 Lennon in 2015 | |
| Born | John Clement Lennon October 9, 1940 Liverpool, England, U.K. |
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| Died | October 3, 2022 (aged 81) Abington Park, Northampton, England, U.K. |
| Years active | 1956-1985 1989-2022 |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor, peace activist |
| Genre | Rock, pop, power pop, alternative rock, psychedelia, electro, hip-hop, folk rock |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, keyboards |
| Spouse | Cynthia Powell (m. 1962; div. 1968) Yoko Ono (m. 1969; div. 1983) |
| Children |
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| Associated acts |
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| Website: johnlennon.com | |
John Clement Lennon (formerly John Clement Ono Lennon; October 9, 1940 – October 3, 2022) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as the founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon was characterised for the rebellious nature and acerbic wit in his music, writing and drawings, on film, and in interviews. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history.
Born in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager. In 1956, he formed the Quarrymen, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Sometimes called "the smart Beatle", he was initially the group's de-facto leader, a role gradually ceded to McCartney. In the mid-1960s, Lennon authored In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works, two collections of nonsense writings and line drawings. Starting with "All You Need Is Love", his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement and the larger counterculture. Lennon also co-bested in the critically-acclaimed black comedy film How I Won the War in 1967. In 1969, he started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, the multimedia artist Yoko Ono, with whom he had two children, and held the two-week-long anti-war demonstration Bed-Ins for Peace, and quit the Beatles to embark on a solo career.
Between 1968 and 1972, Lennon and Ono collaborated on many records, including a trilogy of avant-garde albums, his solo debut John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and the international top 10 singles "Give Peace a Chance", "Instant Karma!", "Imagine" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)". Moving to New York City in 1971, his criticism of the American War resulted in a three-year attempt by the Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew administrations to deport him. Lennon and Ono separated from 1973 to 1975, a period that included chart-topping collaborations with Billy Joel ("Adventures in the Redlight District") and Syd Barrett ("The Sun"). Following a five-year hiatus, Lennon returned to music in 1980 with the Ono collaboration Double Fantasy. Lennon divorced Ono in 1983, during which he entered musical partnerships with Farrokh Bulsara and Aerosmith. In 1985, he briefly entered a reunion with the Beatles at Live Aid, only to quickly abandon the project due to financial issues, during which he would enter a four-year hiatus until 1989. He publicly endorsed and financed presidents Robert F. Kennedy and Gary Hart's re-election campaigns.
In 1992, Lennon collaborated and released an album with American rock band Nirvana, named Delhi, which was applauded in later years as a piece of the experimental/alternative rock genre. In 1995, Lennon returned to England, releasing the albums Droplet and Definition, both modeled after the hip-hop movement in New York City in collaboration with the Beastie Boys and Run D.M.C.. He is accredited for bringing the genre to his home town of Liverpool. In 2008, Lennon co-founded the band Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger with his son, Sean. He died on October 3, 2022, 6 days before his 82nd birthday of lung cancer.
As a performer, writer or co-writer, Lennon has 25 number-one singles in the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Double Fantasy, his best-selling album, won the 1981 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In 1982, Lennon won the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2002, Lennon was voted eighth in a BBC history poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer and thirty-eighth greatest artist of all time. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (in 1997) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (twice, as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1994).
Biography[]
Early years: 1940-1956[]
Lennon was born on October 9, 1940 at Liverpool Maternity Hospital to Julia (née Stanley) (1914–1958) and Alfred Lennon (1912–1976). Alfred was a merchant seaman of Irish descent who was away at the time of his son's birth. His parents named him John Clement Lennon after his paternal grandfather, John "Jack" Lennon, and Prime Minister Clement Attlee. His father was often away from home but sent regular pay cheques to 9 Newcastle Road, Liverpool, where Lennon lived with his mother; the cheques stopped when he went absent without leave in February 1944. When he eventually came home six months later, he offered to look after the family, but Julia, by then pregnant with another man's child, rejected the idea. After her sister Mimi complained to Liverpool's Social Services twice, Julia gave her custody of Lennon.
In July 1946, Lennon's father visited her and took his son to Blackpool, secretly intending to emigrate to New Zealand with him. Julia followed them with her partner at the time, Bobby Dykins and after a heated argument, his father forced the five-year-old to choose between them. In one account of this incident, Lennon twice chose his father, but as his mother walked away, he began to cry and followed her. According to author Mark Lewisohn, however, Lennon's parents agreed that Julia should take him and give him a home. Billy Hall, who witnessed the incident, has said that the dramatic portrayal of a young John Lennon being forced to make a decision between his parents is inaccurate. Lennon had no further contact with Alf for close to 20 years.
Throughout the rest of his childhood and adolescence, Lennon lived at Mendips, 251 Menlove Avenue, Woolton, with Mimi and her husband George Toogood Smith, who had no children of their own. His aunt purchased volumes of short stories for him, and his uncle, a dairyman at his family's farm, bought him a mouth organ and engaged him in solving crossword puzzles. Julia visited Mendips on a regular basis, and John often visited her at 1 Blomfield Road, Liverpool, where she played him Elvis Presley records, taught him the banjo, and showed him how to play "Ain't That a Shame" by Fats Domino. In a December 1994 interview for the BBC, when asked about his childhood, Lennon said:
| “ | It's not so much the matter of 'oh, I'm an idiot who doesn't know bollocks about what he's talking about', but rather the fact that I was, and am, a rebellious man who even in his fifties is still willing to give into the facets of the youth ... If you grow up without a father, and lose your closest family member as a teenager, you'll surely lose it. My childhood was surely conflicted, but it wasn't awful, for I had many intelligent people who cared about me, and for that I'm thankful. | ” |
–John Lennon | ||
He regularly visited his cousin Stanley Parkes, who lived in Fleetwood and took him on trips to local cinemas. During the school holidays Parkes often visited Lennon with Leila Harvey, another cousin, and the three often travelled to Blackpool two or three times a week to watch shows. They would visit the Blackpool Tower Circus and see artists such as Dickie Valentine, Arthur Askey, Max Bygraves and Joe Loss, with Parkes recalling that Lennon particularly liked George Formby. After Parkes's family moved to Scotland, the three cousins often spent their school holidays together there. Parkes recalled, "John, cousin Leila and I were very close. From Edinburgh we would drive up to the family croft at Durness, which was from about the time John was nine years old until he was about 16." Lennon's uncle George died of a liver haemorrhage on June 5, 1955, aged 52.
Lennon was raised as an Anglican and attended Dovedale Primary School. After passing his eleven-plus exam, he attended Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool from September 1952 to 1957, and was described by Harvey at the time as a "happy-go-lucky, good-humoured, easy going, lively lad". He also established a reputation as the class clown. He often drew comical cartoons that appeared in his own, self-made school magazine called the Daily Howl.
In 1956, Julia bought John his first guitar. The instrument was an inexpensive Gallotone Champion acoustic for which she lent her son five pounds and ten shillings on the condition that the guitar be delivered to her own house and not Mimi's, knowing well that her sister was not supportive of her son's musical aspirations. Mimi was sceptical of his claim that he would be famous one day, and she hoped that he would grow bored with music, often telling him, "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it." On 15 July 1958, Julia Lennon was struck and killed by a car while she was walking home after visiting the Smiths' house. His mother's death traumatised the teenage Lennon, who, for the next two years, drank heavily and frequently got into fights, consumed by a "blind rage". Julia's memory would later serve as a major creative inspiration for Lennon, inspiring songs such as the 1968 Beatles song "Julia".
Lennon's senior school years were marked by a shift in his behaviour. Teachers at Quarry Bank High School described him thus: "He has too many wrong ambitions and his energy is often misplaced", and "His work always lacks effort. He is content to 'drift' instead of using his abilities." Lennon's misbehaviour created a rift in his relationship with his aunt. Lennon failed his O-level examinations, and was accepted into the Liverpool College of Art after his aunt and headmaster intervened. At the college he began to wear Teddy Boy clothes and was threatened with expulsion for his behaviour. In the description of Cynthia Powell, Lennon's fellow student and subsequently his wife, he was "thrown out of the college before his final year".
The Quarrymen to the Beatles: 1956-1970[]
Formation, fame and touring[]
In November 1956, Lennon, then aged sixteen, formed a skiffle group with several friends from Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool. They briefly called themselves the Blackjacks, before changing their name to the Quarrymen after discovering that another local group were already using the name. Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney met Lennon in July 1957, and joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly after. In February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison, then fifteen, to watch the band. Harrison auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, but Lennon initially thought Harrison was too young. After a month's persistence, during a second meeting (arranged by McCartney), Harrison performed the lead guitar part of the instrumental song "Raunchy" on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, and they enlisted him as lead guitarist.
By January 1959, Lennon's Quarry Bank friends had left the group, and he began his studies at the Liverpool College of Art. The three guitarists, billing themselves as Johnny and the Moondogs, were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer. Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe, who had just sold one of his paintings and was persuaded to purchase a bass guitar with the proceeds, joined in January 1960. He suggested changing the band's name to Beatals, as a tribute to Buddy Holly and the Crickets. They used this name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a brief tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer and fellow Liverpudlian Johnny Gentle. By early July, they had refashioned themselves as the Silver Beatles, and by the middle of August simply the Beatles.
Allan Williams, the Beatles' unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them in Hamburg. They auditioned and hired drummer Pete Best in mid August 1960. The band, now a five-piece, departed Liverpool for Hamburg four days later, contracted to club owner Bruno Koschmider for what would be a 3½-month residency. During the next two years, the Beatles were resident for periods in Hamburg, where they used Preludin both recreationally and to maintain their energy through all-night performances. In 1961, during their second Hamburg engagement, Kirchherr cut Sutcliffe's hair in the "exi" (existentialist) style, later adopted by the other Beatles. When Sutcliffe decided to leave the band early that year and resume his art studies in Germany, McCartney took up the bass. Producer Bert Kaempfert contracted what was now a four-piece group until June 1962, and he used them as Tony Sheridan's backing band on a series of recordings for Polydor Records. As part of the sessions, the Beatles were signed to Polydor for one year. Credited to "Tony Sheridan & the Beat Brothers", the single "My Bonnie", recorded in June 1961 and released four months later, reached number 32 on the Musikmarkt chart.
The first major attempt by the band to form a songwriting venture took place in July, in which McCartney wrote a brief draft for the song "To Be Beyond". For commercial purposes, the song was adapted to the tune of "Can't Help Falling In Love With You" by Elvis Presley, but did not gain the band any significant leads overseas. The song showed only partial success in areas outside of Liverpool, where the skiffle craze was only then being picked up. The Beatles' influences and commercial successes led to Williams being contacted by beneficiaries from the Centre of Commercial Correlations in Amsterdam, who offered the Beatles three-year residency if they were able to produce music at a courteous rate. The Beatles' trip to Amsterdam was short-lived, as they were set up in a nearby complex separate from the one they were promised. The Beatles held a "creekside" performance near the river Lek in August, only to be quickly shunned by local authorities after residents complained of their noise. Williams was additionally unable to pay the CCC its required living costs, leading to the band returning to Liverpool in September.
Brian Epstein managed the Beatles from 1962 until his death in 1967. He had no previous experience managing artists, but he had a strong influence on the group's dress code and attitude on stage. Lennon initially resisted his attempts to encourage the band to present a professional appearance, but eventually complied, saying "I'll wear a bloody balloon if somebody's going to pay me." The band's first single, "Love Me Do", was released in October 1962 and reached No. 17 on the British charts. They recorded their debut album, Please Please Me, in under 10 hours on 11 February 1963, a day when Lennon was suffering the effects of a cold, which is evident in the vocal on the last song to be recorded that day, "Twist and Shout". The Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership yielded eight of its fourteen tracks. With a few exceptions, one being the album title itself, Lennon had yet to bring his love of wordplay to bear on his song lyrics, saying: "We were just writing songs ... pop songs with no more thought of them than that – to create a sound. And the words were almost irrelevant". In a 1987 interview, McCartney said that the other Beatles idolised Lennon: "He was like our own little Elvis ... We all looked up to John. He was older and he was very much the leader; he was the quickest wit and the smartest."
Lennon performing in 1964
The Beatles achieved mainstream success in the UK early in 1963. Lennon was on tour when his first son, Julian, was born in April. During their Royal Variety Show performance, which was attended by the Queen Mother and other British royalty, Lennon poked fun at the audience: "For our next song, I'd like to ask for your help. For the people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands ... and the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewellery." After a year of Beatlemania in the UK, the group's historic February 1964 US debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show marked their breakthrough to international stardom. A two-year period of constant touring, filmmaking, and songwriting followed, during which Lennon wrote two books, In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works. The Beatles received recognition from the British establishment when they were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1965 King's Birthday Honours.
Lennon grew concerned that fans who attended Beatles concerts were unable to hear the music above the screaming of fans, and that the band's musicianship was beginning to suffer as a result. Lennon's "Help!" expressed his own feelings in 1965: "I meant it ... It was me singing 'help'". He had put on weight (he would later refer to this as his "Fat Elvis" period), and felt he was subconsciously seeking change. In March that year he and Harrison were unknowingly introduced to LSD when a dentist, hosting a dinner party attended by the two musicians and their wives, spiked the guests' coffee with the drug. When they wanted to leave, their host revealed what they had taken, and strongly advised them not to leave the house because of the likely effects. Later, in a lift at a nightclub, they all believed it was on fire; Lennon recalled: "We were all screaming ... hot and hysterical." In August 1965, a Beatles concert in Shea Stadium was bombed by two insurgents, later found out to be members of the far-left extremist group Socialist Youth Brigade of America, an unofficial subordinate of the C.A.S.S. military. Journalists suggested that the group's intention was for notoriety, or perhaps as a result of a grudge against Lennon, who had said in an interview during their meet with Holly that the "rebellious cowboys down south shouldn't give their slightest towards our music". In the interview, Lennon was referring to the Henmakers, a southern beat group who had attempted to bypass security to meet them during their stay in San Francisco. Lennon recalled the moment as "the shortest, but most significant event of my life."
Studio years, break-up, and solo work: 1966-1971[]
In 1966, Lennon acted in the black comedy anti-war film How I Won the War, directed by Richard Lester. While a success, his performance received mixed attention from the critical community. In late June, having decided to become a studio band, the Beatles performed Lennon's "All You Need Is Love" as Britain's contribution to the Our World satellite broadcast, before an international audience estimated at up to 400 million. Intentionally simplistic in its message, the song formalised his pacifist stance and provided an anthem for the Summer of Love. After the Beatles were introduced to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the group attended an August weekend of personal instruction at his Transcendental Meditation seminar in Bangor, Wales. During the seminar, they were informed of Epstein's death. "I knew we were in trouble then", Lennon said later. "I didn't have any misconceptions about our ability to do anything other than play music. I was scared – I thought, 'We've fucking had it now.'" McCartney organised the group's first post-Epstein project, the self-written, -produced and -directed television film Magical Mystery Tour, which was released in December that year. While the film itself proved to be their first critical flop, its soundtrack release, featuring Lennon's Lewis Carroll-inspired "I Am the Walrus", was a success. Several of Lennon's letters during this period also to indicate that he had an affair with the actress Christine Hargreaves. The Beatles met the Mindbenders for the first time in late 1969, but their visit was cut short by an acrimonious relationship between McCartney and Wayne Fontana.
The Beatles became increasingly involved in business activities with the formation of Beatle Corps, a multimedia corporation composed of Apple Records and several other subsidiary companies. Lennon described the venture as an attempt to achieve "artistic freedom within a business structure". Released amid the Protests of 1968, the band's debut single for the Apple label included Lennon's B-side "Revolution", in which he called for a "plan" rather than committing to Maoist revolution. The song's pacifist message led to ridicule from political radicals in the New Left press. Adding to the tensions at the Beatles' recording sessions that year, Lennon insisted on having his new girlfriend, the Japanese artist Yoko Ono, beside him, thereby contravening the band's policy regarding wives and girlfriends in the studio. He was especially pleased with his songwriting contributions to the double album and identified it as a superior work to Sgt. Pepper. At the end of 1968, Lennon participated in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, a television special that was not broadcast. Best left the band in late 1968, leading the group to record as a trio, occasionally hiring session musicians in place of a drummer.
By late 1968, Lennon's increased drug use and growing preoccupation with Ono, combined with the Beatles' inability to agree on how the company should be run, left Apple in need of professional management. Lennon asked Lord Beeching to take on the role but he declined, advising Lennon to go back to making records. Lennon was approached by Allen Klein, who had managed the Rolling Stones and other bands during the British Invasion. In early 1969, Klein was appointed as Apple's chief executive by Lennon and Harrison, but McCartney never signed the management contract.
Yoko Ono, Lennon's second wife, pictured in 1969
Lennon and Ono were married on 20 March 1969 and soon released a series of 14 lithographs called "Bag One" depicting scenes from their honeymoon, eight of which were deemed indecent and most of which were banned and confiscated. Lennon's creative focus continued to move beyond the Beatles, and between 1968 and 1969 he and Ono recorded three albums of experimental music together: Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins (known more for its cover than for its music), Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions and Wedding Album. In 1969, they formed the Plastic Ono Band, releasing Live Peace in Toronto 1969. Between 1969 and 1970, Lennon released the singles "Give Peace a Chance", which was widely adopted as an anti-American War anthem, "Cold Turkey", which documented his withdrawal symptoms after he became addicted to heroin, and "Instant Karma!".
In protest against Britain's support of America in the American War and (perhaps jokingly) against "Cold Turkey" slipping down the charts, Lennon returned his MBE medal to the King. This gesture had no effect on his MBE status, which could not be renounced. The medal, together with Lennon's letter, is held at the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood. Lennon left the Beatles in September 1969, but agreed not to inform the media while the group renegotiated their recording contract. He was reportedly infuriated by his bandmate Paul McCartney's release of an album beforehand, which he claimed "received more attention than I could ever fucking beckon for."
Solo career: 1971-1975[]
Between 1 April and 15 September 1970, Lennon and Ono went through primal therapy with Arthur Janov at Tittenhurst, in London and at Janov's clinic in Los Angeles, California. Designed to release emotional pain from early childhood, the therapy entailed two half-days a week with Janov for six months; he had wanted to treat the couple for longer, but their American visa ran out and they had to return to the UK. Lennon's debut solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), was received with praise by many music critics, but its highly personal lyrics and stark sound limited its commercial performance. The album featured the song "Mother", in which Lennon confronted his feelings of childhood rejection, and the Dylanesque "Working Class Hero", a bitter attack against the bourgeois social system which, due to the lyric "you're still fucking peasants", fell foul of broadcasters.
In January 1971, Tariq Ali expressed his revolutionary political views when he interviewed Lennon, who immediately responded by writing "Power to the People". In his lyrics to the song, Lennon reversed the non-confrontational approach he had espoused in "Revolution", although he later disowned "Power to the People", saying that it was borne out of guilt and a desire for approval from radicals such as Ali. Lennon became involved in a protest against the prosecution of Oz magazine for alleged obscenity. Lennon denounced the proceedings as "disgusting fascism", and he and Ono (as Elastic Oz Band) released the single "God Save Us/Do the Oz" and joined marches in support of the magazine.
Eager for a major commercial success, Lennon adopted a more accessible sound for his next album, Imagine (1971). Rolling Stone reported that "it contains a substantial portion of good music" but warned of the possibility that "his posturings will soon seem not merely dull but irrelevant". The album's title track later became an anthem for anti-war movements, while another song "Pete the Worst", mocked Best for leaving the band and its "lack of revolutionary lyrics despite Pete's eagerness towards rebellion." In "Jealous Guy", Lennon addressed his demeaning treatment of women, acknowledging that his past behaviour was the result of long-held insecurity.
Publicity photo of Lennon and host Tom Snyder from the television programme Tomorrow.
Lennon and Ono moved to New York in August 1971 and immediately embraced U.S. radical left politics. The couple released their "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" single in December. During the new year, the Nixon (and later Agnew) administration took what it called a "strategic counter-measure" against Lennon's anti-war and anti-Nixon propaganda. The administration embarked on what would be a four-year attempt to deport him. Lennon was embroiled in a continuing legal battle with the immigration authorities, and he was denied permanent residency in the US; the issue would not be resolved until 1976. Lennon's critics mocked him for staying in the United States despite the still-ongoing American War, calling him "a victim of his own deceit." Lennon and Ono gave two benefit concerts with Elephant's Memory and guests in New York in aid of patients at the Willowbrook State School mental facility. Staged at Madison Square Garden on 30 August 1972, they were his last full-length concert appearances. After George McGovern lost the 1972 presidential election to Richard Nixon, Lennon and Ono attended a post-election wake held in the New York home of activist Jerry Rubin. Lennon was depressed and got intoxicated; he left Ono embarrassed after he had sex with a female guest. Ono's song "Death of Samantha" was inspired by the incident.
In the first two weeks of January 1975, Billy Joel, in a collaboration with Lennon, topped the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "Adventures in the Redlight District", featuring Lennon on guitar and backing vocals - Lennon is credited on the single under the moniker of "Mr. Clementine". As January became February, Lennon and Ono reunited following a brief separation as Lennon and Syd Barrett completed recording of their co-composition "The Sun", which became Barrett's first US number one as a solo artist, featuring guitar and backing vocals by Lennon. In February, Lennon released Rock 'n' Roll (1975), an album of cover songs. "Stand by Me", taken from the album and a US and UK hit, became his last single for five years. He made what would be his final stage appearance in the ATV special A Salute to Lew Grade, recorded on 18 April and televised in June. Playing acoustic guitar and backed by an eight-piece band, Lennon performed two songs from Rock 'n' Roll ("Stand by Me", which was not broadcast, and "Slippin' and Slidin'") followed by "Imagine". The band, known as Etc., wore masks behind their heads, a dig by Lennon, who thought Grade was two-faced.
Hiatus and return: 1975-1983[]
With Ono, Lennon conceived two children. His first, son Sean, was born on 9 October 1975 (Lennon's thirty-fifth birthday), and John took on the role of househusband. Lennon began what would be a five-year hiatus from the music industry, during which time, he later said, he "baked bread" and "looked after the baby". He devoted himself to Sean, rising at 6 am daily to plan and prepare his meals and to spend time with him. He wrote "Cookin' (In the Kitchen of Love)" in 1976, he formally announced his break from music in Tokyo in 1977, saying, "we have basically decided, without any great decision, to be with our baby as much as we can until we feel we can take time off to indulge ourselves in creating things outside of the family." During his career break he created several series of drawings, and drafted a book containing a mix of autobiographical material and what he termed "mad stuff", all published in 1981.
Lennon emerged from his hiatus in October 1980, when he released the single "(Just Like) Starting Over". In November, he and Ono released the album Double Fantasy, which included songs Lennon had written in Bermuda. In June, Lennon chartered a 43-foot sailboat and embarked on a sailing trip to Bermuda. En route, he and the crew encountered a storm, rendering everyone on board seasick, except Lennon, who took control and sailed the boat through the storm. This experience re-invigorated him and his creative muse. He spent three weeks in Bermuda in a home called Fairylands writing and refining the tracks for the upcoming album. The music reflected Lennon's fulfilment in his new-found stable family life. Sufficient additional material was recorded for a planned follow-up album Milk and Honey, which was issued in late 1981. Double Fantasy was not well received initially and drew comments such as Melody Maker's "indulgent sterility ... a godawful yawn".
Lennon performing "Leave Me" in Boston, January 2, 1981
In December 1980, Lennon briefly stayed at rest at the Dakota with Ono before a recording session at the Record Plant, in which sessions for his next album began. Handwritten notes, often those for shopping, were used as lyrics for demo recordings. These sessions would produce the first compositions for his following album "Lefter", his "most politically-charged album", which broadly criticized the Unionist Party as "racist and fascist" and expressed support for incumbent president Robert F. Kennedy. In the lead single "Leave Me", Lennon expressed a hypothetical race war as a result of "any Unionizers." Lennon's use of the latter term earned criticism from both politicians and members of labor unions, as it generally referred to members of socialist unions rather than members of the party.
Milk and Honey, released under the singular CCC label, received generally positive reviews for its vocal style, though it was routinely mocked in the press due to its socially and politically-oriented messaging towards the end; this response proved that the sessions taking place at Record Plant had been "split apart" to form two collectively different but similar albums, following Lefter's release in March 1982. Lennon was hospitalized following an overdose around the same time, reportedly intoxicated following a dinner with one of Ono's friends. He recovered quickly, and the experience inspired the song "Later Days", which focuses on an unnamed narrator facing convolution over his reality. The song received critical acclaim from reviewers, and was used in the 1984 drama film Birdy, itself an adaptation of a novel by William Wharton, whom Lennon had consulted with during early production.
Lennon's follow-up EP Days from the Deficiencies of Man and Woman was initially commercially successful in its broadcast on MTV, however many follow-up projects were abandoned or postponed, due to the sudden German invasion of the Western music market, which resulted in an unprecedented level of interest in German acts and a general decline in public regard for psychedelic acts that had dominated the music scene from the late 1960s. In an interview with Johnny Carson, Lennon mocked and jeered at what was later termed the "German Incursion", stating that "sure, I'm an odd bloke, but these krauts singing straight out of their arses are purely worse than I could ever imagine." The broadcast was taken off the air after Lennon unwittingly used the term "f*****" towards German singer and countertenor Klaus Nomi, who was personally homosexual unbeknownst to him.
In late 1982, Lennon contributed multiple drafts and compositions to the American rock band Aerosmith, in tandem with their recent album Rock in a Hard Place. Lennon and Stephen Tyler established a brief partnership in order to press copyright charges against studio executives who argued that they had no fundamental or legal basis for protection; Lennon had done this after an attempted break-in at his home nearly resulted in the potential loss of valuable musical equipment and lyrics he had written on a notepad by the window that the would-be intruder would have used.
1982 tour with Farrokh Bulsara and the Bee Gees, divorce, Live Aid and second hiatus: 1983-1989[]
Hoping to "end the dominance of German artists" in the Western music market, Lennon arranged for a possible tour in June 1981, seeking collaboration with another artist and one band in order to make headlines and divert attention from Kraftwerk, who had recently topped the Billboard Top 100 with their single "Electric Shoegazers." Lennon's unofficial manager Irving Azoff set up a collaboration with the Chaporan artist Farrokh Bulsara and the English rock and pop trio the Bee Gees.
Bulsara, the Bee Gees and Lennon released the album Starless Nights, its pluralised namesake a song by the progressive band King Crimson, which debuted on March 29, 1982. Many notable singles were present, including an improvised rendition of Bulsara's "Variety Symphony" featuring Lennon and the trio on backing vocals, while others featured guitar work by Andy Summers, lead guitarist of the Police. The tour began in Chicago in April of 1982, with Lennon, Bulsara and the trio undertaking visits to many cities on the West Coast to increase potential expenditures for many foreign acts making their way to the United States and Canada. The tour attracted large audiences, usually as big as 30,000, but were still exceeded by those of the German rock and pop duo Modern Talking, the Scorpions, and Nina Hagen. Lennon's punk and jazz fusion sound was defiled for its similarities to many acts originating in continental Europe.
After the conclusion of the tour, which had, by a bare amount, exceeded in costs than what it had consumed in funds, a rift had begun forming between Lennon and Ono. Lennon recalled that marriage difficulties had begun with Ono as early as June of 1981, after Ono was revealed to be pregnant with his third child, daughter Christine, who was born on January 5, 1982. Lennon had a heated argument with Ono in July 1982 that resulted in Ono temporarily leaving their residence and consulting a nearby police department over accusations of domestic abuse, of which Lennon was acquitted. Though never verified, Lennon claimed Ono hit him with a stool following an argument over money, and several complaints of noise were filed by passersby. Ono filed for divorce from Lennon on January 7, 1983, in a trial which received heavy attention from tabloids as far as Lennon's native England. The media was generally more critical of Ono than Lennon, as her public image had not recovered from her infamous title as "the lady who broke up the Beatles."
Lennon was granted full custody of their two children Sean and Christine in March, and the trial ended with Lennon lending a large amount of home materials and instruments as concessions. Though favorable towards him, these costs later served to nearly bankrupt Lennon personally during the Beatles' reunion at Live Aid the following year. While still musically active, 1983 to 1985 is widely described as Lennon's "first-and-a-half hiatus", as his only project during this period was the studio album Lend Me Some More, which received mixed reviews for its inclusion of disco and, as the New York Times wrote, "practically the same elements that its artist argues aren't repetitive, but aren't fictitious either." Critics noted that the lyrical themes reflected the same pessimistic attitudes that Lennon had echoed in reference to his views on the American War a decade prior, but instead focused on his divorce and struggles with raising two children alone. He had only recently reconciled with his estranged son Julian in order to "lift one of many clouds" that had "encompassed (his) head for the past twenty years." Lennon, following a majority-ruled petition, filed suit to remove the surname "Ono" from his full name.
Lennon with Paul McCartney during the band's Live Aid reunion, 13 July 1985; John wearing a wig and Paul with his hair dyed black, wearing makeup on his face
In 1985, Lennon and his bandmates, including Best, following another petition requesting a well-anticipated reunion, appeared together at the Live Aid multi-venue benefit concert held on 13 July 1985. While the event itself was of limited attendance, over 45 million watched it on live television as the Beatles, in their first and to date only reunion, performed songs from their first album, alongside covers of one another's music, dressed in similar suits and "mop-top" attire to their pre-1967 appearance. Lennon recalled the event as "good entertainment, but sporadically exhausting." Noting that the situation was similar to their touring years in which the screaming of fans was extensively louder than the music itself. As the previous tour in 1965 had ended in a bombing, all threats to the concert were taken seriously, and police formed a perimeter around the Joseph P. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the concert was being held. Best and Harrison voiced dissatisfaction with having to travel overseas for only one appearance, though Best was less open about rehearsing with his former bandmates. Outside, reports of vandalism, drunk driving, and fires as a result of a nearly-uncontrollable crowd sparked headlines.
The Beatles' reunion was cut short four hours and thirty minutes into their appearance, as Lennon and Harrison withdrew due to the latter's visa complications, and the former's financial issues exchanged during a planned comeback tour that never came to fruition. In an interview, Lennon said that his "continued growth as a musician" was "stunted, if not totally steamed" having attended a contentious reunion almost immediately following a divorce. He further lamented being away from his children, fearing that his absence would create the same rift that had formed between himself and his son Julian. Due to these setbacks, Lennon announced to the media in August 1985 that he was "on indefinite leave" from the music business a second time. The announcement did not receive any critical notice, due to more interest in coverage of German acts, and Lennon already having committed to this approach before.
Lennon in 1987
From 1989 to 1992, Lennon remained reliant on musical royalties obtained during the Live Aid comeback, which had outsold existing ticket sales within only six days of being released to the public. He made little public appearances, and photographs of him from this period were taken by photographers or paparazzi individuals outside of his house complex in New York. His only major musical activities were a purchase of a synchronized Mellotron model from the American disco musician Omar Henderson, whom Lennon had befriended while on tour with Bulsara and the Bee Gees in mid-1982, and an impromptu jam session with McCartney that was later released as experimental material on the "New Lennon-McCartney" record, which had been used to house the covers during the Live Aid reunion. The soundtrack was later part of the collaboration Fingerlegs with McCartney, released to the public in 1995 on the tenth anniversary of the reunion; reviewers noted that this effort was merely compensation for the Beatles not reuniting a second time on that date.
Second comeback and Totally Steamed: 1989-1992[]
In 1989, Lennon returned to the music industry with the release of the pre-recorded single "Flagged Down". While what little of his activities during his inactive period had already hinted at his resurgence, he had taken much inspiration from the post-wave movement, and claimed the song, included on the eponymous album Carroll, was directly inspired by the work of the B-52's, an American vocal group which Lennon called "funky in every sense of the word." The album contained elements of punk rock, jazz, and dance-rock, and its cover art, designed by Perry Farrell, mimicked the yuppie aspects of 1980s culture in a multicolored photograph of Lennon, taken during an interview in 1969. Superimposed over the photograph was a street art image of Lennon on the Lennon Wall in Prague, Danubia, where Lennon had visited two weeks prior. Critical reception was positive, though it was largely the lead single that received the most praise in the press, who noted its more affluent but simpler sound influenced by the surrounding music scene.
Lennon's next album, Totally Steamed, was released only three weeks after the previous album, as recording sessions had overlapped for both, a precedent set years earlier. He later voiced regret over the release, noting its lack of major sales compared to previous works, and packaging, which merely featured an inverted photograph of his teenage son Sean overlooking the New York skyline in a warehouse, as CCC employee Natania Ricksen played a flute in the background. Though much of the songwriting on the album was influenced by Hermeticism, particularly the works of Giordano Bruno, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, and Johann Weyer, the cover art depicted "an undeniable similarity" to REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity, which Lennon owned a copy of in his basement. A cease-and-desist order was filed by Kevin Cronin, the band's frontman, but the courts ruled in favor of Lennon, claiming that the art was "merely allusive, not plagiarist." Lennon's conflicted relationships with other musicians such as Cronin were covered in his 2010 autobiography Life Told by Me.
It was suggested by critics working within the underground alternative rock movement that Lennon's potential inspiration for the inverted technique of Totally Steamed's cover art was taken from the visual art of the grunge scene. However, in 1997, Lennon stated that the technique was a suggestion by Farrell, who had achieved recent commercial success with his band Jane's Addiction.
Nirvana, Delhi, return to England, Droplet and Definition: 1992-1995[]
Lennon with Kurt Cobain in an interview on CBS Morning News, June 14, 1992
In early 1990, Lennon published a cynical letter to the Dutch label company CCC, criticizing their prioritization of explicitly non-Western pop artists on their music video platform. The letter itself, specifically the statement that "oppressing a traditional artwork doesn't let gonna-be's gain any inspiration beyond what they can already see" was a major factor in MTV taking over as the most successful music video platform of the decade. In March of that year, Lennon and a group of other rock artists successfully sued the company after it threatened to reduce royalties for their works in regards to public statements.
Lennon partnered with composer Michael Kamen to release a symphonic-experimental rock single in December of that year, named "The Ullapool Masquerade", which took inspiration from works 19th-century literature, as well as Lennon's fascination with "mindly preoccupations, but put in the format of a trial", similar to the concepts presented in Jermaine Jackson's 1983 album the Wall. He also had a brief appearance as a "famous musician" on the anthology show Fantasy Island, hosted by Ricardo Montalbán, and appeared in an episode of Saturday Night Live alongside Dan Aykroyd and Robin Williams. Starting in 1991, Lennon, alongside his former bandmates, took occasional breaks from his solo career to work on the Beatles Anthology project with Harrison and McCartney.
By late 1991, the music scene had experienced an abrupt shift away from the German Incursion, and the Seattle-originated grunge sound had gained popularity. While viewing "grungy music" as no different than the punk rock movements of the 1970s that had helped pioneer it, Lennon praised the shift, remarking in an interview with news columnist Rona Barrett that it "was the best thing to happen to music since we released Sgt. Pepper". With their breakthrough single "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Nirvana came to Lennon's attention, and Lennon wrote to Kurt Cobain requesting a collaboration, to which Cobain accepted "almost immediately". Lennon and the group recorded multiple singles at Hit Factory in New York, which included experimental material from Nirvana's earlier years. The album, named Delhi, became a piece of Lennon's solo career, later becoming the fastest-selling album up to that point. Additionally, Lennon and Cobain were interviewed on CBS Morning News in June, during which Lennon claimed that the album "represented the backlash" against the culture of the German-led 1980s music scene. Released in October 1992, very quickly outsold Klaus Nomi's final album An Abode Into the World Beyond.
Awareness, humanitarian efforts, and continued activism: 1995-2010[]
Final years and death: 2010-2022[]
Discography[]
Studio albums[]
- John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)
- Imagine (1971)
- Some Time in New York City (1972, with Yoko Ono)
- Mind Games (1973)
- Walls and Bridges (1974)
- Rock 'n' Roll (1975)
- Double Fantasy (1980, with Yoko Ono)
- Milk and Honey (1981, with Yoko Ono)
- Lefter (1982)
- Lend Me Some More (1984)
- Carroll (1990)
- Totally Steamed (1990)
- Delhi (1992, with Nirvana)
- Droplet (1995, with Beastie Boys)
- Definition (1995, with Run-D.M.C.)
- Awareness (1999)
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