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John Lennon was the Beatles’ most committed rock &
roller, their social conscience, and their slyest verbal
wit. After the group’s breakup, he and his second wife,
Yoko Ono, carried on intertwined solo careers. Ono’s
early albums presaged the elastic, screechy vocal style of
late-Seventies new wavers like the B-52’s and Lene
Lovich. L7 and Babes in Toyland have also been influenced
by and benefitted from Ono’s attitudinal, emotionally
trailblazing work. Lennon strove to break taboos and to be
ruthlessly, publicly honest. When he was murdered on
December 8,1980, be and Ono seemed on the verge of a new,
more optimistic phase. In the years since Lennon’s
death, many critics and music historians have revised
their view of Ono to recognize her contributions as a
pioneering woman rock musician and avant-garde artist.
Like the other three Beatles, Lennon was born to a
working-class family in Liverpool. His parents, Julia and
Fred, separated before be was two (Lennon saw his father
only twice in the next 20 years), and Lennon went to live
with his mother’s sister, Mimi Smith; when Lennon was 17
his mother was killed by a bus. He attended Liverpool’s
Dovedale Primary School and later the Quarry Bank High
School, which supplied the name for his first band, a
skiffle group called the Quarrymen, which he started in
1955. In the summer of 1956 he met Paul McCartney, and
they began writing songs together and forming groups, the
last of which was the Beatles [see entry]. In 1994 a tape
of John and the Quarrymen performing two songs, made July
6,1957, the day he met McCartney, came to light. Recorded
by Bob Molyneux, then a member of the church’s youth
club, it was auctioned at Sotheby’s that September,
fetching $122,900 from EMI. On the tape Lennon sings
"Puttin’ on the Style," then a #1 hit for
skiffle king Lonnie Donegan, and "Baby Let’s Play
House," the Arthur "Hard Rock" Gunter song
that had been recorded by Elvis Presley and a line of
which ("I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than
to be with another man") Lennon later used in the
Beatles’ "Run for Your Life."
Just before the Beatles’ official breakup in 1970
(Lennon had wanted to quit the band earlier), Lennon began
his solo career, more than ball of which consisted of
collaborations with Ono.
Ono was raised in Tokyo by her wealthy Japanese banking
family. She was an excellent student (in 1952 she became
the first woman admitted to study philosophy at Japan’s
Gakushuin University) and moved to the U.S. in 1953 to
study at Sarah Lawrence College. After dropping out, she
became involved in the Fluxus movement, led by NeW York
avant-garde conceptual artists including George Maciunas,
La Monte Young, Diane Wakoski, and Walter De Maria. During
the early Sixties Ono’s works (many of which were
conceptual pieces, some involving audience participation)
were exhibited and/or performed at the Village Gate,
Carnegie Recital Hall, and numerous New York galleries. In
the mid-Sixties she lectured at Wesleyan College and had
exhibitions in Japan and London, where she met Lennon in
1966 at the Indica Gallery.
The two began corresponding, and in September 1967 Lennon
sponsored Ono’s "Half Wind Show" at London’s
Lisson Gallery. In May 1968 Ono visited Lennon at his home
in Weybridge, and that night they recorded the tapes that
would later be released as Two Virgins. (The nude cover
shots, taken by Lennon with an automatic camera, were
photographed then as well.) Lennon soon separated from his
wife, Cynthia (with whom he had one child, Julian, in
1964); they were divorced that November. Lennon and Ono
became constant companions.
Frustrated by his role with the Beatles, Lennon, with Ono,
got a chance to explore avant-garde art, music, and film.
While he regarded his relationship with Ono as the most
important thing in his life, the couple’s inseparability
and Ono’s influence over Lennon would be a source of
great tension among the Beatles, then in their last days.
Three days after Lennon’s divorce, he and Ono released
Two Virgins, which, because of the full frontal nude
photos of the couple on the jacket, was the subject of
much controversy; the LP was shipped in a plain brown
wrapper. On March 20, 1969, Lennon and Ono were married in
Gibraltar; for their honeymoon, they held their first
"Bed-in for Peace," in the presidential suite of
the Amsterdam Hilton. The peace movement was the first of
several political causes the couple would take up over the
years, but it was the one that generated the most
publicity. On April 22, Lennon changed his middle name
from Winston to Ono. In May they attempted to continue
their bed-in in the United States, but when U.S.
authorities forbade them to enter the country because of
their arrest on drug charges in October 1968, the bed-in
resumed in Montreal. That May, in their suite at the Queen
Elizabeth Hotel, they recorded "Give Peace a
Chance"; background chanters included Timothy Leary,
Tommy Smothers, and numerous Hare Krishnas. Soon afterward
"The Ballad of John and Yoko" (#8, 1969) was
released under the Beatles name, though only Lennon and
McCartney appear on the record.
In September Lennon, Ono, and the Plastic Ono Band (which
included Eric Clapton, Alan White, and Klaus Voormann)
performed live in Toronto at a Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival
show. The appearance, which was later released as Live
Peace in Toronto, 1969, was Lennon’s first performance
before a live concert audience in three years. Less than a
month later be announced to the Beatles that be was
quitting the group, but it was agreed among them that no
public announcement would be made until after pending
lawsuits involving Apple and manager Allen Klein were
resolved. In October the Plastic Ono Band released
"Cold Turkey" (#30, 1969), which the Beatles had
declined to record, and the next month Lennon returned his
M.B.E. medal to the Queen. In a letter to the Queen,
Lennon cited Britain’s involvement in Biafra and support
of the U.S. in Vietnam and -- jokingly -- Cold
Turkey" ‘s poor chart showing as reasons for the
return.
The Lennons continued their peace campaign with speeches
to the press; "War Is Over! If You Want It"
billboards erected on December 15 in 12 cities around the
world, including New York, Hollywood, London, and Toronto;
and plans for a peace festival in Toronto. While the
festival plans deteriorated, Lennon turned his attention
to recording "Instant Karma! ," which was
produced by Phil Spector, who was then also editing hours
of tapes into the album that would be the Beatles’ last
official release, Let It Be In late February 1970 Lennon
disavowed any connection with the Peace Festival and the
event was abandoned. In April McCartney -- in a move that
Lennon felt was an act of betrayal -- announced his
departure from the Beatles and released his solo LP. From
this point on (if not earlier), Ono replaced McCartney as
Lennon’s main collaborator. The Beatles were no more.
At the time, much attention was focused on Ono’s alleged
role in the band’s end. An Esquire magazine piece
racistly entitled "John Rennon’s Excrusive Gloupie"
was an extreme example of the decidedly anti-woman,
anti-Asian backlash against Ono that she and Lennon would
endure for years to come. As Ono told Lennon biographer
Jon Wiener in a late 1983 interview for his book Come
Together: John Lennon in His Time, "When John I were
first together he got lots of threatening letters: ‘That
Oriental will slit your throat while you’re sleeping.’
The Western hero had been seized by an Eastern
demon."
In late 1970 Lennon and Ono released their Plastic Ono
Band solo LPs. Generally, Ono’s Seventies LPs were
regarded as highly adventurous avant-garde works, and were
thus never as popular as Lennon’s. His contained
"Mother," which, along with other songs, was his
most personal and, some felt, disturbing work -- the
direct result of his and Ono’s primal scream therapy
with Dr. Arthur Janov. In March 1971 "Power to the
People" hit #11, and that September Lennon’s solo
LP Imagine was released; it went to #1 a month later. By
late 1971 Lennon and Ono had resumed their political
activities, drawn to leftist political figures like Abbie
Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Their involvement was reflected
on Some Time in New York City (recorded with Elephant’s
Memory [see entry]), which included Lennon’s most
overtly political releases (his and Ono’s "Woman Is
the Nigger of the World" and Ono’s "Sisters, 0
Sisters"). The album sold poorly, reaching only #48.
Over the next two years Lennon released Mind Games (#9)
and Walls and Bridges (#1), which yielded his only solo #1
bit, "Whatever Gets You thru the Night,"
recorded with Elton John. On November 28, 1974, Lennon
made his last public appearance, at John’s Madison
Square Garden concert. The two performed three songs:
"Whatever Gets You thru the Night," "I Saw
Her Standing There," and "Lucy in the Sky with
Diamonds," released on an EP after Lennon’s death.
Next came Rock ‘n’ Roll, a collection of Lennon’s
versions of Fifties and early-Sixties rock classics like
"Be-Bop-a-Lula." The release was preceded by a
bootleg copy, produced by Morris Levy, over which Lennon
successfully sued Levy. Rock ‘n ‘Roll (#6,1975) would
be Lennon’s last solo release during his lifetime except
for Shaved Fish, a greatest-hits compilation.
Meanwhile, Lennon’s energies were increasingly directed
toward his legal battle with the U.S. Immigration
Department, which sought his deportation on the grounds of
his previous drug arrest and involvement with the American
radical left. On October 7,1975, the U.S. court of appeals
overturned the deportation order; in 1976 Lennon received
permanent resident status. On October 9,1975, Lennon’s
35th birthday, Ono gave birth to Sean Ono Lennon.
Beginning in 1975, Lennon devoted his full attention to
his new son and his marriage, which had survived an
18-month separation from October 1973 to March 1975. For
the next five years, be lived at home in nearly total
seclusion, taking care of Sean while Ono ran the
couple’s financial affairs. Not until the publication of
a full-page newspaper ad in May 1979 explaining his and
Ono’s activities did Lennon even hint at a possible
return to recording.
In September 1980 he and Ono signed a contract with the
newly formed Geffen Records, and on November 15 they
released Double Fantasy (#1, 1980). A series of revealing
interviews were published, "(Just Like) Starting
Over" hit #1, and there was talk of a possible world
tour.
But on December 8,1980, Lennon, returning with Ono to
their Dakota apartment on New York City’s Upper West
Side, was shot seven times by Mark David Chapman, a
25-year-old drifter and Beatles fan to whom Lennon had
given an autograph a few hours earlier. Lennon was
pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital. At
Ono’s request, on December 14 a ten-minute silent vigil
was held at 2:00 p.m. EST in which millions around the
world participated. Lennon’s remains were cremated in
Hartsdale, New York. At the time of his death, Lennon was
holding in band a tape of Ono’s "Walking on Thin
Ice."
Two other singles from Double Fantasy were hits:
"Woman" (#2, 1981) and "Watching the
Wheels" (#10, 1981). Double Fantasy won a Grammy for
Album of the Year (1981). Three months after the murder,
Ono released Season of Glass (#49), an LP that deals with
Lennon’s death (his cracked and bloodstained eyeglasses
are shown on the front jacket), although many of the songs
were written before his shooting. Season of Glass is the
best known of Ono’s solo LPs; it was the first to
receive attention outside avant-garde and critical
circles.
In 1982 Ono left Geffen for Polydor, where she released
It’s Alright, Milk and Honey (which featured six songs
by Ono and six by Lennon) (#11, 1984), and Starpeace.
During the Starpeace Tour Ono performed behind the Iron
Curtain, in Budapest, Hungary, but the tour was not as
warmly received elsewhere. None of these albums was
particularly successful commercially, but in the wake of
renewed appreciation for Ono’s work, Rykodisc issued the
six-CD box set Onobox in 1992 (Walking on Thin Ice is a
compilation from that). In 1984 a number of artists,
including Rosanne Cash, Harry Nilsson, Elvis Costello,
Roberta Flack, and Sean Lennon (in his recording debut)
participated in Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him, a
collection of Ono songs. Following a 1989 retrospective at
New York’s Whitney Museum, Ono’s work found a new
audience and has since been shown continuously throughout
the world. In 1994 she wrote a rock opera entitled New
York Rock, which ran Off-Broadway for two weeks to largely
positive reviews. Clearly autobiographical, the play was a
love story that ends in a murder, and featured songs from
every phase of her recording career.
In addition to pursuing her own projects, Ono has
maintained careful watch over the Lennon legacy. In the
mid-Eighties she opened the Lennon archives to Andrew Solt
and David Wolper for their 1988 film biography Imagine
(which was accompanied by a coffee-table photo book of the
same title). Coming as it did just a few months after the
publication of Albert Goldman’s scurrilous The Lives of
John Lennon, some observers saw Imagine as a piece of spin
control. In fact, however, it had been in the works for
over five years by then. Ono’s decision not to sue
Goldman (she stated that her lawyers warned that legal
action would only bring more attention to the discredited
tome) was in itself controversial. Paul McCartney urged a
public boycott of the Goldman book, which was almost
universally reviled. Shortly after its publication, Sean
asked to study abroad, and Ono accompanied him to Geneva,
where they took up residence for a few years. On September
30, 1988, a week before Imagine’s release, John Lennon
received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is
located near the Capitol Records building.
On March 21, 1984, Ono, Sean Lennon, and Julian Lennon
were present as New York City mayor Ed Koch officially
opened Strawberry Fields, a triangular section of Central
Park dedicated to his memory and filled with plants,
rocks, and other objects that Ono had solicited from heads
of state around the world. The day before, March 20,
marked the couple’s 15th wedding anniversary.
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