JOHN LENNON 1940-1980

             John Lennon was shot and killed outside the apartment block where he lived on December 8^th 1980. People all around the world felt a terrible loss. They had grown up with this man’s music, and everything he had done affected their lives. Now it was all over.

            The group he had formed, the Beatles, had changed pop music for ever. From their first single “Love Me Do”, in 1962, people heard something different to the usual pop music of the time. Their songs seemed more musi­cal than others, and more exciting than the kind of thing most artists were then recording. The Beatles also looked nicerthem anyone else. Many more people began to listen to pop music than before. Soon the following that the group had was like noth­ing anyone had ever seen: a hysteric that the newspapers called “Beatlemania” swept Britain and soon America.

             John Lennon was born in Liverpool on Octo­ber 9^th, 1940, and formed his first group when he was still at school. He certainly took more interest in music than he did in school work. His report books can still be read and are full of angry comments by his teachers.

            Lennon’s unstable early life soon showed in his character: he was thrown out of infant school. His mother bought him his first guitar after Elvis Presley’s* “Heartbreak Hotel” gave him musical itch.

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*Presley, Elvis Aron (1935-1977) — US singer and guitarist, the most influential performer of the rock-and-roll era.

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            Inspired by the growth of skittle bands around the coun­try,, Lennon formed his first band, the Quarrymen in 1957. On 6 July they played a gig where he was introduced to James Paul McCartney*.

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* McCartney, (James) Paul (1942 -) — UK rock singer and songwriter and bass guitarist.

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           Although a year younger than John, Paul was a better guitarist, and got himself a place in the band. Paul wanted his friend, George Harrison, to join but he was only 14 and John would not let him join for a year. It was in 1956.

           Lennon and McCartney began to compose songs together, and it was here that they perfected their sound. They had to play night after night, and by the end of their two years there, they had become an exciting band to watch. Lennon was always the rebel and made an impressive figure on stage.

           The Quarrymen were together until 1959. By then John began his studies in Liver­pool College of Art. Paul and George were studying at the Liverpool Institute next door, and the three played and sang through lunch and break times. He had moved in with his friend Stuart Sutcliffe, to form a new band with Paul and George. Sutcliffe, came up with a name, the Beetles, from the film The Wild One. John gave it a rhyth­mic slant, turning “beet” into “beat” and its Beetles into the Beatles.

            Their break came in August I960 when they got a residency at the Club India in Hamburg. They returned to Hamburg in the spring of 1961 to play at its Top Ten Club. During this trip Stuart Sutclifle left the band.

             Back home, the Beatles now found, and early to get gigs in a basement club called the Cavern Club and became a big attraction. In January 1963 Ringo Starr (whose real name is Richard Starkey)* joined the group.

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* Starr, Ringo (Richard Starkey) (1940 -) — A British rock musician, the Beatles's drummer.

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              When they moved back to Liverpool, they began to play at the Cavern Club, where all the new bands were playing. But their songs and professionalism set them apart. Then acquired a manager, Brian Epstein, who gave then a new “clean” image. He tried to get them a record company deal, but at first no one would take them as on. Finally, it was a small label, Perlophone, who released “Love Me Do”, a Lennon — McCartney composition. Their next single, “Please Please Me” reached number one in March 1963. When the media focused on its new group it soon became obvious that Lennon was not like other pop stars. His answers to reporters’ questions showed an unusual intelligence and wit. His char­acter soon shone out: he always kept his rebellious streak, and hated pretension. He was never quite comfortable with the Beatles’ “nice” image.

              In fact it was Lennon who began to break away from this image, and change the pub­lic perception of the Beatles. His remarks began to offend some people. His and Mc­Cartney’s music changed and became more “psychedelic”*.

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* Psychedelia — a kind of music or art which reflects the effect of drugs.

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               The Beatles grew beards and long hair. They were no longer those four clean-cut young men that even parents liked.

               In 1966, Lennon met Japanese artist Yoko Ono. She was not beautiful in the glamor­ous way many of the Beatles’ followers were, but he fell in love with her. To his surprise he found he loved listening to her views on art and admired her independence. She brought something new to his life, and soon he found there was more he wanted to do on his own, or with Yoko, than he wanted to do with the Beatles. In 1968, he told the other Beatles of his decision to leave al­though the real split did not come until 1971, when Paul McCartney also decided their partnership should end. Lennon mar­ried Yoko Ono in 1969.

              Of all the former Beatles, Lennon made the most promising start as a solo artist. In 1971, he recorded the song by which most people remember him, “Imagine”. But in 1975 he stopped making records. For a while he and Yoko separated, but eventually he settled down with her again in New York. He devoted himself to looking after their son, Sean — becoming a house husband while Yoko was the “power wife” going out to work.

              In 1980, he released a new album that cele­brated Yoko’s and his lives. Double Fanta­sy and it, and the single “Just Like Start­ing Over” seemed to signal a new positive phase in both his private life and in his musical career. But that came to its end too soon on the street outside his home in De­cember 1980.