One of the most remarkable, captivating, and contentious characters in 20th-century music is John Lennon. The composer’s tunes made it into the world rock gold mine. Even after his passing, the British national continues to occupy a mysterious and incomprehensible place in the rankings of the most iconic people in human history.
Early life and Adolescence
Liverpool, a port city in England, is where John Winston was born. His father, Alfred Lennon, and mother, Julia, didn’t spend much time together. Alfred was called to the front shortly after their son was born, and Julia later married a different man. The future musician moved in with his mother’s sister, Mimi Smith, who was childless, when he was four years old. The youngster and the woman who gave him life were not so much mother and son as they were friendly. The boy saw her very seldom.
John had a high IQ from an early age, but he struggled in school because he could not handle the daily grind of classes. However, the boy’s artistic potential was already apparent in his early years; he was a gifted artist, produced his own magazine, and sang in a choir.
Teens began starting their own bands everywhere they could as the rock ‘n’ roll craze swept England in the mid-1950s. The youthful Lennon was no different. When the boy was younger, he formed a club named The Quarrymen; the organization’s name came from the school where its members attended.
Paul McCartney, the first musician from outside the city, joined the group a year later. He was more better at playing the guitar than the others, despite being younger. George Harrison, who had studied with him, soon accompanied him.
After failing his final exams in high school, Lennon was accepted only to the Liverpool College of Art, the only school to admit the oddball adolescent.
However, John was not drawn to an education in painting. The young guy grew closer to Stuart Sutcliffe, George, and Paul Sutcliffe—people he had met in college who asked him to join The Quarrymen as their bass guitarist. The group soon adopted the moniker Long Johnny and Silver Beetles, which they later abbreviated to the last word and added a play on words to. At that point, they started referring to themselves as The Beatles.
The Beatles
Beginning in the early 1960s, the young Britons turned their attention to music, beginning to produce their own songs in addition to covering well-known classics. The Beatles eventually rose to fame in their home city of Liverpool. Following this, they made multiple trips to Hamburg to perform at nightclubs.
At the time, the group’s look and musical taste were typical of a rock band: cowboy boots, leather jackets, Elvis Presley-inspired hairstyles, etc. However, when Brian Epstein took over as the Beatles’ manager in 1961, the members’ appearance underwent a dramatic transformation.
The musicians dressed professionally, donning suits without lapels and taking to the stage with poise. Stuart Sutcliffe stayed in Germany for the benefit of German photographer Astrid Kircher, who styled the Beatles’ iconic hairdo.
Beatlemania broke out in the UK following the release of the first single, Love Me Do, and the full-length album, Please Please Me. And the adoration of Liverpudlians raced over America, and then the world, following the publication of the new single, I Want to Hold Your Hand.
The Beatles released one record after another throughout the next three years, traveling constantly and living essentially out of luggage. After John, Paul, George, and Ringo ceased their tour in 1967 to focus on composing and recording new music, Lennon’s interest in the Beatles began to wane. The musician initially resigned as the quartet’s leader, and then he started writing music apart from McCartney for the first time in a long time.
Following the release of multiple highly successful albums, the group disbanded. Although this was formally recorded in 1970, the group’s issues had been present for the previous two years.
Independent work
In 1968, John recorded his debut solo album, titled Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins. Yoko Ono contributed to the work on this disk as well. All in one night, a musical psychedelic experiment was captured on tape. This record is a disjointed collection of shouts and moans rather than a song. Similar themes run through the following pieces: Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions and Wedding Album.
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’s debut song album was published in 1970. And the following album, Imagine, which came out a year later, nearly achieved the same level of success as The Beatles’ previous albums. The singer’s breakthrough single was the title track. This song came in third place on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2004 edition of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”. Lennon went on to make numerous compilation albums, live recordings, and five more studio albums.
Books and Movies
John is well-known for more than just penning hit songs. In addition, he is an actor. Lennon appeared in the musical films “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Help!”, “Magical Mystery Journey,” and “Let It Be” with other Beatles members. In the war comedy “How I Won the War,” the satire comedy “Dynamite Chicken,” and the drama “Fire in the Water,” the singer portrayed gunner Gripweed. In addition, Lennon directed a number of movies with Yoko Ono. The majority of the films were social and political.
In the 1960s, John Lennon achieved popularity as a writer. He wrote three books: “I Write as I Write” in 1964, “A Finger in the Wheel” the following year, and “Oral Skywriting,” which was released posthumously in 1986. Each volume is a compilation of tales in the vein of dark comedy, replete with numerous puns, wordplay, and intentional errors, as evidenced by the works’ titles.
Individual life
1962 saw Lennon wed Cynthia Powell, a fellow student, for the first time. Julian, their son, was born in April 1963. However, John’s frequent absences from the marriage due to the Beatles’ tours and his rising stardom made it weak. In 1967, Cynthia left her husband in pursuit of a quieter personal life, and the two went through a legal divorce the following year. There are reports that the separation happened after Powell discovered her husband having an affair with Yoko Ono.
Yoko Ono
John got to know a Japanese avant-garde artist in 1966. Following the start of their affair in 1968, John and Yoko were married and became a married couple in 1969. The Ballad of John and Yoko is a song that the pair dedicated to their own wedding. Sean Lennon, their son, was born in October 1975. Following this incident, John made his official musical career announcement, ceased traveling, made few public appearances, and prioritized raising his son. Nevertheless, the singer’s intense emotions for his new spouse did not stop him from briefly falling in love with Ono’s assistant, May Pang, in 1973.
Public Role
Maybe the new friendship with Yoko contributed to the musician’s greater political involvement starting in 1968. Enthusiasts perceived political undertones in the song Revolution from the “White Album” and the popular Come Together from the Abbey Road album. John made no secret of the fact that he supported world peace during this time. Since he thought that Britain sponsored armed conflicts, the singer even returned the Order of the British Empire in protest.
The artist and his spouse started giving politically charged public concerts in 1969. The “bed interview” that took place in Amsterdam was the most notable of all. Lennon and Ono allowed anyone who wanted to stay in their hotel room that day, and while they were there in their white pajamas, they also consented to being photographed and videotaped. The spouses held a week-long protest to draw attention to the atrocities of the Vietnam War. It was later reprised in Montreal by John and Yoko.
The artist wrote the popular song “Give Peace a Chance” during the Montreal “strike,” which went on to become the movement’s anthem. Following their anti-war concert in mid-December, Lennon was compared to John Kennedy and Mao Zedong by British television. The singer soon burned out from such demanding work and had to go into treatment.
The pair relocated to New York in 1971 in search of freedom and tranquility as Ono felt intimidated by and too inconvenient for the Beatles back home in England. John carried on with his political activities in the new nation, especially advocating for the civil rights of Indians. Naturally, this infuriated the local administration, who refused to provide the musician a residency permit for a considerable amount of time. Proclaiming anti-militaristic ideals, Some Time in New York City, with the brilliant song John Sinclair—a tribute to American political crusader John Sinclair—became the British artist’s final release.