The tragedy is that John Lennon graced the earth for but forty years. But a perfect storm of brilliance, social consciousness, personal pain and populist embers whipped around Lennon, leading the confused lad from Northern England to fit more life into those years than perhaps anyone else in the 20th century. For that, on what would have been his 71st birthday, we celebrate.
Born as German bombs rained down on Liverpool in 1940, Lennon was born to Alf and Julia Lennon, a forbidden couple that flouted class convention in a still hierarchical society. That, years later, their son would be a self-styled Working Class Hero seems, in retrospect, predetermined by the scandal into which he was born.
That awareness of the economic and social lines dug deep into Scouse society was aided by his unconventional childhood, which kicked off in earnest after he was forced, in a deep act of cruelty, to choose between his parents; with merchant sailor Alf, always itchy to return to the seas, he was coerced into choosing Julia, though that soon meant living with his Aunt Mimi, the disciplinarian who ended up raising him.
Embittered by his stolen childhood and bored by the regimented nature of post-war British schooling, he was, unsurprisingly, a minor rebel, a greaser and petty thief with a secret pain. It was drawing that was his first love, the first sign of his unparalleled creativity, though the boom of R&B rock n' roll, from Little Richard to Elvis Presley, soon grabbed his attention. Pain began fueling his creativity -- as well as his angry sense of humor and bouts of stoicism -- once Julia was killed in a car accident, hit by a police officer as she crossed the street.
He began his own band, flanked by secondary school friends on bluegrass instruments hoisted into the backs of trucks as they played school socials and town festivals. The Quarry Men had humble beginnings, adding and subtracting members as boys grew up and went on to respectable blue collar careers. At art school, Lennon met Stu Sutcliffe, who quickly became his best friend. A talented visual artist, he had little musical skill, but was brought on anyway, joining Lennon and a new, younger friend: Paul McCartney.
Trips to Hamburg, the addition of a younger-still George Harrison, barnstorming around the north of England; these were the heady days of a crew of kids who wanted something more than the predetermined post-war cookie cutter life offered in working class England.
With the rare ability to translate into song their inner turmoil -- McCartney also lost his mother young -- and a rabid interest in societal change, the Beatles, after their early, smash hit suit wearing days, became so intertwined with the social revolution of the 60s that it's hard to tell where their documentation stops and their leadership begins. Along with their unparalleled run of musical brilliance and transformation, with more top, music-changing hits than anyone else, the group helped change the world.
Lennon, in particular, became the world's largest peace advocate, first through song and then protest, rejecting what he saw as phony religious placations and corrupt leaders, taking on the Vietnam War through humor, prolonged bed time and massive rallies. As we watch the growing Occupy Wall Street rallies, we can't help but think of Lennon's marches against the war, the violence at Attica State Prison and inequality across the land.
All the while, he cryptically broadcast his personal pain, the rejection by his parents that he never quite got over. Why did his dad leave? Why was his mum killed? Even when his father returned, he treated him with suspicion; trust no one, he preached to his fans about their government leaders, so why would he trust this seafaring abdicator?
As he settled into his 30s, his life hit new turmoil; recently married to Yoko Ono, his attempts at healing went by the wayside. With Vietnam winding down and Nixon finally finding trouble, he could only rage against himself, and so he did, sent off by Ono to a "Lost Weekend" in Los Angeles, a nearly two year retreat into substance and hazy music with his old rock buddies.
An absence from the music scene would follow his return to New York, where he and Ono had settled, and he finally became the father he never had -- and had never been to his first son, Julian -- when his second boy, Sean, was born. Not much is known about his five year break from stardom; he baked bread and granted few interviews, though by all accounts his relationship with Paul McCartney thawed (a process which first began in an impromptu LA recording session) and he did some world traveling, using astrology as his agent.
We know the rest of the story. But this isn't about that ending. Lennon, born on the ninth of October, saw that number in everything he did. As Paul McCartney marries for the third time today, it's worth a few minutes to listen back on the first fallen Beatle and the brilliance that lives on.Things you might not know about John Lennon
1. Lennon often said he’d rather have been a member of Monty Python than the Beatles.
2. For a time, Lennon and Yoko Ono had a psychic on staff to help advise them with business deals. The psychic earned a stipend on par with their lawyers and accountants.
3. Lennon’s favorite game to play on tour was Monopoly.
4. Lennon first experienced LSD when his dentist, John Riley, furtively slipped some into his coffee at a dinner party.
5. As a teenager, Lennon’s aunt and parental guardian, Mimi Smith, would often tell him, “The guitar’s all very well, John, but you’ll never make a living at it.”
6. Lennon wanted Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, but was outvoted.
7. Lennon and Yoko made their debut art performance together at the Royal Albert Hall in an opaque white sack, contorting their bodies in silence on stage.
8. Lennon’s first band, The Quarrymen, would often hold their practices in the bathroom, with Lennon standing shoeless in the bathtub.
9. On the track “How Do You Sleep?” from Lennon’s solo album Imagine, the caustic lines “The sound you make is muzak to my ears” and “The only thing you done was ‘Yesterday’” were both directed at former band member, Paul McCartney.
10. Lennon once demanded that Yoko write him a list of everyone she’d ever slept with.
11. For several years Lennon’s paternal grandfather, also named “John,” toured across America performing black-face in Andrew Roberton’s Colored Operatic Kentucky Minstrels.
12. When asked about the uproar in America over his “more popular than Jesus” comment, Lennon responded, “There are more people in America, so there are more bigots also.”
13. After becoming fed up with fans doing more screaming than listening at shows, Lennon once said, “Beatles concerts are nothing to do with music any more. They’re just bloody tribal rites.”
14. Lennon, McCartney, and former Beatles’ drummer, Pete Best, were all in the same room as George Harrison when Harrison lost his virginity.
15. A former schoolmate of Lennon’s at Dovedale Primary once said, “If ever there was a scrap in the school yard, John was likely to be involved.”
16. Lennon’s son, Sean, first suspected his father was a Beatle when he saw Yellow Submarine on television at a friend’s house.
17. Lennon wanted his first wife, Cynthia Powell, to look like French actress, Brigitte Bardot. When Lennon returned home from the road one day to find Cynthia’s former Bardot-length hair cut short, he refused to speak to Cynthia for two days.
18. As a teenager, Lennon considered himself a Teddy Boy.
19. Bob Dylan introduced marijuana to Lennon and the rest of the Beatles.
20. The first instrument Lennon learned how to play was the harmonica.
21. Lennon read The Psychedelic Experience by Timothy Leary, et al. from start to finish on a couch in the middle of a bookshop.
22. Before he was famous, Lennon once said he’d rather commit suicide than get a conventional job.
23. Growing up, Lennon was highly self-conscious about his large nose.
24. Lennon once said, “You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. And the Beatles were the biggest bastards on earth.”
25. Lennon, never a great driver, once crashed his car into a ditch and received seventeen stitches to his face.
26. Lennon encouraged Yoko to say the word “fuck” more often.
27. As a young child, Lennon realized that every large department store in Liverpool had its own Santa Claus, and asked his dad, “How many Father Christmases are there?”
28. Lennon bought a tiny, uninhabited island called Dorinish off the coast of Ireland for 1,700 pounds in 1967.
29. Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia, wrote her autobiography, A Twist of Lennon, on a typewriter that Yoko had given to Lennon and Cynthia’s son, Julian.
30. Approaching his 21st birthday, Lennon had serious doubts about ever making a career in music because he felt too old to become famous.
31. As a teenager, Lennon once accepted a friend’s challenge to masturbate ten times in a single day. Lennon fell short at nine.
32. Later in life, Lennon became a cooking enthusiast, often making lunch for his entire staff of ten to twelve.
33. Lennon referred to Rubber Soul as “the pot album” and Revolver as “the acid album.”
34. The first time Yoko met Lennon, she didn’t know he was a Beatle.
35. At a college party, Lennon once punched another student for asking Lennon’s then-girlfriend, Cynthia Powell, to dance.
36. Lennon thought of the lyrics, “He’s a real nowhere man/Sitting in his nowhere land” while lying on his king-sized bed surrounded by possessions in his mansion.
37. When Yoko was pregnant in the hospital, Lennon put on a pair of pajamas and got into the vacant bed next to hers, holding her hand across the gap.
38. When Lennon moved into his West Village apartment, his next-door neighbor was experimental composer John Cage.
39. The most time Lennon spent with his first wife, Cynthia, since marrying her, was on a weekend dubbed “Operation Cynthia,” where Lennon planned to turn her on to LSD.
40. When Lennon played cowboys and indians as a child, he always wanted to be the indian. His hero was Sioux Chief Sitting Bull.
41. Before Lennon went to Japan for the summer of 1977, he enrolled in a six-week course in Japanese at the Berlitz Language Center in Manhattan.
42. After the Beatles split and the bickering began, Lennon called McCartney’s songs “granny music.”
43. Speaking of his nascent relationship with Yoko, Lennon once said, “This is different from anything before. This is more than a hit record. It’s more than gold. It’s more than anything.”
44. While attending Transcendental Meditation sessions at an ashram in India with the rest of the Beatles, Lennon penned the lyrics “I’m so lonely I want to die” for the song “Yer Blues.”
45. At the age of seven, Lennon wrote and drew an entire magazine entitled Speed and Sport Illustrated, which included portraits of soccer players, cartoon strips, and an adventure story.
46. Lennon’s father, Alfred, was the mascot for his school’s soccer team.
47. For 36 pounds per week, Lennon hired a private chauffeur to be on call 24 hours a day.
48. Apparently, when Maharishi Mahesh Yogi asked Lennon why he was leaving the ashram early, Lennon responded by saying, “Well, if you’re so cosmic, you should know why.”
49. When Lennon first started playing guitar, he tuned it like a four-string banjo. It was Paul McCartney who showed Lennon how to play chords on six-string guitar.
50. For Yoko’s 47th birthday, Lennon bought so many gardenias that the local florists had to ship more in from out of state.
51. When Yoko was courting Lennon, she once invited him to a thirteen-day dance festival that would take place entirely “in the mind.”
52. One of Lennon’s favorite painters was Henri Matisse.
53. Six days after Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, died of an overdose, Lennon tried to get in touch with his estranged father, Alfred.
54. At one point, Lennon wanted to start a Beatles clothing retailer, somewhat like Marks & Spencer.
55. Early in the Beatles’ career, Lennon would sing half the set with a humorous German, French, or Mexican accent.
56. As a boy, Lennon preferred to receive pencils, paint boxes, and paper instead of toys.
57. At McCartney’s 21st birthday party, Lennon severely assaulted The Cavern Club’s deejay, Bob Wooler, after Wooler suggested Lennon had a homosexual encounter with the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein.
58. While living in America, the FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, studied all of Lennon’s lyrics and analyzed every one of his television appearances to find a legal reason to deport him.
59. While trying to get a taxi ride in Tokyo, one driver called Yoko a “whore” and ordered both her and Lennon out of his vehicle.
60. Lennon once stole a harmonica from a small music shop in the Netherlands. Years later, after Lennon became famous, a small group of fans traveled to the store in the Arnhem area and reimbursed the owner for his loss.
61. Lennon’s debut as a serious actor was in the black comedy How I Won the War.
62. George Martin, the Beatles’ producer, once said Lennon was a “completely impractical man.”
63. Lennon walked around half blind as a boy because he was too embarrassed to wear his glasses. After discovering Buddy Holly, however, Lennon begged his aunt to buy him a pair of black horn-rimmed glasses.
64. Some critics believed Lennon could have been a film star, but apparently Lennon wasn’t interested in acting because he considered it an even more confining lifestyle than that of a Beatle.
65. Cynthia Powell wrote in her first autobiography that her marriage to Lennon fell apart when Lennon started taking mass quantities of LSD.
66. Lennon has said the song “Help!” was a true cry for help.
67. Soon after Lennon got his driver’s license in February 1965, various car dealerships parked an array of luxury vehicles outside his home, hoping to make a sale.
68. In Sunday school, Lennon once received a caning for calling the Scribes and Pharisees in the Bible “Fascists.”
69. Lennon survived a storm with 65 mph winds and twenty-foot-high waves aboard a yacht in the Bermuda Triangle.
70. After suffering from a gastric flu, Lennon went on a liquids-only diet for forty days, reading cookbooks the entire time to curb his hunger.
0 comments:
Post a Comment