Today would be the 70th birthday of John Lennon.  He was born October 9, 1940 in the Liverpool Maternity Hospital to Alfred and Julia Lennon.  The Germans were bombing London at the time, and his father was a merchant seaman.  Alfred went AWOL in  1943, then reappeared a year later to find his spouse pregnant with another man’s child.  John’s aunt Mary Smith obtained custody of him, and he grew up in the home that Mary shared with her husband George.  Alfred came back in 1946 and offered to take John to New Zealand with him.  When John chose his mother’s family, he lost contact with his father for 20 years.

Mary and Julia had three other sisters, and John was surrounded by family for his early years.  He later described those days:

“Part of me would like to be accepted by all facets of society and not be this loudmouthed lunatic musician. But I cannot be what I am not. Because of my attitude, all the other boys’ parents … instinctively recognised what I was, which was a troublemaker, meaning I did not conform and I would influence their kids, which I did. … I did my best to disrupt every friend’s home … Partly, maybe, it was out 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, intelligent women. Five sisters. One happened to be my mother. … She just couldn’t deal with life. She had a husband who ran away to sea and the war was on and she couldn’t cope with me, and when I was four and a half, I ended up living with her elder sister … those women were fantastic … That was my first feminist education … that knowledge and the fact that I wasn’t with my parents made me see that parents are not gods.”

Those words are made even more interesting in light of Lennon’s later relationships with his first wife Cynthia and son Julian. 

In one of his last major interviews Lennon said that until he met Ono, he had never questioned his chauvinistic attitude to women. The Beatles’ song “Getting Better“, he said, told his own story: “All that ‘I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved’ was me. 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 helped to transform music fully as much as music transformed him.  His mother purchased his first guitar in 1957.  His aunt Mary frequently advised that “the guitar is very well, John, but you’ll never make a living at it” and prefered that he continue his studies.  However, despite help from his first wife Cynthia, he failed a vital exam and left the Liverpool College of Arts without graduating.

John and some friends formed The Quarrymen, which played skiffle music.  Paul McCartney had joined the band despite admonitions from his father that Lennon would get him “into trouble”. From this beginning came the Beatles, and music was never quite the same.  John and Paul began to write songs together, George Harrison and Ringo Starr joined, and Brian Epstein began to manage the group.  Brian had a sense of marketing and created the trademark Beatles “look”.  They began touring in Germany, then released “Love Me Do” which hit the English charts and climbed to 17th.  Their first album “Please Please Me” was a hit, and the Beatles were off and running.

Between 1963 and 1964, the Beatles became mainstream in England.  Then, in February of 1964, they debuted on The Ed Sullivan Show and the British Invasion began.  American teenagers adopted the hair styles and apparel that came with the music, and American homes rang with parents shouting “Turn that down!”  “You’re going out looking like THAT???” and “For God’s sake comb/cut your hair!”

Change came in 1966.  Lennon fretted that there was so much screaming at the Beatles concerts that the words were lost in the din,.  He was introduced to LSD at a party hosted by his dentist.  LSD (which was not illegal until 1969) had been added to the coffee by the host was transformational to John Lennon.  He waved good-bye to the simpler lyrics of the early period and whistled up a “newspaper taxi” to carry him into the next phase of life, where with some pharmaceutical assistance he could explore the uncharted regions of his mind.  The Beatles met the Maharishi Yogi at a seminar in Wales, an occasion marred by the sudden unexpected death of their manager Brian Epstein.

Lennon was aware that Epstein would be difficult to replace.  The group formed Apple Records and embarked upon making movies.  Magical Mystery Tour was a box office flop, but the eponymous soundtrack was a huge success.  The Beatles searched for a manager and finally settled on Allen Klein over Paul’s objections.

At this point, Paul had left his first wife and was pursuing Linda, John had left Cynthia and Julian for Yoko Ono and things were generally in the sort of mess that unlimited money and fame can create.  Lennon left the Beatles in late 1969, and the group disbanded in 1970.

John formed the Plastic Ono Band andwent solo.  Some of his most moving pieces include “Mother”, “Working Class Hero”, “Power to the People” and “Imagine”.  He became so active in the anti-war movement that the Nixon administration embarked upon the now-infamous movement to deport him.  (He was denied a green card until 1976.)  John and Yoko had marital problems and drifted for awhile until a reconciliation brought about the birth of his son Sean.  This began a five year period of withdrawal into home and family for John.  He did no serious recording until just before his death on December 8, 1980.

Lennon was also a rather talented artist and writer.  Some of his works were published posthumously including Skywriting by Word of Mouth and Real Love: The Drawings for Sean.

Whatever may be said or thought of his talent, his basic story is poignant for an entire generation of post-war babies who watched the world evolve through the phenomena that was John Lennon.  He influenced many things through his persona and talents.

This is an open thread.