John Lennon
FROM SCOUSER TO AMERICAN.
John Winston Lennon was born on 9th October 1940 during a German bombing raid over Liverpool. Entering the world during such precarious times meant that soon after his birth he was placed under his mother, robust, hospital bed for safety. There was no father at his birth as John’s Dad, Alf, was away at sea. John is named John after his granddad and Winston after the war-time politician and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Strange when you consider that the adult John would be an ardent peace activist. At the age of two John found that he moved into the care of his Mum’s sister Mimi and her husband. Not long after this Julia Lennon, John’s Mum, decides to split from the erstwhile Alf and soon begins a new relationship. Reading between the lines it would seem that Julia had more than one relationship which resulted in children. I suppose she would have been thought very wayward in the 1940’s. In 1958 Julia is killed by a motorist very near to Mimi’s house where John was at the time. On the 23rd August 1962 John married his long time girlfriend Cynthia Powell. Still married and now a father John meets Yoko Ono in November 1966. Cynthia did not sue John for divorce until 1968. After Yoko’s divorce to her husband came through, in February 1969, her marriage to John took place. They became Mr and Mrs Lennon in March 1969. As music’s Mr and Mrs Strange they certainly were very much of the time. Both of them having artistic talents and living bohemian lifestyles made them popular with the youth culture but a figure of fun to the press. Following a drug conviction in 1968 the American government attempted to have the Lennon’s deported in 1972. After John and Yoko have a temporary separation they are reconciled in 1975 and Yoko becomes pregnant. John starts a legal battle to remain in the USA and due to Yoko’s pregnancy the deportation proceedings are halted. |
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In 1975 Sean Ono Taro Lennon is born to John and Yoko. The following year Alf Lennon, John’s Dad, died of cancer. Finally in the summer of 1976 John received his Green Card and was allowed to stay in America. John disappeared from the music scene until late 1980 as he decided to become a house husband and help raise Sean. In August 1980 John starts recording music again, for the first time in six years. On 9th October 1980 as Sean celebrated his 5th birthday John celebrated his 40th. By November that year a sensational double album is released. Of course the rest is history. On 8th December 1980, late in the afternoon as John left home in, New York, he stopped to give an autograph to a supposed fan. At 10:49 that same evening this fan, one Mark David Chapman, assassinated John as he returned home with Yoko. John was shot and killed and the world wept. John was to my mind the controversial Beatle. He was artistic, talented, at times wacky, very much of the moment, had strong beliefs and died not only in tragic circumstances, but long before he should have. John's discography is too vast to list here John Lennon assassination anniversary
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