lennon-McCartney, has been resurrected – though for a song written by the Beatles’ sons.

Primrose Hill, a single by Paul McCartney’s son James, has been co-written with Sean Ono Lennon: an acoustic ballad with a shuffling backbeat and ruminative guitar soloing.

McCartney explained the song in an Instagram post: “I had a vision as a child in Scotland, on what was a lovely summers day. Letting go, I saw my true love and saviour in my mind’s eye. Primrose Hill is about getting the ball rolling with me & finding this person.”

His father Paul promoted it on social media, sending “lots of love” to Ono Lennon.

McCartney, born to Paul and Linda McCartney in 1977, released two solo albums in 2013 and 2016, and said he was now “really getting the ball rolling and I am so excited to continue to share music with you”. Primrose Hill follows the release of a solo single earlier this year, Beautiful. He has previously co-written songs with his father and played with him on albums such as 1997’s acclaimed Flaming Pie.

“It’s hard to live up to the Beatles,” he said in a 2013 interview with the Daily Mail. “When Wings toured they got slated. Even Dad found it hard living up to the Beatles. I started out playing under an alias because I wanted to start quietly. I had to serve my time as a musician and wait until I had a good body of songs and for a time when both myself and my music were ready. I don’t want to sit around. I want to earn my own living.”

Ono Lennon has also carved out his own musical career since early appearances on albums by his mother Yoko Ono. He joined the alt-rock band Cibo Matto, who then backed him – along with Ringo Starr’s son Zak Starkey – for his debut album Into the Sun in 1998. Lennon went on to collaborate with artists as varied as Albert Hammond Jr, Soulfly, Mark Ronson and Jurassic 5, and has released further solo work alongside film scoring.

Activity remains lively around the Beatles, meanwhile. Following the release of what was billed as the final new Beatles song, Now & Then – which topped the UK charts in November – and the three-part Peter Jackson-directed documentary Get Back, a reissue of the 1970 film Let It Be has been announced to air on Disney+ in May. Directed by Michael Lindsay Hogg, it charted the making of the album of the same name, and leftover footage from the shoot formed Jackson’s documentary series.

“I’m absolutely thrilled that … Let It Be has been restored and is finally being rereleased after being unavailable for decades,” Jackson said in a statement. “I’ve always thought that Let It Be is needed to complete the Get Back story.”

Fans can also get their hands on a unique piece of McCartney memorabilia – the open-top bus that he and Wings travelled in for their 1972 European tour.

“If we’re gonna be in Europe in the summer going to places like the south of France, it’s just silly to be in some little box all day gasping for air,” McCartney reasoned at the time. “So we came up with this idea to have an open deck, upper deck kind of thing. We’ve got some mattresses up there so we can just cruise along, fantastic, it’s great, just lie around and get the sun.”

Fully restored and in working order, the double-decker in Yellow Submarine-style livery is expected to sell for up to £200,000 at auction on 22 April.

• Paul McCartney
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Sons of Paul McCartney and John Lennon Release New Song

James McCartney teamed with Sean Ono Lennon for “Primrose Hill,” a ballad with echoes of the Beatles aesthetic.

By Marc Tracy

For six decades, the partnership summarized by the songwriting credit “Lennon-McCartney” has been pop music’s gold standard. So there was some surprise last week when fans woke up to a brand-new track from McCartney and Lennon — if not the same duo.

James McCartney, the son of Linda McCartney and the Beatles’ Paul McCartney, released the song, “Primrose Hill,” last Thursday. He co-wrote it with Sean Ono Lennon, the son of Yoko Ono and the Beatles’ John Lennon.

James, 46, announced the single — a dreamy ballad with echoes of the Beatles’ style — on social media the day after its release. Its B-side, “Beautiful,” came out in February.

“With the release of this song it feels like we’re really getting the ball rolling and I am so excited to continue to share music with you,” he wrote.

James began releasing his own music with a 2010 EP titled “Available Light,” which he recorded partly at Abbey Road. His first full album, “Me” from 2013, was produced by David Kahne, a former record executive who has worked with the Strokes, Linkin Park, Lana Del Rey and yes, Paul McCartney. (The album featured vocals, guitar and drums from his father.) Its follow-up, “The Blackberry Train,” came out in 2016. James previously contributed to albums by both of his parents, including “Flaming Pie” and “Wide Prairie.”

Through a representative, McCartney and Ono Lennon declined to comment on the new track.

Paul McCartney did tout his son’s fresh work on social media , adding: “lots of love to Sean Ono Lennon.”

Perhaps the most poignant reaction to the track, and to the opportunity and burden of the Beatles legacy, came from yet another band scion: the drummer Zak Starkey, who is the son of the drummer Ringo Starr.

One observer had ruefully commented on an Instagram post from an unofficial Paul McCartney fan account, “Sad ya can’t just walk your own road.”

Starkey — an accomplished drummer who has toured with the Who and Oasis — replied, the Beatles are a “wall u cannot go thru over or under — I was 25 when I came to terms with that.”

Marc Tracy is a Times reporter covering arts and culture. He is based in New York. More about Marc Tracy

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