John Lennon

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Birthday:

9 October 1940, Liverpool, Lancashire, England, UK

Birth Name:

John Winston Lennon

Height:

179 cm

John Winston (later Ono) Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England, to Julia (Stanley) and Alfred Lennon, a merchant seaman. He was of Irish, and some Welsh and English, ancestry. In the mid-1950s, he formed his first band, The Quarrymen (after Quarry Bank High School, which he attended) who, with the addition of Paul McCartney and George Harrison, later became The Beatles.After some years of performing in Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany, "Beatlemania" erupted in England and Europe in 1963 after the release of their singles "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me". The next year the Beatles flew to America to appear on Toast of the Town (1948) (aka The Ed Sullivan Show), and Beatlemania spread worldwide. Queen Elizabeth II granted all four Beatles M.B.E. medals in 1965, for import revenues from their record sales; John returned his four years later, as part of an antiwar statement. John and the Beatles continued to tour and perform live until 1966, when protests over his calling the Beatles phenomenon "more popular than Jesus" and the frustrations of touring made the band decide to quit the road. They devoted themselves to studio work, recording and releasing albums such as "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "Magical Mystery Tour" and the "White Album". Instead of appearing live, the band began making their own "pop clips" (an early term for music videos), which were featured on television programs of the time.In the late 1960s John began performing and making albums with his second wife Yoko Ono, as the Beatles began to break up. Their first two albums, "Two Virgins" and "Life With The Lions", were experimental and flops by Beatles standards, while their "Wedding Album" was almost a vanity work, but their live album "Live Peace In Toronto" became a Top Ten hit, at the end of the 1960s.In the early 1970s John and Yoko continued to record together, making television appearances and performing at charity concerts. After the release of John's biggest hit, "Imagine", they moved to the US, where John was nearly deported because of his political views (a late-'60s conviction for possession of hashish in the U.K. was the excuse given by the government), but after a four-year legal battle he won the right to stay. In the midst of this, John and Yoko separated for over a year; John lived in Los Angeles with personal assistant May Pang, while Yoko dated guitarist David Spinozza. When John made a guest appearance at Elton John's Thanksgiving 1974 concert, Yoko was in the audience, and surprised John backstage. They reconciled in early 1975, and Yoko soon became pregnant. After the birth of their son Sean Lennon, John settled into the roles of "househusband" and full-time daddy, while Yoko became his business manager; both appeared happy in their new life together.After a five-year break from music and the public eye, they made a comeback with their album "Double Fantasy", but within weeks of their re-emergence, Lennon was murdered on the evening of December 8, 1980 by Mark David Chapman, a one-time Beatles fan angry and jealous over John's ongoing career, who fatally shot Lennon four times in the back outside his apartment building, The Dakota, as Lennon was returning from a recording session. Within minutes after being shot, John Lennon was dead at age 40. His violent death was a sudden and tragic end to the life of a talented singer and musician who wanted to make a difference in the world. Show less «

When real music comes to me - the music of the spheres, the music that surpasseth understanding - that has nothing to do with me, 'cause I'm...Show more »

When real music comes to me - the music of the spheres, the music that surpasseth understanding - that has nothing to do with me, 'cause I'm just the channel. The only joy for me is for it to be given to me, and to transcribe it like a medium...those moments are what I live for. Show less «

Will all the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? All the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry. [At Royal Variety Perform...Show more »

Will all the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? All the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry. [At Royal Variety Performance 4th November 1963] Show less «

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preache...Show more »

My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all. Show less «

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

We're all Christ and we're all Hitler. We are trying to make Christ's message contemporary. We want Christ to win. What would he have done i...Show more »

We're all Christ and we're all Hitler. We are trying to make Christ's message contemporary. We want Christ to win. What would he have done if he had advertisements, T.V., records, films and newspapers? The miracle today is communication. So Let's use it. Show less «

Love means having to say you're sorry every fifteen minutes.

My defenses were so great. The cocky rock and roll hero who knows all the answers was actually a terrified guy who didn't know how to cry. S...Show more »

My defenses were so great. The cocky rock and roll hero who knows all the answers was actually a terrified guy who didn't know how to cry. Simple. Show less «

Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that, I'm right and will be proved right. We're (the Beatles) more po...Show more »

Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that, I'm right and will be proved right. We're (the Beatles) more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me. I don't know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity. (to London's Evening Standard, 1966) Show less «

[looking back on his "more popular than Jesus" comment] I always remember to thank Jesus for the end of my touring days; if I hadn't said th...Show more »

[looking back on his "more popular than Jesus" comment] I always remember to thank Jesus for the end of my touring days; if I hadn't said that the Beatles were 'bigger than Jesus' and upset the very Christian Ku Klux Klan, well, Lord, I might still be up there with all the other performing fleas! God bless America. Thank you, Jesus. Show less «

I've made two 'discoveries' in my life: Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono. I think that's a pretty damned good choice.

(on reconciling with Yoko in 1975, after more than a year apart) The separation didn't work out.

(late 1960s) My name's not John Beatle, it's John Lennon.

Everybody loves you when you're six foot in the ground.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.

If everybody wished for peace instead of another television set, then there would be peace.

The more I see, the less I know for sure.

Elvis really died the day he joined the army. That's when they killed him, and the rest was a living death.

Before Elvis there was nothing

[Asked by a reporter if Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world]: In the world? He's not even the best drummer in The Beatles!

Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted.

(on meeting his teenage crush, Brigitte Bardot, in 1968) I was on acid, and she was on her way out.

Well, we all know about "Yesterday. I have had so much accolade for "Yesterday. That is Paul's song, of course, and Paul's baby. Well done. ...Show more »

Well, we all know about "Yesterday. I have had so much accolade for "Yesterday. That is Paul's song, of course, and Paul's baby. Well done. Beautiful - and I never wished I had written it. [From the 1980 Playboy Interviews] Show less «

My wife forced me to become avant-garde when all I wanted to be was Tom Jones.

(on hearing that Elvis Presley had died) Elvis dies and his manager lives. Our manager died and we lived.

(about the song "Help!") I was eating and drinking like a pig, and I was fat as a pig, dissatisfied with myself, and subconsciously I was cr...Show more »

(about the song "Help!") I was eating and drinking like a pig, and I was fat as a pig, dissatisfied with myself, and subconsciously I was crying for help. It was my fat Elvis period. Show less «

Eternity is a hell of a long time.

(at a 1971 rally) OK, so Flower Power didn't work. So what?! We start again.

[on the song "Mother"] A lot of people thought it was just about my parents, but it's about ninety-nine percent of the parents, alive or hal...Show more »

[on the song "Mother"] A lot of people thought it was just about my parents, but it's about ninety-nine percent of the parents, alive or half-dead. Show less «

Music is everybody's possession. It's only lawyers who think you can buy and sell it.

I'm often afraid, and I'm not afraid to be afraid, though it's always scary. But it's more painful to try not to be yourself.

People think The Beatles know what's going on. We don't. We're just doing it.

I'm not going to waste my life as I have been, which was running at 20,000 miles an hour. I have to learn not to do that, because I don't wa...Show more »

I'm not going to waste my life as I have been, which was running at 20,000 miles an hour. I have to learn not to do that, because I don't want to die at 40. Show less «

When I used to see cowboys-and-Indians films when I was a kid in Liverpool, I was always on the side of the Indians.

'Imagine' is a big hit almost everywhere - anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic, but because it is sugar...Show more »

'Imagine' is a big hit almost everywhere - anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic, but because it is sugar-coated, it is accepted. Now I understand what you have to do. Put your political message across with a little honey. Show less «

We're not the first to say, 'Imagine no countries' or 'Give peace a chance,' but we're carrying that torch, like the Olympic torch, passing ...Show more »

We're not the first to say, 'Imagine no countries' or 'Give peace a chance,' but we're carrying that torch, like the Olympic torch, passing it from hand to hand, to each other, to each country, to each generation. That's our job. Show less «

I don't belong to any left wing, right wing, middle wing, Black Panthers, white Christians, Protestants, Catholics or nothing.

[In his last-ever interview on the day he was murdered, December 8th 1980] I consider that my work won't be finished until I'm dead and buri...Show more »

[In his last-ever interview on the day he was murdered, December 8th 1980] I consider that my work won't be finished until I'm dead and buried and I hope that's a long, long time. Show less «

Nobody controls me. I'm uncontrollable. The only one who controls me is me, and that's just barely possible.

[Offered mange-tout peas, in a high-class restaurant] Can you put them over there, away from the food?

In the old days I used to think song writing was this and you know, "I love you" and "You love me" and my writing was something else you kno...Show more »

In the old days I used to think song writing was this and you know, "I love you" and "You love me" and my writing was something else you know. Even if I didn't think of it quite like that. But then I just realized through Dylan and other people, Bob Dylan - not Thomas, that it is the same thing. That's what I didn't realize being so naive you know, that you don't write pop songs and then you do that and then you do that. Everything you do is the same thing, so do it the same way. But sometimes I'll write lyrics to a song first and then I get the same feeling as Kakky Hargreaves or a poem and then write the music to it after. So then it's a poem sung, sometimes the tune comes and then you just put suitable words to fit the tune, if the tune's doo der loo der loo der la and then you have shagga boo choo cha - you know, you have sound words then, just the sound of it, 'cus it is all sound, everything's vibrations I believe, you know, everything is sound really or vision. And just the difference between sound and vision I'm not quite sure about. Show less «

Sex is the only kind of exercise I bother with.

[on his father Alfred showing up after the Beatles hit it big]: It was the second time in my life I'd seen him - I wasn't having him in the ...Show more »

[on his father Alfred showing up after the Beatles hit it big]: It was the second time in my life I'd seen him - I wasn't having him in the house. Show less «

My life with the Beatles had become a trap... I always remember to thank Jesus for the end of my touring days; if I hadn't said that the Bea...Show more »

My life with the Beatles had become a trap... I always remember to thank Jesus for the end of my touring days; if I hadn't said that the Beatles were 'bigger than Jesus' and upset the very Christian Ku Klux Klan, well, Lord, I might still be up there with all the other performing fleas! God bless America. Thank you, Jesus. Show less «

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 Chri...Show more »

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. Show less «

Here I am in my Hansel and Gretel house, famous and loaded, and I can't go anywhere. There's something else I'm going to do, only I don't kn...Show more »

Here I am in my Hansel and Gretel house, famous and loaded, and I can't go anywhere. There's something else I'm going to do, only I don't know what it is, but I do know this isn't it for me. Show less «

The Beatles haven't got any magic you haven't got. We suffer like hell anytime we make anything, and we got each other to contend with. Imag...Show more »

The Beatles haven't got any magic you haven't got. We suffer like hell anytime we make anything, and we got each other to contend with. Imagine working with The Beatles, it's tough. Show less «

I will need to be a lot older before I can face in public the way I treated women as a youngster. (1980)

Without James Dean, the Beatles would have never existed.

[on why he chose to publicly apologize for his "Jesus" comments] I couldn't go away knowing I'd created another little piece of hate in the ...Show more »

[on why he chose to publicly apologize for his "Jesus" comments] I couldn't go away knowing I'd created another little piece of hate in the world. Show less «

[Sitting with Yoko Ono, reading from a fan's letter, in 1969] "Dear Mr Lennon, from information I received while using a Ouijee Board I beli...Show more »

[Sitting with Yoko Ono, reading from a fan's letter, in 1969] "Dear Mr Lennon, from information I received while using a Ouijee Board I believe that there will be an attempt to assassinate you. The spirit that gave me this information was Brian Epstein." [They laugh] "He said the attempt would be made, take place, March 6th, 17th, Mr Epstein also said that Paul McCartney was alive in London." [They laugh again] "Is that true? Please take this letter seriously as I would very much prefer for you to be alive then." Show less «

[on The Beatles] We were the sons of The Goon Show (1968). We were the extension of that rebellion, in a way.

He's not technically good, but I think Ringo's drumming is underrated the same way Paul's bass-playing is underrated.

If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that's a problem. Peace and love are ete...Show more »

If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that's a problem. Peace and love are eternal. Show less «