John Lennon, Beatle turned solo provocateur, fused peace anthems with a life marked by loss, love, and sudden violence.
MOODS · reflective · rebellious · tender · anthemic · melancholic · provocative · intimate · politically charged · nostalgic · raw · hopeful · defiant
BIOGRAPHY
John Winston Lennon was born 9 October 1940 in Liverpool, the only child of Alfred and Julia Lennon. His parents separated when he was four, and he was raised by his Aunt Mimi; his mother's death in a 1958 car accident was one of the most traumatic events of his life. As a teenager he embraced skiffle, forming the Quarrymen in 1956, the group that evolved into the Beatles in 1960, where his songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney became the most successful in history.
Lennon married Cynthia Powell in 1962, divorcing her in 1968, then married Yoko Ono in 1969, forming the Plastic Ono Band and staging the famed bed-in for peace before leaving the Beatles for a solo career. Between 1969 and 1972 he scored UK top-10 hits including 'Imagine' and 'Happy Xmas (War Is Over)'. After retiring to raise his son Sean, he returned with Double Fantasy in 1980, the same year he was shot and killed outside his Manhattan apartment.
WHY THEY'RE COOL
Lennon's story blends rock's most successful songwriting partnership with rebellion and vulnerability, moving from a fractured Liverpool childhood through a bed-in for peace to solo landmarks like 'Imagine' and 'Instant Karma!'. Critics have long noted the tension between his public image as an apostle of peace and love and the anger uncovered in accounts of his life, a contradiction that keeps his catalog compelling decades later. Double Fantasy, released weeks before his death, won the 1981 Grammy for Album of the Year, sealing a legacy marked by induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
GEORGE'S PLAYS
George has played this artist 5 times.
PLAYED ON WOKE1
