WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.919 Welcome to the Deep Dive. Our mission here is, 00:00:03.080 --> 00:00:05.759 well, it's pretty simple. We take these sprawling 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:07.700 narratives, these mountains of facts around the 00:00:07.700 --> 00:00:10.119 world's most influential people, and we try to 00:00:10.119 --> 00:00:12.240 distill them. Right, down into the sharpest, 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:14.359 most illuminating insights for you. And today, 00:00:14.599 --> 00:00:18.199 we are taking an exhaustive look at John Lennon. 00:00:18.260 --> 00:00:21.920 A big one. It is. Our source material is dense. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:25.940 Huge stack of biographies, interviews, historical 00:00:25.940 --> 00:00:28.440 records. It covers everything. His tumultuous 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:30.920 personal life, the huge shifts in his music. 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:32.799 And of course, his incredibly high stakes political 00:00:32.799 --> 00:00:35.560 activism. And maybe most importantly, the lasting 00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:37.479 complexity of all those fractured relationships. 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:40.320 When you approach a figure like Lennon, you have 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:43.619 to recognize that the mythology can just completely 00:00:43.619 --> 00:00:46.000 overshadow the man. Oh, absolutely. I mean, he 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:48.439 was foundational. co -creator of the most successful 00:00:48.439 --> 00:00:50.740 songwriting partnership in history. A two -time 00:00:50.740 --> 00:00:52.719 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:56.280 Right. But, you know, those accolades, they don't 00:00:56.280 --> 00:00:59.079 explain the why. The real insights, the ones 00:00:59.079 --> 00:01:02.780 that make this a true deep dive, they lie in 00:01:02.780 --> 00:01:05.700 understanding that constant, almost self -inflicted 00:01:05.700 --> 00:01:08.400 conflict. Internal and external. Relentlessly. 00:01:08.939 --> 00:01:11.040 That's what fueled his creativity. He really 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:13.620 weaponized his own vulnerability. Okay, let's 00:01:13.620 --> 00:01:17.079 unpack this. Our goal is to move beyond the icon 00:01:17.079 --> 00:01:20.019 and trace that emotional lineage. We want to 00:01:20.019 --> 00:01:22.299 understand the man who, late in his career, admitted 00:01:22.299 --> 00:01:25.319 he just wanted to be accepted by society. But 00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:28.640 realized he couldn't. He was... in his own words, 00:01:28.819 --> 00:01:31.659 intrinsically incapable of being anything other 00:01:31.659 --> 00:01:34.719 than a loudmouth lunatic poet musician. So we're 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:37.219 tracing that path from his really difficult, 00:01:37.459 --> 00:01:40.239 unstable childhood straight through to the defiant 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:42.459 political figure who challenged the very systems 00:01:42.459 --> 00:01:44.780 that tried to silence him to really begin to 00:01:44.780 --> 00:01:47.120 understand that deep -seated anger, the searing 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:50.739 sarcasm, and that immense lifelong search for 00:01:50.739 --> 00:01:52.420 unconditional love. We have to start at the very 00:01:52.420 --> 00:01:54.859 beginning. We do. John Winston Lennon, born in 00:01:54.859 --> 00:01:57.370 Liverpool in 1940. His name itself is a statement, 00:01:57.450 --> 00:02:00.010 isn't it? A nod to his grandfather and, kind 00:02:00.010 --> 00:02:02.629 of ironically, to Winston Churchill. Yeah, and 00:02:02.629 --> 00:02:04.349 right away you see that pattern of instability 00:02:04.349 --> 00:02:07.129 and absence begin to form. This absence is just. 00:02:07.230 --> 00:02:10.229 It's the foundational trauma. It is. His father, 00:02:10.349 --> 00:02:12.509 Alfred Lennon, was a merchant seaman, so he was 00:02:12.509 --> 00:02:15.569 physically gone for long stretches. But what's 00:02:15.569 --> 00:02:18.069 worse, he just stopped sending paychecks in early 00:02:18.069 --> 00:02:21.270 1944. So the money just stopped. It just stopped. 00:02:21.449 --> 00:02:23.770 And that quickly led to his mother, Julia Stanley, 00:02:24.110 --> 00:02:27.050 realizing she just couldn't cope. She couldn't 00:02:27.050 --> 00:02:28.909 handle the responsibility. And she eventually 00:02:28.909 --> 00:02:31.490 transferred custody of young John to her elder 00:02:31.490 --> 00:02:34.030 sister, Mimi Smith. Exactly. Who lived at Mendips, 00:02:34.110 --> 00:02:37.969 251 Menlove Avenue. And Mimi, she provided the 00:02:37.969 --> 00:02:40.810 structure. She provided the home. But the emotional 00:02:40.810 --> 00:02:44.150 reality for John was one of, well, abandonment 00:02:44.150 --> 00:02:47.389 by both parents. That dual abandonment is the 00:02:47.389 --> 00:02:49.270 key scar, isn't it? Even though he was, as he 00:02:49.270 --> 00:02:51.590 said later, surrounded by five incredible women, 00:02:51.650 --> 00:02:53.889 his mother, his aunt, and his maternal aunts. 00:02:54.050 --> 00:02:56.569 Precisely. Lennon later reflected on these five 00:02:56.569 --> 00:02:59.449 strong, intelligent, beautiful women, and he 00:02:59.449 --> 00:03:01.409 said they provided him with his first feminist 00:03:01.409 --> 00:03:04.030 education. But while he respected their strength. 00:03:04.189 --> 00:03:07.090 Right, the early trauma of not having that stable 00:03:07.090 --> 00:03:09.430 nuclear family, the kind he saw all his friends 00:03:09.430 --> 00:03:12.870 enjoying, it led to this profound sense of envy. 00:03:13.229 --> 00:03:15.990 And that later fueled his rebellious streak. 00:03:16.270 --> 00:03:18.909 He felt he had been failed by the people he should 00:03:18.909 --> 00:03:21.129 have been able to rely on. The sources detail 00:03:21.129 --> 00:03:24.569 this unbelievably sharp, almost traumatic moment 00:03:24.569 --> 00:03:28.550 in 1946. John was only five. It's shocking. It's 00:03:28.550 --> 00:03:30.810 like something out of a film. A portrait of parental 00:03:30.810 --> 00:03:34.289 conflict? Totally. His father, Alfred, just shows 00:03:34.289 --> 00:03:36.789 up after this long absence, takes John to Blackpool, 00:03:36.909 --> 00:03:39.150 and is secretly plotting to emigrate with him 00:03:39.150 --> 00:03:41.509 to New Zealand. And Julia finds out. She finds 00:03:41.509 --> 00:03:43.550 out, follows them with her partner, Bobby Dykens, 00:03:43.650 --> 00:03:47.009 and she forces this moment of choice. The account 00:03:47.009 --> 00:03:49.430 that's often repeated in the Lennon lore. It 00:03:49.430 --> 00:03:51.509 involves the five -year -old being made to choose. 00:03:51.669 --> 00:03:53.669 Which parent he would leave with. One version 00:03:53.669 --> 00:03:56.159 claims he chose his father twice. but then ran 00:03:56.159 --> 00:03:58.300 crying after his mother as she started to walk 00:03:58.300 --> 00:04:00.180 away. And while historians debate the exact, 00:04:00.300 --> 00:04:02.879 you know, the mechanism of that choice. The takeaway 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:04.979 is that this little boy was put in an impossible 00:04:04.979 --> 00:04:09.520 position. And his father, after that, just disappeared 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:12.000 from his life for the next 20 years. That sense 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:14.759 of being pulled, of instability, feeling rejected, 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:17.540 it seems to have manifested really early in his 00:04:17.540 --> 00:04:20.000 academic career. He wasn't stupid. Far from it. 00:04:20.100 --> 00:04:22.519 Not at all. Yeah. But he struggled massively 00:04:22.519 --> 00:04:25.259 in the formal school system. Failed his O -levels, 00:04:25.259 --> 00:04:28.000 eventually expelled from Liverpool College of 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:30.579 Art. Right. A notoriously difficult academic 00:04:30.579 --> 00:04:33.860 performance. But the deeper nugget the sources 00:04:33.860 --> 00:04:36.939 reveal is that he faced really significant challenges 00:04:36.939 --> 00:04:41.000 because of undiagnosed dyslexia, which severely 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:43.779 affected his reading and writing skills. And, 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:46.079 you know, when someone who is highly intelligent 00:04:46.079 --> 00:04:48.740 struggles in that kind of formal language dependent 00:04:48.740 --> 00:04:51.850 environment, they often lash out. Or channel 00:04:51.850 --> 00:04:54.129 that energy somewhere else. And for Lennon, that 00:04:54.129 --> 00:04:56.889 channeling was through humor, through sarcasm, 00:04:56.910 --> 00:04:59.470 through wordplay. Yes, exactly. If he couldn't 00:04:59.470 --> 00:05:01.870 beat the system, he'd mock it. He quickly cultivated 00:05:01.870 --> 00:05:05.069 this reputation as the class clown. But his clowning 00:05:05.069 --> 00:05:07.430 is actually highly creative. The cartoon. The 00:05:07.430 --> 00:05:10.810 comical, anti -authoritarian cartoons for his 00:05:10.810 --> 00:05:13.550 self -made school magazine, which he brilliantly 00:05:13.550 --> 00:05:16.870 titled The Daily Howl. That's amazing. It wasn't 00:05:16.870 --> 00:05:19.949 just doodles. This was an early outlet for the 00:05:19.949 --> 00:05:22.290 literary genius that would later emerge in his 00:05:22.290 --> 00:05:25.269 published writing. That early need to translate 00:05:25.269 --> 00:05:29.509 complex emotions into clever, often crude wordplay 00:05:29.509 --> 00:05:32.089 was born right from that academic frustration. 00:05:32.550 --> 00:05:35.490 It sounds like his home life with Mimi, while 00:05:35.490 --> 00:05:38.430 it was stable, did very little to encourage this 00:05:38.430 --> 00:05:42.110 nascent genius. Mimi provided safety, but she 00:05:42.110 --> 00:05:45.629 was famously utilitarian. Completely skeptical 00:05:45.629 --> 00:05:48.550 of his musical aspirations. A classic conflict. 00:05:48.829 --> 00:05:51.550 The pragmatic guardian versus the dreamer. Totally. 00:05:51.670 --> 00:05:54.110 It was actually Julia, his mother, who bought 00:05:54.110 --> 00:05:56.350 him his first inexpensive guitar, a Galatone 00:05:56.350 --> 00:05:58.490 Champion. But she had to deliver it to her own 00:05:58.490 --> 00:06:00.529 home because she knew Mimi was just fundamentally 00:06:00.529 --> 00:06:03.689 not supportive. And we all know the famous line 00:06:03.689 --> 00:06:05.610 that Mimi gave him. It's the ultimate parent 00:06:05.610 --> 00:06:08.129 quote, isn't it? She looked at this boy, who 00:06:08.129 --> 00:06:09.949 was already struggling in school and acting out, 00:06:10.089 --> 00:06:12.569 and she famously told him, the guitar is all 00:06:12.569 --> 00:06:14.129 very well, John, but you'll never make a living 00:06:14.129 --> 00:06:17.439 out of it. Wow. That skepticism, that lack of 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:20.620 belief from the person providing his home, it 00:06:20.620 --> 00:06:23.220 probably just intensified his drive right to 00:06:23.220 --> 00:06:25.420 prove her wrong. You have to think so. All of 00:06:25.420 --> 00:06:28.639 this early instability and defiance, it culminates 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:30.839 in the single most defining trauma of his youth. 00:06:31.319 --> 00:06:34.600 The sudden death of his mother, Julia, in 1958. 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:38.240 She was only 44. struck and killed by an off 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:40.319 -duty police officer driving a car. She was just 00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:42.579 walking home after visiting Mimi's house. And 00:06:42.579 --> 00:06:45.720 for the teenage Lennon, this was just utterly 00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:47.800 devastating. This wasn't a slow illness. It was 00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:51.100 sudden, violent, completely senseless. The loss 00:06:51.100 --> 00:06:52.939 of the only parent he had any regular contact 00:06:52.939 --> 00:06:55.680 with. And the immediate aftermath was, what, 00:06:55.740 --> 00:06:58.339 two years of just raw, destructive behavior. 00:06:58.759 --> 00:07:01.079 The sources describe a period consumed by blind 00:07:01.079 --> 00:07:03.709 rage. He turned to heavy drinking. He was prone 00:07:03.709 --> 00:07:06.470 to frequent, often violent fights. It was classic 00:07:06.470 --> 00:07:09.149 displacement of grief. The trauma was so immense. 00:07:09.449 --> 00:07:11.310 He spent years just trying to survive the emotion. 00:07:11.529 --> 00:07:13.930 But when you look at his catalog later, you realize 00:07:13.930 --> 00:07:16.889 that profound, unattressed pain became the most 00:07:16.889 --> 00:07:19.529 intense creative fuel of his entire life. It 00:07:19.529 --> 00:07:21.889 created a pattern, didn't it? That if he wanted 00:07:21.889 --> 00:07:24.509 to create truly powerful art, he had to confront 00:07:24.509 --> 00:07:27.709 his own deepest wounds. Absolutely. The memory 00:07:27.709 --> 00:07:30.129 of Julia became this sacred source of inspiration. 00:07:30.860 --> 00:07:34.319 It directly inspired that famous 1968 Beatles 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:36.980 track, Julia. Which is just a tender, almost 00:07:36.980 --> 00:07:39.879 unbearably vulnerable piece. And you see the 00:07:39.879 --> 00:07:42.839 cycle established right there. Profound personal 00:07:42.839 --> 00:07:45.899 pain, confrontation of that pain, and then its 00:07:45.899 --> 00:07:49.000 conversion into innovative, timeless art. His 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:51.800 entire career is built on that process. So out 00:07:51.800 --> 00:07:54.370 of that... blind rage and that creative urgency, 00:07:54.709 --> 00:07:56.910 the seeds of, well, the world's greatest band 00:07:56.910 --> 00:07:59.910 were sown. Right. Lennon forms his skiffle group, 00:08:00.009 --> 00:08:03.029 the Quarrymen, in 1956. Named after his high 00:08:03.029 --> 00:08:04.649 school, he was looking for an outlet for all 00:08:04.649 --> 00:08:07.029 that raw energy. And he found the perfect counterpoint, 00:08:07.129 --> 00:08:10.649 Paul McCartney, whom he met in July 1957 at the 00:08:10.649 --> 00:08:12.750 St. Peter's Church Garden Fet. And that meeting 00:08:12.750 --> 00:08:15.949 changed everything. It did. Lennon, the cynical 00:08:15.949 --> 00:08:18.860 academic failure leader, meets McCartney. the 00:08:18.860 --> 00:08:21.160 technically proficient melody -focused enthusiast. 00:08:21.220 --> 00:08:23.519 It immediately created this symbiotic dynamic. 00:08:23.879 --> 00:08:26.360 They quickly added George Harrison, though. Lennon 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:28.480 initially dismissed him as too young. He did. 00:08:28.779 --> 00:08:31.199 Lennon was three years older, and at first he 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:34.340 just saw 14 -year -old George as a kid. But McCartney 00:08:34.340 --> 00:08:37.139 engineered the famous bus audition. Where Harrison 00:08:37.139 --> 00:08:40.360 played raunchy. And proved his guitar skills 00:08:40.360 --> 00:08:43.919 were just indispensable. This early period, it 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:46.860 cemented Lennon as the group's de facto leader. 00:08:47.470 --> 00:08:49.669 The others, according to McCartney, absolutely 00:08:49.669 --> 00:08:52.409 idolized him. They called him our own little 00:08:52.409 --> 00:08:55.549 Elvis. That early idolization is so crucial because 00:08:55.549 --> 00:08:57.750 it sets up the inevitable conflict that came 00:08:57.750 --> 00:09:00.190 later when he gradually started to cede that 00:09:00.190 --> 00:09:02.629 leadership role to McCartney. Especially as the 00:09:02.629 --> 00:09:05.509 band needed more commercial structure. And that 00:09:05.509 --> 00:09:08.049 shift began early, tested brutally during their 00:09:08.049 --> 00:09:11.070 residencies in West Germany. Hamburg was a crucible. 00:09:11.320 --> 00:09:13.679 It really was. Starting in 1960, they were doing 00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:16.620 these incredibly long overnight shifts, sometimes 00:09:16.620 --> 00:09:18.559 eight hours straight. And the sources confirm 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:21.639 that punishing schedule led them to rely on preludin, 00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:24.159 a stimulant which they took regularly just to 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:26.200 keep the energy up. And that just speaks to the 00:09:26.200 --> 00:09:28.919 sheer physical toll required long before they 00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:31.889 were global sensations. Once Beatlemania hit 00:09:31.889 --> 00:09:35.350 globally in 63, the demands just escalated dramatically. 00:09:35.769 --> 00:09:37.570 And that led to the strict managerial control 00:09:37.570 --> 00:09:40.149 of Brian Epstein. He needed to sanitize them 00:09:40.149 --> 00:09:42.830 for mass consumption. Which meant the clandestine 00:09:42.830 --> 00:09:45.509 marriage to Cynthia, the secret birth of Julian. 00:09:45.690 --> 00:09:48.549 All of it. Epstein was terrified that a married 00:09:48.549 --> 00:09:50.970 Beatle would instantly alienate the millions 00:09:50.970 --> 00:09:53.269 of young female fans who were driving Beatlemania. 00:09:53.570 --> 00:09:56.259 So Lennon... the anti -establishment figure, 00:09:56.440 --> 00:09:58.799 had to accept this conformity for the sake of 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:00.919 stratospheric success. He had that great line 00:10:00.919 --> 00:10:02.700 about it. Right. He quipped, you'd wear a bloody 00:10:02.700 --> 00:10:04.879 balloon if it made them money. But the internal 00:10:04.879 --> 00:10:07.379 costs of that conformity, it started to surface 00:10:07.379 --> 00:10:10.419 really quickly by 1965. He hit a massive personal 00:10:10.419 --> 00:10:13.320 wall. He famously called it his Fat Elvis period. 00:10:13.580 --> 00:10:15.720 He was struggling with his weight, feeling increasingly 00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:18.299 alienated, paranoid from the constant screaming. 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:21.480 He was trapped. And the song Help was not just 00:10:21.480 --> 00:10:24.440 some clever pop tune. No, it was a genuine desperate 00:10:24.440 --> 00:10:27.559 cry for emotional assistance from a man who felt 00:10:27.559 --> 00:10:30.039 the pressure of fame was just suffocating him. 00:10:30.179 --> 00:10:32.039 The sources indicate he was really concerned 00:10:32.039 --> 00:10:34.080 that the constant touring meant their actual 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:36.820 musicianship was suffering, the music was just 00:10:36.820 --> 00:10:39.399 unheard over the din. Completely. And this leads 00:10:39.399 --> 00:10:41.820 directly to the massive artistic shift that began 00:10:41.820 --> 00:10:45.860 in 1966, fueled by an accidental and then continuous 00:10:45.860 --> 00:10:49.549 use of drugs. The incident in March 66 is just 00:10:49.549 --> 00:10:52.970 astounding. It is. Lennon and Harrison were unknowingly 00:10:52.970 --> 00:10:55.690 introduced to LSD when a dentist spiked their 00:10:55.690 --> 00:10:58.350 coffee at a dinner party. Can you imagine? That 00:10:58.350 --> 00:11:00.850 terrifying involuntary introduction opened a 00:11:00.850 --> 00:11:03.730 door he never fully closed. His subsequent continuous 00:11:03.730 --> 00:11:07.190 use of LSD, particularly in 67, was so intense 00:11:07.190 --> 00:11:09.129 that one author notes it brought him close to 00:11:09.129 --> 00:11:11.740 erasing his identity completely. But chemically 00:11:11.740 --> 00:11:14.639 altering his consciousness also profoundly altered 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:16.879 his creative output and his view of the art form 00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:19.820 itself. Exactly. Before this, he saw the lyrics 00:11:19.820 --> 00:11:23.539 of early pop songs as almost irrelevant. Post 00:11:23.539 --> 00:11:26.440 -LSD, he began insisting on complex, innovative 00:11:26.440 --> 00:11:28.899 lyricism that reflected his altered perception 00:11:28.899 --> 00:11:31.419 of reality. And this shift is perfectly encapsulated 00:11:31.419 --> 00:11:33.559 by the song he later said was his finest work 00:11:33.559 --> 00:11:36.120 with the band, Strawberry Fields Forever. That 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:39.039 single is an absolute technical marvel, especially 00:11:39.039 --> 00:11:42.559 for 1967. The studio work on it was a revolution. 00:11:42.840 --> 00:11:45.259 How so? Well, it required this unprecedented 00:11:45.259 --> 00:11:47.860 amount of editing. Lennon recorded two completely 00:11:47.860 --> 00:11:49.799 different versions with different keys, different 00:11:49.799 --> 00:11:52.299 tempos, and producer George Martin had to manually 00:11:52.299 --> 00:11:54.639 slow down and speed up the tates to splice them 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:57.360 together. Into a single track. Right. And then 00:11:57.360 --> 00:11:59.220 the use of the Mellotron, that keyboard that 00:11:59.220 --> 00:12:02.039 played taped orchestral sounds, it added to this 00:12:02.039 --> 00:12:05.139 surreal, dreamlike atmosphere. It showed that 00:12:05.139 --> 00:12:07.100 the studio was now an instrument for Lennon, 00:12:07.139 --> 00:12:10.019 a way to express his complex internal state. 00:12:10.220 --> 00:12:13.379 They were moving far beyond the simple four -piece 00:12:13.379 --> 00:12:15.940 band sound. This personal and creative explosion 00:12:15.940 --> 00:12:18.620 was immediately overshadowed by a public relations 00:12:18.620 --> 00:12:21.419 disaster that changed the band's trajectory forever. 00:12:21.779 --> 00:12:24.299 The more popular -than -Jesus controversy. The 00:12:24.299 --> 00:12:27.179 quote itself made to an Evening Standard reporter 00:12:27.179 --> 00:12:30.500 in March 66 were more popular than Jesus now. 00:12:30.700 --> 00:12:33.120 It was, you know, a statement of fact about cultural 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:35.000 prominence in England. Where it was barely even 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:37.220 noticed. But when it was republished in the U 00:12:37.220 --> 00:12:40.409 .S. five months later. The cultural context was 00:12:40.409 --> 00:12:42.750 completely different. The reaction was volcanic. 00:12:43.429 --> 00:12:46.409 Absolutely. There was KKK activity. Religious 00:12:46.409 --> 00:12:48.889 groups led public protests. They were burning 00:12:48.889 --> 00:12:51.009 Beatles records. And there were explicit threats 00:12:51.009 --> 00:12:54.330 targeting Lenin. He had to issue this quasi -apology 00:12:54.330 --> 00:12:57.730 in Chicago just to quell the uproar. He claimed 00:12:57.730 --> 00:12:59.889 he was just commenting on the decline of religion, 00:13:00.110 --> 00:13:03.110 not criticizing Christ. But the ultimate consequence 00:13:03.110 --> 00:13:08.029 was concrete and permanent. This Fuhrer... provided 00:13:08.029 --> 00:13:10.490 the final, undeniable reason for the band to 00:13:10.490 --> 00:13:13.269 stop touring. So was the controversy really the 00:13:13.269 --> 00:13:15.809 only reason? Or was it just the perfect, highly 00:13:15.809 --> 00:13:18.289 publicized exit ramp they desperately needed? 00:13:18.429 --> 00:13:20.210 I think it was certainly the convenient catalyst. 00:13:20.529 --> 00:13:22.610 The sources suggest the band was already deeply 00:13:22.610 --> 00:13:24.830 unhappy and creatively constrained by the touring 00:13:24.830 --> 00:13:27.210 schedule. The Jesus controversy just provided 00:13:27.210 --> 00:13:29.950 an ethical and physical justification. We can't 00:13:29.950 --> 00:13:32.309 ensure our safety, so we have to stop. Exactly. 00:13:32.509 --> 00:13:34.350 Something the management and the band could all 00:13:34.350 --> 00:13:37.179 agree on. Their final concert was August 29, 00:13:37.500 --> 00:13:40.679 1966, and they never looked back. With touring 00:13:40.679 --> 00:13:42.940 finished, they channeled all that energy into 00:13:42.940 --> 00:13:45.759 the studio, led to State Pepper, the height of 00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:49.139 their collaboration. But soon after, in 1967, 00:13:49.659 --> 00:13:52.259 one of the crucial pillars of the Beatles crumbled. 00:13:52.980 --> 00:13:56.039 Brian Epstein's death. That was the turning point 00:13:56.039 --> 00:13:58.059 towards collapse. Lennon's immediate reaction 00:13:58.059 --> 00:14:00.840 was incredibly revealing. He said, I knew we 00:14:00.840 --> 00:14:03.120 were in trouble then. We fucking had it now. 00:14:03.860 --> 00:14:06.879 Epstein, whatever his flaws, he had managed their 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:09.580 external life. He held the personalities together. 00:14:09.799 --> 00:14:12.820 His absence left this massive structural and 00:14:12.820 --> 00:14:15.179 emotional void. Paul McCartney tried to fill 00:14:15.179 --> 00:14:17.620 that void by organizing the magical mystery tour 00:14:17.620 --> 00:14:20.059 project. But the dynamic was already changing, 00:14:20.200 --> 00:14:22.860 especially with the increasingly permanent presence 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:25.639 of Yoko Ono. Ono's presence in the studio was 00:14:25.639 --> 00:14:28.179 the visible embodiment of that fracture. It was. 00:14:28.580 --> 00:14:32.100 Lennon met her in November 66, and by late 68, 00:14:32.600 --> 00:14:34.399 he insisted on her presence during recording 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:37.259 sessions. This violated a long -standing band 00:14:37.259 --> 00:14:39.679 policy that prohibited wives and girlfriends 00:14:39.679 --> 00:14:42.240 from being in the studio. And that added immense 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:44.360 friction during the sessions for the White Album. 00:14:44.519 --> 00:14:47.120 It signaled that for Lennon, his relationship 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:49.799 with Ono had superseded his professional commitment 00:14:49.799 --> 00:14:52.720 to the band. And that created deep resentment 00:14:52.720 --> 00:14:55.559 among the others. It's ironic, though, that the 00:14:55.559 --> 00:14:57.340 album recorded during this period of intense 00:14:57.340 --> 00:15:00.080 conflict, the White Album, was one that Lennon 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:02.720 later particularly valued for his own songwriting. 00:15:02.919 --> 00:15:06.200 He was fiercely proud of it because it was chaotic, 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:09.539 raw, and felt closer to his own creative ideals, 00:15:09.799 --> 00:15:12.639 which were moving towards starker, more experimental 00:15:12.639 --> 00:15:15.820 material. The tension of Ono's presence might 00:15:15.820 --> 00:15:17.940 have been personally destructive, but creatively, 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:20.600 it was a liberating force for him. The end finally 00:15:20.600 --> 00:15:24.080 came in 1969. Lennon told the others he was leaving 00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:26.659 on September 20th, but agreed to keep it quiet. 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:29.679 Right. Well, they finalized contract renegotiations. 00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:32.919 And this is where that famous rivalry with McCartney 00:15:32.919 --> 00:15:35.700 flared up one final bitter time. When McCartney 00:15:35.700 --> 00:15:38.539 released his solo debut in April 1970 and used 00:15:38.539 --> 00:15:40.519 the press release to publicize his own departure. 00:15:40.940 --> 00:15:44.059 Lennon was utterly outraged. He felt Paul had 00:15:44.059 --> 00:15:47.080 deliberately stolen the narrative and gets all 00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:49.419 the credit for it. It must have felt like a final 00:15:49.419 --> 00:15:53.090 act of betrayal. It was. Lennon later summarized 00:15:53.090 --> 00:15:55.669 his feelings with this definitive finality. I 00:15:55.669 --> 00:15:58.389 started the band. I disbanded it. It's as simple 00:15:58.389 --> 00:16:02.289 as that. He admitted he was a fool not to have 00:16:02.289 --> 00:16:04.789 used his own departure for commercial gain, but 00:16:04.789 --> 00:16:07.809 the bitterness was obvious. The end of the 60s 00:16:07.809 --> 00:16:10.269 left him standing on a creative and emotional 00:16:10.269 --> 00:16:13.600 cliff edge. Free from the Beatles. but deeply 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:16.279 scarred and searching for a way to process a 00:16:16.279 --> 00:16:19.360 lifetime of trauma. And that sets the stage for 00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:21.980 his radical solo work. That description of Lennon 00:16:21.980 --> 00:16:25.019 on an emotional cliff edge is just, it's crucial. 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:27.659 Because once he was free of the Beatles, he didn't 00:16:27.659 --> 00:16:29.980 run towards commercial pop. He dove headfirst 00:16:29.980 --> 00:16:32.820 into radical personal psychological repair. Which 00:16:32.820 --> 00:16:35.879 led to his most brutal and honest music. The 00:16:35.879 --> 00:16:37.779 transition from the Beatles' grand orchestral 00:16:37.779 --> 00:16:40.240 pop to the stark, minimalist sound of his solo 00:16:40.240 --> 00:16:42.879 debut is directly tied to his decision to undergo 00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:45.799 primal therapy. Starting in 1970. With Dr. Arthur 00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:48.019 Yanov's radical technique, it was designed to 00:16:48.019 --> 00:16:50.159 help patients release the deep, often repressed 00:16:50.159 --> 00:16:52.740 emotional pain rooted in childhood trauma. Can 00:16:52.740 --> 00:16:54.460 you elaborate on what primal therapy actually 00:16:54.460 --> 00:16:56.639 entailed? It sounds intense. Incredibly intense. 00:16:56.799 --> 00:16:59.460 The core idea is that neuroses are caused by 00:16:59.460 --> 00:17:02.870 repressed emotional pain, the primal pain. So 00:17:02.870 --> 00:17:04.990 the therapy aimed to have you re -experience 00:17:04.990 --> 00:17:07.410 these traumatic childhood moments, especially 00:17:07.410 --> 00:17:10.289 the feeling of abandonment in a controlled environment. 00:17:10.710 --> 00:17:13.069 Often resulting in loud and voluntary screams. 00:17:13.309 --> 00:17:16.210 The primal scream, exactly. Lennon and Ono spent 00:17:16.210 --> 00:17:18.309 six months undergoing this in London and Los 00:17:18.309 --> 00:17:20.450 Angeles. And the musical result of literally 00:17:20.450 --> 00:17:23.609 screaming out his childhood pain was the 1970 00:17:23.609 --> 00:17:26.829 album John Lennon Plastic Ono Band. It is pure, 00:17:26.990 --> 00:17:30.380 unfiltered primal scream on vinyl. Musically 00:17:30.380 --> 00:17:32.519 sparse, almost aggressively simple, so nothing 00:17:32.519 --> 00:17:34.599 distracts from the raw emotion. Tracks like Mother. 00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:36.980 A direct confrontation of that childhood rejection. 00:17:37.319 --> 00:17:39.619 He's repeating the desperate line, Mother, you 00:17:39.619 --> 00:17:41.779 had me, but I never had you. It's an auditory 00:17:41.779 --> 00:17:44.500 exorcism of that 1946 abandonment. And then you 00:17:44.500 --> 00:17:47.119 have Working Class Hero, which isn't just confessional. 00:17:47.140 --> 00:17:50.539 It's a searing sociopolitical critique. That 00:17:50.539 --> 00:17:53.950 track established his new radical voice an attack 00:17:53.950 --> 00:17:56.130 on social systems designed to numb the public 00:17:56.130 --> 00:17:58.529 and keep them in their place and the song's inclusion 00:17:58.529 --> 00:18:02.359 of strong language crazy peasants resulted in 00:18:02.359 --> 00:18:05.119 it being immediately banned by broadcasters in 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:08.460 the UK and US. And that just cemented his post 00:18:08.460 --> 00:18:11.839 -Beatles identity as a genuinely radical anti 00:18:11.839 --> 00:18:14.559 -establishment voice. He was willing to sacrifice 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:17.900 radio play for authenticity. Yet almost immediately 00:18:17.900 --> 00:18:20.559 after this critically acclaimed but commercially 00:18:20.559 --> 00:18:23.819 difficult raw album, he reversed his course for 00:18:23.819 --> 00:18:27.160 Imagine in 1971. Well, he needed commercial success. 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:29.859 He was clear about that. He adopted a much more 00:18:29.859 --> 00:18:33.029 accessible sound for Imagine, making the radical 00:18:33.029 --> 00:18:35.470 political messages more palatable for a wider 00:18:35.470 --> 00:18:38.430 audience. And he succeeded commercially, although 00:18:38.430 --> 00:18:40.329 critics like Rolling Stone initially worried 00:18:40.329 --> 00:18:42.450 that his posturings will soon seem not merely 00:18:42.450 --> 00:18:44.990 dull, but irrelevant. A critique that proves 00:18:44.990 --> 00:18:47.829 spectacularly wrong, largely because of the title 00:18:47.829 --> 00:18:50.630 track. Imagine, the undisputed anthem of peace. 00:18:50.970 --> 00:18:53.210 But a controversial one, just like his earlier 00:18:53.210 --> 00:18:55.829 comments on religion. Oh, yeah. The sheer reach 00:18:55.829 --> 00:18:58.049 of Imagine as an anti -war anthem is impossible 00:18:58.049 --> 00:19:01.470 to overstate. However, its radical plea for a 00:19:01.470 --> 00:19:04.589 world with no religion offended a lot of fundamentalist 00:19:04.589 --> 00:19:06.990 groups. But he clarified that, didn't he? He 00:19:06.990 --> 00:19:09.170 did. He was quick to say he wasn't attacking 00:19:09.170 --> 00:19:12.269 spirituality, but the divisive dogmatic structures 00:19:12.269 --> 00:19:15.329 that lead to conflict, that my God is bigger 00:19:15.329 --> 00:19:17.809 than your God mentality. And his early activism 00:19:17.809 --> 00:19:20.710 was incredibly effective at mobilizing opinion. 00:19:20.990 --> 00:19:23.470 I mean, you look at give peace a chance. That 00:19:23.470 --> 00:19:26.000 track. Famously recorded during the Montreal 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:29.220 Bed -In, was instantaneously adopted as the anti 00:19:29.220 --> 00:19:32.740 -Vietnam protest song. Within months, a quarter 00:19:32.740 --> 00:19:35.079 million demonstrators were singing it at a massive 00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:37.480 protest in Washington, D .C. It showed their 00:19:37.480 --> 00:19:40.920 power to provide a simple, powerful slogan that 00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:43.779 could unite a movement. Their activism was relentless 00:19:43.779 --> 00:19:46.460 and highly publicized. They used their honeymoon 00:19:46.460 --> 00:19:48.599 for the two -week anti -war demonstration, the 00:19:48.599 --> 00:19:51.380 Bed -In, first Amsterdam, then Montreal. They 00:19:51.380 --> 00:19:54.339 also introduced Beigeism. Pageism was a brilliant 00:19:54.339 --> 00:19:58.019 piece of conceptual performance art. First unveiled 00:19:58.019 --> 00:20:00.259 at a Vienna press conference, it involved them 00:20:00.259 --> 00:20:02.539 wearing giant bags over their entire bodies, 00:20:02.700 --> 00:20:05.400 symbolizing equality and anonymity. The message 00:20:05.400 --> 00:20:07.660 being, you should judge people by their ideas, 00:20:07.700 --> 00:20:10.319 not their appearance. Exactly. Using absurdity 00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:12.619 to make a serious point about prejudice. Lenin 00:20:12.619 --> 00:20:15.299 was also willing to make these grand, symbolic 00:20:15.299 --> 00:20:17.619 political statements against the British government 00:20:17.619 --> 00:20:21.660 itself. He returned his MBE in 1969, his member 00:20:21.660 --> 00:20:23.779 of the most excellent order of the British Empire 00:20:23.779 --> 00:20:26.599 medal. And the stated reasons were threefold. 00:20:26.819 --> 00:20:30.319 Right. In protest at Britain's role in the Nigerian 00:20:30.319 --> 00:20:33.619 Civil War, the Nigeria by Afro thing, as he called 00:20:33.619 --> 00:20:35.680 it, their support for the U .S. and Vietnam. 00:20:36.279 --> 00:20:39.299 And in a typical flash of cynicism, he joked 00:20:39.299 --> 00:20:42.190 he was also protesting his single. Cold turkey 00:20:42.190 --> 00:20:44.490 slipping down the charts. A move that officially 00:20:44.490 --> 00:20:46.150 severed his connection to the establishment. 00:20:46.779 --> 00:20:49.539 But when he moved to New York City in 1971, the 00:20:49.539 --> 00:20:51.740 stakes immediately became much, much higher. 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:54.440 Absolutely. Moving to New York allowed him and 00:20:54.440 --> 00:20:57.079 Ono to immediately embrace the U .S. radical 00:20:57.079 --> 00:20:59.799 left. They befriended highly visible anti -war 00:20:59.799 --> 00:21:02.079 activists like Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. 00:21:02.299 --> 00:21:04.759 And Lenin's criticism of the Vietnam War and 00:21:04.759 --> 00:21:07.220 crucially of President Nixon, it became louder 00:21:07.220 --> 00:21:09.380 and more effective. Reaching millions of young 00:21:09.380 --> 00:21:11.200 people. And this political effectiveness put 00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:14.000 a huge target on his back, which led the Nixon 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:16.420 administration to take a strategic countermeasure. 00:21:16.700 --> 00:21:18.900 A phrase straight out of a spy novel. It was 00:21:18.900 --> 00:21:22.299 political persecution, plain and simple. The 00:21:22.299 --> 00:21:25.220 Nixon administration, nervous about Lenin's ability 00:21:25.220 --> 00:21:28.539 to mobilize young voters against the war, initiated 00:21:28.539 --> 00:21:31.799 this relentless four -year attempt to deport 00:21:31.799 --> 00:21:34.319 him. And their legal justification was a 1968 00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:37.220 cannabis conviction he had in London. Exactly. 00:21:37.460 --> 00:21:39.559 They weren't interested in immigration enforcement. 00:21:39.579 --> 00:21:42.160 They were interested in silencing a highly effective 00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:45.099 political dissident. They tried to cloak it in 00:21:45.099 --> 00:21:48.119 bureaucratic language, but internal memos, especially 00:21:48.119 --> 00:21:50.779 one from Senator Strom Thurmond, confirmed the 00:21:50.779 --> 00:21:53.799 political intent. He suggested deportation would 00:21:53.799 --> 00:21:57.140 be a necessary strategic countermeasure. This 00:21:57.140 --> 00:21:59.859 intense political battle consumed years of his 00:21:59.859 --> 00:22:02.869 life. And significant financial resources. But 00:22:02.869 --> 00:22:05.029 this high stakes legal fight went all the way 00:22:05.029 --> 00:22:07.509 to the courts, thankfully. It did. The deportation 00:22:07.509 --> 00:22:10.650 attempt was finally barred in 1975. A court of 00:22:10.650 --> 00:22:13.970 appeals issued this landmark ruling. They explicitly 00:22:13.970 --> 00:22:16.609 stated that the courts will not condone selective 00:22:16.609 --> 00:22:19.230 deportation based upon secret political grounds. 00:22:19.450 --> 00:22:22.269 It confirmed beyond a doubt that the whole campaign 00:22:22.269 --> 00:22:24.289 had been politically motivated from the start. 00:22:24.390 --> 00:22:26.009 And the scale of the government's interest was 00:22:26.009 --> 00:22:29.509 later revealed. Yes. Posthumous legal efforts. 00:22:30.029 --> 00:22:32.769 fought for 14 years to release the FBI files 00:22:32.769 --> 00:22:36.309 on Lennon. What was revealed confirmed the paranoia. 00:22:36.450 --> 00:22:40.589 The FBI had amassed 281 pages of files on him. 00:22:41.430 --> 00:22:43.470 Documenting his political activities, surveillance, 00:22:43.950 --> 00:22:46.670 they saw him as a genuine threat. They did. And 00:22:46.670 --> 00:22:48.910 how did Lennon and Ono respond while they were 00:22:48.910 --> 00:22:51.309 fighting it? In the most absurd and artistic 00:22:51.309 --> 00:22:54.150 way possible. In response to the initial deportation 00:22:54.150 --> 00:22:56.869 order in 73, they announced the formation of 00:22:56.869 --> 00:22:59.180 the conceptual state of Newtopia. Not a real 00:22:59.180 --> 00:23:01.900 country. But a place with no land, no boundaries, 00:23:02.019 --> 00:23:04.640 no passports, only people. And they treated the 00:23:04.640 --> 00:23:07.619 announcement as a genuine diplomatic event. Absolutely. 00:23:07.640 --> 00:23:09.619 At the press conference, they waved the white 00:23:09.619 --> 00:23:12.059 flag of Utopia, which was two white handkerchiefs, 00:23:12.059 --> 00:23:15.240 and declared themselves ambassadors. The national 00:23:15.240 --> 00:23:18.180 anthem of Utopia on his Mind Games album was 00:23:18.180 --> 00:23:21.410 Three Seconds of Silence. A brilliant, absurdist 00:23:21.410 --> 00:23:23.529 way of using performance art to protest real 00:23:23.529 --> 00:23:25.630 political oppression. We've talked about Lennon 00:23:25.630 --> 00:23:27.690 the artist and activist, but we have to turn 00:23:27.690 --> 00:23:30.069 to Lennon the man in relationships. Right. Which 00:23:30.069 --> 00:23:32.650 were defined by, well, extreme turbulence, a 00:23:32.650 --> 00:23:35.450 constant desire for stability. And, initially, 00:23:35.630 --> 00:23:38.890 a profound chauvinistic attitude that caused 00:23:38.890 --> 00:23:41.599 deep pain. His personal life reads like a series 00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:43.920 of dramatic attempts to find the stability he 00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:46.700 lacked in childhood, often marred by his own 00:23:46.700 --> 00:23:49.680 deep -seated insecurities and anger issues. Look 00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:52.059 at his first marriage to Cynthia Lennon in 1962. 00:23:52.519 --> 00:23:55.539 It had to be clandestine, hidden by Brian Epstein 00:23:55.539 --> 00:23:58.700 to protect that Beatlemania image. And that secrecy 00:23:58.700 --> 00:24:00.980 extended even to the birth of their son, Julian, 00:24:01.240 --> 00:24:04.480 in 1963. Yes, which set a terrible precedent. 00:24:04.920 --> 00:24:07.279 This environment of secrecy, combined with Lennon's 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:09.740 volatility, made the marriage incredibly difficult. 00:24:10.420 --> 00:24:12.859 Cynthia recounted a particularly disturbing incident 00:24:12.859 --> 00:24:15.359 early on. Where she struck her. After seeing 00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:17.160 her dancing with his friend, Stuart Sutcliffe, 00:24:17.279 --> 00:24:19.240 she ended the relationship temporarily because 00:24:19.240 --> 00:24:21.380 of the assault. It's a painful truth, the sources 00:24:21.380 --> 00:24:24.160 confirm. The man who sang Give Peace a Chance 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:26.859 was capable of physical violence toward women. 00:24:27.079 --> 00:24:28.980 It highlights the massive contradiction at the 00:24:28.980 --> 00:24:31.460 heart of his identity. However, Lennon later 00:24:31.460 --> 00:24:34.000 had this moment of intense public self -reflection 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:36.539 about this behavior. He confessed that until 00:24:36.539 --> 00:24:39.279 he met Ono, he never questioned his own deeply 00:24:39.279 --> 00:24:42.880 ingrained chauvinistic attitude. He stated bluntly, 00:24:42.900 --> 00:24:45.880 he said, I used to be cruel to my woman and physically 00:24:45.880 --> 00:24:49.559 any woman. I was a hitter. That is why I am always 00:24:49.559 --> 00:24:52.809 on about peace. That statement is so critical. 00:24:52.950 --> 00:24:55.809 He recognized that his advocacy for peace wasn't 00:24:55.809 --> 00:24:58.789 just external political posturing, but an internal 00:24:58.789 --> 00:25:01.869 reckoning with his own past violence. It suggests 00:25:01.869 --> 00:25:04.329 that the primal rage that fueled his early behavior 00:25:04.329 --> 00:25:06.430 was something he spent years trying to process 00:25:06.430 --> 00:25:09.230 and reform. He even saw songs like The Beatles' 00:25:09.309 --> 00:25:11.410 Getting Better as a reflection of his own struggle 00:25:11.410 --> 00:25:13.930 to improve himself. The marriage ended violently 00:25:13.930 --> 00:25:16.490 and suddenly for Cynthia. Finding Lennon with 00:25:16.490 --> 00:25:19.690 Yoko Ono at their home left her shocked and humiliated. 00:25:19.769 --> 00:25:22.009 And that abrupt transition led directly into 00:25:22.009 --> 00:25:23.890 one of the most famous and chaotic periods of 00:25:23.890 --> 00:25:26.769 his life, The Lost Weekend. The 18 -month separation 00:25:26.769 --> 00:25:29.950 from Ono from 73 to 75, and the detail about 00:25:29.950 --> 00:25:32.549 how that separation began is truly astounding. 00:25:32.730 --> 00:25:35.089 It is perhaps the most bizarre arrangement in 00:25:35.089 --> 00:25:38.799 rock history. Ono, who had initiated the separation, 00:25:39.140 --> 00:25:41.519 suggested that her personal assistant, May Pang, 00:25:41.819 --> 00:25:44.400 should begin a physical relationship with Lennon. 00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:47.279 She reportedly told Pang that Lennon likes you 00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:51.180 a lot. Can you imagine? Pang was understandably 00:25:51.180 --> 00:25:54.400 astounded by this assignment. But she agreed. 00:25:54.779 --> 00:25:56.880 And they embarked on what Lennon Leder called 00:25:56.880 --> 00:26:00.259 his lost weekend. And while it was chaotic, marked 00:26:00.259 --> 00:26:02.940 by heavy drinking and infamous public antics. 00:26:03.059 --> 00:26:05.160 Like scuffling with a waitress at the Troubadour 00:26:05.160 --> 00:26:07.470 with Harry Nilsson. The period was also surprisingly 00:26:07.470 --> 00:26:09.829 fruitful creatively. It was a massive creative 00:26:09.829 --> 00:26:12.690 burst, almost like a period of temporary artistic 00:26:12.690 --> 00:26:15.069 freedom from the intensity of the Ono relationship. 00:26:15.390 --> 00:26:17.809 He produced Harry Nilsson's Pussycats album. 00:26:17.970 --> 00:26:21.049 And he scored his first genuine solo number one 00:26:21.049 --> 00:26:23.230 hit in the U .S. Whatever Gets You Through the 00:26:23.230 --> 00:26:25.819 Night, a collaboration with Elton John. He also 00:26:25.819 --> 00:26:28.339 worked with David Bowie on Fame, Bowie's first 00:26:28.339 --> 00:26:30.779 U .S. number one, where Lennon used the pseudonym 00:26:30.779 --> 00:26:33.460 Dr. Winston Oboogie. The sources revealed that 00:26:33.460 --> 00:26:36.059 May Pang played a critical role in repairing 00:26:36.059 --> 00:26:38.599 a far more important relationship during this 00:26:38.599 --> 00:26:42.319 chaos, the one with his eldest son, Julian. This 00:26:42.319 --> 00:26:44.880 is perhaps the most redeeming aspect of the entire 00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:47.859 lost weekend. Lennon had been really neglectful 00:26:47.859 --> 00:26:50.349 of Julian. especially after moving to the U .S. 00:26:50.529 --> 00:26:53.289 Pang actively encouraged Lennon to develop regular 00:26:53.289 --> 00:26:56.009 contact. And this led to a significantly better, 00:26:56.069 --> 00:26:58.309 more involved relationship between them. They 00:26:58.309 --> 00:27:00.910 started taking trips together, including to Disneyland. 00:27:01.369 --> 00:27:03.829 Julian even contributed musically, playing drums 00:27:03.829 --> 00:27:05.789 on a track for Lennon's Walls and Bridges album. 00:27:06.069 --> 00:27:08.029 Julian later recalled that they got on a great 00:27:08.029 --> 00:27:10.230 deal better during this period. For the first 00:27:10.230 --> 00:27:12.589 time, Lennon was consistently present for his 00:27:12.589 --> 00:27:15.970 son, a direct contrast to his own absent father. 00:27:16.509 --> 00:27:19.869 The lost weekend ended in February 1975, and 00:27:19.869 --> 00:27:22.130 the reconciliation with Ono was conditioned upon 00:27:22.130 --> 00:27:24.930 a fundamental change in Lennon's lifestyle. Yes. 00:27:25.210 --> 00:27:28.170 Ono, who had suffered three miscarriages, agreed 00:27:28.170 --> 00:27:30.390 to continue the pregnancy that resulted in Sean. 00:27:30.569 --> 00:27:33.269 Born on Lennon's 35th birthday, October 9th, 00:27:33.269 --> 00:27:36.750 1975. Only if Lennon agreed to completely retire 00:27:36.750 --> 00:27:38.549 from the public eye and become a house husband. 00:27:38.730 --> 00:27:41.750 And he embraced this domesticity completely. 00:27:42.329 --> 00:27:45.109 The famous five -year hiatus. It was a total 00:27:45.109 --> 00:27:48.089 commitment. He famously said he baked bread and 00:27:48.089 --> 00:27:50.450 looked after the baby. He was the primary caregiver 00:27:50.450 --> 00:27:53.990 up at 6 a .m. daily. The sources even know he 00:27:53.990 --> 00:27:56.970 took photos of Sean every single day of his first 00:27:56.970 --> 00:27:59.349 year. He said, he didn't come out of my belly, 00:27:59.410 --> 00:28:02.349 but by God, I made his bones. This period was 00:28:02.349 --> 00:28:04.690 his sustained search for the stable home life 00:28:04.690 --> 00:28:07.529 he never had. And his return to music in 1980 00:28:07.529 --> 00:28:10.609 was prompted by, what was it? A sailing trip 00:28:10.609 --> 00:28:14.700 to Bermuda. The journey, the solitude, it reinvigorated 00:28:14.700 --> 00:28:17.400 him creatively. And it led directly to the material 00:28:17.400 --> 00:28:19.720 for the Double Fantasy album. Which was so focused 00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:22.839 on domestic bliss and partnership, a direct reflection 00:28:22.839 --> 00:28:25.359 of those five years of peace he'd finally achieved. 00:28:25.599 --> 00:28:27.480 Right. And before we move on, we should just 00:28:27.480 --> 00:28:29.440 touch on his post -Beatles dynamics with the 00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:32.000 other members. That musical competitiveness with 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:34.779 McCartney clearly continued well into the 70s. 00:28:34.779 --> 00:28:36.799 Oh, they argued through the press, took jabs 00:28:36.799 --> 00:28:39.650 at each other in their songs. They did. But they 00:28:39.650 --> 00:28:41.750 eventually reestablished a fragile friendship. 00:28:42.049 --> 00:28:44.690 They even spent time together, recorded a bootleg 00:28:44.690 --> 00:28:48.009 session in 74, and Lennon seemed to find some 00:28:48.009 --> 00:28:50.390 peace with it, concluding near the end of his 00:28:50.390 --> 00:28:53.109 life that he'd selected to work with only two 00:28:53.109 --> 00:28:57.289 people, Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono. That ain't 00:28:57.289 --> 00:28:59.369 bad pickin'. But the relationship with George 00:28:59.369 --> 00:29:02.869 Harrison soured late in life. It did. In 1980, 00:29:03.069 --> 00:29:05.549 Harrison published his autobiography, I, Me, 00:29:05.690 --> 00:29:08.930 Mine. And Lennon was genuinely hurt by what he 00:29:08.930 --> 00:29:11.329 saw as a glaring omission of his own influence 00:29:11.329 --> 00:29:13.589 on Harrison's life. It showed how easily those 00:29:13.589 --> 00:29:16.109 bonds could still be fractured by ego and perceived 00:29:16.109 --> 00:29:18.829 slights. Even after all that time. We've focused 00:29:18.829 --> 00:29:21.009 so heavily on Lennon the songwriter, but we have 00:29:21.009 --> 00:29:23.470 to recognize Lennon the artist. The man who went 00:29:23.470 --> 00:29:25.769 to art school and maintained a fascination with 00:29:25.769 --> 00:29:28.150 non -traditional art forms his whole life. He 00:29:28.150 --> 00:29:30.690 was a visual artist and a writer first. His literary 00:29:30.690 --> 00:29:33.519 works... in his own right from 64 and a spaniard 00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:36.160 in the works from 65, are these fantastic collections 00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:39.160 of nonsense writing, poetry, line drawings, filled 00:29:39.160 --> 00:29:41.140 with that satirical wordplay and cynical humor 00:29:41.140 --> 00:29:43.099 that started back in his daily Owl School magazine. 00:29:43.420 --> 00:29:45.599 The fact that he was dyslexic just makes the 00:29:45.599 --> 00:29:48.079 mastery of that sophisticated wordplay even more 00:29:48.079 --> 00:29:50.380 remarkable. It's a phenomenal achievement. I 00:29:50.380 --> 00:29:53.880 mean, the Times Literary Supplement, an incredibly 00:29:53.880 --> 00:29:56.619 highbrow publication, took his nonsense writing 00:29:56.619 --> 00:29:59.579 completely seriously. They called the works remarkable 00:29:59.579 --> 00:30:02.450 and very funny. And Lennon was genuinely surprised. 00:30:02.769 --> 00:30:05.029 That his satirical anti -establishment humor 00:30:05.029 --> 00:30:07.809 was being analyzed as genuine literary output. 00:30:07.930 --> 00:30:10.750 His art became genuinely provocative once he 00:30:10.750 --> 00:30:12.890 collaborated with Ono, who was immersed in the 00:30:12.890 --> 00:30:15.630 conceptual art movement known as Fluxus. Right. 00:30:15.690 --> 00:30:17.730 And understanding Fluxus is key here. It was 00:30:17.730 --> 00:30:20.250 an international interdisciplinary movement focused 00:30:20.250 --> 00:30:22.910 on challenging the concept of what art fundamentally 00:30:22.910 --> 00:30:27.349 is. It emphasized process over product, anti 00:30:27.349 --> 00:30:31.750 -commercialism. So Ono's involvement meant Lenin 00:30:31.750 --> 00:30:34.710 was exposed to and actively participated in these 00:30:34.710 --> 00:30:37.230 profoundly non -traditional projects. What are 00:30:37.230 --> 00:30:39.470 some of the most striking examples of this provocative 00:30:39.470 --> 00:30:41.690 work? Well, there are collaborations like funding 00:30:41.690 --> 00:30:44.730 Ono's 1967 Half a Room exhibition where everything 00:30:44.730 --> 00:30:47.109 in the room was cut in half. But they also went 00:30:47.109 --> 00:30:49.930 far darker and more confrontational. Like the 00:30:49.930 --> 00:30:53.450 1969 film Self -Portrait. A single sustained 00:30:53.450 --> 00:30:57.069 40 minute shot of Lennon's penis. I mean, it's 00:30:57.069 --> 00:30:59.150 impossible to be more provocative about celebrity 00:30:59.150 --> 00:31:02.109 and vulnerability. And his bag one lithographs 00:31:02.109 --> 00:31:06.029 led directly to a brush with the law. Yes. The 00:31:06.029 --> 00:31:08.750 1970 collection of lithographs depicted erotic 00:31:08.750 --> 00:31:11.730 imagery from their honeymoon. They were so controversial 00:31:11.730 --> 00:31:14.890 that the police raided the exhibition, confiscating 00:31:14.890 --> 00:31:17.509 eight of the 14 pieces on the grounds of indecency. 00:31:17.730 --> 00:31:20.650 He clearly enjoyed pushing those societal boundaries. 00:31:21.579 --> 00:31:24.180 Shifting back to his music, let's explore the 00:31:24.180 --> 00:31:26.559 technical dimensions of his vocal style, instantly 00:31:26.559 --> 00:31:28.940 recognizable, incredibly powerful. His voice 00:31:28.940 --> 00:31:31.740 was his emotional weapon, deeply influenced by 00:31:31.740 --> 00:31:33.700 early rock and roll shouters like Little Richard. 00:31:33.980 --> 00:31:37.000 Critics described it as a brassy northern roar 00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:39.359 flecked with bluesy moans. He could reign from 00:31:39.359 --> 00:31:41.640 that extreme vulnerability you hear on Julia 00:31:41.640 --> 00:31:44.220 or Mother to a hard, abrasive rasping style. 00:31:44.440 --> 00:31:46.839 That rasping style is best demonstrated on the 00:31:46.839 --> 00:31:49.059 recording of Twist and Shout. A legendary session. 00:31:49.609 --> 00:31:51.509 It was the very last track recorded for their 00:31:51.509 --> 00:31:54.430 first album, Please Please Me. Lennon was battling 00:31:54.430 --> 00:31:57.269 a severe cold. Producer George Martin knew they 00:31:57.269 --> 00:32:00.569 only had one shot. And Lennon performed it by 00:32:00.569 --> 00:32:03.289 nearly screaming. He almost shredded his vocal 00:32:03.289 --> 00:32:06.309 cords right there in the studio. That raw, destructive 00:32:06.309 --> 00:32:09.009 energy became one of his vocal hallmarks. But 00:32:09.009 --> 00:32:11.450 despite that raw power, the sources consistently 00:32:11.450 --> 00:32:14.329 note he had this major insecurity about his own 00:32:14.329 --> 00:32:17.809 voice. A profound one. George Martin said Lennon 00:32:17.809 --> 00:32:21.589 had an inborn dislike of his own voice and was 00:32:21.589 --> 00:32:24.049 constantly asking him to make it different. Which 00:32:24.049 --> 00:32:26.509 led Martin to employ various studio techniques, 00:32:26.809 --> 00:32:29.349 double tracking, reverb, echo. Constantly modifying 00:32:29.349 --> 00:32:31.690 Lennon's sound to satisfy his discomfort. As 00:32:31.690 --> 00:32:34.660 for his instruments. What were his main creative 00:32:34.660 --> 00:32:37.059 tools outside of his role as the Beatles rhythm 00:32:37.059 --> 00:32:39.720 guitarist? Well, while he played rhythm guitar 00:32:39.720 --> 00:32:43.200 as a Beatle, most famously the Rickenbacker 325 00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:46.240 and the Epiphone Casino, the piano was his essential 00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:49.319 creative anchor. He composed so many of his famous 00:32:49.319 --> 00:32:52.079 songs on it, including Imagine. There's also 00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:54.099 that wonderful personal detail that producer 00:32:54.099 --> 00:32:56.019 Jack Douglas claimed about his guitar playing. 00:32:56.160 --> 00:32:58.519 That he habitually tuned his D strings slightly 00:32:58.519 --> 00:33:01.339 flat. Why would he do that? Douglas claimed he 00:33:01.339 --> 00:33:03.619 did it so that his Aunt Mimi... who was skeptical 00:33:03.619 --> 00:33:06.140 of his career but listened devoutly, could tell 00:33:06.140 --> 00:33:08.559 which guitar was his on the recordings. It's 00:33:08.559 --> 00:33:11.299 a small detail, but it speaks volumes about his 00:33:11.299 --> 00:33:13.940 need to connect his adult success back to his 00:33:13.940 --> 00:33:16.920 difficult childhood home. It really does. Finally, 00:33:16.920 --> 00:33:19.240 we have to acknowledge the tragic end of this 00:33:19.240 --> 00:33:23.019 complex life. The events of December 8th, 1980, 00:33:23.480 --> 00:33:26.859 outside the Dakota. It's a moment seared into 00:33:26.859 --> 00:33:29.400 collective memory. An unbelievable tragedy. At 00:33:29.400 --> 00:33:32.599 5 p .m. that day, he autographed a copy of Double 00:33:32.599 --> 00:33:35.480 Fantasy for Mark David Chapman. When Lennon returned 00:33:35.480 --> 00:33:38.220 home around 10 .50 p .m., Chapman was waiting. 00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:40.799 And he shot him four times, twice in the back, 00:33:40.859 --> 00:33:42.420 twice in the shoulder. Lennon was pronounced 00:33:42.420 --> 00:33:45.940 dead shortly after at 11 .15 p .m. The immediate 00:33:45.940 --> 00:33:48.299 aftermath saw a massive outpouring of grief, 00:33:48.400 --> 00:33:51.619 but also a final, profound, posthumous commercial 00:33:51.619 --> 00:33:54.559 success for his last work. The tragedy spurred 00:33:54.559 --> 00:33:57.200 immense sales and recognition. Double Fantasy 00:33:57.200 --> 00:34:00.359 won the 1981 Grammy for Album of the Year. His 00:34:00.359 --> 00:34:02.299 singles dominated the charts globally in the 00:34:02.299 --> 00:34:04.519 following weeks, just like starting over Imagine 00:34:04.519 --> 00:34:07.559 Woman. His musical legacy was instantly and permanently 00:34:07.559 --> 00:34:10.360 cemented, and his honors reflect that enduring 00:34:10.360 --> 00:34:14.500 global impact across culture, art, even astronomy. 00:34:15.179 --> 00:34:17.219 Ranked the fifth greatest singer, 38th greatest 00:34:17.219 --> 00:34:19.579 artist of all time by Rolling Stone. Imagine 00:34:19.579 --> 00:34:22.219 voted the UK's favorite song lyric in a 1999 00:34:22.219 --> 00:34:25.840 BBC poll. His name graces the Liverpool John 00:34:25.840 --> 00:34:28.199 Lennon Airport, ensuring that connection to his 00:34:28.199 --> 00:34:30.679 roots is permanent. And yes, there's even a crater 00:34:30.679 --> 00:34:32.820 of mercury named after him. As one historian 00:34:32.820 --> 00:34:35.619 summarized, his legacy endures because of his 00:34:35.619 --> 00:34:38.699 profound willingness to take risks with his career 00:34:38.699 --> 00:34:42.480 and his life. So this deep dive, it really reveals 00:34:42.480 --> 00:34:45.599 a life defined by extremes. by contradictions. 00:34:45.699 --> 00:34:47.880 The early abandonment created the rebellious 00:34:47.880 --> 00:34:50.460 nonconformist. Who then masterfully leveraged 00:34:50.460 --> 00:34:52.980 his enormous commercial success, not for quiet 00:34:52.980 --> 00:34:55.559 retirement, but to pursue highly confrontational 00:34:55.559 --> 00:34:58.119 avant -garde art and become this high -stakes, 00:34:58.119 --> 00:35:00.659 effective political figure. And the final years, 00:35:00.840 --> 00:35:03.440 that search for lasting domestic peace, the life 00:35:03.440 --> 00:35:05.760 of baking bread and raising Sean, was tragically 00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:08.019 cut short just as he was re -emerging with double 00:35:08.019 --> 00:35:11.139 fantasy. We've navigated the layers. The angry 00:35:11.139 --> 00:35:13.539 young man who confessed to his former chauvinism. 00:35:14.059 --> 00:35:16.199 and matured into a self -aware advocate for peace. 00:35:16.420 --> 00:35:19.099 The academic failure who became a genuinely praised 00:35:19.099 --> 00:35:22.960 literary genius, the global music icon who constantly 00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:25.559 fought the system, enduring a four -year political 00:35:25.559 --> 00:35:28.059 siege from the Nixon White House. He was never 00:35:28.059 --> 00:35:31.500 afraid to be loud, to be controversial, or to 00:35:31.500 --> 00:35:34.579 be painfully honest. And that commitment to activism 00:35:34.579 --> 00:35:37.880 never faded. The source material shows that his 00:35:37.880 --> 00:35:40.980 final act of political solidarity, a statement 00:35:40.980 --> 00:35:43.440 supporting striking minority sanitation workers 00:35:43.440 --> 00:35:46.579 in San Francisco, was delivered just days before 00:35:46.579 --> 00:35:48.579 his death. He was planning to join their protest 00:35:48.579 --> 00:35:50.699 shortly after he was killed. So what does this 00:35:50.699 --> 00:35:53.159 all mean? We know Lenin's political voice was 00:35:53.159 --> 00:35:56.059 effective, loud, constantly challenging established 00:35:56.059 --> 00:35:59.639 power, leading directly to FBI files and deportation 00:35:59.639 --> 00:36:01.980 attempts. He was prepared to sacrifice his comfortable 00:36:01.980 --> 00:36:04.840 life. his radical beliefs. Right. So given his 00:36:04.840 --> 00:36:07.980 history of anti -establishment and anti -imperialist 00:36:07.980 --> 00:36:11.059 criticism and his final planned act of solidarity 00:36:11.059 --> 00:36:14.039 with working class strikers, what would Lenin's 00:36:14.039 --> 00:36:16.059 voice have sounded like in the conservative political 00:36:16.059 --> 00:36:18.820 landscape of the 1980s and beyond? If he had 00:36:18.820 --> 00:36:21.019 successfully maintained that domestic stability 00:36:21.019 --> 00:36:23.849 he sought. Could the man who advocated for a 00:36:23.849 --> 00:36:25.929 world with no possessions have remained politically 00:36:25.929 --> 00:36:28.670 effective when the world moved towards globalized 00:36:28.670 --> 00:36:31.349 capitalism? It's a compelling question and one 00:36:31.349 --> 00:36:32.769 for you to consider and explore.