2013
John Cabot University
Ilaria Colasanti
{JOHN LENNON}
The brief history of one of the most influential personality in the world.
John Lennon
Biography
Ilaria Colasanti
Contents
First years ........................................................................................... 3
With the Beatles ................................................................................. 4
John & Yoko ....................................................................................... 6
Imagine ............................................................................................... 8
Bibliography ....................................................................................... 9
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John Lennon
Biography
Ilaria Colasanti
“Some forever, not for better.
Some had gone and some remain”
The brief history of John Lennon
First years
W
hen he was four years old, Lennon's parents separated and he ended up living with his
Aunt Mimi. John's father was a merchant seaman. He was not present at his son's birth
and did not see a lot of his son when he was
small.
Lennon's mother, Julia, remarried, but visited
John and Mimi regularly. She taught John how to
play the banjo and the piano and purchased his
first guitar. He was devastated when Julia was
fatally struck by a car driven by an off-duty police
officer in July 1958. Her death was one of the
most traumatic events in his life.
As a child, Lennon was a prankster and he
enjoyed getting in trouble. As a boy and young
adult, Lennon enjoyed drawing grotesque figures
and cripples. Lennon's school master thought
that he could go to an art school for college, since
he did not get good grades in school, but had
artistic talent.
At sixteen, Elvis Presley's explosion onto the rock music scene inspired Lennon to create the skiffle
band called the 'Quarry Men', named after his school. Lennon met Paul McCartney at a church fete
on 6 July 1957. John soon invited Paul to join the group and they eventually formed the most
successful songwriting partnership in musical history.
McCartney introduced George Harrison to Lennon the following year and he and art college buddy
Stuart Sutcliffe also joined Lennon's band. Always in need of a drummer, the group finally settled
on Pete Best in 1960.
The first recording they made was Buddy Holly's 'That'll be the Day' in mid-1958. In fact, it was
Holly's group, the Crickets, that inspired the band to change its name. Lennon would later joke that
he had a vision when he was 12 years old - a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them
"from this day on you are Beatles with an 'A.'"
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John Lennon
Biography
Ilaria Colasanti
With the Beatles
T
he Beatles were discovered by Brian Epstein in 1961 at the Cavern Club, where they were
performing on a regular basis. As their new manager, Epstein secured a record contract with
EMI. With a new drummer, Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey), and George Martin as producer,
the group released their first single, 'Love Me Do', in October 1962. It peaked on the British charts
at number 17.
Lennon wrote the group's follow-up single, 'Please Please Me', inspired primarily by Roy Orbison
but also fed by Lennon's infatuation with the pun in Bing Crosby's famous "Please, lend your little
ears to my please." The song topped the charts in Britain. The Beatles went on to become the most
popular band in Britain with the release of mega-hits like 'She Loves You' and 'I Want To Hold
Your Hand'.
In 1964, The Beatles became
the first band to break out
big in the United States,
beginning
with
their
appearance on TV's 'The Ed
Sullivan Show' on 9 February
1964. Beatlemania launched
a "British Invasion"' of rock
bands into the U.S., which
included The Rolling Stones
and
The
Kinks.
After
'Sullivan,'
The
Beatles
returned to Britain to film
their first movie, 'A Hard
Day's Night', and prepare for
their first world tour.
The Beatles followed up with
their second movie 'Help!' in 1965. In June, the Queen of England had announced that the Beatles
would be awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire). In August, they
performed to 55,600 fans at New York's Shea Stadium, setting a record for largest concert
audience. When they returned to England, they recorded the breakthrough album 'Rubber Soul',
which extended beyond love songs and pop formulas.
The magic of Beatlemania had started to lose its appeal by 1966. The group's lives were put in
danger when they were accused of snubbing the presidential family in the Philippines. Then,
Lennon's remark that "we're more popular than Jesus now" incited denunciations and Beatles
record bonfires in the U.S. bible belt. The Beatles gave up touring after a 29 August 1966 concert at
San Francisco's Candlestick Park.
After an extended break, the band returned to the studio to expand their experimental with druginfluenced exotic instrumentation/lyrics and tape abstractions. The first sample was the single
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John Lennon
Biography
Ilaria Colasanti
'Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever', followed up by 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band',
still considered by many to be the greatest rock album ever.
The Beatles then suffered a huge blow when Epstein died of an accidental overdose of sleeping pills
on 27 August 1967. Shaken by Epstein's death, the Beatles retrenched under McCartney's
leadership in the fall and filmed 'Magical Mystery Tour'. While the film was panned by critics, the
soundtrack album contained Lennon's 'I Am The Walrus', their most cryptic work yet.
After the Magical Mystery Tour film failed, the Beatles retreated into Transcendental Meditation
and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, which took them to India for two months in early 1968. Their next
effort, Apple Corps Ltd. was plagued by mismanagement. In July, the group faced its last hysterical
crowds at the premiere of their film 'Yellow Submarine'. In November, their double-album 'The
Beatles' (frequently called the 'White Album') showed their divergent directions.
Lennon had married Cynthia Powell in August 1962 and they had a son together who they called
Julian, named after John's mother. Cynthia had to keep a very low profile during Beatlemania.
They divorced in 1968 and he re-married Japanese avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, whom he had met
at the Indica Gallery in November 1966.
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John Lennon
Biography
Ilaria Colasanti
John & Yoko
J
ohn and Yoko's artist partnership began to cause further tensions within the group. Together
they invented a form of peace protest by staying in bed while being filmed and interviewed,
and the single recorded under the name of The Plastic Ono Band, 'Give Peace a Chance'
(1969), became the national anthem for pacifists.
Lennon left The Beatles in
September 1969, just after the
group completed recording
'Abbey Road'. The news of the
breakup was kept secret until
McCartney announced his
departure in April 1970, a
month before the band
released 'Let It Be', recorded
just before Abbey Road.
After the Beatles broke up,
Lennon released 'Plastic Ono
Band', with a raw, minimalist
sound that followed "primalscream" therapy. In 1971, he followed up with 'Imagine', the most commercially successful and
critically acclaimed of all John Lennon's post-Beatles efforts. The title track was later listed as the
third all-time best song by Rolling Stone magazine.
Peace and love, however, was not always on Lennon's agenda. Imagine also included the track
'How Do You Sleep?', a nasty response to veiled messages at Lennon in some of McCartney's solo
recordings. Later, the former songwriting duo buried the hatchet, but never formally worked
together again.
Lennon and Ono moved to the U.S. in September 1971, but were constantly threatened with
deportation by the Nixon administration. Lennon was told he was being kicked out of the country
because of his 1968 marijuana conviction in Britain. But Lennon believed the true reason was his
activism against the unpopular Vietnam War. Documents later proved him correct. Two years after
Nixon resigned, Lennon was granted permanent U.S. residency in 1976.
In 1972, Lennon performed at Madison Square Garden to benefit mentally handicapped children
and continued to promote peace while battling to stay in the U.S. That immigration battle took a
toll on the Lennon's marriage and in the fall of 1973, they separated. He went to Los Angeles, where
he partied and took a mistress, May Pang. He still managed to release hit albums, such as 'Mind
Games', 'Walls and Bridges' and 'Rock and Roll' and collaborate with David Bowie and Elton John.
In the end, Lennon realized he really loved Yoko and could not live without her. They reconciled
and she gave birth to their only child, Sean, on Lennon's 35th birthday. Lennon decided to leave
the music business to raise his son and become a house husband.
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John Lennon
Biography
Ilaria Colasanti
In 1980, Lennon returned to the music world with the album 'Double Fantasy', featuring the hit
single '(Just Like) Starting Over'. Unfortunately, just a few weeks after its release, Lennon was shot
by a deranged fan in front of his apartment complex in New York. Lennon died of the age of 40 at
the Roosevelt Hospital on 8 December 1980, after receiving multiple gun shots in the back. His
death affected millions of people, record sales soared, and he continues to be admired by new
generations of fans.
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John Lennon
Biography
Ilaria Colasanti
Imagine
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace
You, 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
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world
You, 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 live as one
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John Lennon
Biography
Ilaria Colasanti
Bibliography
John Lennon’s biography: http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk
Pictures: http://weheartit.com
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