Astro-Rayological Interpretation & Charts
Quotes
Biography
Images and Physiognomic Interpretation

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All we are saying is give peace a chance.

And so this is Xmas for black and for white, for yellow and red, let's stop all the fight.

As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.

Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first - rock and roll or Christianity.

Everything is clearer when you're in love.

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn't enough and you have to go and get shot or something.

He didn't come out of my belly, but my God, I've made his bones, because I've attended to every meal, and how he sleeps, and the fact that he swims like a fish because I took him to the ocean. I'm so proud of all those things. But he is my biggest pride.

I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?

I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong.

I don't believe in killing whatever the reason!

I don't intend to be a performing flea any more. I was the dreamweaver, but although I'll be around I don't intend to be running at 20,000 miles an hour trying to prove myself. I don't want to die at 40.

I don't know which will go first - rock 'n' roll or Christianity.

I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people.

If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that... I believe in what I do, and I'll say it.

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.

If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal.

If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'.

Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one.

It doesn't matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I'm a woman or a man.

It was like being in the eye of a hurricane. You'd wake up in a concert and think, Wow, how did I get here?

Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.

Love is the flower you've got to let grow.

Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it.

My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.

Newspaper people have a habit of putting you in the front pages to sell their papers, and then after they've sold their papers and got big circulation's, they say, 'Look at what we've done for you.'

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.

Part of me suspects that I'm a loser, and the other part of me thinks I'm God Almighty.

Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law. It's nine-tenths of the problem.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

Rituals are important. Nowadays it's hip not to be married. I'm not interested in being hip.

Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn't insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.

The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that's making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?

The cross of the Legion of Honor has been conferred on me. However, few escape that distinction.

The more I see the less I know for sure.

The older generation are leading this country to galloping ruin!

The postman wants an autograph. The cab driver wants a picture. The waitress wants a handshake. Everyone wants a piece of you.

The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.

The worst drugs are as bad as anybody's told you. It's just a dumb trip, which I can't condemn people if they get into it, because one gets into it for one's own personal, social, emotional reasons. It's something to be avoided if one can help it.

There's nothing you can know that isn't known.

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

We were all on this ship in the sixties, our generation, a ship going to discover the New World. And the Beatles were in the crow's nest of that ship.

We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity.

We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it.

When I hold you in my arms and I feel my finger on your trigger I know no one can do me no harm because happiness is a warm gun.

When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream.

You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!

You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.

You have to be a bastard to make it, and that's a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.

You're just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You've got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It's all down to you, mate.
In His Own Words:

About his time in art school, John said:

"My whole school life was a case of 'I couldn't care less'. It was just a joke as far as I was concerned. Art was the only thing I could do, and my headmaster told me that if I didn't go to art school I might as well give up life. I wasn't really keen. I thought it would be a crowd of old men, but I should make the effort and make something of myself. I stayed for five years doing commercial art. Frankly, I found it all as bad as maths and science. And I loathed those. The funny thing was I didn't even pass art in the GCE. I spent the exam time doing daft cartoons. I got into art school by doing some decent stuff and taking it along to show them."

On musical differences:

"From our earliest days in Liverpool, George and I on the one hand and Paul on the other had different musical tastes. Paul preferred 'pop type' music and we preferred what is now called 'underground'. This may have led to arguments, particularly between Paul and George, but the contrast in tastes, I'm sure, did more good than harm, musically speaking, and contributed to our success."

 

 

John Winston Ono 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.)

's childhood years were struck with tragedy. He lived with his parents in Liverpool until his father, Fred Lennon, walked out on the family. His mother, Julia, then decided that she was unable to care for John as well as she should and so gave him to her sister, Mimi, who resided nearby at 251 Menlove Avenue. Although John lived apart from his mother he still kept in contact with her through regular visits, and during this time she was responsible for introducing her son to a lifelong interest in music by teaching him how to play the banjo. John's life was to change dramatically soon after his 16th birthday when his mother was killed after she was struck by a car which was being driven by a drunken off-duty police officer. (The young Lennon unfortunately witnessed this event and it had a profound influence on some of his later songs). His Aunt Mimi was able to get him accepted into the Liverpool College of Art by showing them some of his drawings, and it was there that he met his future wife, Cynthia Powell. However, John steadily grew to hate the conformity of art school and like many young men of his age became increasingly interested in Rock 'n' Roll music and American singers like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. Eventually, in the late 1950s, Lennon formed his own skiffle group called The Quarry Men, which later became The Silver Beatles (a tribute to Buddy Holly's Crickets) and soon afterwards was shortened to The Beatles.
Beatles career
often spoke his mind. On March 4, 1966, in an interview for the London Evening Standard with Maureen Cleave, he made the following statement:
"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."
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 wasn't knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it's true more for England than here. I'm not saying that we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it's all this."
On a sidenote, the Vatican accepted his apology.
Solo career
Of the four former Beatles, Lennon had perhaps the most varied recording career, often reflecting the vicissitudes of his personality. While he was still a Beatle, Lennon and Ono recorded three albums of experimental and difficult electronic music, Two Virgins, Life With The Lions, and Wedding Album. His first 'solo' album of popular music was Live Peace In Toronto, recorded in 1969 (prior to the breakup of the Beatles) at the Rock 'n' Roll Festival in Toronto with a Plastic Ono Band including Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann. He also recorded three singles in his initial solo phase, the anti-war anthem "Give Peace a Chance", "Cold Turkey" (about his struggles with heroin) and "Instant Karma".
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 during which he had an affair with Ono's former secretary May Pang, 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.
It was during his time in New York that Lennon purportedly engaged in sexual relationships with men, according to biographers Albert Goldman (The Lives of ) and Geoffrey Giuliano (Lennon in New York). Lennon's estate, however, has denied charges that he was bisexual.
Lennon's son with Cynthia, Julian Lennon, enjoys a notable recording career of his own, as does his son with Yoko, Sean Lennon.

Assassination and memorial
In the morning of December 8, 1980, in New York City, a mentally deranged fan, Mark David Chapman of Honolulu, asked for an autograph from Lennon, which he received. Chapman remained in the vicinity of the Dakota Apartments for most of that day, probably sneaking into the carriage vestibule of the Dakota as a fireworks demonstration in central Park about 9pm distracted the doorman and most in the street that evening. Later that evening, at 10:50 p.m.,

Lennon and Ono were returning via limousine to their apartment building, The Dakota -- 72nd Street & Central Park West -- from recording a single by Ono, "Walking On Thin Ice", for their next album. Chapman was hiding in the carriage vestibule as Lennon and Ono got out of the car. As Lennon walked past him, Chapman called out from the darkness "Mr. Lennon!", then moving forward assumed what witnesses later called a "combat stance," a crouched position with gun in both hands, and fired five shots just as Lennon was turning around. Four of the bullets struck Lennon in the back. He yelled "I'm shot, I'm shot," and ran a few steps towards the building before collapsing in the entranceway from the vestibule. A security guard called 911; Lennon remained conscious as paramedics arrived. Two police officers drove Lennon via their patrol car to Roosevelt Hospital. One of the officers, obviously trying to help Lennon maintain consciousness, asked the dying man if he knew who he was. Lennon's final words were reported to be "I'm of the Beatles". As Lennon was choking on his own blood, it is more likely that the officers' initial reports are more correct and that Lennon simply said "Yeah" when asked if he was John Lennon. After arriving at the hospital, he died of cardiac arrest as a result of massive blood loss. Reportedly, the song playing on the hospital tannoy at the moment of Lennon's death was a Beatles hit, "All My Loving". A crowd was already gathering in the Roosevelt Hospital courtyard, some of the people on their knees in prayer. A young man led the Rosary.

Chapman made no attempt to flee. He paced up and down the sidewalk reading The Catcher in the Rye until police arrived. He surrendered immediately and told the police he had acted alone. News reporters on New York's WABC interviewed one police officer who described Chapman "as a whacko, flatly." Other policemen referred to him as a "local screwball".
Meanwhile, at the hospital, Yoko Ono was the first to be told the news of Lennon's death, to which she reportably remarked, "oh, no, no, no...tell me it isn't true." Later, in a press conference held in the Roosevelt Hospital courtyard, Dr. Stephan Lynn confirmed the news that John Winston Ono Lennon, founder of The Beatles, was dead. "Extensive resuscitative efforts were made," he said, "but in spite of transfusions and many procedures, he could not be resuscitated."
Hundreds, possibly thousands of people gathered in the street outside the Dakota that night. They lit candles, laid down flowers near the gate, and sang Lennon's best known songs. "He was a symbol of peace," one mourner said in an interview with WABC's Shelly Sonstein, "and the whole movement of realization." Back in the apartment, Yoko Ono was grateful to the people but sent word that their singing kept her awake; she asked that they disperse and re-convene in Central Park on the following Sunday, December 14, at 2 p.m. EST, for ten minutes' silent prayer. Her request for a silent gathering was honoured all over the world.
Millions of Beatles fans had thought of 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.

John Winston Lennon was born on the evening of 9 October 1940 during the height of Germany's Blitz on Britain. He inherited his mother's reddish-blonde hair and his father's slightly squinted eyes and prominent nose. Both of his parents had musical background and experience, though neither pursued it seriously. 's childhood years were tinged with tragedy. He lived with his parents in Liverpool until his father Fred Lennon, a merchant seaman, walked out on the family. His mother, Julia, then decided that she was unable to care for John as well as she should and so gave him to her sister, Mimi, who resided nearby at 251 Menlove Avenue. Roles were reversed as the socially class-concious, strict but loving Aunt Mimi became mother to John, while his true mother Julia acted more like a free-willed aunt who visited regularly and spoiled the lad.
Early years

John Winston Lennon was born on the evening of 9 October 1940 during the height of Germany's Blitz on Britain. He inherited his mother's reddish-blonde hair and his father's slightly squinted eyes and prominent nose. Both of his parents had musical background and experience, though neither pursued it seriously. 's childhood years were tinged with tragedy. He lived with his parents in Liverpool until his father Fred Lennon, a merchant seaman, walked out on the family. His mother, Julia, then decided that she was unable to care for John as well as she should and so gave him to her sister, Mimi, who resided nearby at 251 Menlove Avenue. Roles were reversed as the socially class-concious, strict but loving Aunt Mimi became mother to John, while his true mother Julia acted more like a free-willed aunt who visited regularly and spoiled the lad.

Around adolescence, Lennon developed severe myopia, or shortsightedness, and was obliged to wear thick, horn-rimmed glasses in order to see clearly. But only grudgingly did he allow himself to be photographed bespectacled, even though one of his idols, Buddy Holly, wore glasses. During his early Beatle career, Lennon wore contacts or prescription sunglasses, but later finally accepted his fate and donned his trademark, round "granny-glasses" in late 1966. Many people wear such glasses today, even if they do not actually need them to see. Although John lived apart from his mother he still kept in contact with her through regular visits, and during this time Julia was responsible for introducing her son to a lifelong interest in music by teaching him how to play the banjo. Soon after his 16th birthday, his mother was killed after she was struck by a car which was being driven by a drunken off-duty police officer. This event influenced many of his later songs, and was also one of the factors that cemented his friendship with Paul McCartney, who lost his mother to breast cancer at the age of 14. Later, in 1968, Lennon wrote a song entitled Julia in honour of his mother.

His Aunt Mimi was able to get him accepted into the Liverpool College of Art by showing them some of his drawings, and it was there that he met his future wife, Cynthia Powell. However, John steadily grew to hate the conformity of art school and, like many young men of his age, became increasingly interested in Rock 'n' Roll music and American singers like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. Eventually, in the late 1950s, Lennon formed his own skiffle group called The Quarry Men, which later became The Silver Beetles (a tribute to Buddy Holly's Crickets) and soon afterwards was shortened to The Beatles.

He married Cynthia in 1962 after she became pregnant with his child, Julian.

Role in the Beatles

As a member of The Beatles, Lennon had a profound influence on rock and roll and in expanding the genre's boundaries during the 1960s. He is widely considered, along with fellow-writing partner Paul McCartney, as one of the most influential singer-songwriter-musicians of the 20th century. Of the two, Lennon is generally viewed as the better lyricist, while McCartney is seen as the more accomplished composer. Though overly simplistic, this view does have some truth as much of the songs credited to Lennon-McCartney, but actually inspired by Lennon himself are more developed, introspective pieces often in the first-person and dealing with more personal issues. Lennon's lyrics are also often the more lyrical, due to his love of word-play, double-meaning and strange words. His most surreal pieces of songwriting, Strawberry Fields Forever and I Am the Walrus are fine example of his unique style. Lennon's partnership in songwriting with McCartney many times involved him in complementing and counterbalancing McCartney's upbeat, positive outlook with the other side of the coin, as one of their songs, Getting Better demonstrates:

McCartney: I have to admit it's gettin' better, it's gettin' better all the time.

Lennon: It couldn't get much worse!

often spoke his mind freely. On March 4, 1966, in an interview for the London Evening Standard with Maureen Cleave, he made the following statement:

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

While the statement is certianly an odd one to make about one of the world's major religions, many view it as taken out of context. It should be noted that, like the other major religions, Christianity has been around for milennia and has shown no hint of decline. Regardless, when read in the proper context of the article, Lennon sounds actually saddened that a rock group such as The Beatles became more important to many people than spirituality. Though the article was unnoticed in the UK, there was a severe backlash by conservative religious groups in the U.S. 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. Lennon seems to have been quite distressed by this row and later admitted that he didn't like having introduced more hate into the world. On August 11, 1966, he 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 wasn't knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it's true more for England than here. I'm not saying that we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it's all this."

The Vatican accepted his apology. He was often misquoted as saying "bigger than Jesus", which led many to believe that he meant that the Beatles were better than Jesus. Whether he thought that (at the time anyway) is not clear, but he certainly did not say that.

On November 9, 1966, after their final tour ended and right after he had wrapped up filming a minor role in the film How I Won the War, Lennon visited an art exhibit of Yoko Ono's at the Indica art gallery in London. The Beatle was impressed by Ono's art, most notably a piece consisting of a small word which could only be read with a magnifying glass from a ladder. The word was "yes". "It was positive!" he enthusiastically told Rolling Stone magazine in 1970. Ono and Lennon, both married, immediately made an impression on each other. They occasionally made contact with each other during the period of Sergeant Pepper and the "Summer of Love."

Finally in the spring of 1968, after returning disenchanted from a transcendental meditation retreat in India, Lennon began his love affair with Ono, and revealed the fact to his increasingly estranged wife Cynthia. Cynthia Lennon filed for divorce later that year, while Lennon and Ono from then on were inseperable in public and private, as well as during Beatles recording sessions. This new development led to obvious friction with the other members of the group, and heightened the tension during the 1968 White Album sessions.

Undue blame has been heavily placed on Ono as the sole cause of the group's fracture, as they were already diverging shortly after the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, in 1967. Lennon's immediate reaction to Epstein's death had been, "The Beatles are finished." What he saw as misguided leadership from McCartney after this seems to have had a lot to do with the fracture between them.

At the end of 1968, Lennon and Ono performed as Dirty Mac on the The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.

During his last two years as member of The Beatles, Lennon remained as vocal as ever, spending much of his time with Yoko on public displays speaking out against the Vietnam War, and for peace. He sent back the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) he got from the Queen of England, reportedly "with love", to protest British support of the Vietnam War and their involvement in African affairs. On March 20, 1969, and Yoko Ono were married in Gibraltar, and spent their honeymoon in Amsterdam in a "bed-in" for peace. John and Yoko followed up their honeymoon with another "bed-in" for peace this time held in Montreal. During the second "bed-in" the couple recorded "Give Peace a Chance". They were mainly patronized as a couple of eccentrics by the media, but still were important figures in the anti-war movement. Shortly after, John changed his middle name from Winston to Ono to show his "oneness" with Yoko. Lennon wrote "The Ballad of John and Yoko" about his marriage and the press's take on it all.

They were mainly patronized as a couple of eccentrics by the media, yet they did a great deal for the peace movement, as well as for other pet causes, such as women's liberation and racial harmony. As with the "Bed-In" campaign, Lennon and Ono usually advocated their causes with whimsical demonstrations, such as Bagism, first introduced during a Vienna press conference. Shortly after, Lennon changed his middle name from Winston to Ono to show his "oneness" with his new wife. Lennon wrote "The Ballad of John and Yoko" about his marriage and the subsequent press it generated.
After both being injured in the summer of 1969 in a car accident in Scotland, Lennon arranged for Yoko to be constantly with him in the studio as he recorded his last album with The Beatles, Abbey Road. A full-sized bed was rolled into the studio so that Lennon would not be separated from Ono. Abbey Road was the last polished, united effort by the group, and after its release in the autumn of 1969, it seemed the four members had made a peaceful parting of ways. But the release of the rough, and over-orchestrated "Let It Be" album in May, 1970 had acrimonious results. While the group managed to hang together to produce it, soon thereafter business issues related to Apple Corps came between them.
The failed Get Back/Let It Be recording/filming sessions did nothing to improve relations within the band. Lennon decided to quit the Beatles but was talked out of saying anything publically. Phil Spector's involvement in trying to revive the Let It Be material then drove a further wedge between Lennon (who supported Spector) and McCartney (who opposed him.). Though the split would only become legally final some time later, Lennon and McCartney's partnership had come to a bitter and definite end.
McCartney soon made a press announcement, declaring he had quit the Beatles, and promoting his new solo record.

Solo career
Of the four former Beatles, Lennon had perhaps the most varied recording career, often reflecting the vicissitudes of his personality. While he was still a Beatle, Lennon and Ono recorded three albums of experimental and difficult electronic music, Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With The Lions, and Wedding Album. His first 'solo' album of popular music was Live Peace In Toronto, recorded in 1969 (prior to the breakup of the Beatles) at the Rock 'n' Roll Festival in Toronto with a Plastic Ono Band including Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann. He also recorded three singles in his initial solo phase, the anti-war anthem Give Peace a Chance, "Cold Turkey" (about his struggles with heroin) and "Instant Karma!".

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." "Imagine" was Lennon's most memorable song, a song that still inspires generations of peace builders today.

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.

Throughout his solo career, he appeared on his own albums (as well as those of other artists like Elton John) under such pseudonyms as Dr. Winston O'Boogie, Mel Torrment, and The Reverend Fred Gherkin.

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 during which he had an extramarital affair with Ono's former secretary May Pang, he retired to concentrate on his family life.

The retirement lasted until 1980, when he and Ono produced Double Fantasy, a concept album dealing with their relationship. He also started work on Milk and Honey which he left unfinished. It was some time before Ono could bring herself to complete it.

Lennon's son with Cynthia, Julian Lennon, enjoys a notable recording career of his own, as does his son with Yoko, Sean Lennon.
Murder
In the morning of December 8, 1980, in New York City, a fan described as "obsessed" [1], Mark David Chapman of Honolulu, Chapman had shaken hands with John who had autographed Chapman's newly-purchased copy of Double Fantasy. Chapman remained in the vicinity of the Dakota for most of the day, later sneaking into the building's carriage vestibule as a fireworks demonstration at around 9pm in nearby Central Park distracted the attentions of the doorman and passers-by in the street.

Later that evening, at 10:50 pm, Lennon and Ono returned by limousine to the apartment building from recording Ono's single "Walking On Thin Ice" for their next album. Chapman was hiding in the carriage vestibule as Lennon and Ono got out of the car. As Lennon walked past him, Chapman called out from the darkness "Mr. Lennon!", then moving forward pulled out a gun, which police later described as a Charter Arms .38. He assumed what witnesses called a "combat stance"—a crouched position with gun in both hands—and fired five shots just as Lennon was turning around.

Most reliable accounts state that three of the bullets struck Lennon in the back and arm. He yelled "I'm shot, I'm shot", and ran a few steps towards the building before collapsing in the entranceway from the vestibule. A security guard immediately called 911; Lennon remained conscious as police from a nearby station arrived within minutes, but already he was in a dire state, bleeding to death on the floor. Unable to wait for an ambulance, two officers hastily carried Lennon to the back of their squad car, reportedly hearing his bones cracking, and sped to nearby
Meanwhile, Chapman made no attempt to flee. He paced up and down the sidewalk reading The Catcher in the Rye until police arrived. He surrendered immediately and told the police he had acted alone. News reporters from New York's WABC interviewed one police officer who described Chapman "as a whacko". Other policemen referred to him as a "local screwball".

After arriving at the hospital, doctors worked frantically to revive the fading Lennon, resorting to massaging his heart, but to no avail. He died of cardiac arrest shortly after 11 pm as a result of having lost nearly 80% of his blood volume. Reportedly, the song playing in the hospital at the moment of Lennon's death was a Beatles hit, "All My Loving". A crowd was already gathering in the Roosevelt Hospital courtyard, some of the people on their knees in prayer. A young man led the Rosary.

Ono was the first to be told the news of Lennon's death, to which she reportedly remarked "tell me it isn't true." Later, in a press conference held in the Roosevelt Hospital courtyard, Dr. Stephan Lynn confirmed the news that , founder of The Beatles, was dead. "Extensive resuscitative efforts were made," he said, "but in spite of transfusions and many procedures, he could not be resuscitated." Millions more would receive the sad news from Howard Cosell, commentator for ABC's Monday Night Football, as the game wrapped up that night.
Memorial

 

BORN: 09/10/1940
BIRTH PLACE: Liverpool, UK
DIED: 08/12/1980
BIOGRAPHY

Founder and song-writer of the most popular band ever - The Beatles - 's life and influence was at the core of 1960s society and culture.

John's father left his mother when he was three, and the toddler was sent to live with his aunt. He was a rebellious child, preferring to draw and doodle, rather than study. At 16, his aunt decided school was not getting Lennon very far and she got him accepted into Liverpool Art School.

Lennon soon took to music. He started a skiffle band called The Quarrymen that later morphed into The Beatles, with Lennon as the band's musical and social leader, while he and Paul McCartney wrote the songs. It was Lennon who also led the band in drug use, and encouraged them to follow his guru, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

In the late 1950s Lennon married his art school classmate, Cynthia Powell, and they had a son, Julian, in 1963. Five years later, with Lennon openly dating the older Japanese-American artist Yoko Ono, Cynthia filed for divorce.

In 1968 and 1969 the media flooded its pages with Lennon and Ono. First the pair recorded the inaccessible ‘Unfinished Music’ album; its cover photo of the couple naked caused a sensation and it was banned from many stores. Columnists accused Ono of influencing Lennon, and causing trouble for the beloved Beatles. The lovers recorded more difficult music, and decried political injustices, from the intimacy of their bed. Late in the year, Lennon told The Beatles he wanted to quit.

Through the 1970' Lennon made music with Ono, releasing the enduring and ever popular ‘Imagine’, in 1971. On Thanksgiving night of 1974, Lennon gave a legendary performance with Elton John at Madison Square Gardens, which was to be his last public performance. He announced his retirement in 1976.

Deciding to make a comeback, Lennon recorded a new album in 1980, which was starting to gain popularity, when he was shot by Mark David Chapman as he entered his apartment in New York. Devastated by his death, the world fell to mourning, with an international 10-minute silence.