John Lennon - the mercurial Beatle
John Lennon was the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist with The Beatles. Alongside his accomplished music career, he was a peace activist, promoter of alternative lifestyle and challenger of the establishment. His song-writing partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history.
John Winston Lennon was born in 1940, in Liverpool. His parents named him after his paternal grandfather, John Jack Lennon and Prime Minster Winston Churchill. He was brought up mainly by his maternal aunt Mimi, in a semi-detached house in the middle class suburb of Woolton, which is now a National Trust-preserved property. Nearby was the former Salvation Army children's home Strawberry Field, in the gardens of which he found tranquility and inspiration.
John Lennon began his music in a band called The Quarrymen but gained his fame and recognition with The Beatles, during the period from 1961-1970. His own plans were a major prompt to the break up of the group, when he wanted to pursue an independent career, including his partnership with his second wife Yoko Ono.
As the Vietnam War raged in 1969, the pair had two week-long Bed-ins for Peace, one at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam and one at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, each intended to be a nonviolent protest against wars, and experimental tests of new ways to promote peace. In the same year he and Yoko released the single Give Peace a Chance. In 1971, perhaps his most famous song, Imagine, was released.
He was attracted to mystical thinking and self-discovery. In 1970, Lennon and Ono had Primal Therapy from therapist Arthur Janov - designed to release emotional pain from early childhood. From this came Lennon’s debut solo album, John Lennon/ Plastic Ono Band, 1970. The album featured the song Mother, where Lennon apparently faced his feelings of childhood rejection.
On the 8th December 1980 Lennon, aged 40, was murdered outside his apartment in Manhattan, New York, by a mentally unstable and obsessed fan. Lennon was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead on arrival. The following day his wife issued a statement, saying 'there is no funeral for John'. She added, 'John loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him'.
Lennon was known to have a very rebellious nature throughout his life. A few months before his death in 1980 he was quoted saying, 'A part of me would like to be accepted by all facets of society and not be this loudmouthed lunatic poet/musician. But I cannot be what I am not.'
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