Welcome to the Deep Dive, where we take complex
piles of information and turn them into essential,
engaging knowledge just for you. Today we are
plumbing the depths of a figure whose legacy
is, well, it's so monumental it often overshadows
the man himself. John Winston Ono Lennon. Exactly.
He was the founder of the Beatles, half of maybe
the most successful songwriting partnership in
history with Paul McCartney. And really the most
recognizable yet often contradictory voice of
the 1960s and 70s counterculture. It's so necessary
for us to look at John Lennon beyond, you know,
the peace signs and the anthems. His life, so
tragically cut short at just 40 years old, was
this continuous, almost chaotic cycle of reinvention
and confrontation. So our mission today is really
to analyze the layers beneath the fame. Yeah,
we're delving into the surprisingly complex and
frankly traumatic personal history that forged
his unique artistic voice. We're talking about
the painful relationships, the radical artistic
shifts. The deep commitment to conceptual art
and, of course, the political activism that put
him directly in the crosshairs of power. And
we have sources covering every single epoch of
his life, from his birth in Liverpool in 1940
right up through the... posthumous continuation
of his work. Including that technological marvel
that allowed the release of Now and Then in 2023.
Right. And this material, it really allows us
to highlight a few recurring themes that define
him. The first one has to be the profound shaping
influence of his childhood turmoil. Absolutely.
Then there's his natural almost instinctive tendency
toward disruption and nonconformity. And critically,
how his intense, often volatile relationships
fueled every single major artistic period of
his career. We're looking for the linkages, right?
Yes. What connects the class clown throwing punches
in Liverpool to the activists being targeted
by the FBI in New York? And the answer, as the
source material reveals, is a lifetime of trying
to reconcile deep personal pain with an extraordinary
public platform. Okay, let's unpack the architect
of modern pop and see how those internal pressures
shaped the man who eventually told the world
to imagine. We have to start where it all began.
Liverpool, October 9th, 1940. He was born John
Winston Lennon. Which is a truly British name.
partially for his paternal grandfather, John
Jack Lennon, and partially for Prime Minister
Winston Churchill. But from day one, his family
life was just defined by instability and absence?
The domestic situation was messy, to put it mildly.
His father, Alfred Lennon, was a merchant seaman
of Irish descent. So he was perpetually absent.
Perpetually. And when he eventually went absent
without leave from his ship in February 1944,
the regular allotment checks just stopped. Completely.
But what's fascinating, though, is the brief
attempt at a return. Right. Six months later,
Alfred tried to come back and care for John.
But by then, Julia, his mother, she was pregnant
with another man's child. And she rejected the
idea entirely. She did. And that moment, that
really sealed the abandonment for John. So this
instability meant that John was constantly shifting
around. Constantly. His Aunt Mimi Mimi Smith
and her husband, Uncle George Smith, they eventually
took guardianship. And this was after Mimi complained
twice to Liverpool's social services. Yes, because
Julia was just demonstrably struggling to cope.
So he was raised primarily in this staunchly
middle class environment of Mendips, 251 Menlove
Avenue. Which was miles away, you know, socially
and psychologically from his mother's more bohemian
lifestyle. Completely. And the sources paint
this rich picture of his initial family unit.
Lennon himself later described it in a really
fascinating way. He said his initial family experience
was with five strong, intelligent, beautiful
women. Five sisters, one of whom was his mother.
And he explicitly said this provided his first
feminist education. That's a crucial context.
It shows his deep connection to powerful female
figures, but also... The instability. Oh, absolutely.
He later admitted to a deep, lifelong envy of
traditional, stable homes. And what does a nonconformist
do with envy? He tries to disrupt the standard.
He often recounted trying to disrupt his friends'
homes by telling them, parents are not gods because
I don't live with mine and therefore I know better.
Wow. So that foundational nonconformist streak,
that urge to challenge authority, it was rooted
right there. In the personal pain of his fractured
childhood. Exactly. And his aunt, Mimi. She certainly
recognized this troublemaking streak. She represented
all those traditional middle class values of
the era. And Lennon himself described this lifelong
internal conflict, saying a part of him genuinely
wanted to be accepted by society to be a normal,
respectable man. But he couldn't. He found he
simply couldn't be anything other than a loudmouthed
lunatic poet musician. And that internal friction,
it just manifested so strongly in his schooling.
He attended Quarry Bank High School from 1952
to 1957. And his behavior was notoriously disruptive.
Teacher's notes consistently said he was frequently
in fights, actively bullied others. And established
himself as the dedicated class clown. Yeah. His
report cards were dismal. They often complained
that his work lacked effort and he was perfectly
content to just drift instead of using his obvious
intelligence. But we have to pause on these academic
struggles because the source material brings
forward a critical, often overlooked detail.
Yes, that Lennon faced significant challenges
due to undiagnosed dyslexia. Which would have
negatively impacted his reading and writing skills
and, of course, contributed to his poor academic
standing. Absolutely. When you're a highly intelligent
person who struggles with the fundamental building
blocks of formal education, what do you do? You
compensate. You become the rebel or the comedian.
Exactly. And his struggles contributed to his
eventual expulsion from the Liverpool College
of Art before his final year. It wasn't because
of a lack of talent. It was because an inability
to comply with the rigid structure. Precisely.
Yet the urge to create was just so powerful.
If he couldn't excel in formal literature, he
would just create his own. Which he did. His
early creative outlets were satirical and subversive,
taking aim at the very establishment that rejected
him. Right, in his self -made school magazine
called The Daily Howl. The Daily Howl is such
a window into his early psyche. It had comical
cartoons known for brutal wordplay, satire. And
interestingly, what his peers described as disturbing
drawings of crippled people. Which points to
that dark, absurdist wit that would later flavor
his published writings. The content wasn't just
humorous. It was pushing boundaries, using shock
and dark comedy to process what he was seeing
in society. And this leads us directly to the
fateful introduction to the tool that would channel
all that chaotic energy music. And his mother,
Julia, was the one who encouraged this path.
She knew Mimi, the strict guardian, would disapprove
of such, you know, frivolous pursuits. So Julia
understood his need for an outlet. She did. She
bought him his first guitar, an inexpensive Galatone
Champion acoustic, lending him five pounds and
ten shillings. And to bypass Mimi's inevitable
objection, she insisted it be delivered directly
to her house. Smart move, ensuring Mimi wouldn't
intervene or, you know, destroy it. And Mimi
delivered the line that will live forever in
rock history. Oh, yes. She famously told him,
the guitar's all very well, John, but you'll
never make a living out of it. It's the ultimate
example of parental skepticism fueling a defiant
ambition. Absolutely. But this creative bond
with Julia, who also taught him the banjo and
Fats Dominoes, Ain't That a Shame, was just brutally
and suddenly severed. The trauma that defined
his late adolescence was Julia's death in July
1958. She was only 44. Struck and killed by an
off -duty police officer driving a car. while
she was just walking home after visiting the
Smith house. The fallout was just devastating.
I mean, he was a teenage boy who had already
experienced the pain of one parent vanishing.
Only to lose the parent who had finally connected
him to his true artistic self. And the subsequent
two years were marked by just emotional chaos,
heavy drinking, frequent fighting, a blind rage
that consumed him. The source material shows
this was a true reckoning for him. It's no surprise
that her memory later became a major, often painful,
creative inspiration, fueling his most confessional
work, like the song Julia. You can see the direct
line now, abandonment and chaos driving artistic
nonconformity. And that raw, angry energy he
carried after Julia's death immediately found
an outlet in music. In September 1956, at age
15, he formed a skiffle group, you know, a mix
of folk, blues, and jazz, called the Quarrymen.
Named after Quarry Bank High School. And this
leads us to the most consequential meeting in
modern popular culture. July 1957, at the Quarrymen's
second performance at the St. Peter's Church
Garden Fet. He was introduced to a younger, musically
sophisticated local named Paul McCartney. And
Lennon. Ever the leader, immediately asked him
to join. But the dynamic was immediately fraught,
even outside the band. McCartney's father declared
that Lennon would certainly get his son into
trouble. And Mimi, of course, was highly critical.
She was very aware that John's new friends were
perceived as lower -class ruffians. But despite
the disapproval, the bond was sealed. They rehearsed
constantly in the relative safety of the McCartney
family's front room. And the lineup solidified
quickly, bringing in George Harrison. Right.
But Lennon, the self -proclaimed leader, initially
thought George was too young. He was only 14.
But an audition orchestrated by McCartney on
the upper deck of a Liverpool bus. Where Harrison
impressively played the complicated instrumental
raunchy. That sealed the deal. By early 1960,
with the addition of his art school friend Stuart
Sutcliffe on bass, they became the Beatles. And
this nascent band was then thrown into the crucible
of Hamburg. August 1960, the Beatles, including
drummer Pete Best, were engaged for a brutal
48 -night residency in West Germany. We're talking
marathon sets. seven days a week. The physical
demands were just unsustainable. They had to
find ways to maintain energy for performances
that ran all night. And the source material details
that Lennon, along with the others, regularly
took Preadon. A powerful amphetamine. Right.
Often used as a diet pill, but they used it as
a stimulant to endure those long, grueling overnight
performances. And that detail is so crucial for
you, the listener, because it connects directly
to the unsustainable pace of early fame. Exactly.
This chemically enhanced intensity followed by
the exhaustion of Beatlemania. That's the underlying
context for his later mental breakdown. They
were just running on fumes. They were. And when
Brian Epstein took over as manager in 1962, he
recognized the need to polish the image. He strongly
influenced their dress code, their stage attitude.
Forcing them into matching suits and synchronized
bows. Which Lennon, the natural nonconformist,
initially resisted. He felt they were selling
out their rock and roll edge. But he eventually
complied with that fantastic quote. I'll wear
a bloody balloon if somebody is going to pay
me. The money and the promise of mainstream acceptance
convinced the anarchists to temporarily put on
a suit. And the Lennon -McCartney partnership
just exploded. They yielded eight of the 14 tracks
on their 1963 debut album, Please Please Me.
But the goal initially was just simple commercial
pop. Lennon described those early lyrics as almost
irrelevant. They were focused solely on creating
a sound that would sell. Not profound poetry.
Not yet. Not yet. But even as he conformed to
the suits, that disruption was always waiting
to surface. And his natural irreverence toward
the establishment was never better displayed
than at the Royal Variety Show. Performing for
the Queen Mother and British royalty, he pauses
the performance and delivers that infamous joke.
For the people in the cheaper seats, clap your
hands. And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle
your jewelry. That one line just summarizes his
entire relationship with authority. It was a
playful insult wrapped in an innocent request.
Defiant, but just charming enough to be forgiven.
For a while. By the mid -decade, that charm was
wearing thin, and the stress of constant touring,
filmmaking, and global fame was just overwhelming.
Lennon grew profoundly concerned that the continuous
fan screaming meant their actual musicianship
was suffering. He was tired of being a Beatle.
It was sinking into depression and anxiety, and
this internal stress led to what he later called
his Fat Elvis period. He put on weight, became
reclusive, and subconsciously signaled a need
for a dramatic change. And this distress was
poured directly into the 1965 song Help. He confirmed
that song was deeply personal. It was genuinely
him singing Help. It wasn't a clever pop tune.
It was a desperate cry. A desperate cry. And
this period of immense pressure was further complicated
by the involuntary introduction to LSD in March
1965. When a dentist hosting a dinner party secretly
spiked the coffee of Lennon, Harrison and their
partners. Which ushered in a profound shift in
his perception of reality. And this shift, combined
with the stress of global idolatry, led to the
single most explosive comment of his early fame.
The more popular than Jesus controversy. In a
March 1966 interview, he mused, 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. And
the context is so key here. That comment went
largely unnoticed in the UK. Right. But when
it was quoted in a U .S. magazine five months
later, the reaction was furious and dangerous.
It triggered mass public burnings of Beatles
records, actual Ku Klux Klan threats against
him in the American South. And ultimately contributed
directly to the band's unanimous decision to
stop touring permanently after August 1966. What
stands out to me is that this controversy didn't
just cause outrage. It forced a change in his
entire creative process. It shifted him from
road musician to studio artist. And the cessation
of touring led to the band's famous studio years
and an explosion of innovation. After filming
the anti -war black comedy How I Won the War
in 1967, he rejoined the band for an extended,
focused recording period. And this time saw the
release of Strawberry Fields Forever. which Time
magazine hailed for its astonishing inventiveness.
And the landmark Stomp Peppers Lonely Hearts
Club band. Lennon later cited Strawberry Fields
Forever as his finest work with the band. This
new environment allowed his political conscience
to emerge more clearly. All You Need Is Love
was performed in late June 1967 for the Our World
satellite broadcast. Reaching an estimated international
audience of 400 million. And while simplistic,
it became the defining anti -war anthem for the
Summer of Love, showing him using his platform
for global messaging. And this explosion of studio
creativity and conceptual thinking coincides
perfectly with the pivotal relationship that
fundamentally reshaped his life. Yoko Ono. Lennon
first met the multimedia artist on November 9th,
1966 at the Indica Gallery in London, where she
was preparing a conceptual art exhibit. And the
interaction itself is just a fantastic anecdote
that highlights their initial intellectual sparring
match. Right. Lennon was intrigued by Ono's piece,
Hammer a Nail. It was a clean board meant to
be hammered into. And Lennon wanted to hammer
a nail. Ono stopped him. When the gallery owner
convinced her that Lennon was a millionaire who
might buy the piece. She relented, but only if
he paid five shillings. His famous reply, which
just encapsulates his wit and his embrace of
concept, was, I'll give you an imaginary five
shillings and hammer an imaginary nail in. She
also later recalled him taking a very physical
bite out of an apple on display in her conceptual
art piece, Apple. Which was meant to represent
a commodity. And she was furious. It was a clash
of two powerful creative forces. That initial
playful antagonism quickly grew into an obsessive,
all -consuming relationship. Ono began visiting
and calling him at his home. Lennon, who admitted
he had been a hitter and had a chauvinistic attitude
until he met Ono, was just entirely captivated
by this independent, conceptual artist. And the
source material is clear that the final dissolution
of the Beatles was hastened by Lennon's insistence
on having Ono present in the studio at all times.
Which was a direct contravention of established
band policy and severely heightened the already
critical internal tensions. They immediately
began their own conceptual collaborations, recording
three avant -garde albums together between 1968
and 69. Starting with unfinished music number
one, Two Virgins, which... Infamously, was known
more for its controversial nude cover than its
actual experimental music. Lennon, feeling the
pressure, was pushing the band toward more extreme,
sonic, and conceptual places. He finally told
the band he was leaving the Beatles on September
20, 1969, though he agreed to keep it secret
while contract negotiations were underway. He
felt the need to control the narrative. Oh, absolutely.
The final blow to him came when Paul McCartney
publicized his own departure in April 1970 upon
releasing his solo album. And Lennon was outraged
at what he saw as a betrayal, reacting with genuine
fury. He said, Jesus Christ, he gets all the
credit for it. Though he eventually softened
on the specific circumstances, he later summarized
his definitive role by stating simply, I started
the band, I disbanded it. So with the Beatles
closed, Lennon didn't ease into some conventional
solo career. Not at all. He immediately entered
his most brutally honest period of self -reflection
and creative output, driven by therapy. Right,
attempting to process the trauma we discussed
earlier, and that therapy was primal therapy.
From April to September 1970, he and Ono underwent
intensive treatment with Dr. Arthur Janoff. And
this therapy, it aimed to confront and release
the emotional pain buried since early childhood,
specifically the abandonment by his parents.
The process often involved screaming. For you,
the listener, who might not be familiar with
it, primal therapy posits that neuroses stem
from repressed traumatic childhood experiences.
So the therapy sought to bring those primal pains
to the surface for emotional release, often through
these intense, cathartic screams. And this brutal,
unflinching honesty informed his raw solo debut,
John Lennon Plastic Ono Band from 1970. Which
was critically praised for its vulnerability,
but commercially limited because of its stark
sound and intensity. intensely personal lyrics.
There's a dudality here, isn't there? This album
is the sound of a man dismantling his own whiff.
Perfectly put. And two tracks exemplify this.
Mother is a direct painful confrontation of his
childhood rejection and then you have working
class hero which was a scathing attack on western
social systems class structure and education
so direct that it was censored by broadcasters
for using profanity but here's where we see the
instability of his political identity he quickly
shifted from confessional trauma to musical activism
after an interview in january 1971 where radical
journalist tariq ali shared these intense revolutionary
political views lenin was just instantly galvanized
he wrote power to the people which was a sharp
reversal from his earlier more cautious stance
on radical change as he expressed in the beatles
song revolution But that political pivot was
something he later questioned himself. He did.
He disowned power to the people, admitting he
was born out of guilt and a desire for approval
from political radicals like Ali. He was trying
to reconcile his pacifism with a desire for confrontational
engagement. It shows he was searching for the
appropriate use of his enormous platform. And
this search for relevance and, frankly, commercial
success led him to pivot again for his next album.
Imagine in 1971. He consciously adopted a much
more accessible and sophisticated sound. He was
eager to sell records and reach a mass audience
again. And as Imagine succeeded wildly, it was
commercially massive and culturally iconic, but
the success brought controversy. The title track
became a global anti -war anthem, yet its lyrics
profoundly offended religious groups. Because
it proposed a world with no countries, no possessions,
and importantly, no religion too. Lennon justified
this by saying he was imagining a world without
the division caused by religious conflict, specifically
without the my God is bigger than your God dynamic.
It was an utopian vision, but one that actively
challenged deeply held beliefs. This era also
featured intense, regrettable inner Beatles hostility.
The song How Do You Sleep? A direct, vicious
musical attack on Paul McCartney. It was prompted
by lyrics on McCartney's album Ram that Lennon
felt were directed at him and Ono. And McCartney
later confirmed they were. He did. And if we
link this back to our theme of duality, this
track is a clear failure of his own stated ideals
of peace and love. He later softened his stance,
claiming he wrote the song about himself, using
his resentment toward Paul as a vehicle for his
own self -hatred. But what's remarkable is that
at the same time, he was exhibiting profound
self -awareness in other songs like Jealous Guy.
Where he addressed his demeaning treatment of
women. He cited his past chauvinistic attitude
and insecurity. And openly acknowledged to the
world that he had been a hitter until he met
Ono. That confession just shows the power of
the therapy. He was willing to be ugly and vulnerable
in public. That level of self -exposure is just
so rare for a global superstar. And it connected
him intimately with his audience. The political
intensity ramped up immediately after moving
to New York City in August 1971. The couple quickly
immersed themselves in radical left politics,
releasing the single Happy Xmas War Is Over in
December, designed as a direct anti -Vietnam
War message. And this activism drew serious,
hostile attention from the highest levels of
government. The Nixon administration. They viewed
Lenin's anti -war and anti -Nixon propaganda
as a genuine threat to his reelection campaign.
So they initiated a four -year deportation attempt.
This was explicitly called a strategic countermeasure.
Republican Senator Strom Thurmond specifically
suggested deportation would be a useful tool
against Lenin's influence. And the legal grounds
cited by the INS were so flimsy. His 1968 misdemeanor
marijuana conviction in London. But the political
motivation was crystal clear. especially concerning
a planned concert at the 1972 Republican National
Convention. Where he intended to use his voice
to influence young voters. His commitment to
radical political causes continued aggressively
with some time in New York City in 1972. A collaboration
with Ono and the band Elephant's Memory. This
double LP was highly topical. It tackled everything
from race relations in Woman is the Nigger of
the World to women's rights. and Britain's role
in Northern Ireland. Including The Luck of the
Irish and Sunday Bloody Sunday. And for you,
the listener. We must pause and provide context
for why those Northern Ireland tracks were so
volatile. Bloody Sunday occurred in January 1972
when British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civil rights
protesters in Derry, killing 14. It was a moment
of profound national trauma and international
condemnation. So when Lennon followed up this
event by stating he would side with the IRA over
the British Army. A statement that certainly
garnered attention from both the U .S. and U
.K. government. It was highly inflammatory. His
cousin Stanley Parks later claimed. Lenin gave
money to the IRA, although Ono has always vehemently
denied this. Critically and commercially, sometime
in New York City was a disaster. Critics maligned
it for its heavy -handed and relentless political
sloganeering, with the enemy deriding Lenin as
a pathetic, aging revolutionary. It lacked the
subtlety of imagine and the raw honesty of plastic
Ono band. Yet despite the critical failure, his
direct political action still had impact. In
December 1971, he and Ono performed at the John
Sinclair Freedom Rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Protesting the poet's draconian 10 -year prison
sentence for selling just two joints. The energy
of that 15 ,000 -person rally was undeniable.
Four days after the rally, reduced penalties
for marijuana were passed in Michigan, and Sinclair
was released on bond. It shows the power of the
platform when used strategically. And finally,
we have the ultimate validation of the government's
fears. Historian John Weiner undertook a 14 -year
legal battle to force the release of the FBI
files on Lenin. And the released documents, surveillance
reports, memos to the White House, a proposal
for his arrest, clearly validated that the entire
deportation attempt was politically motivated.
Orchestrated to silence a highly effective political
voice. This is the importance for the modern
listener. The documents confirm that powerful
governments viewed his voice as a genuine threat.
As we transition into the mid -70s, Lennon's
relationships and his art became completely tied
to a period of intense personal turmoil. And
a dramatic, temporary separation from Ono. But
first, let's revisit the profound impact of his
first family. Right. The initial dynamic with
Cynthia Lennon and their son, Julian, was defined
by secrecy. John married Cynthia Powell in 1962.
just as Beatlemania was taking off. And manager
Brian Epstein insisted the marriage and Julian's
birth in April 1963 be kept secret. He genuinely
feared a married Beatle would alienate the female
fans. The cost of this secrecy was huge. Lennon
was on tour when Julian were born and didn't
see his son for the first three days. And the
legacy of that initial distance persisted through
Julian's childhood. It's why Julian felt a greater
bond with Paul McCartney, who famously composed
Hey Jules, which later became Hey Jude for him.
during the chaos of the divorce. Lennon's own
attempts to reconcile this distance were just
fraught. He later classifies Sean as a planned
child, while Julian was not. And while he insisted,
I don't love Julian any less as a child, the
material legacy was heartbreaking. He left Julian
very little in his will. This internal friction
just set the stage for the infamous lost weekend.
In 1973, Lennon and Ono decided to separate.
And the ensuing 18 -month period was spent in
Los Angeles and New York City with May Pang,
who had been their personal assistant. What makes
this so fascinating and shows the unusual dynamics
of their relationship is that Ono suggested the
relationship with Pang. She did. She told Pang
that she and Leonard were becoming estranged
and bluntly said, he likes you a lot. suggesting
she become his companion. It was not a traditional
breakup. It was a strategically managed distance.
But this period quickly descended into chaos
for Lennon. In L .A., he was drinking heavily
with musician Harry Nilsson, leading to highly
publicized, embarrassing incidents. We're talking
about a man known globally for peace, reduced
to heckling the Smothers Brothers at a club until
he was physically ejected. And in a moment of
just alcohol -fueled absurdity, sticking an unused
menstrual pad on his forehead. We need to pause
on that image for a moment. It's the highest
contrast you can imagine. The most famous person
on Earth, having just been targeted by the U
.S. government, is now in a state of self -destruction
and public chaos. It tells you the weight of
his persona and the stress of his activism had
completely overwhelmed his stability. Yet, despite
the chaos, The Lost Weekend. was crucial for
one positive thing. Reconnection. May Pang actively
encouraged Lennon to reestablish regular, meaningful
contact with Julian, whom he hadn't seen for
two years. They visited Disneyland together,
and Lennon even gave Julian a drumming part on
a track for his upcoming album, Walls and Bridges.
Pang also helped him rekindle friendships with
Starr and McCartney, showing a healthy influence
amidst all the drinking. And Walls and Bridges,
the album he recorded during this period, proved
to be a commercial triumph. Primarily thanks
to the single, Whatever Gets You Through the
Night, featuring Elton John. And that became
Lennon's only solo single during his lifetime
to top the U .S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. The
lost weekend ended abruptly in February 1975.
After Ono claimed to have found a cure for smoking.
The reunion itself is a strange story. Lennon
returned to Pang's home, stupefied and confused,
leading Pang to believe he had been brainwashed.
Lennon just told Pang the separation was over,
but strangely claimed Ono would allow him to
continue seeing her. A condition Lennon evidently
rejected, committing fully to Ono. Artistically,
this era also saw powerful collaborations. He
co -wrote and performed on Fame in 1975 with
David Bowie. Which became Bowie's first US number
one. He also honored a famous promise to Elton
John. Because whatever gets you through the night
hit number one. He made a surprise guest appearance
at Madison Square Garden in November 1974. He
performed that hit Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
and I saw her standing there. Which he humorously
introduced as a song by an old estranged fiance
of mine called Paul. That was a high point. His
absolute last stage appearance was in April 1975
for the ATV special A Salute to Lou Grade. The
band. cold, etc., notably wore masks, a final
pointed dig at the media magnate grade being
two -faced. Following that, Lennon entered a
dedicated five -year hiatus from music and public
life. After Sean Ono Lennon was born on his 35th
birthday, Ono agreed to continue the pregnancy
only if Lennon committed to becoming a full -time
house husband. This was a seismic cultural shift.
The rock and roll icon devoted himself entirely
to domesticity. He described this time simply
as when he baked bread and looked after the baby,
rising at 6 a .m. daily to prepare meals and
care for Sean. He even formally announced the
break in Tokyo in 1977. He was meticulous, taking
photographs of Sean every single day for his
first year. This hiatus allowed him to regain
the stability and calm that had been absent since
the Beatles started touring. He had found the
structure his childhood had denied him. And the
end of the hiatus came in June 1980, sparked
by a nautical adventure. A sailing trip to Bermuda.
The boat hit a severe storm and Lennon took command
during the tempest. An experience that profoundly
reinvigorated his creative muse and led him to
write the tracks for his return album. That album
was Double Fantasy, a collaboration with Ono
that directly reflected his newfound stable family
life. Initially, reviews were lukewarm. Melody
Maker called it... Indulgent sterility. A god
-awful yawn. A critical misreading that was tragically
rectified just three weeks later. At approximately
10 .50 p .m. on December 8, 1980, Lennon and
Ono were returning to the Dakota. Earlier that
day, he had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy
for a man named Mark David Chapman. Chapman waited.
and then shot Lennon four times. He was rushed
to Roosevelt Hospital and pronounced dead at
11 .15 p .m. at the age of 40. The response was
immediate and overwhelming. The aftermath saw
a massive surge in the popularity of the very
work that had been dismissed just weeks prior.
In the weeks following the murder, just like
starting over, and double fantasy top charts
globally, Imagine and Woman both hit number one
in the U .K. in 1981. It confirmed the profound
and enduring power of his final reflective work.
Beyond the political and personal narrative,
Lennon's technical contributions as a musician
were profound and often misunderstood. Let's
start with his vocal style. Absolutely. Famously
raw and aggressive. His vocal technique was heavily
influenced by American R &B artists like Little
Richard and Larry Williams. Karnicki and MacDonald
described his voice as a Brassy northern roar
flecked with gloozy moans. Which contrasted sharply
with the conventionally glamorous voices of earlier
pop stars. Nick Coon called it one of the best
pop voices ever. Rasped and smashed and brooding,
always fierce. This intensity was on full display
in Twist and Shout. When recording it, he was
suffering from a cold and described the process
bluntly. I couldn't sing the damn thing. I was
just screaming. He literally shredded his vocal
cords in service of the performance. And it's
a widely known irony that he had an inborn dislike
of his own voice. Which is why producer George
Martin constantly double -tracked it and used
effects to make it sound different. And on the
technical side, there's an amazing anecdote connecting
his choices back to his childhood. Right. Producer
Jack Douglas later claimed Lennon habitually
tuned his D -string slightly flat. Why? It was
a personal sonic fingerprint. so that his Aunt
Mimi could identify his specific guitar playing
on any recording. That's a quiet tribute to the
woman who tried to keep him grounded. It really
is. In terms of instrumentation, he moved from
the harmonica and that first galatone acoustic
to serious rhythm guitar. with the Quarrymen.
His primary electric guitars that shaped the
sound of the Beatles were the Rickenbacker 325,
the Epiphone Casino, and the Gibson J160E. And
we can't forget the piano, of course. It was
the instrument on which he composed Imagine.
Now we must pivot to his formidable talent as
a writer and humorist that predated his global
music fame. We talked about the Daily Howl. And
that love for nonsense writing blossomed into
published works in the mid -1960s. in his own
right, and a Spaniard in the works. They were
collections of nonsense writings, poetry plays,
and line drawings heavily influenced by writers
like Lewis Carroll. The critical reception was
surprisingly serious. The Times Literary Supplement
praised them for their pure fantasy and innovative
wordplay. Which genuinely surprised Lennon. This
validated his intellectual pursuits outside of
music. In 1968, it was even adapted for the stage.
And this ability to merge art, concept, and humor
continued with his work alongside Ono in the
world of conceptual art, particularly the Fluxus
movement. So for the listener, we should define
Fluxus. It was an international anti -art experimental
movement that valued the idea, the concept, over
the finished object. It often involved humor,
simplicity, and audience participation. It aligned
perfectly with Lenin's nonconformist, disruptive
nature. In 1968, he held his own Fluxus -inspired
exhibition, You Are Here, dedicated to Ono. The
central piece was a six -foot diameter round
white monochrome painting with only the tiny
inscription of the title on the surface. The
show itself was pure conceptual art. For the
opening, he released 365 white balloons into
the sky, each with a card attached asking the
finder to mail it back to him. The art was the
process and the participation. He also created
the complete Yoko Ono word poem game in 1970,
which utilized the cut -up aleatory technique.
So to explain the cut -up technique, he took
his famous white album portrait, cut it into
134 pieces, wrote a word on the back of each,
and left it for Ono to assemble randomly. The
finished piece was determined by chance, removing
the artist's direct control, a core tenet of
the Fluxus movement. but not all his art was
so abstract the bag one lithographs drawn in
1969 to chronicle his wedding and honeymoon were
far more graphic and controversial when exhibited
in 1970 police confiscated eight of the 14 lithographs
on grounds of indecency the sheer depth and influence
of his final work after his death is reflected
in the accolades Double Fantasy won the 1981
Grammy for Album of the Year. And he was inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, once
with the Beatles and as a solo artist. His name
is now a global brand, reflecting his cultural
influence everywhere. John Lennon Airport in
Liverpool, a crater on Mercury, even a John Lennon
Park in Havana, Cuba. And finally, his musical
influence extended far beyond his life. culminating
in 2023 with Now and Then. Utilizing advanced
tech to isolate his original demo voice, allowing
the surviving Beatles to finally complete what
was dubbed the last Beatles song. It brought
his fractured story full circle. So what does
this entire complex journey mean for us? We've
traced his transformation from a difficult, trauma
-affected Liverpool youth into a global icon
whose true complexity the anger the jealousy
the political idealism was always most clearly
revealed in his most personal and politically
charged works the enduring nature of his legacy
as historians have noted rests on these very
things the self -portraits in his songs which
spoke to for and about the human condition in
such a radically vulnerable way He was a paradox,
a pacifist and utopian visionary who struggled
intensely with anger, addiction, and personal
failings in private. He showed us the full spectrum
of the human experience. And here's where it
gets really interesting and something to consider
long after this deep dive ends. John Lennon's
voice and activism were so effective that the
Nixon administration viewed him as a true threat
to the electoral process. Leading to that four
-year deportation battle. This raises a critical
question for the modern era. If his voice was
seen as a political weapon, by the most powerful
office in the world how does that amplify the
importance of modern artists who choose to prioritize
political conviction and critical thinking sometimes
at the expense of commercial success it forces
us to ask whether vulnerability when backed by
fame truly becomes the ultimate political weapon.
Lennon proved that having a massive platform
and using it to genuinely challenge power structures,
even if the art is flawed, can be seen by the
establishment as a genuine threat. And that sustained,
disruptive tension flowing from his childhood
trauma all the way to the Dakota is the ultimate
enduring power of John Lennon's legacy. A profound
thought to end on. Thank you for joining us for
this deep dive into the layers of John Lennon.