{"id":220205,"date":"2022-10-03T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=220205"},"modified":"2022-09-24T05:52:58","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T04:52:58","slug":"john-lennon-9-oct-1940-8-dec-1980-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/10\/john-lennon-9-oct-1940-8-dec-1980-7\/","title":{"rendered":"John Lennon (9 Oct 1940 \u2013 8 Dec 1980)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone thinks that peace and love are just a clich\u00e9 that should have been left behind in the \u201960s, that\u2019s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u2014John Lennon<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Famed singer-songwriter John Lennon founded the Beatles, a band that impacted the popular music scene like no other before, or since.<\/p>\n

John Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England. He met Paul McCartney in 1957 and invited McCartney to join his music group. They eventually formed the most successful songwriting partnership in musical history. Lennon left the Beatles in 1969 and later released albums with his wife, Yoko Ono, among others. On December 8, 1980, he was killed by a crazed fan named Mark David Chapman.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Early Life<\/strong><\/p>\n

Famed singer-songwriter John Winston Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, during a German air raid in World War II.<\/p>\n

When he was 4 years old, Lennon\u2019s parents separated and he ended up living with his Aunt Mimi. Lennon\u2019s father was a merchant seaman. He was not present at his son\u2019s birth and did not see a lot of his son when he was small.<\/p>\n

Lennon\u2019s mother, Julia, remarried, but visited him and Mimi regularly. She taught Lennon how to play the banjo and the piano and purchased his first guitar. Lennon was devastated when Julia was fatally struck by a car driven by an off-duty police officer in July 1958. Her death was one of the most traumatic events in his life.<\/p>\n

As a child, Lennon was a prankster and he enjoyed getting in trouble. As a boy and young adult,he\u00a0 enjoyed drawing grotesque figures and cripples. Lennon\u2019s school master thought that he could go to an art school for college, since he did not get good grades in school, but had artistic talent.<\/p>\n

Forming the Beatles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elvis Presley\u2019s explosion onto the rock music scene inspired a 16-year-old Lennon to create the skiffle band called the Quarry Men, named after his school. Lennon met Paul McCartney at a church fete on July 6, 1957. He soon invited McCartney to join the group, and the two eventually formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in musical history.<\/p>\n

McCartney introduced George Harrison to Lennon the following year, and Harrison and art college buddy Stuart Sutcliffe also joined Lennon\u2019s band. Always in need of a drummer, the group finally settled on Pete Best in 1960.<\/p>\n

The first recording they made was Buddy Holly\u2019s \u201cThat\u2019ll be the Day\u201d in 1958. In fact, it was Holly\u2019s group, the Crickets, that inspired the band to change its name. Lennon would later joke that he had a vision when he was 12 years old\u2014a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, \u201cFrom this day on, you are Beatles with an \u2018A.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The Beatles were discovered by Brian Epstein in 1961 at Liverpool\u2019s Cavern Club, where they were performing on a regular basis. As their new manager, Epstein secured a record contract with EMI. With a new drummer, Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey), and George Martin as producer, the group released their first single, \u201cLove Me Do,\u201d in October 1962. It peaked on the British charts at No. 17.<\/p>\n

Lennon wrote the group\u2019s follow-up single, \u201cPlease Please Me,\u201d inspired primarily by Roy Orbison, but also fed by Lennon\u2019s infatuation with the pun in Bing Crosby\u2019s famous lyrics, \u201cOh, please, lend your little ears to my pleas,\u201d from the song \u201cPlease.\u201d The Beatles\u2019 \u201cPlease Please Me\u201d topped the charts in Britain. The Beatles went on to become the most popular band in Britain with the release of such mega-hits as \u201cShe Loves You\u201d and \u201cI Want To Hold Your Hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lennon married Cynthia Powell in August 1962. The couple had one son together, Julian, who was named after Lennon\u2019s mother. Cynthia was forced to keep a very low profile during Beatlemania. She and Lennon divorced in 1968. He remarried the following year, on March 20, 1969, to Japanese avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, whom he had met at the Indica Gallery in November 1966.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Beatlemania<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1964, the Beatles became the first British band to break out big in the United States, beginning with their appearance on television\u2019s The Ed Sullivan Show<\/em> on February 9, 1964. Beatlemania launched a \u201cBritish Invasion\u201d of rock bands in the United States that also included the Rolling Stones and the Kinks. Following their appearance on Sullivan<\/em>, the Beatles returned to Britain to film their first film, A Hard Day\u2019s Night<\/em> (1964), and prepare for their first world tour.<\/p>\n

The Beatles\u2019 second film, Help!<\/em>, was released in 1965. That June, Queen Elizabeth II of England announced that the Beatles would be named a Member of the Order of the British Empire. In August 1965, the foursome performed to 55,600 fans at New York\u2019s Shea Stadium, setting a new record for largest concert audience in musical history. When the Beatles returned to England, they recorded the breakthrough album Rubber Soul<\/em> (1965), noted for extending beyond the love songs and pop formulas for which the band was previously well-known.<\/p>\n

The magic of Beatlemania had begun to lose its appeal by 1966. The band members\u2019 lives were put in danger when they were accused of snubbing the presidential family in the Philippines. Then, Lennon\u2019s remark that the band was \u201cmore popular than Jesus now\u201d incited denunciations and Beatles record bonfires in the U.S. Bible belt. The Beatles gave up touring after an August 29, 1966, concert at San Francisco\u2019s Candlestick Park.<\/p>\n

After an extended break, the band returned to the studio to expand their experimental sound with drug-influenced exotic instrumentation\/lyrics and tape abstractions. The first sample was the single \u201cPenny Lane\/Strawberry Fields Forever,\u201d followed by the album Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/em> (1967), considered by many to be the greatest rock project in musical history.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Beatles Break Up<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Beatles then suffered a huge blow when Epstein died of an accidental overdose of sleeping pills on August 27, 1967. Shaken by Epstein\u2019s death, the Beatles retrenched under McCartney\u2019s leadership in the fall and filmed Magical Mystery Tour<\/em>. While the film was panned by critics, the soundtrack album contained Lennon\u2019s \u201cI Am The Walrus,\u201d the group\u2019s most cryptic work yet.<\/p>\n

Magical Mystery Tour<\/em> failed to achieve much commercial success, and the Beatles retreated into Transcendental Meditation and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, which took them to India for two months in early 1968. Their next effort, Apple Corps Ltd., was plagued by mismanagement. That July, the group faced its last notably hysterical crowd at the premiere of their film Yellow Submarine<\/em>. In November 1968, the Beatles\u2019 double-album The Beatles<\/em> (also known as The White Album<\/em>) displayed their divergent directions.<\/p>\n

By this time, Lennon\u2019s artist partnership with second wife Yoko Ono had begun to cause serious tensions within the group. Lennon and Ono invented a form of peace protest by staying in bed while being filmed and interviewed, and their single \u201cGive Peace a Chance\u201d (1969), recorded under the name \u201cthe Plastic Ono Band,\u201d became a national anthem of sorts for pacifists.<\/p>\n

Lennon left the Beatles in September 1969, just after the group completed recording Abbey Road.<\/em> The news of the break-up was kept secret until McCartney announced his departure in April 1970, a month before the band released Let It Be<\/em>, recorded just before Abbey Road.<\/em><\/p>\n

Solo Career<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not long after the Beatles broke up, in 1970, Lennon released his debut solo album, John Lennon\/Plastic Ono Band<\/em>, featuring a raw, minimalist sound that followed \u201cprimal-scream\u201d therapy. He followed that project with 1971\u2019s Imagine<\/em>, the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed of all Lennon\u2019s post-Beatles efforts. The title track was later named No. 3 on Rolling Stone<\/em> magazine\u2019s \u201cAll-Time Best Songs\u201d list.<\/p>\n

Peace and love, however, was not always on Lennon\u2019s agenda. Imagine<\/em> also included the track \u201cHow Do You Sleep?,\u201d a vehement response to veiled messages at Lennon in some of McCartney\u2019s solo recordings. The friends and former songwriting duo later buried the hatchet, but never formally worked together again.<\/p>\n

Lennon and Ono moved to the United States in September 1971, but were constantly threatened with deportation by the Nixon Administration. Lennon was told that he was being kicked out of the country due to his 1968 marijuana conviction in Britain, but the singer believed that he was being removed because of his activism against the unpopular Vietnam War. Documents later proved him correct. (Two years after Nixon resigned, in 1976, Lennon was granted permanent U.S. residency.)<\/p>\n

In 1972, while battling to stay in America, Lennon performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City to benefit mentally handicapped children and continued to promote peace. His immigration battle took a toll on Lennon\u2019s marriage, and in the fall of 1973, he and Ono separated. Lennon went to Los Angeles, California, where he partied and took a mistress, May Pang. He still managed to release hit albums, including Mind Games<\/em> (1973), Walls and Bridges<\/em> (1974) and Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll<\/em> (1975). During this time, Lennon famously collaborated with David Bowie and Elton John.<\/p>\n

Lennon and Ono reconciled in 1974, and she gave birth to their only child, a son named Sean, on Lennon\u2019s 35th birthday (October 9, 1975). Shortly thereafter, Lennon decided to leave the music business to focus on being a father and husband.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tragic Death<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1980, John Lennon returned to the music world with the album Double Fantasy<\/em>, featuring the hit single \u201c(Just Like) Starting Over.\u201d Tragically, just a few weeks after the album\u2019s release, Mark David Chapman<\/a>, a deranged fan, shot Lennon several times in front of his apartment complex in New York City. Lennon died at New York City\u2019s Roosevelt Hospital on December 8, 1980, at the age of 40.<\/p>\n

John Lennon\u2019s assassination had, and continues to have, a profound impact on pop culture. Following the tragic event, millions of fans worldwide mourned as record sales soared. And Lennon\u2019s untimely death still evokes deep sadness around the globe today, as he continues to be admired by new generations of fans. Lennon was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 biography.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Lennon was born in Liverpool, England. John met Paul McCartney in 1957 and invited him to join his music group. They eventually formed the most successful songwriting partnership in musical history. Lennon left the Beatles in 1969. On December 8, 1980, he was killed by a crazed fan named Mark David Chapman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":67740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[214],"tags":[915,900,2174,129],"class_list":["post-220205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biographies","tag-art","tag-biography","tag-john-lennon","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}