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John Lennon
John Winston Lennon (October 9, 1940 - December 8, 1980), rose to fame as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist for the legendary 1960s rock group, The Beatles. His creative career also included the roles of solo musician, political activist, artist and author. His first marriage was to his teenage sweetheart, Cynthia Powell, but he later left her for the Japanese artist Yoko Ono. He had always disliked his middle name and soon after his second marriage changed it to Ono. (His mother had named him after Winston Churchill.)
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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's words, 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."
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 was later dismissive of it, claiming he had "sugar coated" his message. Certainly there is irony in Lennon, a prodigious shopper, 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 retired to concentrate on his family life.
The retirement lasted until 1980, when he and Ono produced Double Fantasy, practically a concept album dealing with their relationship.
Lennon's son with Cynthia, Julian Lennon, enjoys a notable recording career of his own, as does his son with Yoko, Sean Lennon.
Chapman made no attempt to flee. He paced on the sidewalk reading The Catcher in the Rye until police arrived. He surrendered immediately and told the police he had acted alone.
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 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 in Central Park, across the street from the Dakota building in memory of Lennon. It has become something of a shrine to Lennon, all the Beatles, and the cultural memory of the 1960s.
In March, 2002, his native city, Liverpool, honoured his memory by renaming their airport "Liverpool John Lennon Airport", and adopting as its motto a line from his song "Imagine", "Above us only sky".
Lennon is included in the top 10 of the 2002 "100 Greatest Britons" poll sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public. The BBC History Magazine comments: "Generational influence is immense".
John Lennon wrote two books himself: A Spaniard in the Works, and John Lennon: In his own write.
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