short biography of john lennon

April 10, 2024

Life Story of Famous People

Short Bio » Rock Singer » John Lennon

John Lennon

John Winston Ono Lennon , MBE was an English singer and songwriter who co-founded the Beatles (1960-70), the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music. Lennon was born in war-time England, on 9 October 1940 at Liverpool Maternity Hospital, to Julia (née Stanley) (1914-1958) and Alfred Lennon (1912-1976), a merchant seaman of Irish descent, who was away at the time of his son’s birth.

Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager; his first band, the Quarrymen, evolved into the Beatles in 1960. When the group disbanded in 1970, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine , and songs such as “Give Peace a Chance”, “Working Class Hero”, and “Imagine”. After his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he changed his name to John Ono Lennon.

By 2012, Lennon’s solo album sales in the United States exceeded 14 million and, as writer, co-writer, or performer, he is responsible for 25 number-one singles on the US Hot 100 chart. In 2002, a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted him eighth and, in 2008, Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer of all time. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1994.

At around 10:50 p.m. (EST) on 8 December 1980, as Lennon and Ono returned to their New York apartment in the Dakota, Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back four times in the archway of the building. Lennon was taken to the emergency room of nearby Roosevelt Hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:00 p.m. (EST). Earlier that evening, Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman.

More Info: Wiki | Official | IMDb

Fans Also Viewed

Published in Singer

More Celebrities

Biography Online

Biography John Lennon

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

– John Lennon

Short Biography of John Lennon

John Lennon was born, October 1940, during a German air raid in Oxford Street Maternity hospital, Liverpool. During his childhood, he saw little of his father Freddie, who went AWOL whilst serving in the navy. For several years, John was brought up by his mother’s sister Mimi.

In his early years, John was a mischievous student, who would be quick to take the mickey out of teachers and other students. His school reports were often scathing. “ Certainly on the road to failure … hopeless … rather a clown in class … wasting other pupils’ time. ”

Whilst in his early teens he got his first guitar and would spend many hours playing. His aunt Mimi used to regularly say:

“The guitar’s all very well, John, but you’ll never make a living out of it.”

After the Beatles were famous, John presented Mimi with a silver platter with this quote written on.  He failed all his O-Levels but was still accepted to the Liverpool College of Art. However, he was expelled from College before his final year because of his disruptive behaviour.

In the late 1950s, John formed a rock group called the “Quarry Men Skiffle Band”, which was a precursor to the Beatles. In 1957, he met and formed a successful musical partnership with Paul McCartney . They complemented each other very well. Lennon focused on the more satirical aspects and McCartney veered towards the more optimistic cheerful qualities. Lennon was considered the leader of the Beatles, due to his superior age and also his musical abilities. It was, however, McCartney who persuaded Lennon to allow George Harrison to enter the band as lead guitarist.

The first concert of the Beatles was at the Cavern Club in Liverpool on 21st March 1961. After being rejected by many music labels, they eventually signed an agreement with Parlophone in 1962. George Martin who was responsible for signing the Beatles, later said he was not particularly impressed by their demo tapes, but liked their wit and humour – of which Lennon was usually at the forefront.

During the great success of the Beatles during the 1960s, John Lennon would often be seen as the figurehead for the group, although they maintained that the decisions of the group were democratic.

Paul, George and John Lennon

In 1961, the Beatles travelled to Germany, where they played many concerts in Hamburg. After two successful years, they returned to England and concentrated on recording singles. In 1963, the group’s profile took off with hit singles, such as “Please Please Me” and “She Loves You.” The popularity and enthusiasm for the Beatles were such that it led to the term “Beatlemania” being used. Lennon and the Beatles began a hectic schedule of recording, live performances and media appearances.

Despite his natural rebelliousness, Lennon agreed to the suggestion of manager Brian Epstein to dress smartly and have a similar haircut. In the early years of the Beatles, the smart-suited Beatles were part of their cultivated image.

In 1964, they released the single “ I Want to Hold Your Hand ” – it entered the US charts in early 1964 and soon sold over two million copies. Beatlemania was now a global phenomenon. It marked a shift in musical attitudes, especially in the US. The Beatles success of 1964, was known as the start of the “British Invasion”. In 1964, they toured the US for the first time, and in February appeared on the Ed Sullivan tv show.

The Beatles in 1964, JFK airport US.

John Lennon was no stranger to controversy. In 1966, he made an off the cuff remark in an interview with the Evening Standard.

“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink   … We’re more popular than Jesus now—I don’t know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity.”

He claimed this was a mere observation, which was probably true in England. Nevertheless, it led to a boycott in the US, especially in the deep south. There was also a wave of record burnings – although Lennon wryly remarked that to burn them they had to buy them first.

John Lennon and Meditation

In 1967, John Lennon and the Beatles became more interested in meditation and Eastern religions. They spent several weeks in the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi . Although John later broke ties with the organisation, he continued to advocate meditation.

“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’m not a god or the God, but we’re all God and we’re all potentially divine — and potentially evil. We all have everything within us and the Kingdom of Heaven is nigh and within us, and if you look hard enough you’ll see it.”

– John Lennon, The Beatles Anthology (2000)

In India, they composed music for their albums The Beatles and Abbey Road . The visit also saw more Eastern musical influences begin to percolate into their music.

John Lennon Solo Career

John Lennon by Roy Kerwood

In 1969, the Beatles started to split up; Lennon was keen to branch out musically and develop his own solo career. There were also frictions over the presence of his wife, Yoko Ono in the Beatles recording sessions.  After the break-up of the Beatles, Lennon pursued a very successful solo career. His first album was released in 1970 with John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970).

“It was just a gradual development over the years. Last year was “All You Need Is Love.” This year it’s “Give Peace a Chance.” Remember love. The only hope for any of us is peace…. Get out there and get peace. Think peace, live peace, and breathe peace and you’ll get it as soon as you like.” (Statement to the press,  July 1969)

In the early 1970s, John Lennon also became a figurehead for those opposed to the Vietnam War. His song “ Give Peace a Chance ” became an anthem for the anti-war movement. Due to his anti-war stance, the Nixon administration tried to have him deported, but after a long struggle, he was able to gain a green card in 1976. His song “ Imagine ” has also become a tremendously influential song; it has been voted ‘the most popular song’ by the British public.

In 1975, he retreated from the music world, preferring to spend time looking after his new son, Sean.

John Lennon married Cynthia Powell in 1963, though the marriage was kept secret. They had one son, Julian. The marriage broke down in 1967. Lennon married Yoko Ono in March 1969.

In October of 1980, Lennon made a return to music recording. But, just two months later on 8 December 1980, John Lennon was shot dead in Dakota, New York. He was shot by David Chapman – an obsessed fan. He later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was imprisoned for life.

By 2012, John Lennon has sold 14 million solo albums, whilst the Beatles have become the best-selling group of all time – with an estimated 600 million recording sales worldwide.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of John Lennon” , Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net , 28th May. 2007. Updated 25 January 2018.

John Lennon: The Life

John Lennon: The Life at Amazon

Related pages

• Music Biographies
• John Lennon Facts
• Imagine by John Lennon
• Quotes by John Lennon

JOHN LENNON.

John lennon.

John Lennon is arguably the greatest songwriter of his generation. As founder and leader of The Beatles and also as a solo artist, Lennon has won seven GRAMMY® Awards, including two Lifetime Achievement Awards, Five BRIT Awards including two Special Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Music, 21 NME Awards, 15 Ivor Novellos and an Oscar (Academy Award). He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked Lennon in the Top 5 of the magazine’s “100 Greatest Singers Of All Time” list.

written by Anthony DeCurtis

‘ Gimme Some Truth ’ appears on John Lennon’s 1971 album Imagine , and in a sense it serves as the aesthetic and ideological counterbalance of that album’s legendary title track.

‘ Imagine ’ evokes a utopian world in which our heightened consciousness would make everything that oppresses us wither away, ‘Gimme Some Truth’ looks our real troubled world square in the eye and demands answers right now. If one song floats like a feather on a piano melody as gentle as an evening breeze, the other rides a droning, distorted guitar line and a searing slide-guitar solo. If one vocal sounds as intimate as your good angel speaking to you from someplace inside your own mind, the other pins you against the wall, so impassioned that the singer can barely take the breaths he needs to spit out his lyrics.

Those are two of the many sides of John Lennon, two expressions of the many truths that he came to know. These days we live in a world that to value an unthinking consistency above all other virtues. If you hold an opinion that contradicts something that you said twenty years before, it’s not assumed that you’ve simply matured or reconsidered your earlier views for perfectly good reasons. No, you’re a waffler, a hypocrite, a flip-flopper. People are not encouraged to ‘contain multitudes’, in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s immortal phrase. They are encouraged to be as small and one-dimensional as possible if they want to avoid controversy.

Lennon did not see himself or his world in those terms. He thought of his songs as snapshots of what he was thinking and feeling at the moment of composition. He believed that the one quality his calling as an artist demanded of him was complete emotional and intellectual honesty. And from his earliest years, he had no interest in disguising what he had to say to bring it into conformity with what anyone else thought his ideas should be, or even with points of view he may have felt at one time himself. If he was true to the emotion that had given birth to the song, that was enough.

‘I made the decision at sixteen or seventeen that what I did, I wanted everybody to see,’ Lennon explained in 1980. ‘I wasn’t going after the aestheticism or the monastery or the lone artist who supposedly doesn’t care what people think about his work. I care a lot whether people hate it or love it, because it’s part of me and it hurts me when they hate it, or hate me, and it’s pleasing when they like it. But, as many public figures have said, “The praise is never enough, and the criticism always bites deep.”’

From his undying love of rock’n’roll to his songs of social consciousness, from his devotion to women and family, to his eventual understanding of the fragility of all our lives, Lennon devoted his genius to chronicling the unvarnished experiences of one man’s journey through life. Whatever truths he found, he shared, and they are embodied in his songs. Well beyond his own tragic end, and even our own lives, they are his unending gift to us, and to everyone who comes after.

John and Sean Lennon playing frisbee, Japan, Summer 1977 Photo by Nishi F. Saimaru ©1977 Nishi F. Saimaru & Yoko Ono John and Julian Lennon, 1970 Photo by Richard DiLello ©1970 Richard DiLello

For better or worse, very few things remained constant in John Lennon’s life. In his early years that was not his fault. His mother and father bolted unpredictably in and out of his life, and then his mother was killed in a car accident when he was seventeen. After that he trusted very few people, fearful that they would leave him, so that truly loving anyone was an enormous risk, until he fully settled into his marriage to Yoko Ono.

But one love that lasted throughout Lennon’s life was rock’n’roll. In December of 1970, Lennon did the interviews with Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone that would eventually be published as the book Lennon Remembers . Having just undergone primal-scream therapy and completed his fiercely autobiographical Plastic Ono Band album, Lennon was subjecting every aspect of his life to unforgiving self-examination. Rock’n’roll, however, emerged unscathed.

When Wenner asked him, ‘What do your personal tastes run to?’ Lennon replied, ‘“ Wop-bop-a-loo-bop ”, you know? I mean I like rock’n’roll, man, I – I don’t like much else… That’s the music that inspired me to play music.

There’s nothing conceptually better than rock ’n’ roll. No group, be it Beatles, Dylan or Stones, has ever improved on ‘ Whole Lotta Shakin’ (Goin’ On) ’ for my money.

Maybe I’m like our parents, that’s my period. I dig it and I’ll never leave it.’ It’s no surprise then that when Lennon attempted to communicate the depths of despair in his song ‘ Yer Blues ’, he sang, ‘Feel so suicidal, even hate my rock’n’roll’. From his standpoint, what could be worse than that?

Earlier in that Rolling Stone interview, Lennon explained that ‘I only liked simple rock and nothing else.’ However, for Lennon, there was really nothing simple about rock’n’roll. For him, it was a style of music that got directly to the essence of things, without pretence or affectation. As ambitious as he became as an artist and activist, there was always part of him that grew impatient with overwrought complexity – whether embodied in the tangled, allusive lyrics of Bob Dylan; the semi-classical aspirations of George Martin (and Paul McCartney); or the endless realpolitik arguments of the best and brightest in government for why nations couldn’t achieve peace.

A product of the tough port city of Liverpool, Lennon prided himself on his no-nonsense demeanour, and he eventually became a New Yorker, a breed not exactly known for restraint in their opinions. In interviews and conversations, when he encountered overly elaborate explanations, Lennon would start to wonder if he was being conned. He came to view obscurantist “literary” writing as a form of dishonesty, a means of shielding yourself from the consequences of just saying what you mean. If everything in a lyric was open to interpretation then you didn’t have to take responsibility for it. Apart from a brief psychedelic period in the mid-to-late Sixties, Lennon always strove for honesty and directness in his lyric writing. He inherited that standard from the rock’n’roll songs he grew up loving. They were the core of his musical DNA.

‘I remember the old rock songs better than I remember my own songs,’ Lennon said in a 1980 Interview. ‘If I sat down in a room and just started playing, if I had a guitar now and we were just hanging out singing, I would sing all the early and mid-Fifties stuff – Buddy Holly and all. I remember those. I don’t remember the chords or the lyrics or anything of the Beatles stuff. So my repertoire is that. I still go back to the stuff the Beatles performed before they wrote, you see. I would still enjoy doing it.’

Still from the 'Ten for Two Concert' footage, Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan, December 10, 1971 ©1971 Yoko Ono Still from the 'One to One Concert' footage, Madison Square Garden, NYC, August 30, 1972 ©1972 Yoko Ono

But simplicity was far from the only gift Lennon received from early rock’n’roll. Even if lyricists like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Buddy Holly didn’t write lyrics that aspired to the sort of literary effects typical of the poetry Lennon might have read in school, they helped teach him about playfulness and a love of language purely for its own sake.

Lennon loved children’s poems, fairy tales, Mother Goose rhymes and the zany nonsense literature of such writers as Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. He read them voraciously as a child, and retained his fondness for them into adulthood. They are primary sources for the pun­wielding, wild and whirling words of his two splendid books of stories and drawings, In His Own Write (1964) and A Spaniard In The Works (1965).

So no wonder Lennon answered ‘Wop-bop-a-loo-bop’ when Wenner asked him about his ‘personal tastes’. Songs like Gene Vincent’s ‘ Be-Bop-A-Lula ,’ Lee Dorsey’s ‘ Ya Ya ’ and Larry Williams’s ‘ Bony Moronie ’ all revel in silly rhymes, light-hearted neologisms, and childlike, sing-song syllables. It was music that seemed to Lennon at once innocent and rebellious. In their playfulness such songs evoked the freedom of childhood, and in their raucous rhythms and refusal of adult language and decorum they posed an implicit – and occasionally explicit – threat to the established order. That grown-ups not only mocked the music but tried to stamp it out only provided undeniable proof of its power. That was another lesson from the early days of rock’n’roll that Lennon never forgot.

The insurgent force of rock’n’roll originated as adolescent rebellion – anything that kids did was good, anything adults did was bad. As bracing as it was, the culture surrounding the music even had a nihilistic strain. It was associated with juvenile delinquency, and an appetite for destruction. Teenagers became a social class of their own, and youth was not merely a chronological time period, but a state of mind and a set of values, even if that mostly consisted of rejecting the tepid conformity of Fifties post-war life. Rock’n’roll’s attitude was best summed by a line tossed off by Marton Brando in his role as Johnny Strabler, the leader of a motorcycle gang in the 1953 movie, ‘The Wild One’. When a girl asks him, “What are you rebelling against, Johnny?” Brando offhandedly replies, “Whaddya got?”

Such scenes were thrilling and Lennon constructed much of his early identity on their basis. But as the Sixties counterculture began to take shape, and Lennon found himself as one of its leaders, it became evident to him that a more sophisticated approach to changing the world around him was necessary. At first the Beatles were encouraged by their handlers to avoid controversy at all costs, but their intelligence and desire to engage the issues confronting their generation finally made that patronising strategy impossible to sustain. Lennon’s insistence on speaking his mind, beginning with his correct observation in 1965 that the Beatles were ‘more popular than Jesus’, generated shockwaves, and he came to understand that if his words were going to have such an impact, he needed to learn how to use that power to advance the ideals he believed in.

But first he needed to understand who he was, and that process of social, political and psychological self-discovery that makes such songs as ‘Working Class Hero,’ ‘God,’ ‘Isolation’ and ‘I Found Out’ absolutely gripping. Those songs all appear on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), Lennon’s first solo album after leaving the Beatles . It’s an undeniable, acknowledged masterpiece, widely recognised as one of the greatest albums in the history of rock’n’roll. But even at that, its true significance is often not fully understood.

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band front and rear covers

Among the album’s many sources, Lennon’s scarifying dive into the depths of himself in primal-scream therapy is the most obvious, which has lead to the album being heard almost exclusively in personal terms. But part of Lennon’s daring was his willingness to explore how social forces shaped him as fully as the terror of abandonment he experienced as a child. In the absence of more substantive options for forging an identity, accepting the chains that society provides seems like a worthwhile choice – or, as Lennon succinctly put it, ‘a working­ class hero is something to be.’ Still, Lennon’s songs didn’t simply indict “the Man” or “the system”, as so many protest songs did. Lyrics like ‘Keep you doped with religion, sex and TV/And you think you’re so clever and classless and free’ exploded the pretences of counterculture hipsters, and challenged them to question how “liberated” and free they really were.

Of course, Lennon also understood that every movement needs its slogans, and he made use of and even coined some of the best of them. ‘ Give Peace a Chance ’ ‘ Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) ’, ‘ Power to the People ’ and the lovely ‘ Happy Xmas (War Is Over) ’ are all intentionally meant to preach to the progressive choir, to keep the spirits of activists up and their hopes high. But even those songs are often more complex than they are thought to be. The conviction that ‘War is over if you want it’ suggests that if war persists perhaps we have not sufficiently desired its end, or done enough to bring that end about. (Just this year Robert Randolph and the Family Band recorded a torrid cover of Lennon’s anguished ‘I Don’t Wanna Be a Soldier Mama I Don’t Wanna Die’ about very different armed conflicts than the Vietnam War that Lennon had in mind.

Similarly, ‘ Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) ’ is going to get friend and foe alike. If you want to “shine on” you need to make sure your actions keep you on the uplifting end of karma’s ever­-turning wheel.

Finally, ‘ Imagine ’, too, is not merely a pastel vision of a utopian world. It is a challenge and a responsibility, a sentiment akin to Mahatma Gandhi’s statement that ‘We need to be the change we wish to see in the world’.

Sometime in New York City (1972) is Lennon’s most overtly political album, and its opening track, ‘ Woman Is The N***** Of The World ,’ is one of its most compelling songs. Co-written with Yoko, It is perhaps the first feminist anthem recorded by a prominent male rock star, and it marks both the impact his marriage to Yoko had on his evolving political consciousness, but also the deepening of his own understanding of women’s role in the world – and in his life. John and Yoko use of the charged term ‘n*****’ in the song was both a provocation and a deft bit of political analysis and guerilla marketing. Comparing the political oppression of women to the plight of blacks, and using the most racially incendiary term in the language to underscore the connection, incited heated and necessary debate, as it was intended to.

Some Time In New York City album cover Woman Is The N***** Of The World Single Sleeve Woman Is The N***** Of The World advertisement

Lennon knew as well that no truth is absolute, and that the presence of love can excite our deepest fears.

Many songs have been written about jealousy, but none match Lennon’s ‘ Jealous Guy ’ for insight and honesty. Declarations like ‘I was shivering inside,’ ‘I was swallowing my pain’ and ‘I began to lose control’ are rare in any style of popular music, let alone a delicate ballad. Lennon’s ability to plumb the depths of himself and state his fears so directly – with such a raw, eloquent beauty is one of his most profound gifts.

Meanwhile, ‘ I’m Losing You ’ explores those feelings of desperation in a musical context that reflects those emotions rather than soothes them. And, as always, Lennon could be caustic.

The fear of being abandoned and alone drives ‘ Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down And Out) ’, to its bitter conclusion: ‘I’ll scratch your back, and you knife mine.’

The serrated rhythms of ‘ Well, Well, Well ’ capture the mood of a couple – guess who – who are “nervous, feeling guilty” and talking about revolution ‘just like two liberals In the sun.’

Such moments of dread and self­-doubt require the gentleness and encouragement of ‘ Hold On ’ – ‘hold on, John; hold on, Yoko; hold on, world: It’s gonna be all right.’

The hard-fought optimism that love provides, the rock-solid conviction that, however difficult the struggle, you’re not in it alone, leads to the sweetness of ‘ Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) ’ – a paean to a true love child and the awareness, in one of Lennon’s most memorable lines, that ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.’ That acceptance of the world and its inevitable changes is the ultimate gift of love. The inability to control life makes it more precious, because it requires knowledge of life’s evanescence, even as love has made life so much more desirable.

Which is the beauty and poignancy of ‘ Grow Old With Me ’, Lennon’s lovely, deeply felt wish for a long life with Yoko. The song was inspired by Robert Browning’s poem ‘Rabbi Ben Ezra’, and replies to a song Yoko had written called ‘Let Me Count the Ways’, drawing on the well-known sonnet that begins ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways’ by Browning’s wife, Elizabeth Barrett. The nineteenth-century marriage of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning is among the most moving love stories in literary history, and John and Yoko clearly identified with them. Among the many reasons why ‘Grow Old With Me’ is notable is how strongly it counteracts the rock’n’roll mythology of living fast and dying young. It is a hymn to longevity, to the possibility that love can deepen and grow, that romance never has to end.

In one of his final interviews, Lennon described the central aesthetic question of his and Yoko’s life this way. ‘In a way,’ he told the New York Times critic Robert Palmer, ‘we’re involved in a kind of experiment. Could the family be the inspiration of art, instead of drinking or drugs or whatever? I’m interested in finding that out.’

While one of the innumerable tragedies of John Lennon’s death at the age of forty is that he never fully got the opportunity to answer that question, the fact that he asked it in the first place suggests that as far as he was concerned the ‘experiment’ he referred to had already reached an irrefutable conclusion. The life he had built with Yoko and their son Sean had provided plenty of material for great art. But as life became richer and more satisfying, its ephemeral nature became more apparent. When you’re experiencing so many moments that you wish would last forever, you are inevitably haunted by the awareness that they can’t.

The solution, Lennon understood, was a calm awareness that we are all living on ‘ Borrowed Time .’ That song’s gentle reggae lilt lightens the weight of its ideas, and captures the sense of wise acceptance that had increasingly come to be part of his world view. Lennon still lived his life with passion and intensity, still committed to his beliefs with conviction, but the anger that had been with him for so long had eased. Without question, there are many complex reasons for that welcome development, but the simplest reasons perhaps are the most determinative ones. He had settled into his marriage; he was enjoying fatherhood; he had come back refreshed to his music, and as he entered his forties, he had matured. He had discovered that many things could and should be important, but not everything had to be a matter of life or death. In short, he was happy.

Humour, always an under-appreciated aspect of Lennon’s music, was still very much a part of his new vision, hilariously, ‘ Crippled Inside ’ takes the serious theme of the lies of the world – and ourselves – to hide our vulnerabilities and fears, and sets it to a tinkly, honky-tonk beat. The song in that sense mirrors its subject – a cheerful surface genially concealing a scarier reality.

Similarly, the jaunty ‘ Nobody Told Me ’ comments on the confusion of living in confounding times (‘Most peculiar, mama!’) with such panache that it remains perfectly relevant as a soundtrack for today. ‘Scared’ and, particularly, the hauntingly beautiful ‘How?’ address the internal version of such confusion and terror, with characteristic honesty.

Perhaps Lennon’s greatest philosophical song is ‘ Watching the Wheels ’, which appears on Double Fantasy . It can be thought of as his explanation of his life to fans who had wondered what he’d been doing since 1975 when he had stopped making albums and devoted himself to his life with Yoko and Sean. ‘Ah, people asking questions, lost in confusion’ Lennon sings. ‘I tell them there’s no problems, only solutions.’ Given the tumultuous life he had lived to that point, that optimism was earned.

Without being at all self-righteous, the song also has a strong spiritual undercurrent. The wheel, being a circle, is one of the oldest symbols of unity in human history. The karmic wheel, the mandala, the wheel of fortune all spin, and, as the song suggests, peace of mind comes from neither panicking nor growing complacent with their turnings. That is the state of mind Lennon had achieved by the end of his life.

Acceptance is not necessarily passive. Lennon still believed the world could – be made a better place in both personal terms and for humanity at large. Speaking about Double Fantasy on the very day he was killed, Lennon describes himself as reconnecting with his audience in this way: ‘I’m saying “Here I am now, how are you? How’s your relationship going? Did you get through it all? Weren’t the Seventies a drag? Here we are, well, let’s try to make the Eighties good, because it’s still up to us to make what we can of it.”’

Double Fantasy album cover Watching The Wheels single cover

The confluence of those crucial events had a decisive effect on the remaining years of Lennon’s life. For the next five years he would disappear from public life almost completely, devoting himself to raising Sean and re-immersing himself in his life with Ono. It was an unprecedented move for a rock star of his fame and stature, and he characteristically threw himself into it without reserve. When he re-emerged again in 1980 to do interviews for Double Fantasy , an album dedicated to the ideal of family and domestic bliss that he had embraced with Ono, Lennon delivered spontaneous lectures on feminism and the importance of sharing gender roles in relationships.

When a reporter from Playboy asked if Lennon had been working on any ‘secret projects’ during this period, Lennon made it decidedly clear that his personal life was the only project he had been interested in – or had any time for. ‘Are you kidding?’ Lennon replied. ‘There were no secret projects going on in the basement. Because bread and babies, as every housewife knows, is a full-time job…And it is such a tremendous responsibility to see that the baby has the right amount of food and doesn’t overeat and gets the right amount of sleep. If I, as housemother, had not put him to sleep and made sure that he was in the bath by 7:30, no one else would have…Now I understand the frustration of those women because of all the work. And there is no gold watch at the end of the day.’

As strong a personality as you could encounter even on his most cooperative day, Lennon couldn’t stand the idea that some people viewed him as passively under Ono’s spell. ‘Listen, if somebody’s gonna impress me, whether it be a Maharishi or a Yoko Ono, there comes a point when the emperor has no clothes,’ he insisted. ‘There comes a point where I will see. So for all you folks out there who think that I’m having the wool pulled over my eyes – well, that’s an insult to me. Not that you think less of Yoko, because that’s your problem; what I think of her is what counts! But if you think you know me or you have some part of me because of the music I’ve made, and then you think I’m being controlled like a dog on a leash because I do things with her, then screw you. Because – fuck you brother or sister, you don’t know what’s happening. I’m not here for you. I’m here for me and her and the baby!’

For John Lennon, the truth was not a fixed category, but a shifting one that took into account all of the factors that determine the circumstances of our lives. He lived by a code of honesty, of self-revelation, of the belief that the best songs he could write were the ones that communicated a clear picture of who he was at the moment of their creation. That process of speaking person-to-person is how the truth took shape for him. His life and his work were continual experiments in discovery and rediscovery. His values remained constant. What changed were the times, the ways in which those values could best be presented and transmitted, and the definition of those values given the current state of the world.

Whether he was singing rock’n’roll songs or writing songs that captured how fragile our lives are, whether he was extolling the virtues of women or railing against the evils perpetrated by our governments, Lennon viewed his work as one rich story, one step on the journey to Creating a better world, one ongoing, never-ending search for truth.

‘I always consider my work one piece…and I consider that my work won’t be finished until I’m dead and buried – and I hope that’s a long, long time,’ he said on the last day of his life. ‘So to me it’s part of one whole piece of work from the time I became public to now…And the eighties is like, we’ve got a new chance.’

Every decade, every new year, every day, every moment constitutes a ‘new chance.’ As Lennon sings in ‘ Borrowed Time ’, ‘Now I am older/The more that I see, the less that I know for sure/Now I am older/The future is brighter, and now is the hour.’ Now, and whenever anyone hears any of these songs.

Written by Anthony DeCurtis Originally published in the John Lennon ‘ Gimme Some Truth ‘ 4 x CD Box Set

• Beatle people

John Lennon

You make your own dream. That’s the Beatles’ story, isn’t it? That’s Yoko ’s story. That’s what I’m saying now. Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It’s quite possible to do anything, but not to put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don’t expect Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself.

• An overview of John Lennon's life , with information on key events from his childhood through to The Beatles and his solo years.
• Detailed guides to all his solo songs , including recording and release dates and fascinating facts
• Info on all the essential John Lennon albums you need to complete your collection, from Live Peace In Toronto 1969 to Double Fantasy , plus posthumous releases such as Milk And Honey , John Lennon Anthology and the John Lennon Signature Box .
• Guides to the avant garde and experimental releases made with Yoko Ono : Two Virgins , Life With The Lions and Wedding Album .
• John Lennon photo gallery .
• A feature on John Lennon and the number nine .
• John Lennon discography detailing album and single artwork tracklisting and release dates for the US and UK.

John Lennon videos

War is over inspired by the music of john & yoko - making of - origins.

• Click here for many more John Lennon videos! »

John Lennon biography

He said he said…

"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." - John Lennon

John Lennon albums guide

Song of the day

Watching the wheels.

John Lennon discography

Album of the day

Rock 'n' roll (1975).

John Lennon songs guide

Did you know?

John Lennon and Yoko Ono married in Gibraltar on 20 March 1969.

John Lennon photo gallery

On the Fab Forum

John Lennon and the number nine

John Lennon

• Born October 9 , 1940 · Liverpool, Lancashire, England, UK
• Died December 8 , 1980 · New York City, New York, USA (murdered by gunshot)
• Birth name John Winston Lennon
• Height 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
• John Winston (later Ono) Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England, to Julia Lennon (née Stanley) and Alfred Lennon , a merchant seaman. He was raised by his mother's older sister Mimi Smith . In the mid-1950s, he formed his first band, The Quarrymen (after Quarry Bank High School, which he attended) who, with the addition of Paul McCartney and George Harrison , later became The Beatles . After some years of performing in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany, "Beatlemania" erupted in England and Europe in 1963 after the release of their singles "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me". That same year, John's first wife Cynthia Lennon welcomed their only son Julian Lennon , named after John's mother. The next year the Beatles flew to America to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) (aka The Ed Sullivan Show), and Beatlemania spread worldwide. Queen Elizabeth II granted all four Beatles M.B.E. medals in 1965, for import revenues from their record sales; John returned his four years later, as part of an antiwar statement. John and the Beatles continued to tour and perform live until 1966, when protests over his calling the Beatles phenomenon "more popular than Jesus" and the frustrations of touring made the band decide to quit the road. They devoted themselves to studio work, recording and releasing albums such as "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "Magical Mystery Tour" and the "White Album". Instead of appearing live, the band began making their own "pop clips" (an early term for music videos), which were featured on television programs of the time. In the late 1960s John began performing and making albums with his second wife Yoko Ono , as the Beatles began to break up. Their first two albums, "Two Virgins" and "Life With The Lions", were experimental and flops by Beatles standards, while their "Wedding Album" was almost a vanity work, but their live album "Live Peace In Toronto" became a Top Ten hit, at the end of the 1960s. In the early 1970s John and Yoko continued to record together, making television appearances and performing at charity concerts. After the release of John's biggest hit, "Imagine", they moved to the US, where John was nearly deported because of his political views (a late-'60s conviction for possession of hashish in the U.K. was the excuse given by the government), but after a four-year legal battle he won the right to stay. In the midst of this, John and Yoko separated for over a year; John lived in Los Angeles with personal assistant May Pang , while Yoko dated guitarist David Spinozza . When John made a guest appearance at Elton John 's Thanksgiving 1974 concert, Yoko was in the audience, and surprised John backstage. They reconciled in early 1975, and Yoko soon became pregnant. After the birth of their son Sean Lennon , John settled into the roles of "househusband" and full-time daddy, while Yoko became his business manager; both appeared happy in their new life together. After a five-year break from music and the public eye, they made a comeback with their album "Double Fantasy", but within weeks of their re-emergence, Lennon was murdered on the evening of December 8, 1980 by Mark David Chapman , a one-time Beatles fan angry and jealous over John's ongoing career, who fatally shot Lennon four times in the back outside his apartment building, The Dakota, as Lennon was returning from a recording session. Within minutes after being shot, John Lennon was dead at age 40. His violent death was a sudden and tragic end to the life of a talented singer and musician who wanted to make a difference in the world. - IMDb Mini Biography By: paulabb
• Spouses Yoko Ono (March 20, 1969 - December 8, 1980) (his death, 1 child) Cynthia Lennon (August 23, 1962 - November 8, 1968) (divorced, 1 child)
• Children Sean Lennon Julian Lennon Kyoko Ono Cox
• Parents Alfred Lennon Julia Lennon
• Relatives Mimi Smith (Aunt or Uncle) Julia Baird (Half Sibling)
• Round-framed glasses and army-surplus jacket
• Songs about personal issues, political and social themes
• His Rickenbacker 325 guitar (replaced later with an Epiphone Casino)
• Bizarre, humorous personality and outspoken, rebellious nature
• He frequently wrote songs about love being the answer to the world's problems
• During the 1960s he had attempted to instigate a live action adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien 's "Lord Of The Rings" books (of which he was a fan), starring himself and his Beatle bandmates. Lennon had expressed interest in the role of Gollum, with Paul McCartney playing Frodo, Ringo Starr playing Sam and George Harrison playing Gandalf.
• In a 2007 interview on the BBC Radio program Desert Island Discs, his wife, Yoko Ono , revealed what his last words were. She said that he wanted to go home and see son Sean before he went to sleep rather than go out for dinner after leaving the recording studio. According to Ono: "I said 'Shall we go and have dinner before we go home?' and John said, 'No, let's go home because I want to see Sean before he goes to sleep.'" Moments later, he was gunned down in front of the historic Dakota building where the family lived in New York City.
• Elton John is the godfather of his son Sean Lennon
• It was after hearing Paul McCartney 's new single "Coming Up" that Lennon decided to return to music in early 1980. His reported response was, "Oh shit, I've got to get back." Lennon loved the song.
• His mother Julia Lennon (44) was killed by a drunk driver when John was seventeen; his stepfather broke down at the news, and John had to go with the police to identify her body (he later named his first son [ Julian Lennon ] for her, and remembered his mother in the song "Julia", ten years after her death). His best friend and former band mate Stuart Sutcliffe died from a brain hemorrhage in 1962, when they were both 21; John asked Stuart's mother for the old scarf he'd worn to art school, and kept it as a memento.
• When real music comes to me - the music of the spheres, the music that surpasseth understanding - that has nothing to do with me, 'cause I'm just the channel. The only joy for me is for it to be given to me, and to transcribe it like a medium...those moments are what I live for.
• Will all the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? All the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry. [At Royal Variety Performance 4th November 1963]
• God is a concept by which we measure our pain.
• 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.
• Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

Contribute to this page

• Learn more about contributing

More from this person

• View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro

More to explore

Recently viewed

• Latest News

“In ‘N Out”: The Joe Henderson Classic That Pushed Hard Bop To Breaking Point

‘just once in my life’: the righteous brothers keep that lovin‘ feelin’, ‘a girl like me’: how rihanna set her sound in motion, ‘the beatles’ second album’: the us takeover continues, a family affair: 20 sibling groups who rock, ‘club classics vol. 1’: soul ii soul’s debut album changed the game, defining power-pop: the fruitful debut album by raspberries, check out a new trailer for ‘the beach boys’ documentary, billie eilish announces new album ‘hit me hard and soft’, empire of the sun return with new single ‘changes’, st. vincent announces uk, european ‘all born screaming’ tour dates, ringo starr announces new single ‘february sky’, keith leblanc, drummer and nine inch nails producer, dies at 70, melissa aldana releases new album ‘echoes of the inner prophet’, john lennon.

John Lennon was one of the world’s most famous musicians, with a solo career that included songs like ‘Imagine’ and ‘Jealous Guy’.

Published on

Is John Lennon the most important figure in rock history? Hard to disagree that the musician, activist, author and film star has every right to hold that title. He is certainly Britain’s most iconic rock star, and this in a field that includes his songwriting partner Sir Paul McCartney , Mick Jagger and David Bowie .

Born in Liverpool in 1940 and taken away from us so tragically in December 1980, we will never know what else John would have offered as he left his 40 th year, but his discography pays testimony to his talent just as his list of extraneous achievements would fill careers of dozens of other artists and bands.

‘You Can’t Argue With A Sick Mind’: Joe Walsh Rocks Out In Santa Monica

Lennon’s significance, both with and without  The Beatles , was so vast that in hindsight it’s hard to believe that he was patronised and filed under light entertainment at the beginning of his fame: this being a time, the early 1960s no less, when the establishment wanted youth culture regulated and homogenised. John was a rebel and an iconoclast and also a highly intelligent and complex songwriter who brought sexual nuance to the standard boy meets girl fare and then introduced a level of autobiography into his early period songs “I’m A Loser”, “Help”,  “In My Life” are obvious examples – that threw the conventional idea of pop’s Tin Pan Alley idealism out the door. His writing took on a solo bent even when he was in collaboration with McCartney and their dual genius spilt over into the complex albums , Beatles For Sale , Rubber Soul , Revolver et al, and then grabbed a global generation by introducing them to the concept of psychedelia on Sgt. Pepper and the avant-garde on the double album The Beatles .

Household names pretty much from the off once Beatlemania kicked in 1963 – just the mention of their Christian names was enough to make the nation salivate – The Beatles grew up and broke down in public and Lennon would relish the chance to put across his political and religious ideas while he grew sick of being viewed as a spokesman. Once he’d moved away from the cosy concept of the group and fallen in love with Yoko Ono his solo career began in earnest. His first few outings with Yoko were mind-boggling affairs but then he entered his second commercially viable phase with the Plastic Ono Band and the hugely influential Imagine era. His move to New York coincided with the chance to enjoy an element of anonymity but his music flourished under the crucible of attention nonetheless. In his case there is little point in detailing sales figures, The Beatles broke all records in-store and at the box office and since everything Lennon did was scrutinized to the ninth degree there are hundreds of important books to read on the subject. His own authorship was quite amazing. He topped the best-seller lists with his first two surrealistic and humorous efforts – In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works – while the posthumous Skywriting By Word of Mouth is heartily recommended, if only because it is generally less well known. But without further ado, as he might have said, let’s see where he began and where he ended up.

Born a Libran in war-torn Liverpool John Winston Lennon’s unusual childhood would colour all his most personal work, particularly in the case of his mother Julia who was forced to hand her son over to his aunt Mimi to bring him up. Dislocated at times, happy at others, Lennon’s personality made him something of a loner who failed academically despite obvious talents in English and Art. He became an art student while his first significant group The Quarrymen evolved with key members to include McCartney and George Harrison . The Beatles formed in 1960 and undertook their infamous Hamburg residency where John perfected his raunchy frontman style. Back home at the Cavern Club, John and the boys fell under the mentorship of local entrepreneur and record store manager (NMES) Brian Epstein who would engineer their eventual deal with EMI Parlophone. The rest is not history but the beginning of pop history as we know it since the albums Please, Please Me and With The Beatles catapults our heroes into the public consciousness. Thereafter everything the Beatles did turn the world upside down but John’s early solo discs were esoteric affairs: and then some. Unfinished Music No 1: Two Virgins and Unfinished Music No 2: Life with the Lions didn’t just divide critical opinion in 1968 and 1969 they created a simmering resentment. At this juncture, the groundbreaking use of tape loops, phase and distortion and very little obvious pop content wouldn’t create such a stir but this was Beatle John, appearing naked on the cover with Yoko and then in a maternity hospital.

The avant-garde quotient is somewhat diluted on Wedding Album , which the couple recorded during the so-called ‘Bed-Ins’ that accompanied their public honeymoon. Listeners must make up their minds about these discs – they are not for the faint-hearted but they contain moments of whimsy that are pure Lennon even so. As for vinyl artefacts, they are super rare so the CD bonus reissues are well worth checking out.

Maybe there was a palpable sigh of relief when The Plastic Ono Band unleashes the Live Peace in Toronto 1969 album. This disc, recorded at Varsity Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada contains a set of rock and roll standards like “Money” and “Blue Suede Shoes” as well as the Beatles cuts “Yer Blues” and “Give Peace a Chance”. Backing from Eric Clapton , Alan White and Klaus Voormann is bang on the groove. What all the above recordings denote is that if you love John Lennon then you know you have to take the rough with the smooth. He isn’t taking any prisoners after all.

The debut solo album proper is John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970) where producer Phil Spector tries to make sense of the Primal Scream period of pain John endures after The Beatles break-up. Despite his own anguish, this album contains some of John’s most essential music. We wholeheartedly recommend this as an introduction to his post-Beatles work. The new decade would find Lennon at his most acerbic. Stand out tracks are all of them! “Mother” is a pained account of his childhood while “Working Class Hero” and “I Found Out” deal with Lennon’s attitudes to society in Britain. The lovely “Isolation” and “God” contain a spiritual depth that survives the examination of his own psyche and explores an artist adept at dealing with religion and fame. Even at his most negative, Lennon provides succour and intellectual depth. The CD reissue, adding “Power to the People” and “Do the Oz” are fascinating documents of the time and the backing – with Ringo Starr and Klaus Voormann handling the rhythm side – is exemplary.

Before he leaves England for New York Lennon will record at home in Surrey, in Abbey Road and mix and overdub at the Record Plant. Where the previous album’s “Well Well Well” sounds like a precursor to metal and grunge the majority of the Imagine cuts have a softer, more inviting atmosphere but lose nothing in lyrical sharpness or musical acumen. Another significant milestone in Lennon’s life this disc is one of the first to embrace the school of A-team session men who join George Harrison, the Badfinger boys and the trusty Voormann to provide a crisp rhythmic pulse. The drummers Jim Keltner and Jim Gordon will become stars in their right. Another five-star classic, Imagine is blessed by the legendary title track, which would be the best selling single in John’s career. But the rest is equally vital. “Jealous Guy” has become a standard and “Oh My Love” is a template for much to come, a love song without compare. By contrast, the wickedly bitter “Gimme Some Truth” and the Beatle barbed “How Do You Sleep?” are balanced by Lennon’s ability to criticize himself during “Crippled Inside”, a lovely country romp with an acoustic swing.

Some Time in New York City coincides with increased activism from John as he hooks up with the American counter-culture. Somewhat critically panned on release in retrospect this double-disc is well worth discovering. The live material from the Lyceum is excellent and there are many other pleasing elements in songs like “Attica State”, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “The Luck of the Irish”. The remixed/remastered version is a peach since it adds “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”.

Hard to believe that a figure of Lennon’s stature could receive such short shrift but even Mind Games   (1973) was knocked at the time, though on reissue opinions have changed completely. Produced by John without assistance from Phil Spector, this album was recorded at the Record Plant with musical assists from Ken Ascher on keyboards, Jim Keltner on drums (Rick Marotta adds double rhythm for “Meat City”) and specialists like guitarist David Spinozza, Sneaky Pete Kleinow on pedal steel and Michael Brecker adding a hard East Coast funky sax. The title cut was a commercial hit but the hidden gems are “Bring on the Lucie (Freeda People)” and “Aisumasen (I’m Sorry)” which is reminiscent of the Beatles track “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”.

Walls and Bridges (1974) put John back in the critics’ good books but forget that because this is an overlooked classic anyway. “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” and “Old Dirt Road” (penned with Harry Nilsson) are lovely things and the ensemble playing is craftsman-like and crisp. This is a damn good professional John Lennon album with a rock and roll twist thanks to the inclusion of Lee Dorsey’s “Ya Ya” and the euphoric “#9 Dream”.

The legendary Rock’n’Roll disc reunited Spector and John and adds gravitas and thrust to a set of tracks that Lennon had in his locker – “Slippin’ and Slidin’”, “You Can’t Catch Me” and “Be-Bop-A-Lula” sounding like throwbacks to the olden days in the Cavern and the Star Club: a great recording. The bonus reissues are well worth the entrance fee.  

Shaved Fish is a compilation that became one of the world’s first platinum sellers and not surprisingly since it contains the singles from Lennon’s solo career that had yet to appear on an album, namely “Instant Karma”, “Cold Turkey” and “Power to the People”.

Following his decision to become a “house husband” and allocate time to his family the last album released in Lennon’s lifetime is Double Fantasy (1980). Three weeks later an insane gunman murdered the dreams of a generation. Despite that awful perspective, this album contains some of the man’s finest music. “Woman”, “(Just Like) Starting Over” and “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” are redolent of Lennon’s most emotive writing to that date and Yoko Ono’s contributions betoken a classic love affair in full bloom. Though we choose not to remember John Lennon solely for this work, as a final statement it’s hard to beat.

Because this is a man of the highest order in our catalogue we unreservedly commend the anthologies and collections.

The John Lennon Collection (1982) was a huge seller after his death, particularly as it was tilted in the direction of his most passionate and perhaps least controversial songs from the 1970s. The posthumous Milk and Honey recovers “Grow Old With Me” and “Nobody Told Me” and is assembled by Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono with great dignity and with attention to detail. The same goes for Live in New York City (1986) where a Madison Square Garden concert recording from 1972, featuring the backing of local act Elephant’s Memory cut loose on Lennon favourites including a fine version of “Come Together” and a blistering “Instant Karma”. Hear this as soon as possible.

For those who wish to delve further – that’s likely to be all of you – the  Imagine: John Lennon soundtrack includes the demo version of “Real Love” and a slew of Beatles classics that put together form the basis for the 1988 documentary. Then the 4-CD box-set Lennon (1990) cherry-picks the great and the good in the catalogue while Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon and John Lennon Anthology offer a combination of classics and must-hear demos and alternate versions of much-loved material.

More remasters decorate Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon and Power to the People: The Hits   – both deliver on their promise. But for those who want something approaching classic and definitive then the exemplary John Lennon Signature Box will prove to be the very thing. Here you’ll find all the studio albums plus home demos and singles, digitally remastered with the utmost TLC. This may not be the cheapest option but it is still worth saving up for if you want something to treasure forever.

To paraphrase the man himself: Imagine no John Lennon. It’s impossible. We choose to honour his memory via his music. Wondrous surprises lie in store in all of the above.

Words: Max Bell

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

John Lennon's Death: A Timeline of Events

On December 8, 1980, Lennon was fatally shot in front of his New York City home by crazed fan Mark David Chapman . Only two months earlier, on October 9, 1980, Lennon had celebrated his 40th birthday with his wife, Yoko Ono , and five-year-old son, Sean (who coincidentally shares the same birthday). The occasion was uniquely momentous for Lennon, as Ono had surprised both her husband and son with a sky-written message above their Manhattan apartment building: "Happy Birthday John & Sean - Love Yoko." That November, Lennon and Ono had released the collaborative project Double Fantasy , and only weeks before his tragic death, Lennon had been overjoyed by the news that the record had gone gold.

In an interview with Rolling Stone on December 5 — just three days before he was killed — Lennon had shared some eerily prophetic words of wisdom: "Give peace a chance, not shoot people for peace. All we need is love. I believe it."

Lennon was in good spirits on the morning of December 8, 1980, but sadly, his life would be tragically cut short before the day's end. Below, we present a timeline of the legendary musician's final hours in detail.

11 a.m. - Magazine cover shoot with 'Rolling Stone'

Rolling Stone magazine photographer Annie Leibovitz arrives at Lennon's apartment for a photoshoot. Around the same time, Lennon returns home after getting a haircut — reportedly in a 1950s Teddy Boy style — at an Upper West Side barbershop near the Dakota, the building where he and Ono live. During the shoot, Leibovitz wants to take a photograph of Lennon and Ono together, both nude, but digresses after Ono says she's uncomfortable with being completely nude. She takes a single Polaroid of a completely clothed Ono lying on her back and a naked Lennon, who's kissing and embracing his wife in a fetal-like position. Upon looking at the shot, the three know that they've created something profound. Incredibly impressed with the image, the couple tells Leibovitz, "You've captured our relationship exactly."

(The now-iconic photo would go on to be printed on Rolling Stone's cover on January 22, 1981. In 2005, it's named the "top cover of the previous 40 years" by the American Society of Magazine Editors.)

12 p.m. - Lennon's friend makes small talk with Chapman outside of his apartment

Paul Goresh, a friend of Lennon's, makes small talk outside of the Dakota with a stranger he'd encountered there minutes earlier: 25-year-old Chapman. Chapman, who's holding a copy of Double Fantasy , tells Goresh that he's from Hawaii and is awaiting Lennon's exit from the building in hopes that he'll autograph his album.

12:40 p.m. - Interviewers arrive at Lennon's apartment

Employees from San Francisco's RKO Radio, including famed radio personality Dave Sholin, arrive at the Dakota for an interview with Lennon to promote Double Fantasy . A smiling Lennon "does a little jump in the air" and in a welcoming fashion announces, "Well, here I am, folks, the show's ready to begin!" He speaks candidly about the lost revolutionary focus of the 1960s and his advocacy for world peace and feminism. "Maybe in the '60s we were naïve and like children and later everyone went back to their rooms and said, 'We didn't get a wonderful world of flowers and peace... The world is a nasty horrible place because it didn't give us everything we cried for,'" he said. "Right? Crying for it wasn't enough." When the interview comes to a close, Lennon remarks, "I consider that my work won't be finished until I'm dead and buried and I hope that's a long, long time."

During the interview, his son Sean, accompanied by nanny Helen Seaman, returns home after spending time on Long Island.

4:30 p.m. - Lennon and Ono have exited the Dakota

They exit with the RKO Radio crew and are awaiting a ride to take them to the Record Plant studio in Midtown where they plan to work on a new single, "Walking On Thin Ice." During this time Chapman, his Double Fantasy copy still in hand, approaches Lennon and extends the album. When the former Beatle asks the stranger if he wants him to sign it, Chapman nods timidly. Standing nearby and camera in hand, Goresh takes a couple of photos of the two men. RKO's limo arrives shortly thereafter, and Sholin offers to give Lennon and Ono a lift to the studio.

5 p.m. - Lennon and Ono arrive at Record Plant

When they arrive they begin working with producer Jack Douglas on their new song, the lyrics of which would later prove strangely prescient: Walking on thin ice/ I'm paying the price/ For throwing the dice in the air/ Why must we learn it the hard way/ And play the game of life with your heart? ... I may cry some day/ But the tears will dry whichever way/ And when our hearts return to ashes/ It'll be just a story/ It'll be just a story. Lennon plays a guitar piece for the track—his last musical recording—before the jovial couple exits the studio.

10:50 p.m. - Lennon and Ono head home

The husband and wife leave the studio and head home to the Dakota. After exiting their limo, Lennon makes eye contact with the awkward young man he'd met hours earlier: Chapman. With his now-signed album in hand, he's after more than an autograph this time. Seconds later, Chapman pulls out a .38 handgun and fires five shots at the musician, hitting Lennon four times in the back and chest. Lennon somehow manages to continue walking, eventually collapsing in the front vestibule of the Dakota. Strewn around him are a number of cassettes that he'd been holding.

A terrified Ono enters the building screaming, "John's been shot!" Seconds later, building worker Jay Hastings alerts the police. Officer Steve Spiro arrives at the scene within minutes and Lennon is taken to Roosevelt Hospital, near Central Park on 59th Street.

11:15 p.m. - Doctors try to save Lennon

After doctors in Roosevelt's emergency room spend several frantic minutes trying to save Lennon, Ono is approached by the head ER doctor. He informs her that the medical staff was unable to resuscitate her husband. Lennon is officially pronounced dead. Ono is hysterical for several minutes afterward. "She refused to accept or believe that," Lynn recalled in a 2005 interview with the Washington Post . "For five minutes, she kept repeating, 'It's not true. I don't believe you. You're lying.'" After regaining her composure, Ono asks Lynn to wait to publicly announce the news so that she can tell Sean.

ABC's Howard Cosell is first to break the news that Lennon has died, interrupting a Monday Night Football game between the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins. Cosell also announces that a special edition of Nightline will air 30 minutes after the game, providing additional information on the musician's death.

Following the report — and continuing for several days thereafter — thousands of Lennon fans unite near the Dakota to mourn the late musician. The public response to Lennon's murder is noted as the first of its magnitude since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy . Vigils are held in numerous locations worldwide.

Events are held around the world each December to commemorate the rock icon's death and everlasting impact.

Famous Musicians

Morgan Wallen

Dolly Parton Wrote “Jolene” in a Flash of Jealousy

Sean “Diddy” Combs

Carrie Underwood Is Expanding Her Music Empire

Céline Dion Gives Emotional Health Update on IG

Tyler Childers

Amy Winehouse

Justin Timberlake

The Best Music Documentaries

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

John Lennon, the young rebel

S am Taylor-Wood's film, Nowhere Boy , paints John Lennon's formative years in the broadest of brush strokes. He is a troubled but gifted teenager caught between two women, two worlds. His mother, Julia, is working-class, wild-spirited and mostly absent, and his aunt, Mimi Smith, is respectable, strict and domineeringly present. Julia loved Lonnie Donegan; Mimi listened to Tchaikovsky. In Lennon's case, nature triumphed over nurture.

Lennon was born during an air raid on 9 October 1940. His father, Alfred "Freddie" Lennon, was a merchant seaman and only fitfully present during his son's childhood. When he returned to Julia in 1944 after a long absence, she was pregnant by another man. It was Mimi who complained to the social services that her sister was unfit to look after the young boy, an intervention that began the sisters' long battle for John's affections. One of the more traumatic childhood scenes, shown in flashback in Nowhere Boy , shows the five-year-old John being instructed by Freddie to choose whether he wanted to live with Julia or him. John first chooses Freddie, then, in tears, runs up the street after his mother. After that, Freddie disappeared from Lennon's life for two decades, only to resurface after his son had become famous. By then, Mimi was Lennon's mother in all but name. When an American magazine offered to publish her memoirs, Mimi rang and asked for his advice. "Take the money, Mimi," he said, "and tell them I was a juvenile delinquent who used to knock down old ladies." There was more than a grain of truth in that description.

The John Lennon that Aaron Johnson portrays in Nowhere Boy , though, has had his sensitivity amplified and his arrogance turned down. He dresses like a teddy boy, but there is barely a glimpse of the semi-delinquent behaviour of his grammar school years – the gangs he led, the shoplifting, the hapless pupils and teachers he bullied – or his fascination with, the disabled and the disfigured. In A Hard Day's Night , someone asks Ringo if he is a mod or a rocker. "I'm a mocker", he retorts. But he wasn't. Lennon was.

Lennon filled notebooks at Quarry Bank school with drawings of human grotesques and, as his first biographer, Ray Coleman, put it, "developed an instinctive ability to mock the weak, with whom he had no patience". An early girlfriend, Thelma Pickles, who hung out with Lennon at art school, later recalled: "Anyone limping or crippled or hunchbacked, or deformed in any way, John laughed and ran up to them to make horrible faces."

The cruelty, like the anger that occasionally erupted from time to time into physical violence may have had its roots in his constant childhood feeling of not quite belonging anywhere, or to anyone. Mimi treated him sometimes as her son, sometimes as an equal. Julia, doted on him when she saw him, but was absent for most of his childhood.

The death of the young Lennon's surrogate father, Mimi's husband George, in 1955, was the first of four deaths that would wound and harden him. Julia died when John was 17; his best friend, Stuart Sutcliffe, died suddenly from a brain haemorrhage in 1962; and his manager and mentor, Brian Epstein, who nursed an unrequited love for Lennon, died of an overdose in 1967.

Julia's death was the most unexpected. She was hit by a speeding car driven by a policeman; Lennon retreated into himself, bonding with the young Paul McCartney, who had also lost his mother as a boy, but barely talked about the loss of Julia until years later when his long bout of primal therapy helped create the musical cry for help that is "Mother" on his first solo album.

Lennon's most recent biographer, Philip Norman , has suggested that the 14-year-old Lennon was sexually attracted to his mother, having become aroused when he accidentally touched her breast. "I was wondering if I should do anything else," Lennon told a journalist years later, "I always think I should have done it. Presumably she would have allowed it." Taylor-Wood's film hints at, but pulls back from, that transgressive moment, which is probably for the best given Lennon's tendency to say things for effect. His adolescent need to rebel and offend stayed with him long into adulthood, his maturity arrested by the gilded prison of celebrity and the copious amounts of LSD he took in the mid to late 60s when he seemed intent on obliterating his troubled psyche.

Such was the emotional tumult of John Lennon's early years, it is difficult to imagine him having an uneventful life even if he hadn't been famous. The restlessness that willed him into stardom was such that it helped overthrow the last vestiges of Victorian Britain in the youth-led surge that shaped the 60s.

His upbringing was comfortable in a material way but unstable emotionally, and in the art school years that end the film, he found a milieu where he almost belonged. He was a bohemian and a rebel, by turns arrogant and insecure; the classic outsider who came to define the boundaries of the mainstream by reacting against them; the nowhere boy who became Britain's most famous pop star but never quite transcended his troubled childhood.

• John Lennon
• The Observer
• Pop and rock
• The Beatles

Most viewed

John Lennon Biography

John Lennon, a legendary musician and songwriter, was one of the founding members of the rock band, The Beatles. Hailing from Liverpool, England, Lennon achieved great fame and success not just in his native country, but throughout the world. The Beatles, with Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, became the greatest and most influential band of the rock era, and also the most commercially successful one. Lennon’s childhood, marred by domestic instabilities, fueled his dream of becoming a famous musician. His poignant and evocative lyrics, influenced by his painful experiences, have entertained generations of music lovers. After the disbanding of The Beatles, Lennon enjoyed a thriving solo career and was actively involved in political and peace activism. Tragically, his life was cut short when he was shot to death at the age of 40.

Quick Facts

• British Celebrities Born In October
• Also Known As: John Winston Ono Lennon, John Winston Lennon
• Died At Age: 40
• Spouse/Ex-: Cynthia Lennon (m. 1962–1968), Yoko Ono (m. 1969–1980)
• Father: Freddie Lennon
• Mother: Julia Lennon
• Children: Julian
• Born Country: England
• Quotes By John Lennon
• Died on: December 8, 1980
• Place of death: The Dakota, New York, United States
• Ancestry: British American
• Notable Alumni: Liverpool College Of Art
• Cause of Death: Assassination
• City: Liverpool, England
• Education: Liverpool College Of Art

Childhood & Early Life

John Winston Lennon was born on 9 October 1940 in Liverpool, England. His parents were Alfred Lennon, a merchant seaman of Irish descent, and Julia Stanley. When Lennon was five years old, his parents had a bitter separation, and he went to live with his aunt Mimi and uncle George. Despite his family problems, Lennon’s mother encouraged his musical interests, while his aunt Mimi was against them. Lennon attended Dovedale Primary School and later Quarry Bank High School.

Formation of The Beatles

At the age of 16, Lennon formed a band called the Quarry Men, inspired by Elvis Presley. In 1957, he met Paul McCartney and invited him to join the group. Tragically, Lennon’s mother was killed in a car accident in 1958 when he was only 17 years old, which deeply affected him and led to a fear of abandonment. Lennon was a troublemaker at school and failed all his exams. He was accepted into the Liverpool College of Art but was eventually thrown out.

The Beatles and Solo Career

Lennon, along with McCartney, recruited other musicians like George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Paul Best to form the band known as The Beatles in 1960. They became popular in Britain with hits like “Please Please Me” and “She Loves You.” The Beatles achieved international fame and became superstars, surpassing the success of American rock bands. After the death of their manager in 1967, the Beatles disbanded, and Lennon launched his solo career. His debut solo album, “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band,” was released in 1970.

Legacy and Personal Life

Lennon is best remembered as the co-founder of The Beatles, the best-selling band in history. He married Cynthia Powell in 1962, but they divorced in 1968. Lennon then married Yoko Ono in 1969, who played a significant role in his career after the breakup of The Beatles. Tragically, Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman on 8 December 1980 and died from his injuries. He left behind a lasting legacy in the music industry.

Awards and Achievements

Throughout his career, Lennon received numerous awards and accolades. He won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1967 for “Michelle” and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award with The Beatles in 2014. The Beatles also won an Academy Award for Best Music for the film “Let It Be” in 1970. Lennon had 25 number one singles on the US Hot 100 chart as a performer, writer, or co-writer.

Personal Life & Legacy

Lennon married Cynthia Powell in 1962, but they divorced in 1968. He then married Yoko Ono in 1969, and they had one son together. Lennon’s life was tragically cut short when he was shot by Mark David Chapman in 1980. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in New York’s Central Park. Lennon’s influence and legacy continue to resonate in the music industry.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Español NEW

John Lennon facts for kids

John Winston Ono Lennon (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter and artist who rose to worldwide fame as the founder of the rock band the Beatles . After the Beatles stopped making records in 1970, he lived in the United States with his wife Yoko Ono , and continued his music career up until his death in 1980.

Early life and career

Later life and career, death and legacy, monuments and sculptures, with the beatles, solo career, images for kids.

Lennon started the Beatles in his hometown of Liverpool , with Paul McCartney and George Harrison . After Ringo Starr joined the band, they started to be very successful. People were excited by their music, and their live performances always pleased audiences. Manager Brian Epstein and record producer George Martin helped the Beatles become the most popular act in entertainment .

Lennon played the guitar, and later learned to play the piano. Most of the songs the Beatles recorded were written by Lennon and McCartney. Their songs were always credited as by "Lennon/McCartney" on Beatles records, but in fact they usually wrote their songs on their own. The two men often helped to make each other's songs better, so they liked to share writing credit. Famous songs written by Lennon for the Beatles are "A Hard Day's Night", "Help!", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "A Day In The Life" and many others.

The Beatles grew apart as the members got older. Lennon divorced his first wife, Cynthia Powell , and married Yoko Ono , while McCartney married Linda Eastman . Each wife had different ideas, and encouraged their husbands to depend less on each other. Later, some fans blamed Yoko and Linda for breaking the Beatles up.

Lennon loved his wife so much that he added her surname Ono to his own name, since she became Yoko Ono Lennon when she married him. He had never liked his middle name Winston (given him by his mother after Winston Churchill ) and wanted to change it. He could add a new name, so he did that. He never used the name Winston again, unless he had to for legal reasons (such as when he travelled to America). Otherwise he gave his "full name" as John Wong Ono Lennon.

Lennon and Ono moved to the United States in 1971, and settled in New York City . Ono had a daughter, Kyoko Chan Cox, from an earlier husband, Anthony Cox, a jazz musician, who took her and disappeared. It was easier to look for Kyoko, and get the law's help to look, if they stayed in America. Ono and Lennon were also hurt emotionally by the way Ono was treated by many people in England. Some insulted Ono, and asked Lennon why he was with her. On the other hand, most of the people they met in America accepted them together.

Lennon recorded several albums and singles after the Beatles disbanded. The best-known one was Imagine . He made many records with Yoko Ono. On some records they called themselves the Plastic Ono Band . Lennon and Ono worked with different musician friends, including Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner , Klaus Voormann , Harry Nilsson , Eric Clapton and Elton John . Lennon's solo music was different from his Beatles songs. He spoke more directly about his own feelings, and sometimes used harsh language or loud sounds. This upset a few fans, who wished for more Beatles music from him.

Lennon and Ono were also campaigners for peace in the world. They used Lennon's famous name to talk to the media (television, radio and newspapers) about their beliefs. Lennon and Ono were sometimes in trouble with people like politicians , who did not like the things they said. President Richard Nixon 's administration even tried to deport Lennon, because of his political views.

The two things Lennon and Ono wanted most were to live permanently in the United States, and to have a child together. Their lives were stressful in the early 1970s for several reasons. There were the problems with immigrating to the United States, and with the search for Kyoko. The public were also sometimes negative toward Ono, her music, and her ideas. The couple had several miscarriages , caused partly by the stress.

Lennon also had business problems, because leaving the Beatles was not as simple as quitting an ordinary job. The Beatles had signed many contracts . They promised to do things in a certain way, meet deadlines , and work together, to be paid as musicians and songwriters. Many business deals had to be finished or changed, and new deals had to be made, to continue their music careers apart. This took time, and meant making many hard decisions. The four former Beatles could not always agree on what to do with the things they owned together. It took years to work out what to still own in common, what to divide up, and what to let go. The choices they had to make sometimes hurt their friendship.

Lennon and Ono separated for over a year, from late 1973 until early 1975, because of the stress in their lives, and their relationship. Each of them dated another person (Lennon pairing off with May Pang , his and Ono's personal assistant, and Ono with guitarist David Spinozza), and they were nearly divorced. They spoke nearly every day by telephone, however, and tried to work things out. They decided that they wanted to be together more than anyone else could want them apart, and they reunited.

When Richard Nixon faced the Watergate crisis in 1974, it became more important than pushing Lennon out of the country. The deportation case against him was dropped. Lennon won the right to stay in America in 1975. Lennon and Ono also finally had a son, Sean Lennon , that October. Father and son shared the same birthday.

Lennon and Ono stopped making music for five years, to be able to spend more time together, and give Sean as much attention as he needed. They lived on Lennon's income from the music he already made. Ono became Lennon's business manager, and invested his money in real estate and organic farming. Her office was downstairs in the Dakota, the apartment building where they lived, so they were never far apart. Lennon became a full-time father to Sean, and he was proud to call himself a "househusband". They also visited Ono's family in Japan several times, and made other trips.

In 1980 Lennon and Ono began to write new music, as Sean got old enough to begin school. They recorded a new album titled Double Fantasy that year. A single from the album, "(Just Like) Starting Over", was a hit, and people welcomed Lennon back. Even people who had not liked Ono earlier now respected her, and more of them began to like her music. Lennon and Ono planned to start fresh, do a world tour, and record more albums.

On December 8, 1980, Lennon was shot dead as he was going into his home, by a man named Mark David Chapman who was mentally ill . Even though he was ill, Chapman was still prosecuted for murder , because he killed Lennon. Chapman pled guilty to the murder the next year, and is still in prison today. He admitted later he was jealous of Lennon's fame and success, while his own life disappointed him. Chapman thought that killing Lennon would give his own life more meaning. He is always refused for parole , and is infamous (hated by many people).

Fans all over the world mourned Lennon's death. It made them feel that a special part of their lives was gone. Many met in New York's Central Park , near where Lennon and Ono lived, to say their goodbyes. Some played recordings of Lennon's music. Politicians and celebrities everywhere were sorry Lennon had died, even if they disliked him, because his music meant so much to so many people. Radio stations in the Soviet Union , where rock music was rarely allowed to be played, gave an hour over to Beatles recordings.

There was no funeral for Lennon, but Yoko Ono asked people everywhere to observe ten minutes of silence and prayer for him on Sunday, December 14, 1980, at 2:00 PM. At two o'clock, the music playing in Central Park stopped, and people all over the world fell silent for ten minutes. Other tributes came later, including songs by George Harrison ("All Those Years Ago"), Paul McCartney ("Here Today"), Elton John ("Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)") and Queen ("Life Is Real (Song for Lennon)").

Lennon's music (with and after his Beatles years) is still played everywhere, and people are still touched by it. A series of radio programs were devoted to playing demoes of his songs. Young musicians play Lennon's records, and learn his music. Yoko Ono released an album of acoustic versions of many Lennon songs, to help musicians understand them better.

There is now a garden in Central Park in Lennon's memory called "Strawberry Fields" after one of Lennon's most popular songs, which in turn was named after a Salvation Army orphanage near his childhood home. On October 9, 1990 , on what would have been Lennon's fiftieth birthday, "Imagine" was simulcast on radio and television stations all over the world, uniting people everywhere to remember Lennon and his music.

• 1981 Los Angeles , USA , City Hall–East, by Brett-Livingstone Strong.
• 2001 John Lennon Park, Havana , Cuba , by José Villa Soberón
• 2002 John Lennon Airport , Liverpool , England
• 2005 A Coruña , Spain , by Jose Luis Ribas
• 2006 Almería , Spain, by Carmen Mudarra
• 2007 Imagine Peace Tower, Reykjavík , Iceland by Ono
• 2007 Lima , Peru
• Liverpool, Cavern Pub
• "Imagine Monument", Strawberry Fields , Central Park, New York City
• Plaça De John Lennon, on Travessera de Grácia in Barcelona , Catalunya , Spain

BRIT Awards :

• 1977: Outstanding contribution to the recording industry during the past 25 years.
• 1977: Best British pop group of the past 25 years.
• 1977: Best British pop album of the past 25 years (for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ).
• 1983: Outstanding contribution to music.
• 1982 Grammy Award - 1981 Album of the Year (for Double Fantasy)
• 1982 BRIT Awards - Outstanding contribution to music.
• In 2002, a 100 Greatest Britons BBC poll voted Lennon into eighth place.
• In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Lennon number 38 on its list of "The Immortals: The Fifty Greatest Artists of All Time".
• In 2008, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Lennon number five on its list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".

Discography

• Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins (with Yoko Ono ) (1968)
• Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions (with Yoko Ono ) (1969)
• Wedding Album (with Yoko Ono ) (1969)
• Live Peace In Toronto (with Plastic Ono Band ) (1969)
• John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)
• Imagine (1971)
• Some Time in New York City (with Yoko Ono ) (1972)
• Mind Games (1973)
• Walls and Bridges (1974)
• Rock 'n' Roll (1975)
• Double Fantasy (with Yoko Ono ) (1980)
• Milk and Honey (with Yoko Ono ) (1984)
• Live In New York City (Recorded live in 1972) (1986)

Lennon's home at 251 Menlove Avenue

Ringo Starr , George Harrison , Lennon and Paul McCartney in 1963

Lennon in 1964

McCartney, Harrison and Lennon, 1964

Lennon in 1967

Yoko Ono and Lennon in March 1969

Advertisement for "Imagine" from Billboard , 18 September 1971

Publicity photo of Lennon and host Tom Snyder from the television programme Tomorrow . Aired in 1975, this was the last television interview Lennon gave before his death in 1980.

Wintertime at Strawberry Fields in Central Park with the Dakota in the background

Cynthia Lennon at the unveiling of the John Lennon Peace Monument in Liverpool in October 2010

Brian Epstein in 1965

Julian Lennon at the unveiling of the John Lennon Peace Monument

Lennon and Ono in 1980 by Jack Mitchell

May Pang in 1983

Sean Lennon at a Free Tibet event in 1998

Lennon (left) and the rest of the Beatles arriving in New York City in 1964

Lennon's Les Paul Jr.

Statue of Lennon outside The Cavern Club , Liverpool

Street art image of Lennon on the Lennon Wall in Prague .

• This page was last modified on 16 October 2023, at 16:53. Suggest an edit .