John Winston Ono Lennon[nb 1] (bornJohn Winston Lennon; 9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist ofthe Beatles. Lennon'ssongwriting partnership withPaul McCartney remains the most successful in history.[5]
John Winston Lennon was born on 9 October 1940 atLiverpool Maternity Hospital, the only child ofAlfred andJulia Lennon (née Stanley). Alfred was amerchant seaman ofIrish descent who was away at the time of his son's birth.[7] His parents named him John Winston Lennon after his paternal grandfather, John "Jack" Lennon, and Prime MinisterWinston Churchill.[8] His father was often away from home but sent regular pay cheques to 9Newcastle Road, Liverpool, where Lennon lived with his mother;[9] the cheques stopped when he wentabsent without leave in February 1944.[10][11] When he eventually came home six months later, he offered to look after the family, but Julia, by then pregnant with another man's child, rejected the idea.[12] After her sisterMimi complained to Liverpool's Social Services twice, Julia gave her custody of Lennon.[citation needed]
In July 1946, Lennon's father visited her and took his son toBlackpool, secretly intending to emigrate toNew Zealand with him.[13] Julia followed them – with her partner at the time, Bobby Dykins – and after a heated argument, his father forced the five-year-old to choose between them. In one account of this incident, Lennon twice chose his father, but as his mother walked away, he began to cry and followed her.[14] According to authorMark Lewisohn, however, Lennon's parents agreed that Julia should take him and give him a home. Billy Hall, who witnessed the incident, has said that the dramatic portrayal of a young John Lennon being forced to make a decision between his parents is inaccurate.[15] Lennon had no further contact with Alf for close to 20 years.[16]
Throughout the rest of his childhood and adolescence, Lennon lived atMendips, 251Menlove Avenue, Woolton, with Mimi and her husbandGeorge Toogood Smith, who had no children of their own.[17] His aunt purchased volumes of short stories for him, and his uncle, a dairyman at his family's farm, bought him a mouth organ and engaged him in solvingcrossword puzzles.[18] Julia visited Mendips on a regular basis, and John often visited her at 1 Blomfield Road, Liverpool, where she played himElvis Presley records, taught him the banjo, and showed him how to play "Ain't That a Shame" byFats Domino.[19] In September 1980, Lennon commented about his family and his rebellious nature:
A part of me would like to be accepted by all facets of society andnot be this loudmouthed lunatic poet/musician. But I cannot be what I am not[...] I was the one who all the other boys' parents – including Paul's father – would say, "Keep away from him"[...] The parents instinctively recognised I was a troublemaker, meaning I did not conform and I would influence their children, which I did. I did my best to disrupt every friend's home[...] Partly out of envy that I didn't have this so-called home[...] but Idid[...] There were five women that were my family. Fivestrong,intelligent,beautiful women, five sisters. One happened to be my mother. [She] just couldn't deal with life. She was the youngest and she had a husband who ran away to sea and the war was on and she couldn't cope with me, and I ended up living with her elder sister. Now those women were fantastic[...] And that was my first feminist education[...] I would infiltrate the other boys' minds. I could say, "Parents are not gods because I don't live with mine and, therefore, I know."[20]
He regularly visited his cousin Stanley Parkes, who lived inFleetwood and took him on trips to local cinemas.[21] During the school holidays Parkes often visited Lennon with Leila Harvey, another cousin, and the three often travelled to Blackpool two or three times a week to watch shows. They would visit theBlackpool Tower Circus and see artists such asDickie Valentine,Arthur Askey,Max Bygraves andJoe Loss, with Parkes recalling that Lennon particularly likedGeorge Formby.[22] After Parkes's family moved to Scotland, the three cousins often spent their school holidays together there. Parkes recalled, "John, cousin Leila and I were very close. From Edinburgh we would drive up to the family croft atDurness, which was from about the time John was nine years old until he was about 16."[23] Lennon's uncle George died of a liver haemorrhage on 5 June 1955, aged 52.[24]
Lennon was raised as anAnglican and attendedDovedale Primary School.[25] After passing hiseleven-plus exam, he attendedQuarry Bank High School in Liverpool from September 1952 to 1957, and was described by Harvey at the time as a "happy-go-lucky, good-humoured, easy going, lively lad".[26] However, he was also known to frequently engage in fights, bully and disrupt classes.[27] Despite this, he quickly built a reputation as the class clown[28] and often drew comical cartoons that appeared in his self-made school magazine, theDaily Howl.[29][nb 2]
In 1956, Julia bought John his first guitar. The instrument was an inexpensiveGallotone Champion acoustic for which she lent her son five pounds and ten shillings on the condition that the guitar be delivered to her own house and not Mimi's, knowing well that her sister was not supportive of her son's musical aspirations.[31] Mimi was sceptical of his claim that he would be famous one day, and she hoped that he would grow bored with music, often telling him, "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it."[32]
Lennon's senior school years were marked by a shift in his behaviour. Teachers atQuarry Bank High School described him thus: "He has too many wrong ambitions and his energy is often misplaced", and "His work always lacks effort. He is content to 'drift' instead of using his abilities."[33] Lennon's misbehaviour created a rift in his relationship with his aunt.
On 15 July 1958, at the age of 44, Julia Lennon was struck and killed by a car while she was walking home after visiting the Smiths' house.[34] His mother's death traumatised the teenage Lennon, who, for the next two years, drank heavily and frequently got into fights, consumed by a "blind rage".[35] Julia's memory would later serve as a major creative inspiration for Lennon, inspiring songs such as the 1968 Beatles song "Julia".[36]
Lennon failed his O-level examinations, and was accepted into theLiverpool College of Art after his aunt and headmaster intervened.[37] At the college he began to wearTeddy Boy clothes and was threatened with expulsion for his behaviour.[38] In the description ofCynthia Powell, Lennon's fellow student and subsequently his wife, he was "thrown out of the college before his final year".[39]
Lennon faced significant challenges throughout his education due todyslexia, which negatively affected his reading and writing skills.[40] Lennon's academic performance was poor, and was often described as a “troublemaker” in the classroom. While he was drawn to art and music from a young age, his struggles with dyslexia negatively impacted his studies and ultimately resulted in his expulsion from the Liverpool College of Art.[41]
At the age of 15, Lennon formed askiffle group, theQuarrymen. Named after Quarry Bank High School, the group was established by Lennon in September 1956.[42] By the summer of 1957, the Quarrymen played a "spirited set of songs" made up of half skiffle and halfrock and roll.[43] Lennon first met Paul McCartney at the Quarrymen's second performance, which was held in Woolton on 6 July at theSt Peter's Church garden fête. Lennon then asked McCartney to join the band.[44]
McCartney said that Aunt Mimi "was very aware that John's friends were lower class", and would often patronise him when he arrived to visit Lennon.[45] According to McCartney's brotherMike, their father similarly disapproved of Lennon, declaring that Lennon would get his son "into trouble".[46] McCartney's father nevertheless allowed the fledgling band to rehearse in the family's front room at20Forthlin Road.[47][48] During this time Lennon wrote his first song, "Hello Little Girl", which became a UK top 10 hit forthe Fourmost in 1963.[49]
McCartney recommended that his friendGeorge Harrison become the lead guitarist.[50] Lennon thought that Harrison, then 14 years old, was too young. McCartney engineered an audition on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, where Harrison played "Raunchy" for Lennon and was asked to join.[51]Stuart Sutcliffe, Lennon's friend from art school, later joined as bassist.[52] Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Sutcliffe became "The Beatles" in early 1960. In August that year, the Beatles were engaged for a 48-nightresidency in Hamburg, in West Germany, and were desperately in need of a drummer. They askedPete Best to join them.[53] Lennon's aunt, horrified when he told her about the trip, pleaded with Lennon to continue his art studies instead.[54] After the first Hamburg residency, the band accepted another in April 1961, and a third in April 1962. As with the other band members, Lennon was introduced toPreludin while in Hamburg,[55] and regularly took the drug as a stimulant during their long, overnight performances.[56]
Lennon in 1964
Brian Epstein managed the Beatles from 1962 until his death in 1967. He had no previous experience managing artists, but he had a strong influence on the group's dress code and attitude on stage.[57] Lennon initially resisted his attempts to encourage the band to present a professional appearance, but eventually complied, saying "I'll wear a bloody balloon if somebody's going to pay me."[58] McCartney took over on bass after Sutcliffe decided to stay in Hamburg, and Best was replaced with drummerRingo Starr; this completed the four-piece line-up that would remain until the group's break-up in 1970. The band's first single, "Love Me Do", was released in October 1962 and reached No. 17 on the British charts. They recorded their debut album,Please Please Me, in under 10 hours on 11 February 1963,[59] a day when Lennon was suffering the effects of a cold,[60] which is evident in the vocal on the last song to be recorded that day, "Twist and Shout".[61] The Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership yielded eight of its fourteen tracks. With a few exceptions, one being the album title itself, Lennon had yet to bring his love of wordplay to bear on his song lyrics, saying: "We were just writing songs... pop songs with no more thought of them than that – to create a sound. And the words were almost irrelevant".[59] In a 1987 interview, McCartney said that the other Beatles idolised Lennon: "He was like our own little Elvis... We all looked up to John. He was older and he was very much the leader; he was the quickest wit and the smartest."[62]
The Beatles achieved mainstream success in the UK early in 1963. Lennon was on tour when his first son,Julian, was born in April. During theirRoyal Variety Show performance, which was attended by the Queen Mother and other British royalty, Lennon poked fun at the audience: "For our next song, I'd like to ask for your help. For the people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands... and the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewellery."[63] After a year ofBeatlemania in the UK, the group's historic February 1964 US debut appearance onThe Ed Sullivan Show marked their breakthrough to international stardom. A two-year period of constant touring, filmmaking, and songwriting followed, during which Lennon wrote two books,In His Own Write andA Spaniard in the Works.[64] The Beatles received recognition from the British establishment when they were appointedMembers of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the1965 Queen's Birthday Honours.[65]
McCartney, Harrison and Lennon, 1964
Lennon grew concerned that fans who attended Beatles concerts were unable to hear the music above the screaming of fans, and that the band's musicianship was beginning to suffer as a result.[66] Lennon's "Help!" expressed his own feelings in 1965: "Imeant it... It was me singing 'help'".[67] He had put on weight (he would later refer to this as his "Fat Elvis" period),[68] and felt he was subconsciously seeking change. A hurtful comment from a reporter would lead him to undergo several bouts with weight loss and appearance changes throughout the rest of his life.[69] In March that year he and Harrison were unknowingly introduced toLSD when a dentist, hosting a dinner party attended by the two musicians and their partners, spiked the guests' coffee with the drug.[70] When they wanted to leave, their host revealed what they had taken, and strongly advised them not to leave the house because of the likely effects. Later, in a lift at a nightclub, they all believed it was on fire; Lennon recalled: "We were all screaming... hot and hysterical."[71]
In March 1966, during an interview withEvening Standard reporterMaureen Cleave, Lennon remarked, "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."[72] The comment went virtually unnoticed in England but causedgreat offence in the US when quoted by a magazine there five months later. The furore that followed, which included the burning of Beatles records,Ku Klux Klan activity and threats against Lennon, contributed to the band's decision to stop touring.[73]
Studio years, break-up and solo work: 1966–1970
After the band's final concert on 29 August 1966, Lennon filmed the anti-war black comedyHow I Won the War – his only appearance in a non-Beatles feature film – before rejoining his bandmates for an extended period of recording, beginning in November.[74] Lennon had increased his use of LSD[75] and, according to authorIan MacDonald, his continuous use of the drug in 1967 brought him "close toerasing his identity".[76] The year 1967 saw the release of "Strawberry Fields Forever", hailed byTime magazine for its "astonishing inventiveness",[77] and the group's landmark albumSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which revealed lyrics by Lennon that contrasted strongly with the simple love songs of the group's early years.[78]
In late June, the Beatles performed Lennon's "All You Need Is Love" as Britain's contribution to theOur World satellite broadcast, before an international audience estimated at up to 400 million.[79] Intentionally simplistic in its message,[80] the song formalised hispacifist stance and provided an anthem for theSummer of Love.[81] After the Beatles were introduced to theMaharishi Mahesh Yogi, the group attended an August weekend of personal instruction at hisTranscendental Meditation seminarin Bangor, Wales.[82] During the seminar, they were informed of Epstein's death. "I knew we were in trouble then", Lennon said later. "I didn't have any misconceptions about our ability to do anything other than play music. I was scared – I thought, 'We've fucking had it now.'"[83] McCartney organised the group's first post-Epstein project,[84] the self-written, -produced and -directed television filmMagical Mystery Tour, which was released in December that year. While the film itself proved to be their first critical flop, itssoundtrack release, featuring Lennon'sLewis Carroll–inspired "I Am the Walrus", was a success.[85][86]
Led by Harrison and Lennon's interest, the Beatles travelled to the Maharishi'sashram in India in February 1968 for further guidance.[87] While there, they composed most of the songs for their double albumThe Beatles,[88] but the band members' mixed experience with Transcendental Meditation signalled a sharp divergence in the group's camaraderie.[89] On their return to London, they became increasingly involved in business activities with the formation ofApple Corps, a multimedia corporation composed ofApple Records and several other subsidiary companies. Lennon described the venture as an attempt to achieve "artistic freedom within a business structure".[90] Released amid theProtests of 1968, the band's debut single for the Apple label included Lennon's B-side "Revolution", in which he called for a "plan" rather than committing toMaoist revolution. The song's pacifist message led to ridicule from political radicals in theNew Left press.[91] Adding to the tensions at the Beatles' recording sessions that year, Lennon insisted on having his new girlfriend, the Japanese artistYoko Ono, beside him, thereby contravening the band's policy regarding wives and girlfriends in the studio. He was especially pleased with his songwriting contributions to the double album and identified it as a superior work toSgt. Pepper.[92] At the end of 1968, Lennon participated inThe Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, a television special that was not broadcast. Lennon performed withthe Dirty Mac, asupergroup composed of Lennon,Eric Clapton,Keith Richards andMitch Mitchell. The group also backed a vocal performance by Ono. A film version was released in 1996.[93]
By late 1968, Lennon's increased drug use and growing preoccupation with Ono, combined with the Beatles' inability to agree on how the company should be run, left Apple in need of professional management. Lennon askedLord Beeching to take on the role but he declined, advising Lennon to go back to making records. Lennon was approached byAllen Klein, who had managedthe Rolling Stones and other bands during theBritish Invasion. In early 1969, Klein was appointed as Apple's chief executive by Lennon, Harrison and Starr,[94] but McCartney never signed the management contract.[95]
Lennon and Ono were married on 20 March 1969 and soon released a series of 14lithographs called "Bag One" depicting scenes from their honeymoon,[96] eight of which were deemed indecent and most of which were banned and confiscated.[97] Lennon's creative focus continued to move beyond the Beatles, and between 1968 and 1969 he and Ono recorded three albums of experimental music together:Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins[98] (known more for its cover than for its music),Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions andWedding Album. In 1969, they formed thePlastic Ono Band, releasingLive Peace in Toronto 1969. Between 1969 and 1970, Lennon released the singles "Give Peace a Chance", which was widely adopted as an anti-Vietnam War anthem,[99] "Cold Turkey", which documented his withdrawal symptoms after he became addicted toheroin,[100] and "Instant Karma!".
Sample of "Give Peace a Chance", recorded in Montreal in 1969 during Lennon and Ono's second bed-in. As described by biographerBill Harry, Lennon wanted to "write a peace anthem that would take over from the song 'We Shall Overcome' – and he succeeded... it became the main anti-Vietnam protest song."[101]
In protest at Britain's involvement in "the Nigeria-Biafra thing"[102] (namely, theNigerian Civil War),[103] its support of America in the Vietnam War and (perhaps jokingly) against "Cold Turkey" slipping down the charts,[104] Lennon returned hisMBE medal to the Queen. This gesture had no effect on his MBE status, which could be renounced but ultimately only the Sovereign has the power to annul the original award.[105][106] The medal, together with Lennon's letter, is held at theCentral Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood.[104]
Lennon left the Beatles on 20 September 1969,[107] but agreed not to inform the media while the group renegotiated their recording contract. He was outraged that McCartney publicised his own departure on releasinghis debut solo album in April 1970. Lennon's reaction was, "Jesus Christ! He gets all the credit for it!"[108] He later wrote, "I started the band. I disbanded it. It's as simple as that."[109] In a December 1970 interview withJann Wenner ofRolling Stone magazine, he revealed his bitterness towards McCartney, saying, "I was a fool not to do what Paul did, which was use it to sell a record."[110] Lennon also spoke of the hostility he perceived the other members had towards Ono, and of how he, Harrison and Starr "got fed up with being sidemen for Paul ... After Brian Epstein died we collapsed. Paul took over and supposedly led us. But what is leading us when we went round in circles?"[111]
Solo career: 1970–1980
Initial solo success and activism: 1970–1972
Advertisement for "Imagine" fromBillboard, 18 September 1971
When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system's game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they've got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is non-violence and humor.
Between 1 April and 15 September 1970, Lennon and Ono went throughprimal therapy withArthur Janov at Tittenhurst, in London and at Janov's clinic in Los Angeles, California. Designed to release emotional pain from early childhood, the therapy entailed two half-days a week with Janov for six months; he had wanted to treat the couple for longer, but their American visa ran out and they had to return to the UK.[113] Lennon's debut solo album,John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), was received with praise by many music critics, but its highly personal lyrics and stark sound limited its commercial performance.[114] The album featured the song "Mother", in which Lennon confronted his feelings of childhood rejection,[115] and the Dylanesque "Working Class Hero", an attack on Western social systems which, due to the lyrics "you're so fucking crazy" and "you're still fucking peasants", fell foul of broadcasters.[116][117]
In January 1971,Tariq Ali expressed his revolutionary political views when he interviewed Lennon, who immediately responded by writing "Power to the People". In his lyrics to the song, Lennon reversed the non-confrontational approach he had espoused in "Revolution", although he later disowned "Power to the People", saying that it was borne out of guilt and a desire for approval from radicals such as Ali.[118] Lennon became involved in a protest against the prosecution ofOz magazine for alleged obscenity. Lennon denounced the proceedings as "disgusting fascism", and he and Ono (as Elastic Oz Band) released the single "God Save Us/Do the Oz" and joined marches in support of the magazine.[119]
Sample of "Imagine", Lennon's most widely known post-Beatles song.[120] Like "Give Peace a Chance", the song became an anti-war anthem, but its lyrics offended religious groups. Lennon's explanation was: "If you can imagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion – not without religion, but without this 'my god is bigger than your god' thing – then it can be true."[121]
Eager for a major commercial success, Lennon adopted a more accessible sound for his next album,Imagine (1971).[122]Rolling Stone reported that "it contains a substantial portion of good music" but warned of the possibility that "his posturings will soon seem not merely dull but irrelevant".[123]The album's title track later became an anthem for anti-war movements,[124] while the song "How Do You Sleep?" was a musical attack on McCartney in response to lyrics onRam that Lennon felt, and McCartney later confirmed,[125] were directed at him and Ono.[126][nb 3] In "Jealous Guy", Lennon addressed his demeaning treatment of women, acknowledging that his past behaviour was a result of long-held insecurity.[128]
In gratitude for his guitar contributions toImagine, Lennon initially agreed to perform at Harrison'sConcert for Bangladesh benefit shows in New York.[129] Harrison refused to allow Ono to participate at the concerts, however, which resulted in the couple having a heated argument and Lennon pulling out of the event.[130]
Lennon and Ono moved to New York in August 1971 and immediately embraced USradical left politics. The couple released their "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" single in December.[131] During the new year, theNixon administration took what it called a "strategic counter-measure" against Lennon's anti-war and anti-Nixon propaganda. The administration embarked on what would be afour-year attempt to deport him.[132][133] Lennon was embroiled in a continuing legal battle with the immigration authorities, and he was deniedpermanent residency in the US; the issue would not be resolved until 1976.[134]
Some Time in New York City was recorded as a collaboration with Ono and was released in 1972 with backing from the New York bandElephant's Memory. A double LP, it contained songs about women's rights, race relations, Britain's role in Northern Ireland and Lennon's difficulties in obtaining a green card.[135] The album was a commercial failure and was maligned by critics, who found its political sloganeering heavy-handed and relentless.[136] TheNME's review took the form of anopen letter in whichTony Tyler derided Lennon as a "pathetic, ageing revolutionary".[137] In the US, "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" was released as a single from the album and was televised on 11 May, onThe Dick Cavett Show. Many radio stations refused to broadcast the song because of the word "nigger".[138]
Lennon and Ono gave two benefit concerts with Elephant's Memory and guests in New York in aid of patients at theWillowbrook State School mental facility.[139] Staged atMadison Square Garden on 30 August 1972, they were his last full-length concert appearances.[140] AfterGeorge McGovern lost the 1972 presidential election to Richard Nixon, Lennon and Ono attended a post-election wake held in the New York home of activistJerry Rubin.[132] Lennon was depressed and got intoxicated; he left Ono embarrassed after he had sex with a female guest. Ono's song "Death of Samantha" was inspired by the incident.[141]
"Lost weekend": 1973–1975
Publicity photo of Lennon and hostTom Snyder from the television programmeTomorrow. Aired in 1975, this was the last television interview Lennon gave before his death in 1980.
As Lennon was about to recordMind Games in 1973, he and Ono decided to separate. The ensuing 18-month period apart, which he later called his "lost weekend" in reference to thefilm of the same name,[142][143] was spent in Los Angeles and New York City in the company ofMay Pang.[144]Mind Games, credited to the "Plastic U.F.Ono Band", was released in November 1973. Lennon also contributed "I'm the Greatest" to Starr's albumRingo (1973), released the same month. With Harrison joining Starr and Lennon at the recording session for the song, it marked the only occasion when three former Beatles recorded together between the band's break-up and Lennon's death.[145][nb 4]
In early 1974, Lennon was drinking heavily and his alcohol-fuelled antics withHarry Nilsson made headlines. In March, two widely publicised incidents occurred atThe Troubadour club. In the first incident, Lennon stuck an unusedmenstrual pad on his forehead and scuffled with a waitress. The second incident occurred two weeks later, when Lennon and Nilsson were ejected from the same club after heckling theSmothers Brothers.[147] Lennon decided to produce Nilsson's albumPussy Cats, and Pang rented a Los Angeles beach house for all the musicians.[148] After a month of further debauchery, the recording sessions were in chaos, and Lennon returned to New York with Pang to finish work on the album. In April, Lennon had produced theMick Jagger song "Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup)" which was, for contractual reasons, to remain unreleased for more than 30 years. Pang supplied the recording for its eventual inclusion onThe Very Best of Mick Jagger (2007).[149]
Lennon had settled back in New York when he recorded the albumWalls and Bridges. Released in October 1974, it included "Whatever Gets You thru the Night", which featuredElton John on backing vocals and piano, and became Lennon's only single as a solo artist to top the USBillboard Hot 100 chart during his lifetime.[150][nb 5] A second single from the album, "#9 Dream", followed before the end of the year. Starr'sGoodnight Vienna (1974) again saw assistance from Lennon, who wrote the title track and played piano.[152] On 28 November, Lennon made a surprise guest appearance at Elton John's Thanksgiving concert at Madison Square Garden, in fulfilment of his promise to join the singer in a live show if "Whatever Gets You thru the Night", a song whose commercial potential Lennon had doubted, reached number one. Lennon performed the song along with "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "I Saw Her Standing There", which he introduced as "a song by an old estranged fiancé of mine called Paul".[153]
In the first two weeks of January 1975, Elton John topped the USBillboard Hot 100 singles chart with his cover of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", featuring Lennon on guitar and backing vocals - Lennon is credited on the single under the moniker of "Dr. Winston O'Boogie". As January became February, Lennon and Ono reunited as Lennon and Bowie completed recording of their co-composition "Fame",[113][154][155][156] which becameDavid Bowie's first US number one, featuring guitar and backing vocals by Lennon. In February, Lennon releasedRock 'n' Roll (1975), an album of cover songs. "Stand by Me", taken from the album and a US and UK hit, became his last single for five years.[157] He made what would be his final stage appearance in theATV specialA Salute toLew Grade, recorded on 18 April and televised in June.[158] Playing acoustic guitar and backed by an eight-piece band, Lennon performed two songs fromRock 'n' Roll ("Stand by Me", which was not broadcast, and "Slippin' and Slidin'") followed by "Imagine".[158] The band, known as Etc., wore masks behind their heads, a dig by Lennon, who thought Grade was two-faced.[159]
Hiatus and return: 1975–1980
Lennon'sgreen card, which allowed him to live and work in the United States
Lennon began what would be a five-year hiatus from the music industry, during which time, he later said, he "baked bread" and "looked after the baby".[160] He devoted himself to Sean, rising at 6am daily to plan and prepare his meals and to spend time with him.[161] He wrote "Cookin' (In the Kitchen of Love)" for Starr'sRingo's Rotogravure (1976), performing on the track in June in what would be his last recording session until 1980.[162]
Sean Lennon, Lennon's only child with Ono, was born on 9 October 1975 (Lennon's thirty-fifth birthday), after which Lennon took on the role of househusband. He formally announced his break from music in Tokyo in 1977, saying, "we have basically decided, without any great decision, to be with our baby as much as we can until we feel we can take time off to indulge ourselves in creating things outside of the family."[163] During his career break he created several series of drawings, and drafted a book containing a mix of autobiographical material and what he termed "mad stuff",[164] all of which would be published posthumously.
Lennon emerged from his hiatus in October 1980, when he released the single "(Just Like) Starting Over". In November, he and Ono released the albumDouble Fantasy, which included songs Lennon had written inBermuda. In June, Lennon chartered a 43-foot sailboat and embarked on a sailing trip to Bermuda. En route, he and the crew encountered a storm, rendering everyone on board seasick, except Lennon, who took control and sailed the boat through the storm. This experience re-invigorated him and his creative muse. He spent three weeks in Bermuda in a home called Fairylands writing and refining the tracks for the upcoming album.[165][166][167][168]
The music reflected Lennon's fulfilment in his new-found stable family life.[169] Sufficient additional material was recorded for a planned follow-up albumMilk and Honey, which was issued posthumously, in 1984.[170]Double Fantasy was not well received initially and drew comments such asMelody Maker's "indulgent sterility... a godawful yawn".[171]
Wintertime at Strawberry Fields inCentral Park with the Dakota in the background
In New York, at approximately 5:00 p.m. on 8 December 1980, Lennon autographed a copy ofDouble Fantasy forMark David Chapman before leavingThe Dakota with Ono for a recording session at theRecord Plant.[172] After the session, Lennon and Ono returned to the Dakota in a limousine at around 10:50p.m. (EST). They left the vehicle and walked through the archway of the building. Chapman then shot Lennon twice in the back and twice in the shoulder[173] at close range. Lennon was rushed in a police cruiser to the emergency room ofRoosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:15p.m. (EST); he was 40 years old.[174][175]
Ono issued a statement the next day, saying "There is no funeral for John. Later in the week we will set the time for a silent vigil to pray for his soul. We invite you to participate from wherever you are at the time." She requested that instead of flowers, people could donate to Lennon's personal charitable foundation, the Spirit Foundation. "John loved and prayed for the human race. Please pray the same for him. Love. Yoko and Sean."[176][177] His remains werecremated atFerncliff Cemetery inHartsdale, New York. Ono scattered his ashes in New York'sCentral Park, where theStrawberry Fields memorial was later created.[178] Chapman avoided going to trial when he ignored his lawyer's advice and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life.[179][nb 6]
In the weeks following the murder, "(Just Like) Starting Over" andDouble Fantasy topped the charts in the UK and the US.[181] "Imagine" hit number one in the UK in January 1981 and "Happy Xmas" peaked at number two.[182] "Imagine" was succeeded at the top of the UK chart by "Woman", the second single fromDouble Fantasy.[183] Later that year,Roxy Music's cover version of "Jealous Guy", recorded as a tribute to Lennon, was also a UK number-one.[25]
Personal relationships
Cynthia Lennon
John andCynthia Lennon sitting in an airplane on a stopover in Los Angeles in 1964
Lennon metCynthia Powell (1939–2015) in 1957, when they were fellow students at theLiverpool College of Art.[184] Although Powell was intimidated by Lennon's attitude and appearance, she heard that he was obsessed with the French actressBrigitte Bardot, so she dyed her hair blonde. Lennon asked her out, but when she said that she was engaged, he shouted, "I didn't ask you to fuckin' marry me, did I?"[185] She often accompanied him to Quarrymen gigs and travelled to Hamburg with McCartney's girlfriend to visit him.[186]
Lennon was jealous by nature and eventually grew possessive, often terrifying Powell with his anger.[187] In her 2005 memoirJohn, Powell recalled that, when they were dating, Lennon once struck her after he observed her dancing with Stuart Sutcliffe.[188] She ended their relationship as a result, until three months later, when Lennon apologised and asked to reunite.[189] She took him back and later noted that he was never again physically abusive towards her, although he could still be "verbally cutting and unkind".[190] Lennon later said that until he met Ono, he had never questioned his chauvinistic attitude towards women. He said that the Beatles song "Getting Better" told his (or his peers') own story. "I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically – any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn't express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women. That is why I am always on about peace".[191]
Recalling his July 1962 reaction when he learned that Cynthia was pregnant, Lennon said, "There's only one thing for it Cyn. We'll have to get married."[192] The couple wed on 23 August at theMount PleasantRegister Office in Liverpool, with Brian Epstein serving as best man. His marriage began just asBeatlemania was taking off across the UK. He performed on the evening of his wedding day and would continue to do so almost daily from then on.[193] Epstein feared that fans would be alienated by the idea of a married Beatle, and he asked the Lennons to keep their marriage secret. Julian was born on 8 April 1963; Lennon was on tour at the time and did not see his infant son until three days later.[194]
Cynthia attributed the start of the marriage breakdown to Lennon's use ofLSD, and she felt that he slowly lost interest in her as a result of his use of the drug.[195] When the group travelled by train toBangor, Wales in 1967 for theMaharishi Yogi's Transcendental Meditation seminar, a policeman did not recognise her and stopped her from boarding. She later recalled how the incident seemed to symbolise the end of their marriage.[196] After spending a holiday in Greece,[197] Cynthia arrived home atKenwood to find Lennon sitting on the floor with Ono in terrycloth robes[198] and left the house to stay with friends, feeling shocked and humiliated.[199] A few weeks later,Alexis Mardas informed Powell that Lennon was seeking a divorce and custody of Julian.[200] She received a letter stating that Lennon was doing so on the grounds of her adultery with Italian hotelier Roberto Bassanini, an accusation which Powell denied.[201] After negotiations, Lennon capitulated and agreed to let her divorce him on the same grounds (adultery).[202] The case was settled out of court in November 1968, with Lennon giving her £100,000, a small annual payment, and custody of Julian.[203]
The Beatles were performing at Liverpool'sCavern Club in November 1961 when they were introduced toBrian Epstein after a midday concert. Epstein was homosexual andcloseted, and according to biographerPhilip Norman, one of Epstein's reasons for wanting to manage the group was that he was attracted to Lennon.[204] Later biographerMark Lewisohn called the claim unsubstantiated and wrote:
Suggestions that it wasonly homoerotic fantasy that drew Brian Epstein to the Beatles are distortion... and perform a malign disservice to both him and them. It may have been part of the mix, but he was, above all else, simply the latest in an ever-lengthening line of people seduced by the Beatles' singular mix of talents.[205]
Almost as soon as Julian was born, Lennon went on holiday to Spain with Epstein, which led to speculation about their relationship. When he was later questioned about it, Lennon said, "Well, it was almost a love affair, but not quite. It was never consummated. But it was a pretty intense relationship. It was my first experience with a homosexual that I was conscious was homosexual. We used to sit in a café inTorremolinos looking at all the boys and I'd say, 'Do you like that one? Do you like this one?' I was rather enjoying the experience, thinking like a writer all the time: I am experiencing this."[206] Soon after their return from Spain, at McCartney's twenty-first birthday party in June 1963, Lennon physically attacked Cavern Club master of ceremoniesBob Wooler for saying "How was your honeymoon, John?" The MC, known for his wordplay and affectionate but cutting remarks, was making a joke,[207] but ten months had passed since Lennon's marriage, and the deferred honeymoon was still two months in the future.[208] Lennon was drunk. He later said: "He called me aqueer so I battered his bloody ribs in."[209]
Lennon delighted in mocking Epstein for his homosexuality and for the fact that he was Jewish.[210] When Epstein invited suggestions for the title of his autobiography, Lennon offeredQueer Jew; on learning of the eventual title,A Cellarful of Noise, he parodied, "More likeA Cellarful of Boys".[211] He demanded of a visitor to Epstein's flat, "Have you come to blackmail him? If not, you're the only bugger in London who hasn't."[210] During the recording of "Baby, You're a Rich Man", he sang altered choruses of "Baby, you're a rich fag Jew".[212][213]
Julian Lennon
Julian Lennon at the unveiling of the John Lennon Peace Monument
During his marriage to Cynthia, Lennon's first sonJulian was born at the same time that his commitments with the Beatles were intensifying at the height ofBeatlemania. Lennon was touring with the Beatles when Julian was born on 8 April 1963. Julian's birth, like his mother Cynthia's marriage to Lennon, was kept secret because Epstein was convinced that public knowledge of such things would threaten the Beatles' commercial success. Julian recalled that as a small child inWeybridge some four years later, "I was trundled home from school and came walking up with one of my watercolour paintings. It was just a bunch of stars and this blonde girl I knew at school. And Dad said, 'What's this?' I said, 'It's Lucy in the sky with diamonds.'"[214] Lennon used it as the title of aBeatles song, and though it was later reported to have been derived from the initialsLSD, Lennon insisted, "It's not an acid song."[215] Lennon was distant from Julian, who felt closer to McCartney than to his father. During a car journey to visit Cynthia and Julian during Lennon's divorce, McCartney composed a song, "Hey Jules", to comfort him. It would evolve into the Beatles song "Hey Jude". Lennon later said, "That's his best song. It started off as a song about my son Julian... he turned it into 'Hey Jude'. I always thought it was about me and Yoko but he said it wasn't."[216]
Lennon's relationship with Julian was already strained, and after Lennon and Ono moved to New York in 1971, Julian did not see his father again until 1973.[217] With Pang's encouragement, arrangements were made for Julian and his mother to visit Lennon in Los Angeles, where they went toDisneyland.[218] Julian started to see his father regularly, and Lennon gave him a drumming part on aWalls and Bridges track.[219] He bought Julian aGibson Les Paul guitar and other instruments, and encouraged his interest in music by demonstrating guitar chord techniques.[219] Julian recalls that he and his father "got on a great deal better" during the time he spent in New York: "We had a lot of fun, laughed a lot and had a great time in general."[220]
In aPlayboy interview with David Sheff shortly before his death, Lennon said, "Sean is a planned child, and therein lies the difference. I don't love Julian any less as a child. He's still my son, whether he came from a bottle of whiskey or because they didn't have pills in those days. He's here, he belongs to me, and he always will."[221] He said he was trying to reestablish a connection with the then 17-year-old, and confidently predicted, "Julian and I will have a relationship in the future."[221] After his death it was revealed that he had left Julian very little in his will.[222]
Lennon and Ono in 1980 byJack MitchellLennon with Ono in 1969
Lennon first met Yoko Ono on 9 November 1966 at theIndica Gallery in London, where Ono was preparing her conceptual art exhibit. They were introduced by gallery ownerJohn Dunbar.[223] Lennon was intrigued by Ono's "Hammer A Nail": patrons hammered a nail into a wooden board, creating the art piece. Although the exhibition had not yet begun, Lennon wanted to hammer a nail into the clean board, but Ono stopped him. Dunbar asked her, "Don't you know who this is? He's a millionaire! He might buy it." According to Lennon's recollection in 1980, Ono had not heard of the Beatles, but she relented on condition that Lennon pay her fiveshillings, to which Lennon said he replied, "I'll give you an imaginary five shillings and hammer an imaginary nail in."[224] Ono subsequently related that Lennon had taken a bite out of the apple on display in her workApple, much to her fury.[225][nb 7]
Ono began to telephone and visit Lennon at his home. When Cynthia asked him for an explanation, Lennon explained that Ono was only trying to obtain money for her "avant-garde bullshit".[228] While his wife was on holiday in Greece in May 1968, Lennon invited Ono to visit. They spent the night recording what would become theTwo Virgins album, after which, he said, they "made love at dawn".[229] When Lennon's wife returned home she found Ono wearing her bathrobe and drinking tea with Lennon who simply said, "Oh, hi."[230] Ono became pregnant in 1968 and miscarried a male child on 21 November 1968,[178] a few weeks after Lennon's divorce from Cynthia was granted.[231]
Two years before the Beatles disbanded, Lennon and Ono began public protests against theVietnam War. They were married inGibraltar on 20 March 1969,[232] and spent their honeymoon at theHilton Amsterdam, campaigning with a week-long bed-in. They planned another bed-in in the United States, but were denied entry,[233] so held one instead at theQueen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, where they recorded "Give Peace a Chance".[234] They often combined advocacy with performance art, as in their "Bagism", first introduced during a Vienna press conference. Lennon detailed this period in the Beatles song "The Ballad of John and Yoko".[235] Lennon changed his name bydeed poll on 22 April 1969, adding "Ono" as a middle name. The brief ceremony took place on the roof of theApple Corps building, where the Beatles had performedtheir rooftop concert three months earlier. Although he used the name John Ono Lennon thereafter, some official documents referred to him as John Winston Ono Lennon.[4] The couple settled atTittenhurst Park atSunninghill inBerkshire.[236] After Ono was injured in a car accident, Lennon arranged for a king-size bed to be brought to the recording studio as he worked on the Beatles' album,Abbey Road.[237]
Ono and Lennon moved to New York, to a flat onBank Street, Greenwich Village. Looking for somewhere with better security, they relocated in 1973 to the more secureDakota overlookingCentral Park at 1West72nd Street.[238]
May Pang
May Pang in 1983
ABKCO Industries was formed in 1968 byAllen Klein as an umbrella company toABKCO Records. Klein hiredMay Pang as a receptionist in 1969. Through involvement in a project with ABKCO, Lennon and Ono met her the following year. She became their personal assistant. In 1973, after she had been working with the couple for three years, Ono confided that she and Lennon were becoming estranged. She went on to suggest that Pang should begin a physical relationship with Lennon, telling her, "He likes you a lot." Astounded by Ono's proposition, Pang nevertheless agreed to become Lennon's companion. The pair soon left for Los Angeles, beginning an 18-month period he later called his "lost weekend".[142] In Los Angeles, Pang encouraged Lennon to develop regular contact with Julian, whom he had not seen for two years. He also rekindled friendships with Starr, McCartney, Beatles roadieMal Evans, andHarry Nilsson.
In June, Lennon and Pang returned to Manhattan in their newly rented penthouse apartment where they prepared a spare room for Julian when he visited them.[239] Lennon, who had been inhibited by Ono in this regard, began to reestablish contact with other relatives and friends. By December, he and Pang were considering a house purchase, and he refused to accept Ono's telephone calls. In February 1975, he agreed to meet Ono, who claimed to have found a cure for smoking. After the meeting, he failed to return home or call Pang. When Pang telephoned the next day, Ono told her that Lennon was unavailable because he was exhausted after a hypnotherapy session. Two days later, Lennon reappeared at a joint dental appointment; he was stupefied and confused to such an extent that Pang believed he had been brainwashed. Lennon told Pang that his separation from Ono was now over, although Ono would allow him to continue seeing her as hismistress.[240]
Sean Ono Lennon was born on 9 October 1975, his father's 35th birthday. Ono had previously suffered threemiscarriages in her attempt to have a child with Lennon. After Ono and Lennon were reunited, she became pregnant again. She initially said that she wanted to have an abortion but changed her mind and agreed to allow the pregnancy to continue on the condition that Lennon adopt the role ofhousehusband, which he agreed to do.[241]
Following Sean's birth, Lennon's subsequent hiatus from the music industry would span five years. He had a photographer take pictures of Sean every day of his first year and created numerous drawings for him, which were posthumously published asReal Love: The Drawings for Sean. Lennon later proudly declared, "He didn't come out of my belly but, by God, I made his bones, because I've attended to every meal, and to how he sleeps, and to the fact that he swims like a fish."[242]
While Lennon remained consistently friendly with Starr during the years that followed the Beatles' break-up in 1970, his relationships with McCartney and Harrison varied. He was initially close to Harrison, but the two drifted apart after Lennon moved to the US in 1971. When Harrison was in New York for his December 1974Dark Horse tour, Lennon agreed to join him on stage but failed to appear after an argument over Lennon's refusal to sign an agreement that would finally dissolve the Beatles' legal partnership.[243][nb 8] Harrison later said that when he visited Lennon during his five years away from music, he sensed that Lennon was trying to communicate, but his bond with Ono prevented him.[244][245] Harrison offended Lennon in 1980 when he publishedI, Me, Mine, an autobiography that Lennon felt made little mention of him.[246] Lennon toldPlayboy, "I was hurt by it. By glaring omission... my influence on his life is absolutely zilch... he remembers every two-bit sax player or guitarist he met in subsequent years. I'm not in the book."[247]
Lennon's most intense feelings were reserved for McCartney. In addition to attacking him with the lyrics of "How Do You Sleep?", Lennon argued with him through the press for three years after the group split. The two later began to reestablish something of the close friendship they had once known, and, on one occasion in 1974, even recorded music together (later bootlegged asA Toot and a Snore in '74) before eventually growing apart once more. During McCartney's final visit in April 1976, Lennon said that they watched the episode ofSaturday Night Live in whichLorne Michaels made a $3,000 offer to get the Beatles to reunite on the show.[248] According to Lennon, the pair considered going to the studio to make a joke appearance, attempting to claim their share of the money, but they were too tired.[249] Lennon summarised his feelings towards McCartney in an interview three days before his death: "Throughout my career, I've selected to work with... only two people: Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono... That ain't bad picking."[250]
Along with his estrangement from McCartney, Lennon always felt a musical competitiveness with him and kept an ear on his music. During his career break from 1975 until shortly before his death, according to Fred Seaman, Lennon and Ono's assistant at the time, Lennon was content to sit back as long as McCartney was producing what Lennon saw as mediocre material.[251] Lennon took notice when McCartney released "Coming Up" in 1980, which was the year Lennon returned to the studio. "It's driving me crackers!" he jokingly complained, because he could not get the tune out of his head.[251] That same year, Lennon was asked whether the group were dreaded enemies or the best of friends, and he replied that they were neither, and that he had not seen any of them in a long time. But he also said, "I still love those guys. The Beatles are over, but John, Paul, George and Ringo go on."[252]
Lennon and Ono used theirhoneymoon as a bed-in at theAmsterdam Hilton Hotel; the March 1969 event attracted worldwide media ridicule.[253][254] During a second bed-in three months later at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal,[255] Lennon wrote and recorded "Give Peace a Chance". Released as a single, the song was quickly interpreted as an anti-war anthem and sung by a quarter of a million demonstrators against theVietnam War in Washington, DC, on 15 November, the secondVietnam Moratorium Day.[99][256] In December, they paid for billboards in 10 cities around the world which declared, in the national language, "War Is Over! If You Want It".[257]
During the year, Lennon and Ono began to support efforts by the family ofJames Hanratty to prove his innocence.[258] Hanratty had been hanged in 1962. According to Lennon, those who had condemned Hanratty were "the same people who are running guns to South Africa and killing blacks in the streets ... The same bastards are in control, the same people are running everything, it's the whole bullshit bourgeois scene."[259] In London, Lennon and Ono staged a "Britain Murdered Hanratty" banner march and a "Silent Protest For James Hanratty",[260] and produced a 40-minute documentary on the case. At anappeal hearing more than thirty years later, Hanratty's conviction was upheld afterDNA evidence was found to match, validating those who condemned him.[261]
Lennon and Ono showed their solidarity with theClydesideUCS workers'work-in of 1971 by sending a bouquet of red roses and a cheque for £5,000.[262] On moving to New York City in August that year, they befriended two of theChicago Seven,Yippie peace activistsJerry Rubin andAbbie Hoffman.[263] Another political activist,John Sinclair, poet and co-founder of theWhite Panther Party, was serving ten years in prison for selling twojoints of marijuana after previous convictions for possession of the drug.[264] In December 1971 atAnn Arbor, Michigan, 15,000 people attended the "John Sinclair Freedom Rally", a protest and benefit concert with contributions from Lennon,Stevie Wonder,Bob Seger,Bobby Seale of theBlack Panther Party, and others.[265] Lennon and Ono, backed byDavid Peel and Jerry Rubin, performed an acoustic set of four songs from their forthcomingSome Time in New York City album including "John Sinclair", whose lyrics called for his release. The day before the rally, theMichigan Senate passed a bill that significantly reduced the penalties for possession of marijuana and four days later Sinclair was released on an appeal bond.[133] The performance was recorded and two of the tracks later appeared onJohn Lennon Anthology (1998).[266]
Following theBloody Sunday incident inNorthern Ireland in 1972, Lennon said that given the choice between the British army and theIRA he would side with the latter. Lennon and Ono wrote two songs protesting British presence and actions in Ireland for theirSome Time in New York City album: "The Luck of the Irish" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday". In 2000,David Shayler, a former member of Britain's domestic security service MI5, suggested that Lennon had given money to the IRA, though this was swiftly denied by Ono.[267] Biographer Bill Harry records that following Bloody Sunday, Lennon and Ono financially supported the production of the filmThe Irish Tapes, a political documentary with anIrish Republican slant.[268] In February 2000 Lennon's cousin Stanley Parkes stated that the singer had given money to the IRA during the 1970s.[269] After the events of Bloody Sunday Lennon and Ono attended a protest in London while displaying aRed Mole newspaper with the headline "For the IRA, Against British Imperialism".[270]
Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.
According to FBI surveillance reports, and confirmed byTariq Ali in 2006, Lennon was sympathetic to theInternational Marxist Group, aTrotskyist group formed in Britain in 1968.[272] However, the FBI considered Lennon to have limited effectiveness as a revolutionary, as he was "constantly under the influence of narcotics".[273]
In 1972, Lennon contributed a drawing and limerick titled "Why Make It Sad to Be Gay?" to Len Richmond and Gary Noguera'sThe Gay Liberation Book.[274] Lennon's last act of political activism was a statement in support of the striking minority sanitation workers in San Francisco on 5 December 1980. He and Ono planned to join the workers' protest on 14 December.[275]
Deportation attempt
Lennon with Ono in 1969
Following the impact of "Give Peace a Chance" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" on the anti-war movement, the Nixon administration heard rumours of Lennon's involvement in a concert to be held in San Diego at the same time as the1972 Republican National Convention[276] and tried to have him deported. Nixon believed that Lennon's anti-war activities could cost him his reelection;[277] Republican SenatorStrom Thurmond suggested in a February 1972 memo that "deportation would be a strategic counter-measure" against Lennon.[278] The next month the United StatesImmigration and Naturalization Service (INS) began deportation proceedings, arguing that his 1968 misdemeanour conviction for cannabis possession in London had made him ineligible for admission to the United States. Lennon spent the next3+1⁄2 years in and out of deportation hearings until 8 October 1975, when a court of appeals barred the deportation attempt, stating "the courts will not condone selective deportation based upon secret political grounds".[279][135] While the legal battle continued, Lennon attended rallies and made television appearances. He and Ono co-hostedThe Mike Douglas Show for a week in February 1972, introducing guests such asJerry Rubin andBobby Seale to mid-America.[280] In 1972,Bob Dylan wrote a letter to the INS defending Lennon, stating:
John and Yoko add a great voice and drive to the country's so-called art institution. They inspire and transcend and stimulate and by doing so, only help others to see pure light and in doing that, put an end to this dull taste of petty commercialism which is being passed off as Artist Art by the overpowering mass media. Hurray for John and Yoko. Let them stay and live here and breathe. The country's got plenty of room and space. Let John and Yoko stay![281][282]
On 23 March 1973, Lennon was ordered to leave the US within 60 days.[283] Ono, meanwhile, was granted permanent residence. In response, Lennon and Ono held a press conference on 1 April 1973 at theNew York City Bar Association, where they announced the formation of the state ofNutopia; a place with "no land, no boundaries, no passports, only people".[284] Waving the white flag of Nutopia (two handkerchiefs), they asked for political asylum in the US. The press conference was filmed, and appeared in a 2006 documentary,The U.S. vs. John Lennon.[285][nb 9] Soon after the press conference, Nixon's involvement in a political scandal came to light, and in June theWatergate hearings began inWashington, D.C.. They led to the president's resignation 14 months later.[287] In December 1974, when he and members of his tour entourage visited theWhite House, Harrison askedGerald Ford, Nixon's successor, to intercede in the matter.[288] Ford's administration showed little interest in continuing the battle against Lennon, and the deportation order was overturned in 1975. The following year, Lennon received hisgreen card certifying hispermanent residency, and whenJimmy Carter was inaugurated as president in January 1977, Lennon and Ono attended the Inaugural Ball.[287]
Confidential (here declassified and censored) letter byJ. Edgar Hoover about FBI surveillance of John Lennon
After Lennon's death, historianJon Wiener filed aFreedom of Information Act request forFBI files that documented the Bureau's role in the deportation attempt.[289] The FBI admitted it had 281 pages of files on Lennon, but refused to release most of them on the grounds that they contained national security information. In 1983, Wiener sued the FBI with the help of theAmerican Civil Liberties Union ofSouthern California. It took 14 years of litigation to force the FBI to release the withheld pages.[290] The ACLU, representing Wiener, won a favourable decision in their suit against the FBI in theNinth Circuit in 1991.[291][292] TheJustice Department appealed the decision to theSupreme Court in April 1992, but the court declined to review the case.[293] In 1997, respecting PresidentBill Clinton's newly instigated rule that documents should be withheld only if releasing them would involve "foreseeable harm", the Justice Department settled most of the outstanding issues outside court by releasing all but 10 of the contested documents.[293]
Wiener published the results of his 14-year campaign in January 2000.Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files contained facsimiles of the documents, including "lengthy reports by confidential informants detailing the daily lives of anti-war activists, memos to the White House, transcripts of TV shows on which Lennon appeared, and a proposal that Lennon be arrested by local police on drug charges".[294] The story is told in the documentaryThe US vs. John Lennon. The final 10 documents in Lennon's FBI file, which reported on his ties with London anti-war activists in 1971 and had been withheld as containing "national security information provided by a foreign government under an explicit promise of confidentiality", were released in December 2006. They contained no indication that the British government had regarded Lennon as a serious threat; one example of the released material was a report that two prominent British leftists had hoped Lennon would finance a left-wing bookshop and reading room.[295]
Writing
Beatles biographerBill Harry wrote that Lennon began drawing and writing creatively at an early age with the encouragement of his uncle. He collected his stories, poetry, cartoons and caricatures in a Quarry Bank High School exercise book that he called theDaily Howl. The drawings were often of crippled people, and the writings satirical, and throughout the book was an abundance of wordplay. According to classmate Bill Turner, Lennon created theDaily Howl to amuse his best friend and later Quarrymen bandmatePete Shotton, to whom he would show his work before he let anyone else see it. Turner said that Lennon "had an obsession forWigan Pier. It kept cropping up", and in Lennon's storyA Carrot in a Potato Mine, "the mine was at the end of Wigan Pier." Turner described how one of Lennon's cartoons depicted a bus stop sign annotated with the question, "Why?" Above was a flying pancake, and below, "a blind man wearing glasses leading along a blind dog – also wearing glasses".[296]
Lennon's love of wordplay and nonsense with a twist found a wider audience when he was 24. Harry writes thatIn His Own Write (1964) was published after "Some journalist who was hanging around the Beatles came to me and I ended up showing him the stuff. They said, 'Write a book' and that's how the first one came about". Like theDaily Howl it contained a mix of formats including short stories, poetry, plays and drawings. One story, "Good Dog Nigel", tells the tale of "a happy dog, urinating on a lamp post, barking, wagging his tail – until he suddenly hears a message that he will be killed at three o'clock".The Times Literary Supplement considered the poems and stories "remarkable ... also very funny ... the nonsense runs on, words and images prompting one another in a chain of pure fantasy".Book Week reported, "This is nonsense writing, but one has only to review theliterature of nonsense to see how well Lennon has brought it off. While some of his homonyms are gratuitous word play, many others have not only double meaning but a double edge." Lennon was not only surprised by the positive reception, but that the book was reviewed at all, and suggested that readers "took the book more seriously than I did myself. It just began as a laugh for me".[297]
In 1967, Lennon, who had attended art school, funded and anonymously participated in Ono's art exhibitionHalf-A-Room that was held atLisson Gallery. Following his collaborating with Ono in the form of ThePlastic Ono Band that began in 1968, Lennon became involved with theFluxus art movement. In the summer of 1968, Lennon began showing his painting andconceptual art at his You Are Here art exhibition held atRobert Fraser Gallery in London.[301] The show, that was dedicated to Ono, included a six foot in diameter round whitemonochrome painting calledYou Are Here (1968). Besides the whitemonochrome paint, its surface contained only the tiny hand written inscription "you are here". This painting, and the show in general, was conceived as a response to Ono's conceptual art pieceThis is Not Here (1966) that was part of her Fluxus installation of wall text pieces calledBlue Room Event (1966).Blue Room Event consisted of sentences that Ono wrote directly on her white New York apartment walls and ceiling. Lennon's You Are Here show also included sixty charity collection boxes, a pair of Lennon's shoes with a sign that read "I take my shoes off to you", aready made black bike (an apparent homage toMarcel Duchamp and his 1917Bicycle Wheel), an overturned white hat labeledFor The Artist, and a large glass jar full of free-to-takeyou are here whitepinbadges.[302] A hidden camera secretly filmed the public reaction to the show.[303] For the 1 July opening, Lennon, dressed all in white (as was Ono), released 365 white balloons into the city sky. Each ballon had attached to it a small paper card to be mailed back to Lennon at the Robert Fraser Gallery at 69Duke Street, with the finder's comments.[304]
After moving to New York City, from 18 April to 12 June 1970, Lennon and Ono presented a series ofFluxus conceptual art events and concerts atJoe Jones's Tone Deaf Music Store calledGRAPEFRUIT FLUXBANQUET. Performances includedCome Impersonating John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Grapefruit Banquet andPortrait of John Lennon as a Young Cloud by Yoko + Everybody.[305] That same year, Lennon also madeThe Complete Yoko Ono Word Poem Game (1970): a conceptual art poemcollage that utilized thecut-up (ordécoupé)aleatory technique typical of the work ofJohn Cage and many Fluxus artists. The cut-up technique can be traced to at least theDadaists of the 1920s, but was popularized in the early 1960s by writerWilliam S. Burroughs. ForThe Complete Yoko Ono Word Poem Game, Lennon took the portrait photo of himself that was included in the packaging of the 1968The Beatles LP (akaThe White Album) and cut it into 134 small rectangles. A single word was written on the back of each fragment, to be read in any order. The portrait image was meant to be reassembled in any order.The Complete Yoko Ono Word Poem Game was presented by Lennon to Ono on 28 July in an inscribed envelope for her to randomly assemble and reassemble at will.[306]
Lennon made whimsical drawings and fine art prints on occasion until the end of his life.[307] For example, he drew a 1968 comic for the macrobiotic magazineHarmony and one printed inside the sleeve of hisWedding Album (1969).[308] Lennon exhibited at Eugene Schuster's London Arts Gallery hisBag Onelithographs in an exhibition that included several depictingerotic imagery. The show opened on 15 January 1970 and 24 hours later it was raided by police officers who confiscated 8 of the 14 lithos on the grounds ofindecency. The lithographs had been drawn by Lennon in 1969 chronicling his wedding and honeymoon with Yoko Ono and one of theirbed-ins staged in the interests of world peace.[309]
Lennon played a mouth organ during a bus journey to visit his cousin in Scotland. Impressed, the driver told Lennon of a harmonica he could have if he came to Edinburgh the following day, where one had been stored in the bus depot since a passenger had left it on a bus.[316] The professional instrument quickly replaced Lennon's toy; he often used the instrument during the Beatles' Hamburg years, and it became a signature sound in the group's early recordings. His mother taught him how to play the banjo, later buying him an acoustic guitar. At 16, he played rhythm guitar with the Quarrymen.[317]
As his career progressed, he played a variety of electric guitars, predominantly theRickenbacker 325,Epiphone Casino andGibson J-160E, and, from the start of his solo career, theGibson Les Paul Junior.[318][319]Double Fantasy producer Jack Douglas claimed that since his Beatle days Lennon habitually tuned his D-string slightly flat, so his Aunt Mimi could tell which guitar was his on recordings.[320] Occasionally he played a six-string bass guitar, theFender Bass VI, providing bass on some Beatles numbers ("Back in the U.S.S.R.", "The Long and Winding Road", "Helter Skelter") that occupied McCartney with another instrument.[321] His other instrument of choice was the piano, on which he composed many songs, including "Imagine", described as his best-known solo work.[322] His jamming on a piano with McCartney in 1963 led to the creation of the Beatles' first US number one, "I Want to Hold Your Hand".[323] In 1964, he became one of the first British musicians to acquire aMellotron keyboard, though it was not heard on a Beatles recording until "Strawberry Fields Forever" in 1967.[324]
In 2024, a guitar of Lennon's that was thought to have been lost was found in an attic and auctioned atJulien's Auctions for $2.9 million (2.68 million euros)[325]
Vocal style
Lennon's vocal style was heavily influenced byLittle Richard,Larry Williams andLittle Willie John; the British music writerIan MacDonald noted that "no white singer" had been able to imitate them successfully before Lennon and McCartney. MacDonald contrasted Lennon's singing voice, a "brassynorthern roar flecked with bluesy moans", with the "conventionally glamorous" voices of earlier artists such asElvis Presley,Dean Martin andCliff Richard.[326] The British criticNik Cohn observed of Lennon, "He owned one of the best pop voices ever, rasped and smashed and brooding, always fierce." Cohn wrote that Lennon, performing "Twist and Shout", would "rant his way into total incoherence, half rupture himself".[327] When the Beatles recorded the song, the final track during the one-day session that produced the band's 1963 debut album,Please Please Me, Lennon's voice, already compromised by a cold, came close to giving out. Lennon said, "I couldn't sing the damn thing, I was just screaming."[328] In the words of biographer Barry Miles, "Lennon simply shredded his vocal cords in the interests of rock 'n' roll."[329] The Beatles' producer,George Martin, tells how Lennon "had an inborn dislike of his own voice which I could never understand. He was always saying to me: 'DO something with my voice! ... put something on it... Make itdifferent.'"[330] Martin obliged, often usingdouble-tracking and other techniques.[331][332]
As his Beatles era segued into his solo career, his singing voice found a widening range of expression. Biographer Chris Gregory writes of Lennon "tentatively beginning to expose his insecurities in a number of acoustic-led 'confessional' ballads, so beginning the process of 'public therapy' that will eventually culminate in the primal screams of 'Cold Turkey' and the catharticJohn Lennon/Plastic Ono Band."[333] Music criticRobert Christgau called this Lennon's "greatest vocal performance... from scream to whine, is modulated electronically... echoed, filtered, and double tracked."[334] David Stuart Ryan described Lennon's vocal delivery as ranging from "extreme vulnerability, sensitivity and even naivety" to a hard "rasping" style.[335] Wiener too described contrasts, saying the singer's voice can be "at first subdued; soon it almost cracks with despair".[336] Music historian Ben Urish recalled hearing the Beatles'Ed Sullivan Show performance of "This Boy" played on the radio a few days after Lennon's murder: "As Lennon's vocals reached their peak... it hurt too much to hear him scream with such anguish and emotion. But it was my emotions I heard in his voice. Just like I always had."[337]
Music historians Schinder and Schwartz wrote of the transformation in popular music styles that took place between the 1950s and the 1960s. They said that the Beatles' influence cannot be overstated: having "revolutionised the sound, style, and attitude of popular music and opened rock and roll's doors to a tidal wave of British rock acts", the group then "spent the rest of the 1960s expanding rock's stylistic frontiers".[338] OnNational Poetry Day in 1999, the BBC conducted a poll to identify the UK's favourite song lyric and announced "Imagine" as the winner.[121]
Two home recording demos by Lennon, "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love", were finished by the three surviving members of the Beatles when they reunited in 1994 and 1995.[339] Both songs were released as Beatles singles in conjunction withThe Beatles Anthology compilations. A third song, "Now and Then", was also worked on but not released until 2023 whereupon it was dubbed "the last Beatles song", topping the UK charts.[339][340]
In 1997, Yoko Ono and theBMI Foundation established an annual music competition programme for songwriters of contemporary musical genres to honour John Lennon's memory and his large creative legacy.[341] Over $400,000 have been given through BMI Foundation'sJohn Lennon Scholarships to talented young musicians in the United States.[341]
In a 2006Guardian article, Jon Wiener wrote: "For young people in 1972, it was thrilling to see Lennon's courage in standing up to [US President] Nixon. That willingness to take risks with his career, and his life, is one reason why people still admire him today."[342] For music historians Urish and Bielen, Lennon's most significant effort was "the self-portraits ... in his songs [which] spoke to, for, and about, the human condition."[343] Writing forEl País in 2024, Amaia Odriozola described Lennon'sWindsor glasses as being "known all over the world" and credited him with pioneering glasses as a "style statement" for musicians.[344]
The Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership is regarded as one of the most influential and successful of the 20th century. As performer, writer or co-writer, Lennon had 25 number one singles in the US Hot 100 chart.[nb 10] His album sales in the US stand at 14 million units.[356]Double Fantasy was his best-selling album,[357] at three million shipments in the US.[358] Released shortly before his death, it won the 1981Grammy Award for Album of the Year.[6] That year, theBRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music was given to Lennon.[359]
^Lennon changed his name bydeed poll on 22 April 1969, adding "Ono" as a middle name. Although he used the name John Ono Lennon thereafter, official documents referred to him as John Winston Ono Lennon.[4]
^In 2005, theNational Postal Museum in the US acquired a stamp collection that Lennon had assembled when he was a boy.[30]
^Lennon softened his stance in the mid-1970s, however, and said he had written "How Do You Sleep?" about himself.[126] In 1980, he said that rather than the song representing a "terrible vicious horrible vendetta" against McCartney, "I used my resentment and withdrawing from Paul and the Beatles, and the relationship with Paul, to write 'How Do You Sleep'. I don't really go 'round with those thoughts in my head all the time."[127]
^An alternate take of "I'm the Greatest", with Lennon singing a guide vocal, appears onJohn Lennon Anthology.[146]
^"Imagine" topped the US singles chart compiled byRecord World magazine, however, in 1971.[151]
^In September 2022, he was denied parole for the 12th time.[180]
^According to McCartney, he himself met Ono a few weeks before this event,[226] when she visited him in the hope of obtaining a Lennon–McCartney song manuscript for a bookJohn Cage was working on,Notations. McCartney declined to give her any of his own manuscripts but suggested that Lennon might oblige. When asked, Lennon gave Ono the original handwritten lyrics to "The Word".[227]
^Lennon eventually signed the papers while he was on holiday in Florida with Pang and Julian.[243]
^Lennon'sMind Games (1973) included the track "Nutopian International Anthem", which comprised three seconds of silence.[286]
^Lennon was responsible for 25Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles as performer, writer or co-writer.
^abDeMain, Bill."John Lennon and the FBI".Dangerous Liaisons: The FBI Files of Musicians. Performing Songwriter.Archived from the original on 17 January 2013. Retrieved19 January 2013.
^Lennon 2005, p. 38: "After three months, he phoned me and asked me to go back to him. It had taken him that long to pluck up the courage. He apologized for hitting me and said it would never happen again".
^Lennon 2005, p. 38: "He was deeply ashamed of what he had done: I think he had been shocked to discover he had it in him to hit me. So, although he was still verbally cutting and unkind, he was never again physically violent to me. As we grew closer, in the second phase of our romance, even his verbal putdowns and attacks diminished".
^Lennon 2005, pp. 214–215: "I was in shock, [...] It was clear that they had arranged for me to find them like that and the cruelty of John's betrayal was hard to absorb", "I felt utterly humiliated, and longed to disappear. [...] Their intimacy had been so powerful that I had felt like a stranger in my own home".
^Lennon 2005, p. 222: "It was laughable. Roberto had been kind and a good friend, but I had never been unfaithful to John. It was his attempt to make himself feel better about what he was doing".
^Levitz, Tamara (2004). "Yoko Ono and the Unfinished Music of 'John & Yoko': Imagining Gender and Racial Equality in the Late 1960s". In Bloch, Avital H.; Umansky, Lauri (eds.).Impossible to hold : women and culture in the 1960s. New York: New York University Press. p. 233.ISBN0814799108.
Clark, Neil (11 May 2002)."Hanratty Deserved to Die".The Spectator.Archived from the original on 24 November 2015. Retrieved23 November 2015.
Cleave, Maureen (5 October 2005)."The John Lennon I Knew".The Daily Telegraph. London.Archived from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved28 March 2015.
Cohn, Jonathan. "The Lost Lennon Tapes".Rolling Stone. No. 1120/1121. 23 December 2010, 6 January 2011.
Ingham, Chris (2006).The Rough Guide to The Beatles. Rough Guides.ISBN978-1-84353-720-5.
Jackson, Andrew Grant (2012).Still the Greatest: The Essential Solo Beatles Songs. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.ISBN978-0-8108-8222-5.
Kruse, Robert J. II (2009). "Geographies of John and Yoko's 1969 Campaign for Peace: An Intersection of Celebrity, Space, Art, and Activism". In Johansson, Ola; Bell, Thomas L. (eds.).Sound, Society and the Geography of Popular Music. Ashgate. pp. 11–32.ISBN978-0-7546-7577-8.
Landau, Jon (3 January 1974)."Mind games".Rolling Stone. Archived fromthe original on 19 November 2010. Retrieved12 November 2010.
Lavezzoli, Peter (2006).The Dawn of Indian Music in the West. New York, NY: Continuum.ISBN0-8264-2819-3.
Lewisohn, Mark (2000) [1992].The Complete Beatles Chronicle: The Only Definitive Guide to the Beatles' Entire Career. London: Hamlyn.ISBN0-600-60033-5.
Peebles, Andy; Lennon, John; Ono, Yoko (1981).The Lennon tapes: John Lennon and Yoko Ono in conversation with Andy Peebles, 6 December 1980. BBC.ISBN978-0-563-17944-3.
Madinger, Chip; Raile, Scott (2015).Lennonology Strange Days Indeed – A Scrapbook of Madness. Chesterfield, MO: Open Your Books, LLC.ISBN978-1-63110-175-5.
Pang, May; Edwards, Henry (1983).Loving John: The Untold Story. Warner Books.ISBN0-446-37916-6.
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