As half of The Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were one of the most successful songwriting teams of the century. Together they wrote dozens of hit tunes, ranging from "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride" to "Penny Lane" and "Let It Be." Lennon's romance with Yoko Ono was a major influence on his post-Beatles career, and he collaborated with her on everything from the modern pop hymn "Imagine" to avant-garde noise and poetry. The Beatles broke up in 1970, and Lennon followed with a solo career marked by uneven recordings and public pleas for world peace. After a reclusive five years as a family man, Lennon released an album with Yoko in 1980, Double Fantasy. As their new song "Just Like Starting Over" was reaching the top of the charts, Lennon was shot to death outside his New York home by Mark David Chapman, a schizophrenic fan.
Lennon published two illustrated books of poetry and wit in the mid-1960s, In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works... His son Julian Lennon is also a singer and musician... Lennon's political positions gained him the enmity of J. Edgar Hoover's F. B. I. and the U.S. State Department, and researchers are still trying to get files on Lennon made public.
Out of all the Beatles, John Lennon had the most interesting -- and frustrating -- solo career. Lennon was capable of inspired, brutally honest confessional songwriting and melodic songcraft; he also had a tendency to rest on his laurels, churning out straight-ahead rock & roll without much care. But the extremes, both in his music and his life, were what made him fascinating. Where Paul McCartney was content to be a rock star, Lennon dabbled in everything from revolutionary politics to the television talk-show circuit during the early '70s. After releasing a pair of acclaimed albums, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, in the early '70s, Lennon sunk into an infamous "lost weekend" where his musical output was decidedly uneven and his public behavior was often embarrassing. Halfway through the decade, he sobered up and retired from performing to become a house-husband and father. In 1980, he launched a comeback with his wife Yoko Ono, releasing the duet album Double Fantasy that fall. Just as his career was on an upswing, Lennon was tragically assassinated outside of his New York apartment building in December of 1980. He left behind an enormous legacy, not only as a musician, but as a writer, actor and activist.
Considering the magnitude of his achievements with the Beatles, Lennon's solo career is relatively overlooked. Even during the height of Beatlemania, Lennon began exploring outside of the group. In 1964, he published a collection of his writings called In His Own Write, which was followed in 1965 by A Spaniard in the Works, and in 1966, he appeared in Dick Lester's comedy How I Won the War. He didn't pursue a musical career outside of the group until 1968, when he recorded the experimental noise collage Unfinished Music, No. 1: Two Virgins with his new lover, avant-garde artist Yoko Ono. Two Virgins caused considerable controversy, both because of its content and its cover art, which featured a nude photograph of Lennon and Ono. The couple married in Gibraltar in March 20, 1969. For their honeymoon, the pair staged the first of many political demonstrations with their "Bed-In for Peace" at the Amsterdam Hilton. Several months later, the avant-garde records Unfinished Music, No. 2: Life With the Lions and The Wedding Album were released, as was the single "Give Peace a Chance," which was recorded during the Bed-In. During September of 1969, Lennon returned to live performances with a concert at a Toronto rock & roll festival. He was supported by the Plastic Ono Band, which featured Ono, guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Klaus Voormann and drummer Alan White. The following month, Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band released "Cold Turkey," which was about his battle with heroin addiction. When the single failed to make the Top Ten in Britain and America, Lennon sent his MBE back to the Queen, protesting Britain's involvement in Biafra, America's involvement in Vietnam and the poor chart performance of "Cold Turkey."
Before the release of "Cold Turkey," Lennon had told the Beatles that he planned to leave the group, but he agreed not to publicly announce his intentions until after Allen Klein's negotiations with EMI on behalf of the Beatles were resolved. Lennon and Ono continued with their campaign for peace, spreading billboards with the slogan "War Is Over! (If You Want It)" in 12 separate cities. In February of 1970, he wrote, recorded and released the single "Instant Karma" within the span of the week. The single became a major hit, reaching the Top Ten in both the U.K. and the U.S.. Two months after "Instant Karma," Paul McCartney announced that the Beatles were splitting up, provoking the anger of Lennon. Much of this anger was vented on his first full-fledged solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, a scathingly honest confessional work inspired by his and Ono's primal scream therapy. Lennon supported the album with an extensive interview with Rolling Stone, where he debunked many of the myths surrounding the Beatles. Early in 1971, he released another protest single, "Power to the People," before moving to New York. That fall, he released Imagine, which featured the Top Ten title track. By the time Imagine became a hit album, Lennon and Ono had returned to political activism, publicly supporting American radicals like Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and John Sinclair. Their increased political involvement resulted in the double-album Sometime in New York City, which was released in the summer of 1972. Recorded with the New York hippie band Elephant's Memory, Sometime in New York City consisted entirely of political songs, many of which were criticized for their simplicity. Consequently, the album sold poorly and tarnished Lennon's reputation.
Sometime in New York City was the beginning of a three-year downward spiral for Lennon. Shortly before the album's release, he began his long, involved battle with U.S. Immigration, who refused to give him a green card due to a conviction for marijuana possession in 1968. In 1973, he was ordered to leave America by Immigration, and he launched a full-scale battle against the department, frequently attacking them in public. Mind Games was released in late 1973 to mixed reviews; its title track became a moderate hit. The following year, he and Ono separated, and he moved out to Los Angeles, beginning his year-and-a-half long "lost weekend." During 1974 and 1975, Lennon lived a life of debauchery in Los Angeles, partying hard with such celebrities as Elton John, Harry Nilsson, Keith Moon, David Bowie and Ringo Starr. Walls and Bridges appeared in November of 1974, and it became a hit due to the inclusion of "Whatever Gets You Through the Night," a song he wrote with Elton John. At the end of the year, John helped reunite Lennon and Ono, convincing the ex-Beatle to appear during one of his concerts; it would be Lennon's last performance.
Rock & Roll, a collection of rock oldies recorded during the lost weekend, was released in the spring of 1975. A few months before its official release, a bootleg of the album called Roots was released by Morris Levy, who Lennon later sued successfully. Lennon's immigration battle neared its completion on October 7, 1975, when the U.S. court of appeals overturned his deportation order; in the summer of 1976, he was finally granted his green card. After he appeared on David Bowie's Young Americans, co-writing the hit song "Fame," Lennon quietly retired from music, choosing to become a house-husband following the October birth of his son, Sean Lennon.
During the summer of 1980, Lennon returned to recording, signing a new contract with Geffen Records. Comprised equally of material by Lennon and Ono, Double Fantasy was released in November to positive reviews. As the album and its accompanying single, "(Just Like) Starting Over," were climbing the charts, Lennon was assassinated on December 8 by Mark David Chapman. Lennon's death inspired deep grief from the entire world; on December 14, millions of fans around the world participated in a ten-minute silent vigil for Lennon at 2 p.m. EST. Double Fantasy and "(Just Like) Starting Over" both became number one hits in the wake of his death. In the years after his death, several albums of unreleased recordings appeared, the first of which was 1984's Milk and Honey; perhaps the most substantial was the 1998 four-disc box set Anthology, issued in conjunction with a single-disc sampler titled Wonsaponatime. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Career Highlights: A Hard Day's Night, Yellow Submarine, The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit
First Major Screen Credit: A Hard Day's Night (1964)
Biography
There are few details of the short life of musical genius John Lennon that haven't been virtually memorized by his disciples. A bare-bones precis of his existence would include his Liverpool childhood, his formation of the Quarrymen, aka the Silver Beatles aka the Beatles in 1961, the world-wide fame, the drug-and-religion experimentation, the controversial alignment with Yoko Ono, the 1970 Beatles breakup, the five-year retirement (1975-80) to raise son Sean, and his senseless murder outside New York's Hotel Dakota in December of 1980.
Lennon's film career, though but one small aspect of his creative energies, is worth a brief recap. First there were the films with his fellow Beatles: A Hard Day's Night (64), Help (65) (in which for two delicious seconds Lennon shamelessly plugs his recently published book of doggerel In His Own Write), Yellow Submarine (67) (that's Lance Percival doing his speaking voice, but that's Lennon in the vocals), Magical Mystery Tour (69) and Let It Be (70). There was Lennon's one-and-only solo acting assignment as a bespectacled British Tommy in How I Won The War (68) -- in which, as he watches his guts spill out of his body, he turns to the camera and says ominously "I knew this would happen. Didn't you?" There were the oddball, home-movielike projects, made with his friends and with Yoko Ono, of which Bottoms (an engaging if pointless study of the human derriere) is the most entertaining. And, best of all, there was the posthumous, lovingly assembled Imagine: John Lennon (88), including the famous 1969 anti-war "Bed-In," the TV confrontation with ultraconservative cartoonist Al Capp, never before seen footage of Lennon at home and at work, and of course several plaintive renditions of the title song. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The English musician, poet, and songwriter John Winston Lennon (born 1940) was a founder of The Beatles, the single most important and influential group in the history of rock 'n' roll music. He was murdered in 1980.
Childhood with Aunt Mimi
John Winston Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, during a German air-raid over Liverpool. His father, Alf Lennon, was a seaman, who deserted his wife Julia and their infant child. Over twenty years later when Alf Lennon tried to reenter his famous son's life, Lennon did not welcome him. Unable to raise Lennon alone, Julia asked her sister and brother-in-law, Mimi and George Smith, to care for her son. Tragically, an off-duty police officer knocked down and killed Lennon's mother in 1958.
Formative Years
Lennon attended Dovedale Primary in Woolton, and then Quarry Bank High School. He continued his education at Liverpool's College of Art, where he met his future wife Cynthia Powell. Lennon told Rolling Stone reporter Jann Wenner that his school teachers did not recognize his precocious artistic talent: "People like me are aware of their so-called genius at ten, eight, nine … I always wondered, "Why has nobody discovered me?" … I got … lost in being at high school."
Inspired by Rock 'n' Roll Greats
Inspired by the rock 'n' roll of Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry in the mid 1950s, Lennon started learning the guitar. His mother had introduced the banjo to him, and he initially played the guitar like a banjo with the sixth string slack. Lennon never considered himself a technically gifted guitarist, but told Wenner that he could make it "howl and move." His early passion for rock 'n' roll never left him and he would continue to prefer it above all other forms of music.
Lennon formed his first group, the Quarrymen, in 1956. That year he met Paul McCartney, with whom he eventually collaborated in writing more than 150 songs. In its range and quality, this production far surpassed the achievement of other writers in the rock idiom. Lennon explained his complimentary song writing experience to a Playboy interviewer, "[McCartney] provided a lightness, an optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes." Although many of their famous hits were written individually, they always credited them jointly. Lennon and McCartney made some early appearances as The Nurk Twins.
Genesis of The Beatles
By 1959 George Harrison had joined the new group, which by then had been renamed Johnny and the Moondogs. The group unsuccessfully auditioned for Carrol Levis at the Manchester Hippodrome. Still waiting for their first beak, they became the Silver Beatles in 1960. For the next two years they played local engagements in Liverpool, most frequently at the Cavern Club, where numerous English groups gained their initial success. The Beatles first appeared in Germany in 1960 and made their debut professional recording with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes in Hamburg. While playing at the Cavern, they came to the attention of Brian Epstein who heard them and asked if they needed a manager. In 1962 Ringo Starr joined the group. They signed with Parlophone Records and released their first record, "Love Me Do." Lennon married Cynthia Powell in August of 1962, and they had a son, John Charles Julian, the following year.
Number One
During 1963 the Beatles' popularity spread throughout England, and they reached #1 in the Melody Maker chart with "Please Please Me." In 1964 their records, including "She Loves You," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and "Do You Want to Know a Secret," were released in the United States. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" reached #1 in the United States. Their revolutionary artistic and commercial leadership in the world of rock music thereafter was unchallenged.
The Poet
James Rorondi and Jas Obrecht in Guitar Player asserted that "John was unquestionably the band's preeminent word-smith." He extended his writing skill beyond The Beatles. In 1964 he published a book of poems and fictitious anecdotes, In His Own Write; a second volume, called A Spaniard in the Works, followed a year later. Both works are remarkable in terms of their wit, inventive use of language, and prankish, sometimes diabolical sense of humor. The same verbal sensitivity also informs the Lennon-McCartney songs, which as a group marked new levels of sophistication, maturity, and intelligence in the development of rock lyrics. In 1967 Lennon appeared in How I Won the War, a film by Richard Lester, who had directed the Beatles' first two films, A Hard Day's Night and Help!
The Beatles' Continued Success
The success of The Beatles was unsurpassed. However, in March of 1966, Lennon infamously declared that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ, resulting in their temporary ban on American airwaves. The Beatles released "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in May of 1967, which Lennon believed to be their most creative album. Although he had been taking LSD and other narcotics, Lennon claimed that "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was not inspired by drugs, but by a painting by his son, Julian. The girl with "kaleidoscope eyes" was the woman of his dreams, whom he found to be Yoko Ono.
Disillusionment and the End of The Beatles
Lennon, like the other Beatles, was interested in the teachings of the Maharishi, and he attended a two month instructor's course in transcendental meditation in early 1968. The band wholeheartedly embraced the Maharishi's teachings, but soon became disillusioned with him and transcendental meditation. However, this experience did not dull Lennon's interest in the counterculture. In October of 1968, Lennon was arrested with Ono, for the possession of hashish, and Lennon pled guilty and received a fine. Divorced from his first wife in November of 1968 on the grounds of adultery with Ono, Lennon married Ono, a Japanese environmental artist with whom he collaborated in both music and the visual arts. Ono and Lennon released "Unfinished Music Number One: Two Virgins" in November of 1968, featuring the couple naked on the cover. The couple spent their honeymoon protesting against the war in Vietnam. In the same year, and as a form of protest, Lennon returned to the British government the Member of the Order of the British Empire Medal, which Queen Elizabeth had awarded the Beatles in 1965. Meanwhile, the Beatles recorded their final album, "Abbey Road" in 1969 as the group began to disintegrate. Many fans blamed Ono for breakup, only strengthening Lennon's commitment to her. The Beatles made their last live public performance, an impromptu show on the rooftop of Apple Studios in January of 1969. In 1970 the group officially disbanded.
Lennon and Ono
Lennon and Ono moved to the United States in September of 1971. However, Lennon continued to be a high profile figure after the immigration service declared him ineligible for residency and served him with a deportation notice because of his 1968 drug conviction. The New York Supreme Court eventually reversed the order in 1975. In New York, Lennon recorded "Imagine." Lennon and Ono split for a year and a half, during which time Lennon moved to Los Angeles and lived with another woman. The couple reconciled in January of 1975 and Sean Ono Taro Lennon was born later that year on father John's birthday. In 1976 Lennon announced that he was going to be a househusband, and he did not record anything until 1980. After the hiatus, Lennon worked with Ono to produce "Double Fantasy," which many critics considered among Lennon's best work. Other songs recorded during the sessions for "Double Fantasy" were posthumously collected into an album called "Milk and Honey."
Lennon's Death
On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman, a deranged fan, murdered Lennon outside the Dakota in Manhattan. Lennon's death returned his music to worldwide prominence and propelled the song "Starting Over" to #1 in the United States and other countries. For a man who had lived an extraordinary life, his hopes for the future were modest. He told Wenner, "I hope we're a nice old couple living off the coast of Ireland or something like that - looking at our scrapbook of madness."
Further Reading
The most thorough biography of Lennon and the other Beatles is Hunter Davies, The Beatles: The Authorized Biography (1968). For the evolution of the Beatles' music and its relation to the history of rock 'n' roll see Carl Belz, The Story of Rock (1969). Other biographical sources include: Les Ledbetter, New York Times (December 9, 1980); Julia Baird with Geoffrey Giuliano, John Lennon, My Brother, Henry Holt and Company (1988); Jann S. Wenner, Rolling Stone, no. 641 (October 15, 1992); James Rotondi and Jas Obrecht, Guitar Player 28, no. 9 (September 1994); People Weekly 45, no. 6 (February 12, 1996).
(born Oct. 9, 1940, Liverpool, Merseyside, Eng. — died Dec. 8, 1980, New York, N.Y., U.S.) British singer and songwriter. He wanted to be a sailor like his father but became a musician after hearing Elvis Presley's recordings. In 1957 he formed the band that became the Beatles, and in the 1960s he achieved enormous success performing with the group and writing songs with Paul McCartney. In the mid-1960s he began working on side projects in film and music, notably with the Japanese-U.S. avant-garde artist Yoko Ono (b. 1933), whom he married in 1969. Their political activism and social ideals were reflected in much of Lennon's early solo work, including the hit "Imagine," and attracted the attention of the U.S. government, which sought to have him deported. After 1975 he withdrew from public life; he and Ono returned with the album Double Fantasy shortly before his murder by a deranged fan. His sons, Julian (b. 1963) and Sean (b. 1975), also became musicians.
It's been exactly 25 years since John Lennon was shot to death outside his apartment building, The Dakota, in New York City. The former Beatle was returning from a recording studio with wife Yoko Ono when a deranged fan, Mark David Chapman, shot him from behind. A noted peace activist, Lennon described his own utopian view in his song "Imagine." Recorded in 1971 on the Imagine album, the song is usually in the top songs among British voters, and on January 1, 2005, CBC listeners voted "Imagine" the greatest song of the past 100 years.
"The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that's making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?"
"The worst drugs are as bad as anybody's told you. It's just a dumb trip, which I can't condemn people if they get into it, because one gets into it for one's own personal, social, emotional reasons. It's something to be avoided if one can help it."
"If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or my music, then in that respect you can call me that I believe in what I do, and I'll say it."
"You have to be a bastard to make it, and that's a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth."
"God is a concept by which we measure our pain."
"I've had the boyhood thing of being Elvis. Now I want to be with my best friend, and my best friend's my wife. Who could ask for anything more?"
