Today commemorates one of the saddest days in music history, in history of the world. The day John Lennon was assassinated.
Thirty years ago, John Winston Ono Lennon was shot outside his home in New York. The day the music died.
Lennon was born in war-time England, on 9 October 1940 and was a rebellious youth. His musical career started at 15 years of age in 1956 and The Beatles evolved from Lennon’s first band, the Quarrymen.
Subsequently joined by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Richard Starkey, more commonly known as Ringo Starr, the band’s first single, Love Me Do, was released in October 1962 and reached #17 on the British charts. They recorded their debut album, Please Please Me, in under 10 hours on 11 February 1963.
Lennon had yet to bring his love of wordplay to bear on his song 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”.
In a 1987 interview, McCartney said that the other Beatles idolised John: “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”.
He married Cythia Powell in 1962 after discovering she was pregnant with their son, Julian. His married life was tumultous and they divorced.
The Beatles achieved mainstream success in the UK in 1963. After a year of Beatlemania in the UK, the group’s historic 1964 US debut marked their breakthrough to international stardom. A two-year period of constant touring, moviemaking, and songwriting followed, during which Lennon wrote two books, In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works.
Lennon grew concerned that fans attending Beatles concerts were unable to hear the music above the screaming of fans, and that the band’s musicianship was beginning to suffer as a result. Lennon’s Help! expressed his own feelings in 1965: “I meant it … It was me singing ‘help’”.
After having been introduced to a Yogi, the group attended a weekend of personal instruction at his Transcendental Meditation seminar in Wales. This marked the spiritual side of the band, which then wrote Across the Universe. They travelled to the Yogi’s ashram in India for further guidance, after their manager’s death, and while there composed most of the songs for The Beatles and Abbey Road.
The anti-war, black comedy, How I Won the War, featuring Lennon’s only appearance in a non–Beatles full-length film, was shown in cinemas in 1967.
The band took a turn towards the political and with Lennon’s meeting of Yoko Ono, the started to disintegrate. After collaborating with The Rolling Stones during the British Invasion, Lennon and Ono married in 1969. Lennon’s creative focus continued to move beyond the Beatles and between 1968 and 1969 he and Ono recorded three albums.
His solo career was marked by anti-war politics and songs like Working class Hero, Give Peace a Chance, and the most famous Imagine grew out of this consciousness. The rest of his solo career was secondary to his activism and he moved to New York.
On 8 December 1980, as Lennon and Ono returned to their New York apartment, Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back four times at the entrance to the building.
Lennon was taken to the emergency room of nearby Roosevelt Hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:07 pm. Earlier that evening, Lennon had autographed a copy of the album Double Fantasy for Chapman.
Ono issued a statement the next day, saying “There is no funeral for John,” ending it with the words, “John loved and prayed for the human race. Please pray the same for him.” His body was cremated and Ono scattered his ashes in New York’s Central Park, where the Strawberry Fields memorial was later created.
Lennon’s influence on the world is still apparent today. He is a symbol of proactiveness and conscientisation. His music has had bearing on the music of today, evident in Danger Mouse’s Grey Album and the Save Darfur album, in which current artists covered his songs. Movies like Across the Universe and I am Sam have paid homage to his and The Beatles’ genius.
His lyrics still resonate in popular culture and The Beatles changed the face of music; from poppy trash, we now have music filled with meaning and a cause to fight for. From anti-war sentiments, to anti-discrimination, climate change conscientisation and activism, music has become a means of raising awareness, rabble-rousing and a social tool. Music has become a means of changing the world due to Lennon’s influence.
His life sparked a war between the man and the US, resulting in a documentary, The US vs John Lennon. This mapped his struggles against the imperialism of the US which still runs under the guise of democracy.
And who can forget the famous image of the Fab Four walking across Abbey Road. An image which has become legend.
Thirty years later, The Beatles music has been released to iTunes and is being disseminated more widely than ever before. Outpourings of remembrance and grief flood Twitter and Facebook today, with people posting lyrics and messages of hope. It really seems that Lennon was proved right, that The Beatles are bigger than Jesus Christ.
The world still mourns his death and aside from the great activism and music, the thing that John Lennon gave the world was hope. Hope that the world can be a better place and that people have the power to shape the world.
A dreamer, a visionary and an icon of peace, love and kindness, the world greatly misses the man who imagined a world without hate and war. In the (altered) words of Don McLean, I could have told you, Lennon, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.
