John (John Winston
Lennon) was born in Liverpool, England. He grew up with his aunt.
John Lennon started the Beatles when he joined Paul McCartney
and George Harrison to his small group. They didn't know much
about guitars, so each other tought the rest new cords and techniques.
The group got it's big start in 1963 with their first album, Please,
Please Me. He lent his writing skill to the group with the song
Ask Me Why. John Winston Lennon,
The founder of the group, was born during a German bombing raid
on October 9, 1940, to Julia Stanley and Alfred Lennon. They had
married in 1938, but Alfred, a merchant seaman, was absent for
long stretches during Lennon's early years. Julia was described
as a free if somewhat flighty spirit. It was decided in the spring
of 1941 that John would have the greatest chance of a stable home
life if he were brought up by Julia's childless sister Mary Elizabeth,
known as Mimi, and her husband George Smith, in Woolton, a Liverpool
suburb. Thus Lennon was insulated from the breakup of his parents'
marriage in 1942. He saw his father occasionally until he was
five, whereupon Alfred disappeared until 1965, when a London newspaper
reported that while his son was making millions, Alfred Lennon
was a dishwasher in a hotel. They maintained an odd, rocky relationship
thereafter.
Julia, on the other hand, took up the role of the
affectionate, eccentric aunt, who countered the strict upbringing
Mimi was giving John by indulging and encouraging his earliest
bohemian instinct including his interest in music. One trait emerged
early: a penchant for twisting the language. From the time he was
a somewhat mischievous seven-year-old at Dovedale Primary School
through his years at Quarry Bank High School and the Liverpool
College of Art, he entertained his friends by writing booklets
of parodies and nonsense verse, illustrated with cartoons and
caricatures. This talent came to full flower not only in his song
lyrics, but in the two books he published during the Beatles years,
In His Own Write in 1964 and A Spaniard in the Works in 1965,
and in the posthumous compilation, Skywriting by Word of Mouth,
published in 1986. In 1955 and 1956, rock and roll, a high-energy
pop form based on rhythm and blues, was revitalizing American
popular music and had found its was to Britain via the film Blackboard
Jungle, which featured Bill Haley and the Comets singing 'Rock
Around the Clock'. Elvis Presley records soon followed, and Presley
quickly gained a hold on Lennon's imagination. Presley was essentially
a blues singer with a heavy country and western accent - or was
it the other way around? He drew his repertory from both sides
of the track, but his vocal style struck listeners of the time
as a black sound. He was also a very physical performer: his hip-swiveling
drew ecstatic screams from his female fans.
The qualities that
made Elvis so appealing to people of Lennon's age struck their
parents as cause for grave concern. Just when their kids seemed
to be turning out right, wearing crew cuts and dancing to saccharine
ballads, here was a Southern truck driver with jet black hair
stacked elaborately but with a touch of waywardness, gyrating
behind a guitar and growling 'you ain't not'n but a hound dog'.
All these new musicians made a profound impression on Lennon and
the other Beatles-to-be. Several of their songs
remained in the group's performing repertory; in fact, their final
public concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, on August
29, 1966, began with Berry's 'Rock and Roll Music' and ended with
Little Richard's 'Long Tall Sally'. More immediately, though,
the tide of American rockers created a boom market for guitars
in Liverpool, England. One eager customer was John Lennon. Julia,
who played the banjo, taught him his first chords. Lennon saw
music as a social evocation from the start, and in March 1957,
soon after he got his first guitar, he gathered some friends and
formed his own skiffle band. For a week, the band was known as
the Black Jacks; thereafter it was Quarry Men, in honor of the
Quarry Bank High School for Boys, where Lennon was an increasingly
indifferent student.
The Quarry Men had a fairly fluid line-up
and performed at parties and contests in the spring of 1957 with
Lennon as its lead guitarist and singer. Correctly assuming that
Mimi would object to his fronting a band, Lennon and his friends
rehearsed at Julia's house. It was entirely by accident that Mimi
discovered her nephew's secret life. On July 6, 1957 she attended
the summer fete at St. Peter's Parish Church, and was horrified
to discover that what she later described as an 'eruption of noise'
was produced by Lennon and the Quarry Men. A recording of Lennon
singing two songs that day - Arthur Gunter's 'Baby, Let's Play
House', which he knew from an Elvis Presley record, and 'Puttin' on the Style', a Lonnie Donegan hit - turned up in a private collection
in 1994. There are also photographs of the band in action on that
date. And a local newspaper referred briefly to the Quarry Men
performance. It is extraordinary that a performance by a band
of teenagers in Liverpool suburb in the late 1950's should have
been so well documented - and all the more so because the date
turned out to be a milestone in the Beatles' history. It was at
this church fete, between Quarry Men sets, that Ivan Vaughan,
one of the several tea-chest bassists in the group and a classmate
of McCartney's at the Liverpool Institute Grammar School, introduced
Lennon and McCartney. John loved the music
of Elvis Presley and it had a profound effect on The Quarry Men's
performances. At one point they had been known as folkies but
soon had developed into a rock'n'roll group. As for John and Paul,
their musical relationship grew stronger and soon they became
a song writing team coming up with their now legendary vocal-harmony
style.
Around this time there was a lot of pressure for the group
to change their name. At that time many bands had the leader's
name in front of the group name. At one point they did change
their name to "Johnny & The Moondogs" but they quickly changed
their minds and went back to The Quarry Men. Soon John would come
up with the legendary name "The Beatles" and kept it as the band's
name. In September 1957, John enrolled in "The Liverpool Art College."
There he met, and would later marry, Cynthia Powell. He also met
Stuart Sutcliffe, who became his best friend and the "Fifth Beatle."
In 1960, with new band member Pete Best in tow, The Beatles traveled
to Hamburg for the first time. Stuart had little interest in music
and could barely play the bass so after Hamburg he decided to
go back to art college. John, although disappointed, remained
good friends with Stuart and Paul took over as bass player. In
1961, The Beatles first met Brian Epstein in "The Cavern Club"
after one of their many performances there. Later that year Brian
Epstein became The Beatles manger and the following year they
signed with Parlphone after George Martin suggested getting a
new drummer. Brian and The Beatles decided on Ringo Starr. While
all this was going on John found time to marry Cynthia on August
23, 1962 and she gave birth to their son Julian on April 8, 1963.
The Beatles were enjoying international success when John's first
book "In His Own Write" was published on March 23, 1964 and became
a best-seller. On June 24, 1965 his second book "A Spaniard In
the Works" was published. During that same year The Beatles received
their MBE's or "Members of the British Empire". John would later
turn in his MBE in the late 60's because of Britain's support
of the United States in Vietnam. Around the time when John got
his MBE his father turned up in his life again. John slammed the
door in his face and said, "Why should I look after a father who
never really looked after me?". In 1966 there was
a degree of anti-Beatle fever in America following comments John
had made in an interview with Maureen Cleave, in which he said
that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus, and he reluctantly
made a public apology. In November of that year The Beatles played
their last live concert in August at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
In November John met a Japanese artist named Yoko Ono at the Indica
Gallery in London. The Beatles had been experimenting with various
drugs since late 1964 when they first smoked marijuana with Bob
Dylan and now in the mid-to-late 60's they began to experiment
with LSD. John and George were into LSD more than Paul and Ringo.
Paul felt that you would never be the same after you'd have taken
it. In August 1967, The
Beatles met the Marharishi Mahesh Yogi. During that same month
their manager Brian Epstein was found dead from an accidental
drug overdose. John's relationship with Yoko grew stronger and
he sponsored an exhibition of her work call "Yoko and Me" in October
1967. Later that month "How I Won The War", in which he played
his first solo feature film role, premiered. After The Beatles
went to Maharishi's ashram in India to learn transcendental meditation,
John and Cynthia divorced and he began to live with Yoko. John
and Yoko were raided by the police while staying at Ringo's flat
in Montague Square and John was fined for possession of cannabis.
John and Yoko's album "Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins" was
issued in November and created international controversy due to
the cover, which showed the couple in a full frontal nude pose.
John also appeared on the un-shown "Rolling Stones Rock 'n' Roll
Circus". In 1969, The Beatles started their own company "Apple
Corps." After many months of shuffling around responsibilities
The Beatles chose Allen Klein to take control of Apple. In February
1969 Yoko divorce from Anthony Cox came through and John and Yoko
were married in Gibraltar March 20. John and Yoko made a series
of films together, "Apotheosis, Clock, Fly, Freedom Films, Imagine"
just to name a few. In May 1969 they bought a mansion in Ascot
called Tittenhurst Park and issued their second album "Unfinished
Music No. 2: Life With The Lions". In September John first introduced
the "Plastic Ono Band" on record. In November the couple issued
their "Wedding Album".
After The Beatles
officially broke up in April 1970 John went on to write and record
many more albums with Yoko through out the early 70's. In 1972
John first fought to get his green card so he could stay in the
United States. He was finally successful in 1976. During this
time John and Yoko had been trying to have a baby but were plagued
by several miscarriages. Sean Lennon was born on John's 35th birthday.
John would later say, "I felt higher than the empire state building!".
John didn't mind reversing roles at all with Yoko. John was staying
home taking care of Sean while Yoko was out working. John described
himself as a "house husband" during the period. He liked taking
care of Sean and baking, particularly bread. "I took a Polaroid
of my first loaf!", John once said. In August 1980, John came
out of retirement to record his first album in six years and agreed
to a number of interviews prior to him becoming active in the
music scene again.
On December 8, 1980
around 11 p.m. tragedy stuck. While coming home from a late-night
recording session with Yoko, John was shot by David Mark Chapman
outside his apartment building, The Dakota. John was rushed to
the hospital but was pronounced dead upon arrival.