John Lennon biography

The Beatles officially split prior to the release of another No.1 album, Let It Be. John then concentrated fully on his solo career with the release of the stark album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Often nakedly autobiographical, the album was made after John and Yoko had followed a course of primal scream therapy. Produced by Phil Spector with pared down bass, guitar and drums, the record included John's take on the class system (Working Class Hero) and his cry of filial pain (Mother). The album was followed by another Top 20 anthem, Power To The People. All this activity preceded the release of the album many critics regard as Lennon's masterpiece, Imagine. The title song was either a visionary's utopian vision of the world or the politics of an incredibly naive rock star, cocooned in his Surrey mansion, singing about a world with no possessions. The song quickly became a standard however, covered by numerous artists from Joan Baez and Diana Ross to er, Nana Mouskouri?! Other tracks on the album included the intimate ballad Jealous Guy (a hit for Roxy Music in 1981) and the sarcastic How Do You Sleep, intended as a thinly veiled attack on McCartney.

In late September 1971 Lennon moved permanently to New York to live with Yoko. He failed in his bid for a Christmas No. 1 in the US with Happy Xmas (War Is Over) although it reached the UK Top 5 a year later. Lennon's next album was less successful. The heavily politicized Some Time In New York City included songs on the Irish troubles (Sunday Bloody Sunday), prison riots (Attica State) and feminism (Woman Is Nigger Of The World). Lennon's radical opinions made him enemies in the US, leading to an investigation by the US government who spent three years trying to deport him. This marked a period of instability for Lennon. He started drinking heavily, split briefly from Yoko and recorded an album with his drinking partner Harry Nilsson, entitled Pussy Cats. 1973 album Mind Games marked a return to more conventional themes but received mixed reviews. 1974's Walls and Bridges album fared much better, largely due to the inclusion of two US hits, Whatever Gets You Through The Night and Number Nine Dream.

A guest appearance at an Elton John concert in 1974 in the US was Lennon's final live performance. September 1975 saw the birth of John and Yoko's son Sean Lennon (John also had a son, Julian with his first wife Cynthia). After the release of the album, Rock 'n' Roll in the same year, an affectionate set of 50's covers by Fats Domino, Little Richard and Buddy Holly, Lennon retired to his Manhattan apartment to look after his new son. A greatest hits collection, Shaved Fish, was also released in the same year.

Stories of the final phase of John Lennon's life, from 1975 to 1980, have veered from tales of domesticated bliss to scurrilous rumours alleging the Lennons spent their last years together lost in a maze of drugs, occultism and marital strife.

After emerging briefly from the Dakota building to write Fame with David Bowie (1975), Lennon returned to the studio in 1980 to record the Double Fantasy album. A single from the album, (Just Like) Starting Over reached the Top 10 while the album topped the UK and US album charts. Tragically, a month after its release, on 8th December 1980, John was shot five times by a deranged fan, Mark Chapman, outside his Dakota building apartment block. He died shortly afterwards at Roosevelt hospital. Lennon's killer was sent to a mental institution for the rest of his life.

Some 25 years after his death Lennon remains a revered musical icon, abrasive, confrontational, often difficult but ultimately a peaceful man with the soul of a romantic poet. As Paul McCartney recently said: "He was, and still is the heroic figure whose wit and wisdom shaped the thoughts and lives of millions of people."

Discography