Topic > The Life and Legacy of John Lennon

John Lennon was born on 9 October 1940. His full name was John Winston Lennon but as a teenager he was called "Teddy Boy", his parents' names were Alfred Lennon and Julia Stanley. His parents divorced because Julia had had affairs with another man and became pregnant while her husband was away at work, this had led John to live with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George. While he lived with his Aunt Mimi, his mother visited him regularly and encouraged John's musical interests, even if Aunt Mimi was against it. John was very insecure with his nose because he thought it was too big as he grew. The first instrument he learned to play was the harmonica. He went to Dovedale Primary School and then attended Quarry Bank High School from 1952 to 1957. John was very inspired musically by Elvis Presley and when he was 16 he formed a band called The Quarrymen which was named after his high school, but his aunt Mimi he doubted John would become anything just by playing the guitar. He met Paul McCartney at a church party in 1957 and asked him to join the Quarrymen. Paul introduced George Harrison to John Lennon the following year and George ended up joining the Quarrymen along with much needed drummer Pete Best. The Quarrymen often practiced in the bathroom, and John was left shoeless in the bathtub. John's mother, Julia, was killed after being shot by an off-duty police officer in 1958, when John was just 17 years old. His mother's death traumatized him for a long time. John later develops a fear of being abandoned. He was a troublemaker during high school and failed all his GCE O-level exams. He had extraordinary artistic ability applied to several art schools and was accepted into the Liverpool College of Arts. He failed the exam and was expelled from college. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The Beatles are the main reason for Lennon's popularity and fame. They had been “greater than Jesus.” The group formed in 1963, although JOhn, George and Paul had been together and performed concerts with Pete. But later he was introduced to Richard Starkey "Ringo". JOhn and Paul wrote 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". It was becoming very difficult for the Beatles to work together, so they ended up separating but starting their own musical career. John met a woman named Cynthia Powell at a college party and asked her to "date" him, Cynthia was engaged but ended the engagement to be with John. They started a relationship, but later JOhn's jealousy made him react violently and abusively towards her, an incident where John was jealous and Cynthia danced with another guy, which made him slap her in the face making her bang your head against the wall. They broke off the relationship for 3 months, but resumed the relationship after John apologized. People suggested she stay out of the relationship because of the abusive behavior. They married on August 23, 1962, John was 21 and Cynthia was 22. The wedding was kept low-key. Cynthia became pregnant with John and had their son Julian (named after John's mother) on April 8, 1963. John wasn't good at parenting Julian and wasn't really there for him. John and Cynthia ended up divorcing, because John had become very drunk and admitted to having an affair with another woman. He claimed to have seen thousands of women around the world. She found him with Yoko Ono sitting on their legscrossed on the floor staring into each other's eyes. He also found Yoko's slippers outside John's bedroom door. Cynthia filed for divorce on August 22, 1968. Her divorce petition was granted almost 3 months later. Yoko and John had met at an ArtGallery in 1966, later starting an affair as John was still married to Cynthia Lennon. After John and Cynthia divorced, Yoko and John immediately began a public relationship. They married in 1970 on March 20 and had a son together named Sean Lennon. They were both anti-war activists. They also held a bed for two weeks to protest the Vietnam War. It was believed that John had beaten Ono, as in Domestic Violence. John believed that Yoko brought out the best in him, the old and young John he was before. John had started bringing Yoko to the studio where they practiced, the band members and staff were rude and cold to Yoko, which made John bitter, as he was obsessed with her. Yoko and John released 360 white helium balloons to announce their engagement even though neither were fully divorced at the time. Each balloon contained a message encouraging people to write to John at an art gallery. John and Yoko ended up releasing an album titled “Unfinished Music NO.1: Two Virgins.” The album caused a lot of controversy because the two were photographed completely naked. They shot nude from the front for the front of the album and a shot from behind for the back of the album. Some people thought the album was pornographic. The police knocked on the windows showing the warrant and entered the window looking for illegal drugs, which they found 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 calmed down due to the arrest and miscarriage, John became an anti-war activist. They married on March 20, 1969, on an island called Gibraltar, then flew to Paris for their honeymoon. They held numerous anti-war rallies and things like that. After three miscarriages, John and Yoko were rewarded with a son on October 9, 1972 Sean Taro Ono Lennon. The date was John's 32nd birthday. They separated in October 1973. They were getting on each other's nerves after he had a woman he called "The Lost Weekend of Eighteen Months." John and Yoko eventually got back together until John Lennon was murdered. John Lennon was murdered on December 8, 1980. Mark David Chapman, the man who killed John Lennon was mentally disturbed and for years was tormented by voices that he believed were God and the Lord. Devil. He had read an article in a magazine about John Lennon describing him as an impostor, Chapman was reading the book Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger at the time, the book is obsessed with protecting children and eliminating fakes. He daydreamed about shooting people he didn't like. Chapman armed himself with a gun and flew to New York City. He rented a hotel room near the 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 stood at the entrance to the Dakota and chatted with the doormen for hours. Lennon and Ono got out of the car and Chapman followed them to the door, took out his five shot pistol and fired repeatedly but only two hit John in the back, he fell to the foyer floor, could not be resuscitated, but was pronounced dead in hospital. At that moment Yoko ran for cover out of fear, then when he stopped the fire Yoko ran towards John and cradled his body. Chapman remained nearby and threw the gun on the sidewalk until the police arrived.