His music is associated with a world without
war and the spirit of freedom. Thanks to him, people fell in love with the Liverpool Four.
Many people remember the lyrics of his songs, but only a few of them know who John Lennon
really was? What childhood traumas did he carry through his life? Why was he mad at Paul
McCartney, and how did he meet Yoko Ono?
Today we are going to tell you about all the ups
and downs of this charismatic British genius. You're on the Biographer channel, and we're starting.
Growing up and finding himself
John Winston Ono Lennon was born on October 9,
1940, at the Liverpool Maternity Hospital in a working-class family. It was quite
a dark time. Europe was in the war, and the boy was born in the middle of it. The
parents named the child John Winston Lennon, after his paternal grandfather John "Jack"
Lennon and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
His father was a merchant seaman and was absent
from home for a long time but regularly sent pay cheques to 9 Newcastle Road, Liverpool, where his
wife and child lived. Suddenly, the checks stopped coming. Alfred went missing in February 1944.
When he finally returned home six months later, he offered to look after the family. Julia, by
that time, was pregnant with a child from another man and rejected that idea. Parents did not find
time to educate the restless, gentle, and talented John. Julia's sister, Mary Elizabeth Mimi Smith,
complained twice to Liverpool's Social Services. Then the boy was fostered by Julia. Aunt Mimi,
as John would always call her, carefully raised the boy as her child, but John was still very
upset by the separation from both parents. By the age of five, little Lennon had already
begun to show his complex character and was expelled from kindergarten after five months.
The reason was destructive behavior.
In July 1946, John Lennon's father visited
Mimi and took his son to Blackpool, intending to secretly emigrate with him to
New Zealand. However, Julia followed them, along with her partner Bobby Dykins. An
argument broke out, during which Alfred forced a five-year-old child to choose between
his mom and dad! In one version, John Lennon chose his father, but when his mother left, he cried
and followed her. But according to Billy Hall, an eyewitness to the quarrel, and author Mark
Lewisohn, the story was slightly embellished.
However, since then, John had not seen his father
for 20 years. He spent much of his childhood and youth in Woolton with Aunt Mimi and her husband,
George Toogood Smith, who had no children. An aunt bought volumes of stories for John,
and an uncle, a milkman on the family farm, worked with the boy on crossword puzzles. Once,
he bought him a harmonica. That’s how music appeared in the life of young Lennon.
Julia regularly visited her son, who, in turn, often came to her at 1 Blomfield
Road, Liverpool. There, she played Elvis Presley records to John and taught him how to
play the banjo. One of the songs she showed was Ain't That a Shame by Fats Domino.
Inset quote: “There were five women that were my family. Five strong, intelligent, beautiful
women, five sisters. One happened to be my mother. She just couldn't deal with life. She was the
youngest and she had a husband who ran away to sea and the war was on and she couldn't cope with
me, and I ended up living with her elder sister. Now those women were fantastic.” (John Lennon)
John was brought up as an Anglican and went to Dovedale Primary School. After passing the
eleven-plus exam, he attended Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool, where he studied from 1952 to
1957. It was a strict school that did not suit the freedom-loving John. During those years, Lennon
was remembered as a happy-go-lucky, good-humored, easy-going, lively lad. In the classroom,
he did everything but not study. He often drew funny cartoons of teachers and students that
appeared in the school magazine, the Daily Howl, and wrote poetry and humorous stories.
In his free time, the boy regularly visited his cousin Stanley Parkes, who lived in Fleetwood, and
took him to local cinemas. During school holidays, Parkes visited Lennon with Leila Harvey, another
boy's cousin, and the three of them often traveled to Blackpool two or three times a week to watch
the show. While visiting Blackpool Tower Circus, they observed such artists as Dickie
Valentine, Arthur Askey, Max Bygraves and Joe Loss. John especially liked George Formby.
In 1956 Julia helped John to buy his first guitar. It was an inexpensive Gallotone Champion acoustic,
for which she loaned her son five pounds and ten shillings. There was the condition that the guitar
would be delivered to her home and not to Mimi's, knowing that her sister did not support her
son's musical aspirations. Mimi was skeptical of his claims that he would one day be famous and
hoped he would get bored with the music, often telling him "The guitar's all very well, John,
but you'll never make a living out of it".
In June 1955, Uncle George
died of a liver hemorrhage. It was a blow for the boy, but an even greater
shock came three years later when, in July 1958, Julia Lennon was hit by a car on
her way home from the Smiths' house. Such circumstances were not uncommon after the
Second World War. It aroused anger in John Lennon, which he sublimated with pain and difficulty
into an acute need for human communication.
The death of his mother deeply traumatized John,
and for the next two years, he drank heavily and often got into fights, consumed by a "blind
rage". He pestered everyone, but getting a fitting rebuff, he got into a fight with weaker guys.
The memory of his mother would later serve as an inspiration for Lennon's work, even inspiring
him to write The Beatles' 1968 song, Julia.
In high school, John's behavior changed
considerably. Quarry Bank High School teachers said of him: "He has too many wrong
ambitions and his energy is often misplaced", and "His work always lacks effort. He is content
to 'drift' instead of using his abilities." The guy's bad behavior led to a small
split in relations with the aunt. John failed O-level exams, but he was
not allowed to work. He was admitted to the Liverpool College of Art only after a
conversation between Aunt Mimi and the principal. In college, he began wearing Teddy Boy clothes,
also he could be expelled for his behavior.
Inset quote: “I come from the macho school of
pretense. I was never really a street kid or a tough guy. I used to dress like a Teddy boy and
identify with Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley, but I never really was in real street fights or
real down-home gangs. I was just a suburban kid, imitating the rockers. But it was a big part
of one’s life to look tough.” (John Lennon)
According to Cynthia Powell, Lennon's classmate
and wife, he was "thrown out of the college before his final year". Many years later, in
an interview, John would say about that dark period that he “spent the whole of his childhood
with shoulders up around the top of his head and his glasses off, because glasses
were sissy, and walking in complete fear, but with the toughest-looking face ever seen”:
Inset quote: “I’d get into trouble just because of the way I looked. I wanted to be this tough James
Dean all the time. It took a lot of wrestling to stop doing that, even though I still fall
into it when I get insecure and nervous. I still drop into that I’m-a-street-kid
stance, but I have to keep remembering that I never really was one.” (John Lennon)
John was a boorish bully and did not know what to do in life, but one thing would enchant him and
help him decide. At 15, he formed a musical group, the Quarrymen, named after Quarry Bank
High School. Founded in September 1956, within six months, the band was performing a
spirited set of songs consisting of half skiffle, and half rock and roll. Skiffle is a genre
of folk music with influences from blues, jazz, and American folk music, often using
homemade instruments and created at home.
Then, in the summer of 1957, John and his team
performed at St. Peter's Church garden fête. John played his guitar and sang, Eric Griffiths was the
second guitarist, Colin Hanton played the drums, Rod Davis played the banjo, Pete Shotton used a
washboard to play his part, and Len Garry played bass, according to legend, created from a chest in
which people kept tea. First, they played in the back of a moving truck, in a procession led by the
Band of the Cheshire Yeomanry, and in the evening they were supposed to perform on stage.
It was only the second performance of the Quarrymen at Woolton, where John met Paul
McCartney. Soon they would become a strong creative duet as part of the group
and would sign their musical works “Lennon-McCartney” for a long time. Years
later, Lennon and McCartney's songwriting partnership is still considered one of the most
influential and successful of the 20th century!
But let's not be hasty. Paul was impressed with
John because he was a couple of years older and didn't seem to care about anything at all. He
smelled of rebelliousness and beer. The guys got to know each other, and McCartney showed Lennon a
performance of Eddie Cochran's Twenty Flight Rock, Gene Vincent's Be-Bop-A-Lula, and
a medley of Little Richard songs. He went before the start of the evening show.
After the show, John chatted with friends and decided to invite Paul to join the group.
Inset quote: “I remember Paul coming along that night at St Peter’s Church Hall, picking up
a guitar – I didn't even know he was left-handed – and playing a couple of chords. I think he
was trying to audition for us.” (Len Garry)
Two weeks later, Shotton met McCartney cycling
through Woolton and extended him Lennon's invitation to join the Quarrymen. Soon, the
musician made his debut with the group at a party of the Conservative Club. By that moment, Shotton
and Davis had left the band as it moved more and more away from the skiff into a rock direction.
According to McCartney, Aunt Mimi was very aware that John's friends were lower class and often
patronized him when he came to visit Lennon. Paul's father disapproved of John, stating that
Lennon would get his son in trouble. However, he allowed the young band to rehearse in the family
living room. During that time, John wrote his first song Hello Little Girl, which in 1963 would
become a top 10 hit in the UK "the Fourmost".
ohn Lennon found friends who helped him cope
with difficulties, find himself and start his musical career. The first Quarrymen concerts would
quickly become something unexpectedly big for John and the company …
The Beatles
George Harrison, whom McCartney recommended
to Lennon, and John's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe soon joined the team.
By the way, it was Sutcliffe who influenced Lennon's internal changes. At some point, John
began to read a lot, especially the American beatnik writers that became popular in Britain.
He began to pay more attention to his studies, and the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani became
his new hero, along with Elvis. Sutcliffe would become one of the main inspirations for
the work of John and their group.
Of all the people who surrounded the guy in
the early 60s, John considered Sutcliffe as a close friend. Stewart was a talented artist
and was destined to become the second Picasso. He was in the Liverpool Bohemian crowd, and his
paintings regularly appeared at contemporary art exhibitions. John was drawn to that world,
since he was interested in art and literature. However, he was still a simple street kid
from the working outskirts of the city. John negatively influenced Stuart, sometimes
dragging his friend into drunken brawls in pubs. Nevertheless, Lennon persuaded Sutcliffe to
use the royalties from one of his paintings to buy a bass guitar and join the band.
So John Lennon, along with McCartney, Harrison and Sutcliffe, became
The Beatles in early 1960. The idea for the name belonged to Sutcliffe. He
wanted the group to be called The Silver Beetles, but John suggested doing The Beatles through A
- so the word “beat” was also read in the name. The Beatles were invited to a 48-day residency in
Hamburg, West Germany, in August of the same year. The band actively searched for a
drummer and found him in Pete Best, who successfully fit in the band. John's aunt, who
found out about that trip, was worried and begged Lennon not to go and continue studying art.
By 1960, Hamburg, rising from the ruins of World War II, had earned a reputation across
Europe as a city of vice and criminal activity. Unlike the economically depressed post-war
Liverpool, Hamburg was a wealthy city. But it was hard to influence Lennon's decision.
Inset quote: “Nobody controls me. I'm uncontrollable. The only
one who controls me is me, and that's just barely possible.” (John Lennon)
John decided to go anyway and ended up spending two and a half years there, until December 1962,
playing regularly in various clubs in Hamburg. There were Indra Club, Kaiserkeller,
Top Ten Club, and the Star-Club. The first 48-day residence flowed into
the second, and then into the third, which allowed the guys to hone their performing
skills, improve their reputation and play perfectly together. As a result, John,
Paul and George understood each other with a smile or a nod. As a result, after the
trip, the group would record their first album, thereby attracting the attention of businessman
Brian Epstein, the future Beatles manager.
In the meantime, in Hamburg, the group played
American rock and roll every night in small clubs, slept in dressing rooms, and went to the
toilet to the cinema across the street. In addition, along with other group members,
in Hamburg, Lennon met with Preludin. It was the drug that he regularly took as a stimulant
during their long nights of performances.
The guy's relationship also did not stand still.
At the age of 21, John married his girlfriend from college, Cynthia Powell. She often accompanied him
to the band's first shows and travelled to Hamburg with McCartney's girlfriend to visit him. Although
at first, Cynthia was frightened by the behaviour and appearance of Lennon. When she found out that
he was obsessed with the French actress Brigitte Bardot, she dyed her hair blonde. John asked her
out, but when she said she was engaged, he yelled, "I didn't ask you to fuckin' marry me, did I?"
Lennon was jealous and became possessive over time, often frightening Powell with his anger.
In her 2005 memoir John, the girl recalled that when they were dating, a guy hit her after he
saw her dancing with Sutcliffe. After that the girl broke off the relationship, but, three months
later, John asked for forgiveness. They reunited. From then, he could be verbally harsh and
rude to Powell, but never used force again.
Over time, Lennon admitted that he
never questioned his chauvinistic attitude towards women until he met Yoko Ono:
Inset quote: “I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically – any woman. I was
a hitter. I couldn't express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women. That is
why I am always on about peace” (John Lennon)
In July 1962, John found out that Cynthia was
pregnant and insisted on getting married. The couple got married on 23 August, with
Brian Epstein serving as best man. Their marriage took place when uncontrollable
love for the group Beatlemania was gaining momentum throughout the UK.
Epstein was afraid that fans would be disappointed by the married Beatles member, and therefore
asked the Lennons to keep their marriage a secret. On April 8, 1963, John and Cynthia had a son,
Julian. The musician was on tour. Therefore, he saw the baby only three days later.
The group flourished because Sutcliffe laid the creative intellectual foundation for John and
the other Beatles. And over time, that would help the group evolve from just a talented boy band
into a complex phenomenon in the world of art. Brian Epstein, who had been managing the band
since 1962 and had no previous band management experience, had a strong influence on the
band's dress code and attitude towards the stage. John initially resisted the imposition
of the trappings of a professional scene but eventually complied, saying:
Inset quote: “I'll wear a bloody balloon if somebody's going to pay me.” (John Lennon)
So the band underwent some changes, including the line-up. Sutcliffe decided to stay in Hamburg,
where he met his love, and Paul McCartney took his place. Instead of Pete Best, Ringo Starr
sat on the drums. Thus, the final composition of the Beatles was formed, which would last
eight years and bring them worldwide fame.
Interestingly, John often used pseudonyms
throughout his musical career, especially in the early days. For example, he owns such names as Dr.
Winston O'Boogie, Booker Table, Dwarf McDougal, Rev. Fred Ghurkin, The Honorable John St. John
Johnson, Joel Nohnn, and Kaptain Kundalini.
Meanwhile, John continued to
correspond with Sutcliffe. During that period, Stewart's health deteriorated.
He had headaches, insomnia, and bouts of nausea. Over time, his notes and drafts would be found,
revealing the significance of Lennon’s support and their correspondence to Sutcliffe. The artist's
health problems were also described there. Unexpectedly for everyone, especially for
John, on April 10, 1962, Stuart Sutcliffe died. The cause was a brain hemorrhage.
Lennon found out about that when the Beatles arrived in Hamburg a few days later to open a new
music venue, the Star-Club. The news sounded like a bolt from the blue to John, and he struggled
to keep his composure. Stewart's wife, Astrid Kirchherr, wrote in a letter to his mother:
Inset quote: “Oh, Mum, he (Lennon) is in a terrible mood now, he just can't believe
that darling Stuart never comes back. He's just crying his eyes out ... John is
marvellous to me, he says that he knows Stuart so much and he loves him so much that
he can understand me.” (Astrid Kirchherr)
Having played a night concert with the group,
after, he finally gave vent to his feelings. At the after-party, Lennon got very drunk and did not
watch his language, speaking rudely to everyone. He was shocked and distressed, feeling the echoes
of his past sufferings after the loss of his mother. The loss of his best friend meant a lot
to him. He had no one else to share his wildest ideas and get answers on how to implement them.
But as usual, the dark stripe was followed by the light one. The group's first single Love Me Do
was released in October 1962 and reached number 17 on the UK charts. On February 11 of the next
year, the Beatles recorded their debut album, Please Please Me. In addition to the previous
singles, the work on the album at EMI Studios took less than 10 hours. Although, John was
suffering from the effects of a cold at that time. We can hear it in the vocals on the last
song recorded that day, Twist and Shout.
Inset: https://youtu.be/wj3d9Pj9q7w?t=65
(1:10 - 1:20)
John Lennon and Paul McCartney co-wrote eight
songs on the album. Except for some titles, one of which was the album title, Lennon had
yet to bring his love of wordplay to his lyrics, saying: “We were just writing songs ... pop songs
with no more thought of them than that – to create a sound. And the words were almost irrelevant”
Many years later, Paul McCartney would say, in an interview, that the other
Beatles members idolized Lennon.
Inset quote: “He was like our own little Elvis ...
We all looked up to John. He was older and he was very much the leader; he was the quickest
wit and the smartest.” (Paul McCartney)
The album was released on March 22 and produced
by George Martin, who worked with the band so passionately and diligently that he had a
nickname The Fifth Beatle. The record topped the Record Retailer's LP chart for 30 weeks, an
unprecedented feat for a pop album at the time. And the single Please Please Me reached number
one on the NME and Melody Maker charts.
With their debut album, the band achieved
mainstream success in Britain and went on tour. John was never really at a loss for words,
so during the Royal Variety Show performance, which was attended by the Queen
Mother and other British royalty, Lennon poked fun at the audience:
Inset quote: “For our next song, I'd like to ask for your help. For
the people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands ... and the rest of you, if you'll
just rattle your jewellery” (John Lennon)
After the year of Beatlemania in the UK, in
February 1964, the band's debut performance in the United States at The Ed Sullivan Show became
historic and marked the beginning of world fame. Two years of constant touring were accompanied
by writing new songs and filming a movie. During that time, John wrote two books: In
His Own Write and A Spanish in the Works.
The first was a book of nonsense, consisting of
his author's illustrations, poems and stories, ranging in length from 8 lines to three pages.
John only showed some of his writings and drawings to journalist Michael Brown. But he
demonstrated them to Tom Maschler of publisher Jonathan Cape. As a result, in January 1964,
Lennon signed a contract with a publisher.
The book contained much of the group's personal
meanings and inside jokes. It also alluded to John Lennon's preoccupation with physical disabilities
and expressed his anti-authority sentiments. His writing style was shaped by his
infatuation with English writer Lewis Carroll, while humorists Spike Milligan and "Professor"
Stanley Unwin inspired his sense of humor. The book's illustrations emulated the
style of cartoonist James Thurber.
The book was critically acclaimed and had
impressive commercial success. 300,000 copies were sold just in the UK! Critics also praised
the wordplay in the text and laudatory comparisons with the later works of James Joyce.
The second book was published in June 1965 and consisted of works and drawings similar to
the previous one in style without any meaning. He wrote it during the last touring year,
and the title was a play on words from "a spanner in the works". The book was less
successful than the first. 100,000 copies were sold in its first three months.
Books released at the height of Beatlemania solidified the public perception of
Lennon as "the smart one" of the Beatles and helped further legitimize pop musicians'
place in the culture of society.
In the summer of 1964, the musical
comedy film directed by Richard Lester, A Hard Day's Night, was released.
Inset: A Hard Day's Night (0:25:04 - 0:25:13)
Filmed at the height of Beatlemania, the
film showed 36 hours of the band's life as they prepared for their TV show. The movie was
a commercial success. Fans warmly welcomed it. Critics had cited the film's impact because it
directly led to all the kaleidoscopic London spy thrillers and comedies of the late sixties.
There were many moments during filming. George Harrison, in one scene, accidentally tore his
suit, and John Lennon, giving a girl reporter a written answer to the question “if he has
any hobbies”, wrote the word “boobs”. Also, there was his first meeting with his father in 17
years on one of the shooting days. Alfred Lennon arrived at the band's manager's office. Brian
Epstein sent a car for John. But the first guy's words at the meeting were: "What do you want?",
and the meeting lasted no more than 20 minutes. Then an angry John told him to get out.
A year later, the second Richard Lester project with The Beatles was released. Help! was a musical
comedy-adventure film about the band's struggles to record their new album. In parallel, they
try to protect Ringo Starr from a sinister cult and a pair of mad scientists while they were
obsessed with getting one of his rings.
The film had its Royal World Premiere at the
London Pavilion Theater in the West End of London, in the presence of Princess Margaret, Countess
of Snowdon and the Earl of Snowdon. Commercially, the film was still successful, although
it appealed to a smaller number of people. Some claimed that he influenced the development
of music videos. Following the film's release, the band released its soundtrack as
their self-titled 5th studio album.
In the same year, The Beatles received
recognition from the British establishment. The Liverpool Four were awarded the Members of the
Order of the British Empire in the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honors. By that time, the band had
become insanely popular, with more and more fans. Lennon was concerned that fans attending Beatles
concerts could not hear the music due to the crowd's screams. As a result, they had to play a
little louder, but musicality suffered from it.
The title track from the album "Help!"
expressed John's personal feelings in 1965. He recalls, "I meant it...
It was me singing 'help'". Then, because of the worries, he gained
weight, which he would later talk about as his "Fat Elvis" period. John felt that
he was subconsciously seeking changes.
In March of the same year, Lennon and Harrison,
not on their own free, took LSD. One evening, a dentist who hosted a dinner party, which was
attended by musicians with their wives, put the drug in the guests' coffee. At the time, the
mind-altering drug was still legal, and the public remained unaware of its existence. As the boys got
ready to leave, the dinner organizer revealed what they had taken and strongly advised them not to
leave the house due to the intended consequences. Later, in the nightclub elevator, they were
convinced that it was on fire! Lennon recalled: "We were all screaming ... hot and hysterical."
The personality of John Lennon, despite the popularity of the Beatles, stood apart and stood
out from the background of other band members. All the Beatles creative successes and victories
played into the hands of John. On the contrary, any of his statements and precedents did not
affect the group's reputation in the best way. In March 1966, during an interview with
Evening Standard reporter Maureen Cleave, Lennon remarked:
Inset quote: “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink ... We're more popular
than Jesus now – I don't know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity.” (John Lennon)
The comment was unnoticed in England, but caused great outrage in the US when a local magazine
quoted it five months later. The subsequent furore, which included the burning of Beatles
records, the activities of the Ku Klux Klan, and threats against Lennon, contributed to the
band's decision to stop performing in America.
After the band's last concert on August
29, 1966, John starred in Richard Lester's anti-war black comedy How I Won the War, based
on Patrick Ryan's 1963 novel of the same name. Lennon had just taken a break from The Beatles
and was invited by Richard Lester to play the role of Musketeer Gripweed in the film. It
was his first and last nonmusical role.
To prepare for it, John had his hair cut, and
the new hairstyle contrasted sharply with his mop-top haircut look. During filming, he began
to wear round "granny" glasses (the same ones worn by the screenwriter of the film Charles
Wood), standard glasses for the short-sighted. According to Paul McCartney, Lennon was "blind
as a bat". But thanks to filming with glasses, finally, he was able to see freely
and not worry about his appearance.
He mostly wore that particular style
of glasses for the rest of his life, although they were far from trendy. Now
they have become iconic and are known as John Lennon glasses. A photograph of Lennon as
Gripweed appeared in many print publications, including the front page of the first issue
of Rolling Stone Magazine in November 1967.
Inset: How I Won the War (0:28:54 - 0:29:01)
The Spanish location for filming was boring for
John, so Ringo Starr came to keep him company. However, working on the project was finally
a refreshing change in Lennon's increasingly challenging and isolated musical career with The
Beatles. Now he was just another cast member on set, a relatively minor one, who could interact
like a normal person with the crew and others. So Lennon insisted on visiting the filming
set every day as a learning experience, even if he wasn't needed there.
While in Almería, John rented a villa Santa Isabel, which he and his wife Cynthia Lennon
shared with his co-star Michael Crawford and his wife, Gabrielle Lewis. The wrought iron gates
and the surrounding lush vegetation of the villa reminded John of Strawberry Field, a Salvation
Army garden not far from his childhood home. It inspired Lennon to write the song
Strawberry Fields Forever during filming.
In November '66, John returned to his bandmates
for an extended recording of new material. Lennon became seriously addicted to LSD,
and according to British music critic and writer Ian MacDonald, his permanent drug
use in 1967 brought him close to erasing his identity. Lennon himself explained it:
Inset quote: “LSD was the self-knowledge which pointed the way. I was suddenly struck
by great visions when I first took acid. But you’ve got to be looking for
it before you can possibly find it. Perhaps I was looking without realising it.
Perhaps I would have found it anyway. It would have just taken longer” (John Lennon)
Soon, the single Strawberry Fields Forever was released, which was noted by Time magazine
for its "astonishing inventiveness". The album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band became the group's iconic and very successful record. 27 weeks at number one
on the Record Retailer chart in the United Kingdom and 15 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top
LPs chart in the United States. Critics noted the innovative approach to songwriting. John
Lennon's lyrics contrasted strongly with the simple love songs of the band's early years.
Do you think drugs influenced the development of the group's creativity, or did they become
such a legendary band by simply studying music? Write your opinion in the
comments. We read all of them.
The summer of 1967 was special for the
group and the whole world. People were already pretty tired of wars. Remembering the
Second World War, which had recently died out, humanity witnessed the Vietnam War,
which lasted for several years. Then, society was looking for ways to end that conflict
and tell the world that war was not an option, war was terrible, and instead of
war, you needed to show your love.
That's how Summer of Love happened. A social
phenomenon brought together about 100,000 young people who shared the fashion and hippie views
and gathered in San Francisco's neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury. Their movement included music,
hallucinogenic drugs, anti-war sentiment, and free love, and spread across the West
Coast of the United States to New York City.
By that time, John Lennon had written the song
All You Need Is Love, performed by the Beatles for the Our World satellite broadcast. The total
number of viewers was up to 400 million people worldwide. The song deliberately expressed a
pacifist position in simple words. It immediately became the Summer of Love anthem.
Inset: https://youtu.be/t5ze_e4R9QY?t=4 (0:03 - 0:13)
After that, LSD use decreased, and on August 26, the group publicly denounced
the drug, instead declaring their belief in the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi system of Transcendental
Meditation. The group even attended a personal training weekend in August - the Transcendental
Meditation seminar in Bangor, Wales. However, Lennon returned to the hallucinogenic world a
few times a year as he searched for a way to reset his mind and calm inner demons while
providing the world with great music.
The group found out about Brian Epstein's death
during a workshop in Bangor. It was another blow for The Beatles, but not so strong for Lennon, who
had already experienced several losses. Later in an interview, he recalled that period as:
Inset quote: “I knew we were in trouble then. I didn't have any misconceptions about our
ability to do anything other than play music. I was scared – I thought, 'We've
fucking had it now.” (John Lennon)
By that time, Lennon's aggressive personality
which had arisen in his childhood, disappeared, and he spent considerable time
sitting in his solarium or the garden, daydreaming for hours. He became a bit
uncommunicative towards people, including Cynthia, apart from the others from The Beatles, who had an
almost unspoken ability to understand each other. Cynthia once complained to John, saying
she "wish we had a holiday... John, Julian and me." To which Lennon replied:
Inset quote: “OK, I know, we'll all retire to a little cottage on a cliff in Cornwall, all right?
… No, I've got these bloody songs to write. I have to work, to justify living.” (John Lennon)
Cynthia understood his temperament, but felt frustrated that she had never developed her
career. John still loved Cynthia and his son, but gradually moved away from the family
due to work on songs for the new album.
In February 1968, The Beatles went to Maharishi's
ashram in India. Lennon had a personal interest. Arriving there, they wrote most of the songs
for their new album, which would also be the only double album The Beatles, or as it was
also called by the masses White Album.
In anticipation of the band's trip to India,
Cynthia found John's correspondence with Yoko Ono. They met at the London Indica Gallery in 1966,
where Ono was preparing for an exhibition of her work. John was skeptical about concept
art, but her exhibition intrigued him. Since then, they have been in contact.
Lennon denied a connection to Ono, claiming that she was just a crazy artist looking for sponsors,
although she made a flood of calls and visits to Kenwood. In India, he demanded a separate
bedroom for himself, explaining that he could only meditate in solitude, and went every morning
to check the mail from Yoko that came daily.
After returning to Kenwood from
India, Lennon drank on the plane and confessed to Cynthia about his connections
with "thousands of women around the world." Cynthia tried to support Lennon to the end.
And some time later, returning earlier than planned from a vacation from Greece, Cynthia
found John and Yoko Ono sitting on the veranda in a lotus position, in bathrobes. All that
was the reason for the couple's divorce, which was formalized in November of the
same year. As a result of the divorce, Cynthia received £100,000, another £2,400 a
year, and helped with Julian's maintenance.
At the same time, members of the group were
involved in the creation of the multimedia corporation Apple Corps, consisting of Apple
Records and several other subsidiaries. John called it "an attempt to achieve artistic
freedom in the business structure." However, the band's debut single for the Apple label, released
during the '68 protests, included Lennon's Revolution. The song's pacifist message drew
ridicule from political radicals in the press.
Released in November, the record became a
multi-genre breakthrough, including such genres as folk, British blues, ska, music hall,
pre-heavy metal, and the avant-garde. Thanks to that, critics recognized it as postmodern
and one of the greatest albums of all time!
Inset: https://youtu.be/mPTicWib3_w?t=1
(0:01 - 0:09)
