Lennon, John Winston Ono (9th October 1940-8th
December 1980)
He was a musician and singer-songwriter born in Liverpool, England, supposedly during a
German air raid on Merseyside.His
father was a merchant seaman who left when he was five and his mother,
Julia, asked his aunt and uncle to take care of him.The song "Julia" was
written for her and he named his eldest son Julian in her memory.He attended Liverpool College of Art
where he would meet his first wife Cynthia Powell, but he eventually
dropped out devoting himself entirely to music.His Aunt Mimi bought him his first
guitar saying "The guitar's all very well John, but
you'll never make a living out of it."He later gave her a silver platter
with that engraved on it.He
formed The Quarrymen which was named after his school and after adding Paul
McCartney and George Harrison they became a rock 'n' roll group called
Johnny and the Moondogs which became The Silver Beetles and eventually The
Beatles.Along with Paul
McCartney they became possibly the most famous songwriting team in the
history of popular music with their songs being performed by literally
thousands of artists and known throughout the world.He usually played rhythm guitar and
keyboards and, singing lead vocals much of the time, he sometimes used
pseudonyms such as Dr. Winston O'Boogie, Mel Torment and The Reverend
Fred Gherkin. He was known for being outspoken and at one time when he had
said The Beatles were more popular than Jesus, their music was banned and
concerts cancelled and even the Vatican got involved although
accepted his public apology.After the death of their manager Brian Epstein he moved from his
accepted role as leader of the group and became involved with drugs,
regularly showing his dislike of the group's projects such as Let It Be.He was the first member to leave the group
but agreed not to have it announced until the band renegotiated their recording
contract and later said "I started the group. I finished it
"His relationship
with Yoko Ono was very well known, often being criticized, and he was the
first to break the rule of no girlfriends or wives being allowed in the
studio with The Beatles. They were very involved with public protests of Vietnam and
the British involvement with Nigeria-Biafra and he returned his MBE to
Queen Elizabeth. They married in Gibraltar
in 1969 and spent their honeymoon in a "Bed-In for Peace" in Amsterdam.They repeated this in Montreal and during
that time recorded the song "Give Peace a Chance".His 1971 solo album Imagine was his most successful,
with the title track becoming an anthem for various peace movements.The Plastic Ono Band which was
conceived by John and Yoko prior to the break-up of The Beatles have been
credited as being a major influence on hard rock and punk music.He won his green card to stay in the
USA
in 1975 after the Nixon Administration's deportation proceedings
against him, which began in 1972, were cancelled.In 1975 he moved to Los Angeles with his companion May Pang
in what Yoko Ono termed "The Lost Weekend" and he collaborated
with Elton John on the hit "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night"
as well as appearing as a surprise guest with him in concert at MadisonSquareGarden.He made his last public appearance
in a TV special on 18th April 1975.His son
Sean was born later that year and he and Yoko Ono went into retirement
which lasted until 1980 when he released the album Double Fantasy and saw success with the single "(Just Like)
Starting Over".On 8th December
1980
he was shot by Mark Chapman in front of his home after returning from a
recording session.He had
signed a copy of the album for him six hours previously.A number of memorials have been made
in his honour with the best known being the Strawberry Fields Memorial in Central Park, New York.Liverpool renamed their airport in
his name and use the motto "Above us only sky" and the planet
4147 which was discovered in 1983 has also been named in his memory.
Beatles Recordings
If I Fell (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
Capitol, X-6283, X45037 (US 45)
Got to Get You into My Life (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
