JOHN LENNON

John Winston Lennon was born October 9, 1940. John's claim to fame was a songwriter, singer, and guitarist for the highly acclaimed 60's rock band...The Beatles. Lennon was a solo musician, political activist, and author. John Lennon lived with his mother, Julia, until his father, Fred Lennon, walked out on the family. Julia Lennon decided that she was unable to care for John as well as she should and gave him up to her sister Mimi, who lived nearby at 251 Menlove Avenue. Julia Lennon was killed when she was struck by a car driven by an off-duty police officer when John was just 16 years old. Lennon's aunt Mimi was able to get John accepted into the Liverpool College of Art by showing them his drawings. John grew to hate art school and became increasingly interested in music and singers like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. Eventually, in the late 50's, Lennon formed his own group called The Quarry Men, which later became The Beatles.

Of the four former Beatles, Lennon had perhaps the most varied recording career, often reflecting his personality. While he was still with the Beatles, Lennon recorded two albums of experimental and unlistenable electronic music. His first solo album of popular music was " Live Peace In Toronto ", recorded in 1969 just prior to the breakup of the Beatles. It was at the Rock 'n' Roll Festival in Toronto with a Plastic Ono Band including Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann. He recorded three singles in his initial solo phase, the sing-along "Give Peace A Chance", "Cold Turkey" (about his struggles with heroin) and "Instant Karma".

Following the Beatles' split in 1970, he released the Plastic Ono Band album, a raw, honest record, heavily influenced by Arthur Janov's Primal therapy, which Lennon had undergone previously. This was followed by "Imagine" , his most successful solo album, which dealt with some of the same themes. The title track is a lovely song which has become an anthem for world harmony, but Lennon himself later dismissed it, claiming he had sugar coated his own message. Certainly there is irony in Lennon, a pure unadulterated shopaholic, urging his fans to imagine life with no possessions.

Perhaps in reaction, his next album, " Sometime In New York City", was loud, raucous, and explicitly political, with songs about prison riots, racial and sexual relations, the British role in the sectarian troubles in Northern Ireland, and his own problems in obtaining a United States Green Card. Two more albums of personal songs, " Mind Games" and " Walls And Bridges", and one of cover versions of rock and roll songs of his youth, came before 1975 when, following a fourteen-month split from Ono, he decided to retired so he could concentrate on his family life.

John's retirement lasted until 1980, when he and Ono produced, " Double Fantasy",
a concept album dealing with their relationship. Less than a month after its release, John Lennon was shot dead on the night of December 8, 1980, by Mark David Chapman, in front of his apartment block in New York City. In a vicious kind of irony, the two Beatles most committed to pacifism were both brutally attacked, George Harrison was stabbed by an intruder in his home two decades later.

The Strawberry Fields Memorial was constructed across the street from the Dakota building in memory of Lennon. Millions of Beatles fans had thought of John Lennon almost as a second father, an older brother, or a son. His murder touched off emotional outpourings of grief around the world. Some fans reportedly committed suicide upon hearing the news and it ended the hopes of millions that the Beatles would someday reunite and stage one last world tour. In March, 2002, his native city, Liverpool, honored him by renaming their airport, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, and adopting as its motto, a line from his song "Imagine", "...above us only sky ".

Lennon was included in the top 10 of the 2002 "100 Greatest Britons" poll sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public. The BBC comments: "John Lennon's generational influence was immense". John Lennon often spoke his mind. On March 4, 1966, in an interview for the London Evening Standard with Maureen Cleave, he made the following statement:

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that, I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

The statement was part of a two-page interview that went virtually unnoticed in Britain. In July of that year, Lennon's words were reprinted in the United States fan magazine, Datebook, leading to a backlash by conservative religious groups mainly in the rural South and Midwest states. Radio stations banned the group's recordings, and their albums and other products were burned and destroyed. Spain and the Vatican denounced Lennon, and South Africa banned Beatles music from the radio. On August 11, 1966, Lennon held a press conference in Chicago in order to address the growing furor. He told reporters "I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have gotten away with it. I'm sorry I opened my mouth. I'm not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I was not knocking it. I was not saying we are greater or better."
Lennon's son with Cynthia, Julian Lennon, enjoys a notable recording career of his own, as does his son with Yoko, Sean Lennon.