Biography Duet

John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE(9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter whorose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, and together with Paul McCartney formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.

Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager, his first band, The Quarrymen, evolving into The Beatlesin 1960. As the group began to undergo the disintegration that led totheir break-up towards the end of that decade, Lennon launched a solocareer that would span the next, punctuated by critically acclaimedalbums, including John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and iconic songs such as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine".

Lennon revealed a rebellious nature and acerbic wit in his music,his writing, on film, and in interviews, and became controversialthrough his work as a peace activist. He moved to New York City in1971, where his criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a lengthy attempt by Richard Nixon'sadministration to deport him, while his songs were adapted as anthemsby the anti-war movement. Disengaging himself from the music businessin 1975 to devote time to his family, Lennon reemerged in October 1980with a new single and a comeback album, Double Fantasy, but was murdered weeks after their release.

Lennon's solo album sales in the United States alone stand at 14 million units,^[1] and as performer, writer, or co-writer he is responsible for 27 number one singles on the US Hot 100 chart.^a In 2002, a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest BritonsRolling Stone ranked him the fifth greatest singer of all time. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. voted him eighth, and in 2008 Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth greatest singer of all time. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

History

1940–57: Early years

Lennon was born on 9 October 1940 in Liverpool Maternity Hospital, Oxford Street, Liverpool, to Julia and Alfred Lennon.^[2] According to some biographers, a German air raid was taking place, and Julia's sister, Mary "Mimi" Smith, used the light cast by the explosions to see her way as she ran through the blacked-out back roads to reach the hospital.^[3]^[4]Smith said later, "I knew the moment I saw John in that hospital that Iwas the one to be his mother, not Julia. Does that sound awful? Itisn't, really, because Julia accepted it as something perfectlynatural. She used to say, 'You're his real mother. All I did was givebirth.'"^[5] Lennon was named after his paternal grandfather, John "Jack" Lennon, and Winston Churchill.^[3]

Lennon's father, a merchant seaman during World War II, was oftenaway from home and sent regular pay cheques to 9 Newcastle Road,Liverpool, where Lennon lived with his mother. The cheques stopped whenAlfred Lennon went absent without leave in 1943.^[6]When he eventually came home in 1944, he offered to look after thefamily, but his wife (who was pregnant with another man's child)rejected the idea.^[7]Under considerable pressure, she handed the care of Lennon over to hersister after the latter registered a complaint with Liverpool's SocialServices. In July 1946, Lennon's father visited Smith and took his sonto Blackpool, secretly intending to emigrate to New Zealand with him.^[8]Lennon's mother followed them, and, after a heated argument, his fatherforced the five-year-old to choose between his parents. Lennon chosehis father—twice. As his mother walked away, Lennon began to cry andfollowed her. Lennon then lost contact with his father for 20 years.^[9]

Mendips, the home of George and Mimi Smith, where Lennon lived for most of his childhood and adolescence

Throughout the rest of his childhood and adolescence, Lennon lived with his aunt and uncle, Mimi and George Smith, at Mendips, 251 Menlove Avenue, Woolton. In September 1980 he would have this to say about his childhood, his family and his rebellious nature:

Part of me would like to be accepted by all facets of society andnot be this loudmouthed lunatic musician. But I cannot be what I amnot. Because of my attitude, all the other boys' parents ...instinctively recognised what I was, which was a troublemaker, meaningI did not conform and I would influence their kids, which I did. ... Idid my best to disrupt every friend's home ... Partly, maybe, it wasout of envy that I didn't have this so-called home. But I really did... There were five women who were my family. Five strong, intelligentwomen. Five sisters. One happened to be my mother. ... She justcouldn't deal with life. She had a husband who ran away to sea and thewar was on and she couldn't cope with me, and when I was four and ahalf, I ended up living with her elder sister ... those women werefantastic ... That was my first feminist education ... that knowledgeand the fact that I wasn't with my parents made me see that parents arenot gods.^[10]

The couple had no children of their own. His aunt bought him volumesof short stories, and his uncle, who was a dairyman at his family'sfarm, bought him a mouth organ and engaged him in solving crosswordpuzzles.^[11]Elvis Presley records, and taught him to play the banjo. The first song he learned to play was Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame".^[12]Lennon's mother visited Mendips almost every day, and when he was 11 heoften visited her at 1 Blomfield Road, Liverpool. She played him

Lennon regularly visited his cousin Stanley Parkes in Fleetwood.Seven years Lennon's senior, Parkes frequently took him on trips, andthe pair enjoyed films together at the local cinema. During the schoolholidays, Parkes often visited Lennon with Leila, another cousin, andthey would all go to Blackpool on the tram two or three times a week to watch shows. They would visit the Blackpool Tower Circus and see artists such as Dickie Valentine, Arthur Askey, Max Bygraves and Joe Loss. Parkes recalls that Lennon particularly liked George Formby.They regularly passed Formby's house on the bus journey from Preston toFleetwood, often spotting the singer and his wife sitting in deckchairs in their front garden and exchanging waves with them. Parkes andLennon were keen fans of Fleetwood Flyers Speedway Club and FleetwoodTown FC. After Parkes's family moved to Scotland, the three cousinsoften spent their school holidays together there. Parkes recalled,"John, cousin Leila and I were very close. From Edinburgh we wouldbundle into the car and head up to the family croft at Durness. That went on from about the time John was nine years old until he was about 16".^[13]

Lennon was raised as an Anglican and attended Dovedale Primary School.^[14] From September 1952 to 1957, after passing his Eleven-Plus exam, he attended Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool, where he was known as a "happy-go-lucky" pupil, drawing comical cartoons and mimicking his teachers.^[15]At the end of his third year, his school report was damning: "Hopeless.Rather a clown in class. A shocking report. He is wasting other pupils'time." He was 14 when his uncle died in June 1955.^[16]

Guitars, including a Rickenbacker 325, of the sort played by Lennon

Lennon's mother bought him his first guitar in 1957, a cheap Gallotone Championacoustic "guaranteed not to split". She arranged for it to be deliveredto her own house, knowing that her sister, sceptical of Lennon's claimthat he would be famous one day, hoped he would grow bored with music,often telling him, "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll nevermake a living out of it".^[17] On 15 July 1958, when Lennon was 17, his mother, out walking near the Smiths' house, was struck by a car and killed.^[18]

Lennon failed all his GCE O-level examinations, and was only accepted into the Liverpool College of Art after his aunt and headmaster intervened. Once at the college, he wore Teddy Boyclothes and acquired a reputation for disrupting classes and ridiculingteachers. As a result, he was excluded from first the painting classand then the graphic arts course. He was threatened with expulsion forhis behaviour, which included sitting on a nude model's lap during alife drawing class.^[19] He failed an annual exam, despite help from fellow student and future wife Cynthia Powell, and dropped out of college before his final year.^[20]