Historical Figure
John Lennon
1940–1980
English musician and activist (1940–1980)
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"Interview on David Peel" — 1972
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Biography
John Winston Ono Lennon was an English musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history.
Timeline
The story of John Lennon, told in moments.
Born during a German air raid on Liverpool. His mother Julia names him John Winston, after Churchill. His father Alf, a merchant seaman, vanishes when John is a toddler. Julia is overwhelmed and gives John to her sister Mimi to raise. He grows up believing his parents abandoned him.
Hears Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" on the radio. Forms a skiffle band called the Quarrymen. He is 15, already sharp-tongued and confrontational. His Aunt Mimi tells him the guitar is fine but he'll never make a living at it.
Meets Paul McCartney at a church garden fete in Woolton, Liverpool. Lennon is playing with the Quarrymen. McCartney, 15, watches the set, then shows Lennon he can tune a guitar and play "Twenty Flight Rock" by Eddie Cochran. Lennon invites him to join the band. It takes him a week to decide. He's worried McCartney might be better than him.
Beatlemania. The Beatles arrive at JFK Airport on February 7. Three thousand fans are waiting. They perform on The Ed Sullivan Show three days later. 73 million viewers. In that single year, they hold the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously. No one has done it before or since.
Tells a journalist the Beatles are "more popular than Jesus now." In Britain, the quote passes without much reaction. In the American South, radio stations organize record burnings. The Ku Klux Klan nails Beatles albums to crosses. Lennon holds a press conference and apologizes. Sort of.
The Beatles travel to Rishikesh, India, to study Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. They write most of the White Album there. Lennon leaves after two months amid rumors the Maharishi made advances toward Mia Farrow.
Records 'Plastic Ono Band' with just bass, drums, and guitar. Primal scream therapy sessions with Arthur Janov influence every track. He screams 'Mother' over and over. The album sells poorly compared to McCartney's debut. Critics later call it one of the greatest albums ever made.
Shot four times in the back at point-blank range outside the Dakota by Mark David Chapman, a 25-year-old from Honolulu who had asked for his autograph six hours earlier and been holding a copy of The Catcher in the Rye. Lennon is rushed to Roosevelt Hospital in the back of a police car. He is pronounced dead on arrival. He is 40. Yoko is beside him. Outside the Dakota, crowds gather and sing his songs through the night.
Show full timeline (12 entries)
Marries Yoko Ono at the British Consulate in Gibraltar. Their honeymoon is a Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton. They invite the press into their hotel room and talk about ending the Vietnam War from under the covers for a week.
Releases "Imagine." Recorded at his home studio in Tittenhurst Park, then mixed at Ascot Sound Studios. The piano part takes one take. The song asks you to imagine no possessions. He is living in a 72-room Georgian mansion.
Retires from music after the birth of his son Sean. Becomes a house husband in the Dakota apartment building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Bakes bread. Changes diapers. Doesn't record a single song for five years.
Central Park's Strawberry Fields memorial opens on what would have been his 45th birthday. The mosaic in the center reads "Imagine." It's directly across from the Dakota, where he was killed. Visitors leave flowers there every day.
In Their Own Words (20)
There's only one person in the United States we ever wanted to meet … not that he wanted us. And we met him last night. We can't tell you how we felt. We just idolised him so much. … You can't imagine what a thrill that was last night. Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been an Elvis, there wouldn't have been the Beatles.
Statement (28 August 1965) after meeting Elvis Presley, as quoted in The Leading Men of MGM (2005) by Jane Ellen Wayne, p. 386; also partly quoted in The Beatles: The Authorized Biography (1968) by Hunter Davies, p. 19, 2005
For our last number, I'd like to ask your help. Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands. And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry.
Royal Variety Performance in London (4 November 1963) attended by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret. Of this incident Mark Hertsgaard reports in A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles (1995): "The remark provoked warm laughter and applause, and was greeted with profound relief by Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who had feared Lennon would make good on his pre-performance threat to tell them to "rattle their fuckin' jewelry"., 1995
I go to restaurants and the groups always play "Yesterday." I even signed a guy's violin in Spain after he played us "Yesterday." He couldn't understand that I didn't write the song. But I guess he couldn't have gone from table to table playing "I Am The Walrus."
On the song "Yesterday", written by Paul McCartney, 1980
Well, that's rubbish, you know. Nobody controls me. I'm uncontrollable. The only one who controls me is me, and that's just barely possible.
On whether he's under Yoko's spell, under her control, 1980
I want you to make love, not war — I know you've heard it before.
"Mind Games" — the final fading statement on the track., 1973
Artifacts (15)
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