In the summer of 1963, the Beatles had two hits on the British charts and had just come off their third tour of the UK. Although he was making a name for himself, John Lennon was still just another successful pop musician among many in Britain at the time. But by the following summer, with the group’s unprecedented leap to the front of the musical pack, his would become one of the four best-known faces on earth.
Beatlemania — the frenzied adulation of the Fab Four that often invoked the ire of Lennon for the screaming that utterly obliterated their music — first entered our collective vocabulary in October 1963 when the Beatles headlined Britain’s most prestigious televised variety show, Sunday Night at the London Palladium. Upon their return from a Swedish tour later that same month, the group experienced their first mob scene at London’s Heathrow Airport where thousands of hysterical teenage girls and a horde of journalists and photographers had gathered to welcome them home.
America was not so easily enamored, however. In fact, the powers that be in the US recording industry, who represented the world’s most lucrative pop market, were initially unimpressed with the Beatles, so much so that the group’s first three UK singles (“From Me to You,” “She Loves You,” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand”) had been declined as “unsuitable” for market in the States when they were initially submitted to Capitol Records by Beatles’ producer, George Martin. But in an effort to lighten the gloom that set in after John F. Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, several American media outlets ran stories on the mop-topped musicians from Liverpool just prior to their arrival in the States and sparked a sudden and overwhelming demand for the group. Capitol knuckled under and released “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in December of 1963 and by mid-January 1964, it was the number one single in America. When the Pan Am flight carrying the Beatles touched down in New York City on February 7, 1964, they were greeted by a throng of screaming teenagers that numbered in the thousands. The group’s appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show a couple days later was watched by approximately 74 million viewers — over 40 percent of the American population.
Following their breakthrough in the States, the Beatles returned to Britain where they entered a two-year period of constant touring, moviemaking and songwriting that was by now dominated by Lennon and McCartney. During this time Lennon also penned In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works, two books of surreal and nonsensical short stories and line drawings that marked the first solo Beatle project in any form.
By 1966 the Beatlemania craze had begun to wane. Lennon and his bandmates’ lives were put in danger when they were accused of snubbing the presidential family in the Philippines. And then came one of the most controversial statements John Lennon would ever make. In an interview with Maureen Cleave of London’s Evening Standard, Lennon, who had been reading about religion, made the now infamous comment that, “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." The remark, which he claims was taken out of context, went virtually unnoticed in England, but when the article appeared in an American teen magazine some months later, all hell broke loose. “We were used to him sounding off like that and knew it was ironically meant. Americans have little sense of irony,” said Cleave. The Beatles faced a fierce backlash from US religious and social conservatives that included burning the band’s records as well as Ku Klux Klan activity, and threats against Lennon, all of which contributed to the band’s decision to stop touring. “John wanted to give up more than the others,” Ringo said. “He said that he'd had enough.” The Beatles gave their final live performance on August 29, 1966, at a concert in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park.
Feeling somewhat lost after everything that had gone down, John Lennon considered leaving The Beatles. He began using LSD on a regular basis to try and gain the necessary introspection that might wean him from his dependence on the persona of Beatle John. His use of the drug began to profoundly affect his songwriting as evidenced on what is still considered by many to be the greatest rock album ever, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Released in 1967, the critically acclaimed album contained songs by Lennon that were in stark contrast to the more simple love songs of his earlier work. The surrealistic lyricism of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” for example is quite a stretch from songs like “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” and “Norwegian Wood,” written two years earlier for the Rubber Soul and Help! albums respectively. Lennon’s lyrics would become even more cryptic with “I Am the Walrus” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” off the Magical Mystery Tour LP, also released in 1967.
The Beatles retreated into Transcendental Meditation in 1968 and traveled to an ashram in India to study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for several months. The influence of the Maharishi and the journey to Rishikesh to meditate weaned Lennon and the other Beatles off LSD and inspired them to write many new songs. According to Beatles’ biographer Barry Miles, “It was an extraordinary period of creativity for them, during which they wrote almost all of the songs that would appear on both the White Album and Abbey Road.” John would later call their involvement with the Maharishi “an error of judgment” when the Maharishi was accused of inappropriate behavior and of attempting to manipulate the group. A disillusioned Lennon left the ashram abruptly when these accusations came to light and in his anger wrote the song “Sexy Sadie,” which was originally titled “Maharishi.”
Woven into all the drama surrounding the Beatles at the time was Yoko Ono. There are a couple stories floating around out there of how the two met. Depending on which version you ascribe to, Lennon either met Ono in late 1965 when she was in London compiling original musical scores for a book John Cage was working on. As told by McCartney, Ono began telephoning Lennon’s home. When his wife Cynthia asked for an explanation, he told her Ono was a mad person trying to obtain money for her "avant-garde bull****". The second account has the two meeting in late 1966 when Lennon was introduced to Ono at the Indica gallery in London where she was preparing her conceptual art exhibit. Either way, once the two got together, they became inseparable. While his wife was on holiday in Greece in 1968, Lennon invited Ono to visit. They spent the night recording what would become the Two Virgins album, after which, they said, they consummated their relationship at dawn. John Lennon and Yoko Ono were married on March 20, 1969.
Lennon’s creative focus continued to evolve beyond the Beatles as he and Ono recorded three albums of experimental music together. In 1969 the duo formed The Plastic Ono Band and released the singles “Give Peace a Chance” (widely adopted as an anti-Vietnam-War anthem), “Cold Turkey” (documenting his withdrawal symptoms after he became addicted to heroin), and “Instant Karma!.” In September 1969, John Lennon left the Beatles just after the group completed recording Abbey Road. They officially disbanded in 1970 after the release of Let It Be. Although there were numerous causes for the Beatles' break-up — including the cessation of touring in 1966, the death of their manager Brian Epstein in 1967, and their involvement in financial and legal conflicts — many still blame Ono for coming between Lennon and McCartney and breaking up what was one of the most popular and influential musical groups in history.
After the demise of The Beatles, Lennon released what is considered to be one of his finest solo albums, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. He followed the album up a year later with Imagine, the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed of all John Lennon’s post-Beatles efforts. The title track was later listed as the third all-time best song by Rolling Stone magazine.
Lennon and Ono moved to the US in September 1971, but were constantly threatened with deportation by the Nixon administration. Lennon was told he was being kicked out of the country because of his 1968 marijuana conviction in Britain, but he believed the true reason was his activism against the unpopular Vietnam War. (Documents later proved him correct.) That immigration battle took a toll on the Lennon’s marriage and in the fall of 1973, the couple separated. John went to Los Angeles, where he partied and took a mistress. He still managed to release hit albums such as Mind Games, Walls and Bridges, and Rock and Roll. John and Yoko eventually reconciled and she gave birth to their only child together, Sean, on Lennon’s 35th birthday, an event which prompted John to put his musical career on hold to raise his son and become a househusband. Two years after Nixon resigned, Lennon was granted permanent US residency in 1976.
John Lennon emerged from retirement in October 1980. After five years with little musical activity, he was bursting with creativity and returned to the record charts with the album Double Fantasy, featuring the hit single "(Just Like) Starting Over". The 40-year-old Lennon was said to be re-energized and passionate about life and music again after having found fulfillment in the stable family life that he'd been deprived of in his own youth. And then he crossed paths with Mark David Chapman. Ironically, John Lennon’s life would come full circle in that moment — ending in violence much as it had begun.
