The Life and Legacy of John Lennon

John Lennon was born on October 9th, 1940. His full name was John Winston Lennon but as a teen he went by ‘Teddy Boy’,, His parents names were Alfred Lennon and Julia Stanley. His parents divorced because Julia had relations with another man and became pregnant while her husband was away at work, this had resulted in John living with his Aunt Mimi and His Uncle George. While he lived with his Aunt Mimi his mother would visit regularly and encouraged John’s musical interests, even though Aunt Mimi was against them. John was very insecure with his nose because he thought it was too big while growing up. His first instrument he learned to play was the harmonica. He went to Dovedale Primary School after which attended Quarry Bank High School from 1952-1957. John was very musically inspired by Elvis Presley and when he was 16 he formed a band called the Quarrymen which he had named after his high school, but his aunt Mimi doubted than John would become anything out of just playing guitar. He met Paul McCartney at a church fete in 1957 and asked him to join The Quarrymen. Paul introduces George Harrison to John Lennon the following year and George ended up joining The Quarrymen along with the drummer much needed Pete Best. The Quarrymen often practiced in the bathroom and John would stand shoeless in the bathtub. John's mother Julia was was killed after she was hit by an off duty police officer in 1958 when John was only 17. His mother's death traumatized him for a long time. John later develops a fear of being an abandoned. He was a troublemaker during high school and failed all his GCE O-level examinations. He had an amazing artistic ability applied for multiple art schools, and He was accepted in Liverpool College of Arts. He failed his exam and was kicked out of college.

The Beatles is the main reason for Lennons popularity and fame. They had been “Bigger than Jesus”. The group was formed in 1963, though JOhn, George, and Paul had been together and performing gigs with Pete. But later on had been introduced to Richard Starkey ‘Ringo’. JOhn and Paul wrote the songs like ‘Come together’, ‘You’ve got to hide your love away’, ‘Happiness is a warm gun’, ‘I am the Walrus’, ‘help’, etc. The Beatles were a big part of John's life, he spent 8 years performing and writing songs for his band ‘The Beatles’. The Beatles were getting very difficult with harder to work with each other, so they ended up splitting up but starting their own musical careers themselves.

John met a woman named Cynthia Powell at a college part and asked her to “go out” with him, Cynthia was engaged but ended the engagement to be with John. They started a relationship but later JOhns jealousy made him react violent and abusive to her, one incident John was jealous and Cynthia danced with another guy which caused him to slap her in the face resulting in her hitting her head off the wall. They ended the relationship for 3 months but resumed the relationship after John apologized. People suggested that she should stay out of the relationship due to abusive behavior. They got married August 23rd, 1962, John was 21 and Cynthia was 22. The marriage was kept on the low. Cynthia became pregnant with John, and had their son Julian (named after John's mother) April 8th, 1963. John wasn’t good at parenting with Julian and wasn’t really there for him. John and Cynthia ended up divorcing, because john had gotten very intoxicated and admitted to having an affair with other woman. He claimed he had been seeing thousands of women all over the globe. She had found him with Yoko Ono sitting crossed legged on the floor staring into eachothers eyes. She also found Yoko's slippers outside of JOhns bedroom door. Cynthia filed divorce on August 22, 1968. Her divorce request was granted almost 3 months later.

Yoko and John had met at an Art Gallery in 1966, later on they had began to start an Affair as John was still married to Cynthia Lennon. After John and Cynthia divorced, Yoko and John became a public relationship immediately. They married in 1970 on March 20th, and had a son together named Sean Lennon. They were both activists against the war. They even held a two week bed in to protest against the VIetnam War. It was a belief than John had beaten Ono, as in Domestic Violence. John believed that Yoko brought out the best of him, the old, younger John who he was before. John had begin bringing Yoko to the studio where they practiced, the band members and staff were rude and cold to Yoko which made John bitter, since he was obsessed with her. Yoko and John released 360 white helium balloons to announce their engagement even though neither were completely divorced at the time. Each balloon contained a messages encouraging people to write to John at an art gallery. John and Yoko ended up releasing an album called ´Unfinished Music NO.1: Two Virgins.´ The album caused lots of controversy because the two were photographed completely naked. They shot frontally nude for the front of the album and a shot from behind for the back of the album. Some people thought the album was pornographic. Police rapped on the windows showing the warrant, and came through the window in search of illegal drugs, which they did find and fined Lennon for possession of illegal substances. Yoko had a miscarriage and John stayed with her 24/7 while she was in the hospital. When everything died down from the arrest and the miscarriage, John had become and antiwar activist. They married on March 20th, 1969, on an island named Gibraltar, then flew out to paris for their honeymoon. They held multiple antiwar stay-ins and such. After three miscarriages, John and Yoko were rewarded with a child on October 9th, 1972 Sean Taro Ono Lennon. The date was on JOhns 32 birthday. They split up in October 1973, They were getting on eachothers nerves after this he had gotten with a woman whom he called “The lost weekend that lasted eighteen months.” John and Yoko eventually got back together until John Lennon was assassinated.

John Lennon was assassinated on December 8th, 1980. Mark David Chapman, the man who killed John Lennon was mentally disturbed and for years was racked by voices that he believed was God and the Devil. He had read in a magazine article about John Lennon than described him as a phony, Chapman at the time was reading the book Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the book is obsessed with protection kids and doing away with phonies. He daydreamed about shooting people he disliked. Chapman armed himself with a handgun and flew out to New York CIty. He rented a hotel room close to Dakota and went looking for John Lennon. A photographer pointed Lennon out to Chapman. Chapman asked Lennon to sign the album and he did. Chapman hung around the Dakotas entrance and chatted to the doormen for hours. Lennon and Ono stepped out of their car and Chapman followed towards the door, he pulled out his five-shot gun and fired repeatedly but only two struck John in the back, he fell onto the lobby floor, he could not be resuscitated, but was pronounced dead at the hospital. At the time Yoko ran for cover in fear, then when he stopped fire Yoko ran over to John and cradled his body. Chapman hung around and threw his gun on the sidewalk until the police arrived. He whined and cried when the cops pushed him against the wall and handcuffed him.

After the assassination of John Lennon many people, fans, family, and friends were impacted. John had fans from all around the world, his death left them all heart broken and outraged. Yoko was devastated, and she didn’t know how to tell their son that John had been killed. Fans were broken hearted that the inspirational and beautiful man they had loved had been taken away by only one movement, when Chapman pulled the trigger and didn’t know how much pain and heartache he would cause. People thought it was the end of the Music Era because of Johns unexpected death, but Yoko reassured,” This is not the end of an Era, The ‘80s are still going to be a beautiful time, and John believed it.” Even though the pain everyone was facing they knew than John wouldn’t want this. During this time, the mourning of John’s death lasted years, multiple people were torn apart. He was a peace activist and it was unbelievable and terrible that he was killed with a gun. Guns were used in war, John was against that. John strived for peace, he protested and helped out charities to try and get to his goal: World Peace! He still lives on and thrives for peace in his music. People who listen to his music still can feel and hear the message he’s trying to get across

In conclusion of this essay, John Lennon had a long life and lived it to the fullest. He was a singer/musician in 2 bands and bloomed into a huge part of history. He married twice, had two kids and made a lot of friends, fans, and acquaintances. He and his success is honored and inspires multiple people around the world to be just like him and not give up with their dreams. Lennon was rejected a lot throughout his life and he still made it to the top, and that inspires people to work harder for what they want and not give up. Even though he was hurt on his way to success he got to where he wanted to be and accomplished what nobody thought he would. He gave all the advice and help to who needed it and tried to help them out as much as he could. He started off as a music-loving-teenager who wasn’t really accepted and ended up turning into a huge musician, singer, and peace icon around the world. For generations people looked up to John Lennon and his music, and people still do. He and his music has not been forgotten. His legacy still lives on, his music will inspire and help people understand the meaning of who he was and what he wanted the world to be. John wanted peace, nothing but peace. He sends that message through his music. His music, legacy, and soul still go on with the intentions and hopes to inspire others to be more like him and create world peace and bring everyone together.