Bob Marley
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For the comedian, see Bob Marley (comedian).
Bob Marley
Bob Marley in concert, Zurich, 1980.
Background information
Birth name Robert Nesta Marley
Also known as Tuff Gong
Born February 6, 1945
Nine Miles, Saint Ann, Jamaica
Died May 11, 1981
Miami, Florida, USA
Genre(s) Reggae
Ska
Rocksteady
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter, guitarist
Instrument(s) Guitar
Vocals
Years active 1962-1981
Label(s) Studio One
Beverley's
Upsetter/Trojan
Island/Tuff Gong
Associated
acts The Wailers Band, The Wailers
Website www.bobmarley.com
Robert Nesta Marley, OM (February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981), better known as Bob Marley, was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is the most widely known performer of reggae music, and is famous for having popularized the genre outside Jamaica. A faithful Rastafari, Marley is regarded by many as a prophet of the religion,[1] as well as one of the greatest songwriters of all time.[2]
His best known songs are a mixture of reggae, rock, and rhythm and blues, and include "I Shot the Sheriff", "No Woman No Cry", "Exodus", "Could You Be Loved", "Jammin","Redemption Song" and one of his most famous songs, "One Love".[3] His posthumous album Legend (1984) became the best-selling reggae album ever, with sales of more than 12 million copies.[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Early life and career
2 The Wailers
3 Bob Marley & The Wailers
4 Religion
5 Battle with cancer
5.1 Diagnosis
5.2 Collapse and treatment
6 Death
7 Children
8 Posthumous reputation
9 Discography
10 Tours
11 Awards and honors
12 Sound samples
13 See also
14 Notes
15 References
16 External links
[edit]
Early life and career
Bob Marley was born on Tuesday, February 6th, 1945 in the small village of Nine Mile in Saint Ann, Jamaica. His father, Norval Sinclair Marley, was a white Jamaican born in 1895 to British parents from Sussex and Wales. Norval was a Marine officer and captain, as well as a plantation overseer, when he married Cedella Booker, an eighteen-year-old black Jamaican. Norval provided financial support for his wife and child, but seldom saw them, as he was often away on trips. Bob was ten years old when Norval died of a heart attack in 1955 at age 60.
Actually Marley's original birth name was Nesta Robert Marley, but a clerk said that Nesta sounds like a girl name so he changed it to Robert Nesta Marley, according to Cedella Booker's book.
A mulatto, Bob Marley faced questions about his own racial identity throughout his life. He reflected:
I don't have prejudice against myself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.
Marley and his mother moved to Kingston's Trenchtown slum after Norval's death. Marley was forced to learn self-defense, as he became the target of bullying because of his racial makeup and stature (he was 5'4" (163 cm) tall). He gained a reputation for his physical strength and constitution, which earned him the nickname "Tuff Gong".
Young Marley became friends with Neville "Bunny" Livingston (later Bunny Wailer), with whom Marley started to play music. Marley left school at the age of 14 and started as an apprentice at a local welder's shop. In his free time, he and Livingston made music with Joe Higgs, a local singer and devout Rastafarian whom many critics regard as Marley's mentor. It was at one session with Higgs and Livingston that Marley met Peter McIntosh (later known as Peter Tosh), who had similar musical ambitions.
In 1962, Marley recorded his first two singles, "Judge Not" and "One Cup of Coffee", with local music producer Leslie Kong. These songs attracted little attention, and were later re-released on Marley's Songs of Freedom album.
[edit]
The Wailers
In 1963, Bob Marley, Bunny Livingston, Peter McIntosh, Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith formed a ska and rocksteady group, calling themselves "The Teenagers". They later changed their name to "The Wailing Rudeboys", then to "The Wailing Wailers", and finally to "The Wailers". By 1966, Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith had left The Wailers, leaving the core trio of Marley, Livingston, and McIntosh.
Marley took on the role of leader, singer, and main songwriter. Much of The Wailers' early work, including their first single Simmer Down, was produced by Coxsone Dodd at Studio One. The single topped Jamaican Charts in 1964 and established The Wailers as one of the hottest groups in the country. They followed up with songs such as "Soul Rebel" and "400 Years".
In 1966, Marley married Rita Anderson, and moved near his mother's residence in Wilmington, Delaware for a few months. Upon returning to Jamaica, Marley began practicing Rastafari and started to wear his trademark dreadlocks (see the religion section for more on Marley's religious views).
After a conflict with Dodd, Marley and his band teamed up with Lee "Scratch" Perry and his studio band, The Upsetters. Although the alliance lasted less than a year, they recorded what many consider The Wailers' finest work. Marley and Perry split after a dispute regarding the assignment of recording rights, but they would remain friends and work together again.
Between 1968 and 1972, Bob and Rita Marley, Peter McIntosh, and Bunny Livingston recut some old tracks with JAD Records in Kingston and London in an attempt to commercialize The Wailers' sound. Livingston later asserted that these songs "should never be released on an album... they were just demos for record companies to listen to".
The Wailers' first album, Catch A Fire, was released worldwide in 1973, and sold well. It was followed a year later by Burnin', which included "Get Up, Stand Up" and "I Shot The Sheriff". Eric Clapton made a hit cover of the latter in 1974.
The Wailers broke up in 1974, with each of the three main members going on to pursue solo careers. The reason for the breakup is shrouded in conjecture; some believe that there were disagreements amongst Livingston, McIntosh, and Marley concerning performances, while others claim that Livingston and McIntosh simply preferred solo work. McIntosh began recording under the name Peter Tosh, and Livingston continued on as Bunny Wailer.
[edit]
Bob Marley & The Wailers
Despite the breakup, Marley continued recording as "Bob Marley & The Wailers". His new backing band included brothers Carlton and Aston "Family Man" Barrett on drums and bass respectively, Junior Marvin and Al Anderson on lead guitar, Tyrone Downie and Earl "Wya" Lindo on keyboards, and Alvin "Seeco" Patterson on percussion. The "I Threes", consisting of Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths, and Marley's wife, Rita, performed backup vocals.
In 1975, Marley had his international breakthrough with his first hit outside Jamaica, "No Woman, No Cry" from the Natty Dread album. This was followed by his breakthrough album in the US, Rastaman Vibration (1976), which spent four weeks in the Billboard charts Top Ten.
In December 1976, two days before "Smile Jamaica", a free concert organized by Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley in an attempt to ease tension between two warring political groups, Marley, his wife, and manager Don Taylor were wounded in an assault by unknown gunmen inside Marley's home. Taylor and Marley's wife sustained serious injuries, but later made full recoveries. Marley received only minor injuries in the chest and arm. The shooting was thought to have been politically motivated, as many felt the concert was really a support rally for Manley. Nonetheless, the concert proceeded, and an injured Marley performed as scheduled.
Marley left Jamaica at the end of 1976 for England, where he recorded his Exodus and Kaya albums. Exodus stayed on the British charts for 56 consecutive weeks. It included four UK hit singles: "Exodus", "Waiting In Vain", "Jamming", and also "One Love", a rendition of Curtis Mayfield's hit, "People Get Ready".
In 1978, Marley performed at another political concert in Jamaica, the One Love Peace Concert, again in an effort to calm warring parties. Near the end of the performance, by Marley's request, Manley and his political rival, Edward Seaga, joined each other on stage and shook hands.
Survival, a defiant and politically charged album, was released in 1979. Tracks such as "Zimbabwe", "Africa Unite", "Wake Up and Live", and "Survival" reflected Marley's support for the struggles of Africans. In early 1980, he was invited to perform at the April 17 celebration of Zimbabwe's Independence Day.
Uprising (1980) was Bob Marley's final studio album, and is one of his most religious productions, including "Redemption Song" and "Forever Loving Jah". It was in "Redemption Song" that Marley sang the famous lyric,
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds...
Confrontation, released posthumously in 1983, contained unreleased material recorded during Marley's lifetime, including the hit "Buffalo Soldier" and new mixes of singles previously only available in Jamaica.
[edit]
Religion
Bob Marley was a member of the Rastafari movement, whose culture was a key element in the development of reggae. Now considered a rasta legend, Marley's adoption of the characteristic Rastafarian dreadlocks and famous use of marijuana as a sacrament in the late sixties were an integral part of his persona. He is said to have entered every performance proclaiming the divinity of Jah Rastafari.
Many of Marley's songs contained Biblical references, sometimes using wordplay to fuse activism and religion, as in "Revolution" and "Revelation":
Revelation, reveals the truth...
It takes a revolution to make a solution...
A few months before his death, Marley was baptised into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and took the name Berhane Selassie (meaning the Light of the Holy Trinity in Amharic).
[edit]
Battle with cancer
[edit]
Diagnosis
In July 1977, Marley was found to have malignant melanoma in a football (soccer) wound on his right hallux (big toe). Marley refused amputation, citing worries that the operation would affect his dancing, as well as the Rastafarian belief that the body must be "whole":
Rasta no abide amputation. I don't allow a man to be dismantled.
—From the biography Catch a Fire
[edit]
Collapse and treatment
The cancer eventually spread to Marley's brain, lungs, liver, and stomach. After recently playing two shows at Madison Square Garden as part of his fall 1980 Uprising Tour, he collapsed while jogging in NYC's Central Park. The remainder of the tour was subsequently cancelled.
Bob Marley played his final concert at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 23, 1980. The live version of "Redemption Song" on Songs of Freedom was recorded at this show.[4] Marley afterwards sought medical help from Munich specialist Josef Issels, but his cancer had already progressed to the terminal stage.
[edit]
Death
While flying home from Germany to Jamaica for his final days, Marley became ill, and landed in Miami for immediate medical attention. He died at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami, Florida on May 11, 1981. His final words to his son Ziggy were "Money can't buy life" [citation needed],possibly a quotation from the song sung by Carlene Davis ( "If life was a thing that money could buy, the rich would live and the poor would die. Money can't buy life".). According to his Christian mother, Cedella, his final words were 'Jesus, take me', though at his funeral the Rastafarian presence was still eminent. Marley received a state funeral in Jamaica, which combined elements of Ethiopian Orthodoxy and Rastafari. He was buried in a crypt near his birthplace with his Gibson Les Paul, a soccer ball, a marijuana bud, and a Bible. A month before his death, he was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit. He got a brand new Rolls Royce before his death [citation needed].
[edit]
Children
Bob Marley had 13 children: three with his wife Rita, two adopted from Rita's previous relationships, and the remaining eight with separate women.[5][6] His children are, in order of birth:
Sharon, born November 23, 1964 to Rita in a separate marriage;
Imani Carole, born May 22, 1963 to Cheryl Murray [citation needed]
Cedella, born August 23, 1967 to Rita;
David "Ziggy", born October 17, 1968 to Rita;
Stephen, born April 20, 1972 to Rita;
Robert "Robbie", born May 16, 1972 to Pat Williams;
Rohan, born May 19, 1972 to Janet Hunt;
Karen, born 1973 to Janet Bowen;
Stephanie, born 1974 [citation needed] to Rita in a separate marriage;
Julian, born June 4, 1975 to Lucy Pounder; also known as "Capps"
Ky-Mani, born February 26, 1976 to Anita Belnavis;
Damian, born July 21, 1978 to Cindy Breakspeare;
Makeda, born May 30, 1981 to Yvette Crichton.
[edit]
Posthumous reputation
Bob Marley's music has continuously grown in popularity in the years since his death, providing a stream of revenue for his estate and affording him a mythical status in 20th century music history. He remains enormously popular and well-known all over the world. Marley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Time magazine chose Bob Marley & The Wailers' Exodus as the greatest album of the 20th century.
In February 2006, a Brooklyn community board voted to rename a portion of Church Avenue, which runs through several heavily populated Caribbean-American neighbourhoods, after Bob Marley, pending approval of the New York City Council.[7]
In January 2005, it was reported that Rita Marley was planning to have her late husband's remains exhumed and reburied in Shashamane, Ethiopia.[8] This announcement was met with great resistance in Jamaica, with critics arguing that his life was a testament to the unique Jamaican culture. Marley's 60th birthday celebration on February 6, 2005 was celebrated in Shashamane, having previously always been held in Jamaica. Later that year, Rita Marley denied having made such plans.[9]
[edit]
Discography
For a detailed listing of albums by Bob Marley & the Wailers, see Bob Marley & The Wailers discography.
[edit]
Tours
Apr-Jul 1973: Catch a Fire Tour (England, USA)
Oct-Nov 1973: Burnin' Tour (USA, England)
Jun-Jul 1975: Natty Dread Tour (USA, Canada, England)
Apr-Jul 1976: Rastaman Vibration Tour (USA, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, France, England, Wales)
May-Jun 1977: Exodus Tour (France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, England)
May-Aug 1978: Kaya Tour (USA, Canada, England, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium)
Apr-May 1979: Babylon by Bus Tour (Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii)
Oct-Dec 1979: Survival Tour (USA, Canada, Trinidad/Tobago, Bahamas)
May-Sep 1980: Uprising Tour (Switzerland, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, USA)
[edit]
Awards and honors
Marley's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame1976: Band of the Year (Rolling Stone)
June 1978: Awarded the Peace Medal of the Third World from the United Nations
February 1981: Awarded Jamaica's third highest honor, the Jamaican Order of Merit
March 1994: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
1999: Album of the Century for Exodus (Time Magazine)
February 2001: A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
February 2001: Awarded Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
2005: Posthumous Achievement Award
"One Love" named song of the millennium by The BBC
2001: The documentary "The Bob Marley Story" wins Best Long Form Music Video (Rebel Music)
[edit]
Sound samples
Bob Marley talks about Eric Clapton's version of his "I Shot The Sheriff" on BBC. (RAM format)
BBC interview - Marley on leadership (RAM format)
Sample (from BBC) "Lively Up Yourself" (RAM format)
"Simmer Down" (1964) (help·info)
"Soul Rebel" (1970) (help·info)
"Get Up, Stand Up" (1973) (help·info)
"Redemption Song" (1980) (help·info)
John Lennon
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Jump to: navigation, search
John Lennon
John Lennon in the photo taken by Richard Avedon to promote The White Album
Background information
Birth name John Winston Lennon
Born October 9, 1940
Liverpool, England
Died December 8, 1980
New York City, New York, USA
Genre(s) Rock and Roll
Pop
Rock
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, poet, guitarist
Instrument(s) Rhythm Guitar
Harmonica
Organ
Piano
banjo
Years active 1957-1975, 1980
Label(s) Parlophone
Capitol
Apple
Vee-Jay Records
EMI
Geffen Records
Associated
acts The Beatles
Plastic Ono Band
The Dirty Mac
Website Official website
John Ono Lennon, MBE (born John Winston Lennon October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980), was an iconic English 20th century composer and singer of popular music, best known as the founding member of The Beatles, in which he and Paul McCartney formed the massively successful Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership throughout the 1960s.
Lennon's songwriting was an integral part of The Beatles' profound commercial, social, economic and political impact. His melodies, written during the Lennon-McCartney era, and later, in his solo career, are distinctive and unabashedly romantic. Lennon's lyrics reflected his personal and career demands, philosophical outlook, his unease with his fame and current events. He and McCartney popularised the use of electronic effects in rock music, paving the way for the harder rock forms of the 1970s and 1980s.
Lennon, on television and in films such as A Hard Day's Night (1964), and by press conferences and interviews, revealed his rebellious, iconoclastic nature and quick, irreverent wit. Lennon channeled his fame and penchant for controversy into his work as a peace activist, artist and author. He was murdered in New York City on December 8, 1980.
In 2002, the BBC polled the British public about the 100 Greatest Britons of all time. Respondents voted Lennon into eighth place.
Contents [hide]
1 Youth
2 Role in The Beatles
2.1 "More popular than Jesus" controversy
3 Lennon and his families
4 Lennon and Yoko Ono
5 The Break-up of The Beatles
6 Lennon's humour
7 Pseudonyms
8 Solo career
9 The Anti-War Years and the Deportation Battle
10 The lost weekend
11 House-husband
12 Starting over
13 Murder
14 Memorials and tributes
15 Literature
16 Discography
17 Trivia
18 Documentaries and films
19 External links
[edit]
Youth
John Lennon was born in Liverpool, allegedly during the course of a German air raid. Both of his parents had musical backgrounds and experience, though neither pursued music seriously. Lennon lived with his parents until his father Alfred, a merchant seaman, walked out on the family when John was five years old (Lennon later met with his father during the height of Beatlemania.) His mother Julia (due to a current relationship and lack of home space) handed over care of young Lennon to her sister, Mary Smith (aka Mimi Smith), after receiving a considerable amount of pressure from both Mary and child services to do so. Throughout the rest of his childhood and adolescence, Lennon lived with his "Aunt Mimi" Smith and her husband George Smith at 251 Menlove Avenue, Mendips, Liverpool. Like much of the population of Liverpool, Lennon had some Irish heritage. His grandfather, James Lennon, was born in Dublin in 1858; and his grandmother, Mary (née Maguire), was Irish-born as well. Lennon's mother, Julia (née Stanley), was of Welsh descent. Although she never knew it, Julia Lennon was descended from Thomas, Lord Stanley (c. 1435–1504), who dominated the Liverpool/Chester region and who commanded a wing of the army which overthrew Richard III at Bosworth Field in August 1485. A remote echo of this ancestral connection was the bare feeling, which descended well into the 20th century, within the family that, somehow, their Stanley relatives were supposed to be somewhat above and in advance of the general population. While Lennon had little exposure to his Irish heritage growing up, he came to identify with it later in life. He lived in a fairly middle class section of Liverpool.
Mimi and George, who had no children of their own, became strong parental figures to Lennon. Mimi was loving but stern, and kept the young Lennon in line. George was softer than his wife and would indulge him, teaching him to paint, draw and buying him his first mouth organ. In Alfred's absence, George became a father figure and his death in 1955 was to have a profound influence on Lennon, especially in light of events which were to follow. On 15 July 1958, when Lennon was 17, his mother was killed returning from Mimi's house after being struck by a car driven by a drunk off-duty police officer. Julia Lennon's death was one of the factors that cemented his friendship with McCartney, who had lost his own mother to breast cancer in 1956, when he was 14. Years later, Lennon wrote the songs "Julia", "Mother" and "My Mummy's Dead" regarding his mother, as well as naming his firstborn son, Julian, after her.
He passed his Eleven-Plus and from September 1952 to 1957, Lennon attended Quarry Bank Grammar school in Liverpool which he explained as the start of his misery. He was a child of exceptional intelligence, and was tested as having an IQ of 165 at 16. However, he was a trouble maker there and did little work, sinking to the C-stream. He started drawing cartoons, and making fun of his teachers by copying their odd characteristics.
Though failing at his exams by one grade at grammar school, Lennon was accepted into the Liverpool College of Art with help from his school's headmaster and his Aunt Mimi, who was insistent that her young ward would have some sort of qualification. It was there that he met his future wife, Cynthia Powell. Lennon would steadily grow to hate the conformity of art school, which proved to be little different from his earlier school experience, and he ultimately dropped out.
He then devoted himself to music, and was inspired by American rock 'n' roll with singers/musicians like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Little Richard. Mimi bought him his first guitar in the hope that he would soon grow bored of it. Mimi loved John, but was skeptical about a lot of things, including his claim that one day he would be famous. Mimi told Lennon frequently "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it." (Years later, when The Beatles were the top act in show business, he presented her with a silver platter, engraved with the same words.)
He started a skiffle band in his Grammar School that was called The Quarry Men (after his alma mater, Quarry Bank School). With the addition of Paul McCartney and George Harrison, the band changed to playing rock 'n' roll, taking the name "Johnny and The Moondogs", followed by "The Silver Beetles" (a tribute to Buddy Holly's Crickets), which was later shortened to The Beatles (spelled with an "a" in reference to their identification with "beat groups"). He married Powell in 1962, after she became pregnant with son Julian, whose birth name was John Charles Julian Lennon.
[edit]
Role in The Beatles
John Lennon in 1964.Lennon was usually considered the "leader" of The Beatles, as he founded the original group, inviting McCartney to join later, who in turn invited Harrison. Most group decisions were democratic though (with the golden rule that if any member objected to an idea, the group wouldn't pursue it), and Lennon largely abandoned his leadership role in the mid-Sixties, under the influence of LSD and Timothy Leary's book The Psychedelic Experience, believing he needed to "lose his ego" to become enlightened. He resented McCartney's taking effective control of the band after Epstein's death in 1967, and disliked some of the resulting projects, such as Magical Mystery Tour, and particularly Let It Be ("That film was set up by Paul, for Paul," as he said later to Rolling Stone). Lennon was the first to break the band's all-for-one sensibility, and also the rule that no wives or girlfriends would attend recording sessions, as he brought Yoko into the studio.
Lennon was also the first member to permanently quit the group (Starr had left during 1968, but was persuaded to return, while Harrison walked out on a filming session early in 1969, but turned up at a business meeting a few days later), which he did in September 1969. He agreed not to make an announcement, with the band renegotiating their recording contract, and blasted McCartney months later (with the negotiations complete) for going public with his own departure in April 1970. With the public unaware of the details, McCartney appeared to be the one who dissolved the group, depriving Lennon of the formalities. Lennon told Rolling Stone "I was a fool not to do what Paul did, which was use it to sell a record," and later wrote "I started the band. I finished it."
McCartney later admitted Lennon had been the first to quit, re-explaining the circumstances to CBS-TV's 48 Hours in 1989. In a subsequent Playboy interview [1], McCartney asserted "We all looked up to John. He was older and he was very much the leader; he was the quickest wit and the smartest and all that kind of thing."
[edit]
"More popular than Jesus" controversy
Lennon often spoke his mind freely and the press was used to querying him on a wide range of subjects. On 4 March 1966 in an interview for the London Evening Standard with Maureen Cleave, who was a friend, Lennon made an off-the-cuff remark regarding religion. [2]
"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. ... I don't know what will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. We're more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."
The article was printed and nothing came of it, until five months later when an American teen magazine called Datebook reprinted part of the quote on the front cover. [3]
A firestorm of protest swelled from the southern U.S. Bible Belt area, as conservative groups publicly burned Beatles records and memorabilia. The Beatles looked at this in a wry way, by saying, "They've got to buy them first before they burn 'em."
Radio stations banned Beatles music and concert venues cancelled performances. Even the Vatican got involved with a public denunciation of Lennon's comments. On August 11, 1966, The Beatles held a press conference in Chicago, Illinois, in order to address the growing furor.
Lennon: "I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have got away with it, but I just happened to be talking to a journalist friend (Maureen Cleave), and I used the words "Beatles" as a remote thing, not as what I think — as Beatles, as those other Beatles like other people see us. I just said "they" are having more influence on kids and things than anything else, including Jesus. But I said it in that way which is the wrong way."
Reporter: Some teenagers have repeated your statements — "I like The Beatles more than Jesus Christ." What do you think about that?
Lennon: "Well, originally I pointed out that fact in reference to England. That we meant more to kids than Jesus did, or religion at that time. I wasn't knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it's true more for England than here. I'm not saying that we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it's all this."
Reporter: But are you prepared to apologise?
Lennon: "I wasn't saying whatever they're saying I was saying. I'm sorry I said it really. I never meant it to be a lousy anti-religious thing. I apologise if that will make you happy. I still don't know quite what I've done. I've tried to tell you what I did do but if you want me to apologise, if that will make you happy, then OK, I'm sorry."
The governing members of the Vatican accepted his apology[4] and the furor eventually died down, but constant Beatlemania, mobs, crazed teenagers, and now a press ready to tear them to pieces over any quote was too much to handle. The Beatles soon decided to stop touring, and never performed a scheduled concert again. A firework was thrown on the stage at one of their last concerts and McCartney later said that the band all looked at Lennon - fearing a gun had been fired at him. The pressure of dealing with incidents like that convinced even McCartney to say that he had had enough. Lennon wrote later "I always remember to thank Jesus for the end of my touring days."
[edit]
Lennon and his families
Lennon slapped his first wife, Cynthia — at least once — in the early years of their relationship, as confirmed in her book, John. The rise of Beatlemania and rigours of touring only furthered the strain on the relationship. He was also very distant to his son, Julian, who felt closer to McCartney than to his father.
As the younger Lennon later said, "I've never really wanted to know the truth about how dad was with me. There was some very negative stuff talked about me... like when he said I'd come out of a whiskey bottle on a Saturday night. Stuff like that. You think, where's the love in that? Paul and I used to hang about quite a bit... more than dad and I did. We had a great friendship going and there seems to be far more pictures of me and Paul playing together at that age than there are pictures of me and my dad." John is quoted as saying: "Sean is a planned child, and therein lies the difference. I don't love Julian any less as a child. He's still my son, whether he came from a bottle of whiskey or because they didn't have pills in those days. He's here, he belongs to me, and he always will."
According to Cynthia, after the break-up with John, Paul visited Cynthia and suggested marriage. He is reported as saying, "How's about you and me, Cyn?" After that visit, he did not stay in touch with her, and in her book John, she published a copy of the first postcard from Paul — after 17 years of no contact — that he sent to her.
In the last major interview of his life — published in Playboy, immediately before his death — Lennon said that he'd always been very macho and had never questioned his chauvinistic attitudes towards women until he met Yoko Ono. By the end of his life, he had embraced the role of househusband and even said that he had taken on the role of wife and mother in their relationship. While Lennon was always distant with his first son (Julian) he was very close to his second son (Sean), and called him "my pride". Lennon also spoke about having a child with Ono: "We were both finally unselfish enough to want to have a child."
In the same interview, Lennon said he was trying to re-establish a connection with the then 17-year-old Julian, and confidently predicted that "Julian and I will have a relationship in the future."
[edit]
Lennon and Yoko Ono
John Lennon and Yoko Ono with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, 22 December 1969 Ottawa, OntarioOn November 9, 1966, after their final tour ended and right after he had wrapped up filming a minor role in the film How I Won the War, Lennon visited an art exhibit of Yoko Ono's at the Indica art gallery at No. 6, Mason's Yard in London. Lennon began his love affair with Ono in 1968 after returning from India and leaving his estranged wife Cynthia, who filed for divorce later that year, on the grounds of John's adultery with Ono. Lennon and Ono became inseparable in public and private, as well as during Beatles recording sessions.
The press was extremely unkind to Ono, posting a series of unflattering articles about her, one even going so far as to call her "ugly." This infuriated Lennon, who rallied around his new partner and said publicly that there was no John and Yoko, but that they were one person, "JohnAndYoko." These developments led to friction with the other members of the group, and heightened the tension during the 1968 White Album sessions.
Recording Give Peace A Chance By Roy Kerwood [http://www.roykerwood.bc.caAt the end of 1968, Lennon and Ono performed as Dirty Mac on The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus. During his last two years as a member of The Beatles, Lennon spent much of his time with Ono partaking in public protests against the Vietnam War. He sent back his MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) he received from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II during the height of Beatlemania "in protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing and its support of America in Vietnam," adding as a joke, "as well as 'Cold Turkey' slipping down the charts." On March 20, 1969, Lennon and Ono were married in Gibraltar, and spent their honeymoon in Amsterdam in a "Bed-In" for peace. Behind their bed were posters displaying the words "Hair Peace. Bed Peace." They followed up their honeymoon with another "Bed-In" for peace, this time held in Montreal at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. During the second "Bed-In" the couple recorded "Give Peace a Chance", which would go on to become an international anthem for the peace movement. They were mainly patronised as a couple of eccentrics by the media, yet they did a great deal for the peace movement, as well as for other related causes, such as feminism and racial harmony. As with the "Bed-In" campaign, Lennon and Ono usually advocated their causes with whimsical demonstrations, such as Bagism, first introduced during a Vienna press conference. Shortly after, Lennon changed his middle name from Winston to Ono to show his "oneness" with his new wife. Lennon wrote "The Ballad of John and Yoko" about his marriage and the subsequent press it generated.
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The Break-up of The Beatles
Portrait of John Lennon by Richard Avedon.The failed Get Back/Let It Be recording/filming sessions did nothing to improve relations within the band. After both Lennon and Ono were injured in the summer of 1969 in a car accident in Scotland, Lennon arranged for Ono to be constantly with him in the studio (including having a full-sized bed rolled in) as he worked on The Beatles' last album, Abbey Road. While the group managed to hang together to produce one last acclaimed musical work, soon thereafter business issues related to Apple Corps came between them.
Lennon decided to quit The Beatles but was talked out of saying anything publicly. Phil Spector's involvement in trying to revive the Let It Be material then drove a further wedge between Lennon (who supported Spector) and McCartney (who opposed him). Though the split would only become legal some time later, Lennon and McCartney's partnership had come to a bitter end. McCartney soon made a press announcement, declaring he had quit The Beatles, and promoting his new solo record.
In 1970, Jann Wenner recorded an interview with Lennon that was played on BBC in 2005. The interview reveals his bitterness towards McCartney and the hostility he felt that the other members held towards Yoko Ono. Lennon said: "One of the main reasons The Beatles ended is because... I pretty well know, we got fed up with being sidemen for Paul. After Brian Epstein died we collapsed. Paul took over and supposedly led us. But what is leading us when we went round in circles? Paul had the impression we should be thankful for what he did, for keeping The Beatles going. But he kept it going for his own sake." [5]
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Lennon's humour
Each of The Beatles was known, especially during Beatlemania, for their sense of humour. Everything and everyone could be made fun of, and nobody was excluded; not even themselves. Lennon made use of his talents to mimic by making fun of his early teachers as often as possible. In his youth Lennon even made fun of disabled people; running up to them and pulling grotesque, distorted faces. His 1971 solo album Imagine contained the song, "Crippled Inside", in which he explained that making fun of disabled people threw the spotlight onto someone else, so that people would never see that he was also in pain.
Lennon's style of humour was always to combine the normal with the absurd, and then making it appear as if it was just a normal comment. After Ringo said "It's been a hard day's (work) night", he laughed, but then turned it into a song. This surrealist humour and love of wordplay was later evident in his Milliganesque writings John Lennon: In His Own Write and A Spaniard In The Works (meaning 'a spanner in the works' — a problem in the machine).
During live performances of "I Want to Hold Your Hand", Lennon often changed the words to "I want to hold your gland" (meaning breast/mammary gland), because no one could hear the vocals anyway, above the noise of the screaming audiences. John displayed his usual brand of humour when a reporter asked him: "Does it bother you that you can't hear what you sing during concerts?" John: "No, we don't mind. We've got the records at home."
Lennon's humour also showed up often in The Beatles' music and in his solo work. For instance, during the aborted Get Back sessions, he was recorded introducing "Dig A Pony" by shouting, "I dig a pygmy by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids, phase one in which Doris gets her oats!" The phrase was later edited to precede the first song on Let It Be, the McCartney-penned "Two of Us".
On one occasion, when asked if Ringo Starr was "the best drummer in the world", Lennon replied, "He isn't even the best drummer in The Beatles", showing again how he would turn things upside down to create laughter. Perhaps regretting the remark, Lennon in later years was outspoken in his conviction of Starr's importance to the band.
It was Lennon, who, at the Royal Variety Show in 1963, in the presence of numerous members of the British royalty, told the audience, "Those of you in the cheaper seats can clap your hands. The rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewellery."
Lennon's humor was apparent during The Beatles' first American press conference, immediately after they stepped off their plane in February 1964.
Reporter: "Will you please sing something for us?" Lennon: "No, we need money first."
Reporter: "What is it about your music that excites people so much?" Lennon: "If we knew, we'd form another group and be managers."
Reporter: "Are you planning to get haircuts while in America?" Lennon: "I just had one."(shows off long hair)
His humour, however, could go from one extreme to the other, as shown when he mocked Brian Epstein [citation needed] by altering the lyrics of "Baby You're A Rich Man" to "Baby you're a rich fag-Jew". [citation needed] He also took a simple song called "Ya Ya" (written by Dorsey/Lewis/Robinson) on Walls and Bridges (with young Julian on drums) and turned the rock & roll lyrics into a simple kids' song about being on the toilet: "Sitting in the La La, waiting for the Ya Ya, uh huh". [citation needed]
Once, in an elevator of a hotel in New York where they were staying, Brian Epstein asked John what a good title would be for the autobiography he was planning to write. John answered: "How about Queer Jew?" Brian was extremely upset by his remark. Later, when John learned that the title of the book would be A Cellarful of Noise, John said to a friend: "More like A Cellarful of Boys."
Lennon would sometimes use his humour to be extremely sarcastic, and caustic, in interviews. "We created Apple so someone wouldn't have to go down on their knees in an office — probably yours." Whilst the other Beatles laughed, he would glare to make his point, although nobody was quite sure if he was joking or not.
Lennon's partnership in songwriting with McCartney involved him — many times — in opposing McCartney's upbeat, positive outlook, with a sarcastic counter-point, as one of their songs, "Getting Better" demonstrates:
McCartney: I've got to admit it's getting better, it's getting better all the time.
Lennon: It can't get no worse!
Lennon returned his M.B.E. with the quote that he was returning it because of the war in Vietnam and "because 'Cold Turkey' is slipping down the charts".
The Beatles often made fun of George Martin, as they once sang "tit-tit-tit", as backing vocals instead of "dit-dit-dit" on the 1965 song "Girl" from the LP Rubber Soul. When Martin (who was upstairs in the control room and could not see them) asked, "Boys, was that dit, or... tit?" "It was dit, George", Lennon replied, as the others doubled up in silent laughter. They thought of George Martin (who was always dressed in a suit and tie) as being part of the establishment, and therefore open to jokes, but never ridicule.
Even Paul McCartney realised that The Beatles had a strange sense of humour (which was fuelled by Lennon) as he once said:
"The chauffeur's window was closed, and there were just the four of us in the back of that car, laughing hysterically. We knew what we were laughing at; nobody else can ever know what it was about... I doubt if even we know, in truth." [6]
It is probably a sad fact that The Beatles broke up when the humour, and the laughter, stopped altogether. Even Lennon said, "The game is over — it's not funny anymore".
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Pseudonyms
Throughout his solo career, Lennon appeared on his own albums (as well as those of other artists like Elton John) under such pseudonyms as Dr Winston O'Boogie, Mel Torment (a play on singer Mel Tormé), and The Reverend Fred Gherkin. He and Yoko (as Ada Gherkin "ate a gherkin", and other sobriquets) also travelled under such names, thus avoiding unwanted public attention.
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Solo career
John Lennon, early 1970; his Beatle locks shorn — as were Yoko's — for a charity auction.Of the four former Beatles, Lennon had perhaps the most varied recording career. While he was still a Beatle, Lennon and Ono recorded three albums of experimental and difficult music, Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins, Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions, and Wedding Album. His first 'solo' album of popular music was Live Peace in Toronto 1969, recorded in 1969 (prior to the breakup of The Beatles) at the Rock 'n' Roll Festival in Toronto with The Plastic Ono Band, which included Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann. Apparently, they learned the whole set of songs on the plane from England to Canada. Lennon remembered that the conversation was mostly questions like, "Is it in E, or A?"
He also recorded three singles in his initial solo phase, the anti-war anthem "Give Peace a Chance", "Cold Turkey" (about his struggles with heroin addiction) and "Instant Karma!"
Following The Beatles' split in 1970, he released the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album, a raw, brutally personal record, heavily influenced by Arthur Janov's Primal therapy, which Lennon had undergone previously. The influence of the therapy, which consists literally of screaming out one's emotional pain, is most obvious on the songs "Mother" ("Mama don't go!/Daddy come home!") and "Well Well Well". The centrepiece is "God," in which he lists all the things he does not believe in, ending with "Beatles". His growing political radicalisation is especially evident on the song "Working Class Hero", whose use of the word "*******" got it banned from the airwaves. Many consider Plastic Ono Band to be a major influence on later hard rock and punk music. Lennon continued this effort to demythologise his old band and reclaim his individuality with a lengthy, no-holds barred interview published in Rolling Stone magazine.
This was followed in 1971 by Imagine, his most successful solo album, which alternates in tone between dreaminess and anger. The title track has become an anthem for anti-religion and anti-war movements, and was matched in image by Lennon's "white period" (white clothes, white piano, white room, etc). He specifically wrote one track, "How Do You Sleep?" as a biting personal attack against McCartney, but later admitted that, in the end, it was really about himself. George Harrison played slide guitar on the incisive song.
Perhaps in reaction, his next album, Some Time in New York City (1972), was loud, raucous, and explicitly political, with songs about prison riots, racial and sexual relations, the British role in the sectarian troubles in Northern Ireland, and his own problems in obtaining a United States Green Card. Lennon had been interested in left-wing politics since the late 1960s, and was said to have given donations to the Trotskyist Workers Revolutionary Party. [7]
It was during the period of the recording of this album that his links to this group were perhaps at their strongest. On 30 August 1972 Lennon and his backing band Elephant's Memory staged two benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York; it was to be his last full-length concert appearance. Lennon and Ono also did a week-long guest co-host stint on the Mike Douglas Show, in an appearance that showed Lennon's wit and humour still intact.
In 1972, Lennon released an anti-sexism song, "Woman Is the ****** of the World", implying that as black people were discriminated against in some countries, so were women globally. Radio refused to broadcast the song, and it was banned nearly everywhere, although he managed to play it to television viewers during his second appearance on The Dick Cavett Show.
Lennon rebounded in 1973 with Mind Games, which featured a strong title tune and some vague mumblings about a "conceptual country" called "Nutopia", which satirised his ongoing immigration case. His most striking song of that year was the wry "I'm the Greatest", which he wrote for Ringo Starr's very successful Ringo album.
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The Anti-War Years and the Deportation Battle
“Give Peace a Chance,” recorded in 1969 at the height of the Vietnam War, marked Lennon’s transformation from loveable mop-top to anti-war activist, and began a process that culminated in 1972 when the Nixon Administration sought to silence him by ordering him deported from the US.
The Vietnam War mobilized a generation of young people to take a stand opposing US government policy, but few pop stars joined them – antiwar protest was something for folkies like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. Lennon however was determined to use his power as a superstar to help end the war, especially after he left the Beatles and teamed up with Yoko Ono. They declared their honeymoon at the Amsterdam Hilton in March 1969 a "bed-in for peace," winning world-wide media coverage. At a second bed-in in Montreal in June, 1969, they recorded “Give Peace a Chance” in their hotel room; the song quickly became the anthem of the anti-war movement, and was sung by half a million demonstrators in Washington DC at Vietnam Moratorium Day in November 1969.
When John and Yoko moved to New York City in August 1971, they became friends with antiwar leaders Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, and others, and planned a national concert tour to coincide with the 1972 presidential election. It would have been the first US tour by any of the ex-Beatles since the lads had waved farewell at Candlestick Park in San Francisco at the end of their 1966 tour. But it would not have been the usual rock tour. 1972 was the first year 18-year-olds had been given the right to vote in the US, and Lennon wanted to help persuade young people to register to vote and vote against the war, which meant voting against Nixon. Thus the planned tour was to combine rock music with anti-war organizing and voter registration.
The Nixon Administration found out about Lennon’s plans from an unlikely source: Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, who suggested in a February, 1972 memo that “deportation would be a strategic counter-measure.” The next month the Immigration and Naturalization Service began deportation proceedings against Lennon, arguing that his 1968 misdemeanor conviction for cannabis possession in London had made him ineligible for admission to the US. Lennon spent the next two years in and out of deportation hearings, constantly under a 60-day order to leave the country, which his attorney managed to get extended each time.
The 1972 concert tour never happened, but Lennon and his friends did do one of the events they had been thinking about: the “Free John Sinclair” concert in Ann Arbor, Michigan in December 1971. Sinclair was a local antiwar activist who was serving ten years in the state prison for selling two joints of marijuana to an undercover cop. Lennon appeared onstage along with Stevie Wonder and other musicians, plus antiwar radical Jerry Rubin and Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers. 20,000 attended; two days after the concert, the state of Michigan released John Sinclair from prison.
While his deportation battle was going on, Lennon spoke often against the Vietnam War, appearing at rallies in New York City and on TV shows, including a week hosting the Mike Douglas Show in February 1972, where Jerry Rubin and Bobby Seale appeared as his guests.
In the end, Nixon left the White House in the Watergate scandal, and Lennon stayed in the USA, winning his green card in 1975. The full story didn’t come out until after Lennon’s murder, when historian Jon Wiener filed a Freedom of Information request for FBI files on Lennon. The FBI admitted it had 281 pages of files on Lennon, but refused to release most of them, claiming they were national security documents. In 1983 Wiener sued the FBI with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court before the FBI settled it in 1997, releasing all but ten of the contested documents. (The pages are reproduced in the book Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files, by Jon Wiener; some of them are posted online at http://www.LennonFBIfiles.com.) The story is told in the documentary, "The U.S. Versus John Lennon," by David Leaf and John Scheinfeld, released by Lions Gate in September, 2006.
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The lost weekend
In 1973, Yoko approached May Pang — their personal assistant at the time — with a unique proposal. Ono, who thought May Pang would be an "ideal companion" for Lennon, asked her to "be with John and to help him out and see to it that he gets whatever he wanted." Lennon's personal life then fell into disrepair after Yoko kicked him out of the house. Lennon and Pang soon moved to Los Angeles, a period which had been dubbed the "lost weekend" though it lasted until the beginning of 1975. During their time together, Pang claims to have encouraged Lennon to spend time with his son, Julian Lennon, and become friends with Cynthia Lennon. Lennon also spent his time during these months with his close friend; singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson, and an assortment of his drinking buddies (Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Alice Cooper, Mickey Dolenz and others) who collectively dubbed themselves the Hollywood Vampires. Though Lennon's public drunkenness had been the subject of gossip during 1974, Pang wrote that he was usually sober in his private life and created a large body of work.
Despite alleged episodes of drunkenness, Lennon put together the well-received album, Walls and Bridges (1974), which featured a collaboration with Elton John on the up-tempo number one hit "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night". Another top ten hit from the album was the Beatlesque reverie "#9 Dream". Also, on the album, he made his last reference to primal therapy in his song "Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out)", referring to Janov as "the one-eyed witch-doctor leading the blind." Lennon capped the year by making a surprise guest appearance at an Elton John concert in Madison Square Garden where they performed "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" and "I Saw Her Standing There" together. It was to be his last-ever concert appearance in front of a rock audience. Following the performance, Lennon travelled to Florida and it was here that he signed the papers finally breaking up The Beatles legally. Following the Christmas holidays, he returned to Yoko Ono in New York.
John Lennon’s 1975 performance on the TV special A Salute to Sir Lew Grade.On 18 April 1975, John Lennon made his last public appearance on ATV's special A Salute to Lew Grade. During the event Lennon performed "Imagine" and "Slippin' and Slidin" from his Rock 'n' Roll LP. John's bandmates, known as "Etc.," were costumed in two-faced masks during the performance. The "two-faced" stunt, and the line "... don't want to be your fool no more" (from "Slippin' and Slidin") were seen as digs at Grade, who Lennon and McCartney had been in conflict with due to his previous control of The Beatles publishing concerns. Dick James had sold the publishing to Grade from under the group in 1969. During "Imagine" Lennon interjects the line "... and no immigration too...", a reference to his then-unresolved battle to remain in the United States.
In 1975, Lennon released the Rock 'n' Roll album of cover versions of old rock and roll songs of his youth. This project was conceived several years earlier, and moved ahead in fits and starts. It was complicated by the unpredictable Phil Spector's involvement as producer and by several legal battles; the result received generally negative reviews, though it yielded a powerful, lauded cover of "Stand by Me".
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House-husband
At this point Yoko Ono was pregnant with what would be their first child, and Lennon — regretful of the limited relationship he had with first son Julian — retired from music and dedicated himself to family life. This was made easier in 1976 when his US immigration status was finally resolved favourably, after a years-long battle with the Nixon administration that included an FBI investigation involving surveillance, wiretaps, and agents literally following Lennon around as he travelled. Lennon claimed the investigation was politically motivated. A related film directed by David Leaf and John Scheinfeld called The U.S. vs. John Lennon [8] premieres in September 2006.
Also in 1975, David Bowie achieved his first US number one hit with "Fame", co-written by Bowie, Lennon (who also contributed backing vocals and guitar) and Carlos Alomar.
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Starting over
John Lennon and Yoko Ono in one of their last photo shoots, 21 November 1980Lennon's retirement, which he began following the birth of his second son, Sean in 1975, lasted until 1980, when Lennon wrote an impressive amount of material during a lengthy Bermuda vacation and began thinking about a new album. For this comeback, he and Ono produced Double Fantasy, a concept album dealing with their relationship. The name came from a flower Lennon saw at the Bermuda Botanical Gardens; he liked the name, and thought it was a perfect description of his marriage to Yoko. The plant still exists.
The Lennons once again began a series of interviews and video footage to promote the album. Although Lennon would say in interviews for the album that he had not touched a guitar for five years, several of the tunes, such as "I'm Losing You," and "Watching the Wheels", had been worked on at home in the Dakota in various stages with different lyrics from 1977 onward. "(Just Like) Starting Over" began climbing the singles charts, and Lennon started thinking about a brand new world tour. Lennon also commenced work on Milk and Honey which he would leave unfinished. It was some time before Ono could bring herself to complete it.
Towards the end of his life, Lennon expressed his displeasure with the scant credit he was given as an influence on George Harrison in the latter's autobiography I Me Mine. According to Ono, he was also unhappy that Paul McCartney's Beatles songs, such as "Yesterday", "Hey Jude" and "Let It Be" were more covered than his own contributions. In a Playboy interview Lennon claimed that some of his Beatles songs were subconsciously sabotaged, and that the group put more work and attention into McCartney's songs, whereas with his, they tended to experiment. At the end of his life Lennon was highly ambivalent about his time with The Beatles and the group's legacy, often comparing them to his old high school buddies. In the same interview, he would say they were probably the best band ever and that he found fault with every track they ever did.
In one of the last interviews in his life, published in Playboy immediately before his death, Lennon was asked if he was friends or enemies with the other Beatles, and he said he was neither and they simply did not encounter each other much. He also said the last time he had gotten together with Paul they watched the episode of Saturday Night Live where Lorne Michaels made his (small) cash offer to get The Beatles to reunite on the show. The two had seriously considered running down to the studio to appear on the show, but ultimately they were too tired.
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Murder
Entrance to the Dakota building where Lennon lived.At 10:50 p.m. on 8 December 1980, Mark David Chapman shot and fatally wounded John Lennon in front of Lennon's residence, the Dakota, when Lennon and Ono returned from recording Ono's single "Walking on Thin Ice" for their next album.
Earlier that day at around 5 p.m., Lennon and Ono left their apartment in the historic Dakota on Central Park West in New York City to go to their recording studio to supervise the transfer of some of the Double Fantasy album numbers to singles. David Geffen, their record producer and friend, said that more than 700,000 album copies had already been sold up to that time.
As they were leaving the Dakota, they were approached by several people who were seeking autographs. Among them was a man who would be later identified as Mark David Chapman. John Lennon scribbled an autograph on the Double Fantasy album cover for Chapman.
The Lennons spent several hours at the studio on West 44th Street — returning to the Dakota at about 10:50 p.m. They exited their limousine on the 72nd Street curb even though a car could have driven through the entrance and into the courtyard.
Three witnesses: a doorman at the entrance, an elevator operator, and a cab driver who had just dropped off a passenger saw Chapman standing in the shadows by the arch.
The Lennons walked by, and after Ono had opened the inner door and had walked inside — when Lennon was the only person inside the entrance archway — Chapman called out, "Mr. Lennon." Then he dropped into "a combat stance" and shot Lennon four times with hollow point rounds from a Charter Arms .38 revolver. According to the autopsy, two shots struck Lennon in the left side of his back and two in his left shoulder. All four caused serious internal damage and bleeding. The fatal shot pierced Lennon's aorta. There is a rumor that a Thompson SMG was used and not a .38.
According to police, Lennon staggered up six steps to the room at the end of the entrance used by the concierge, said, "I'm shot," and then collapsed. After shooting Lennon, Chapman calmly sat down on the sidewalk and waited. The doorman walked to Chapman and reportedly said, "Do you know what you've just done?" Chapman replied, in a matter-of-fact tone, "I just shot John Lennon."
The first policemen at the scene were Officers Steve Spiro and Peter Cullen, who were in the patrol car at 72nd Street and Broadway when they heard a report of shots fired at the Dakota. The officers found Chapman sitting "very calmly" on the sidewalk. They reported that Chapman had dropped the revolver after firing it, and that he had a paperback book, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye and a cassette recorder with over 10 audio cassettes, which had 14 hours of Beatles songs on them.
The second police team at the Dakota — Officers Bill Gamble and James Moran — rushed Lennon to Roosevelt Hospital. Officer Moran said they stretched Lennon out on the back seat and that the singer was "moaning." Moran asked, "Do you know who you are?" Lennon nodded slightly and tried to speak, but could only manage to make a gurgling sound. Lennon lost consciousness shortly after.
John Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital at approximately 11:15 p.m. by Dr. Stephen Lynn. The cause of death was reported as hypovolemic shock, as a result of losing more than 80% of his blood volume. Dr. Elliott M. Gross — the Chief Medical Examiner — said after the autopsy that no-one could have lived more than a few minutes with such injuries. The use of hollow point bullets allowed for substantial internal bleeding. Chapman's killing of Lennon was intended to be merciless.
Yoko Ono, crying "Tell me it's not true", was taken to Roosevelt Hospital and led away in shock after she learned that her husband was dead. Geffen later issued a statement in her behalf: "John loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him."
Within the first minutes after the news broadcasts announcing the shooting, people began to gather at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of the Dakota, reciting prayers, singing Lennon's songs and burning candles.
The first national transmission of the news across the USA was on the fledgling Cable News Network, on which anchorwoman Kathleen Sullivan reported that Lennon had been shot and was en route to a New York hospital (his death had not yet been confirmed).
When Lennon was shot, the ABC television network was in the midst of airing an NFL game between the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots on Monday Night Football. After having the news fed directly to his headset by ABC News chief Roone Arledge, legendary football announcer Howard Cosell (who had interviewed Lennon on MNF on December 9, 1974) announced the news of the murder:
"This, we have to say it, is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City. John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous perhaps of all of The Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival."
The news was broken on competing network NBC in a traditional manner: a comedy piece on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was interrupted by an anonymous announcer voicing the news bulletin over a text slide visual, then returning, in what had to seem surreal to viewers, to the Carson sketch that had been interrupted.
When reporters questioned Paul McCartney on how he felt about his friend's death, McCartney, who had been caught off guard, muttered "Drag, isn't it?" This seemingly glib response was criticised at the time, though McCartney was clearly shaken, and later stated in a Playboy interview that "I had just finished a whole day in shock and I said, 'It's a drag.' I meant drag in the heaviest sense of the word, you know: 'It's a — DRAG.' But, you know, when you look at that in print, it says, 'Yes, it's a drag.' Matter of fact." George Harrison prepared a more comprehensive press release and re-wrote the song "All Those Years Ago" for Lennon. Ringo Starr and his wife flew to New York to comfort Ono.
On 14 December 1980, all around the world, people paused to stand alone or come together in silence, heeding a plea from Yoko Ono that they take 10 minutes to remember the former Beatle.
"Lennon had a macabre sense of humour about dying in a plane crash. "We'll either go in a plane crash or we'll be popped off by some loony.'"[1] Several 1960s Beatles concerts in the United States and Canada did have strengthened security because of threats against the individual lives of the group members, and Starr himself claims to have performed at a Montreal concert with his cymbals positioned so as to block his view from the audience. In retrospect, although Lennon might have meant it as a joke and did not expect it to happen, the comment turned out to be chillingly accurate. Another comment was made in his last interview (recorded on the morning of his death), where he mentioned that he often felt that somebody was stalking him (although he was referring to federal agents in the 1970s who had tried to deport him).
Lennon was cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, and his ashes were kept by Yoko Ono. An unavoidable consequence of cremation is that a tiny residue of bodily remains is left in the chamber and mixes with subsequent cremations, which means that the ashes of other recently deceased residents of New York were mixed in with Lennon´s ashes, and his with others that came after him.
Chapman pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life. He has been denied parole several times and remains incarcerated at Attica Correctional Facility.
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Memorials and tributes
Main article: List of John Lennon Tributes
Strawberry Fields Memorial in Central Park, New York City.Lennon has been the subject of numerous memorials and tributes, principally the Strawberry Fields Memorial, constructed in Central Park across the street from the Dakota building. In 2002, Liverpool also renamed its airport the Liverpool John Lennon Airport, and adopted the motto "Above us only sky".
Every December 8 - the anniversary of his death - there is a memorial in front of Capitol Records on Vine Street in Hollywood, California. It includes speakers discussing Lennon, musical tributes, and group singing.
The 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death on December 8, 2005, was a particularly emotional milestone for Beatles and Lennon fans. Celebrations of John Lennon's life and music occurred in London, New York City, Cleveland, and Seattle. A tribute concert took place at John Lennon Park at Havana, Cuba, with a special guest appareance by Kents, Luis Molina and X-Alfonso.
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Literature
Numerous biographies of John Lennon have been published. Notable are Lennon: The Definitive Biography by Ray Coleman and the relentlessly hostile and unreliable The Lives of John Lennon by Albert Goldman.
John Lennon wrote three books himself: John Lennon: In His Own Write, A Spaniard in the Works, and Skywriting by Word of Mouth (the last published posthumously). A personal sketchbook with Lennon's familiar cartoons illustrating definitions of Japanese words, Ai: Japan Through John Lennon's Eyes, was published posthumously.
Julia Baird (with Geoffrey Giuliano), John Lennon My Brother— 1989, Grafton Books. ISBN 0-586-20566-7
Fenton Bresler, The Murder of John Lennon — 1989, Mandarin, ISBN 0-7493-0357-3)
Ray Coleman, Lennon: the definitive biography, 1992, Harper
E. Thomson and D. Gutman (editors), The Lennon Companion: Twenty-Five Years of the Comment — 2004, ISBN 0-333-43965-5
Albert Goldman, The Lives of John Lennon — 2001, Chicago, ISBN 1-55652-399-8
Larry Kane, Lennon Revealed — 2005, Running Press, ISBN 0-7624-2364-1
Cynthia Lennon, John — 2005, Crown Publishers, ISBN 030733855
Elizabeth Partridge, John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth — 2005, Viking Juvenile, ISBN 0-670-05954-4
Steven Roseta, (Just Like) Starting Over — A 2006, stage play, largely based on an unpublished John Lennon and Yoko Ono interview from 8 December 1980.
Jon Wiener, Come Together: John Lennon In His Time, 1985, Random House
Jon Wiener, Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files, 2000, Univ. of California