Ben Webster
American jazz saxophonist (1909-1973)
John Lennon, the legendary English singer-songwriter and founder of the Beatles, had a prolific and influential career that spanned music, writing, and film. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney is considered the most successful in history, and Lennon’s work was often characterized by its experimental and innovative nature, as well as its adoption as an anthem for the anti-war movement of the 1960s.
Table of Contents
Occupation
Family Info
Siblings
Ingrid Pederson
Julia Baird
Jacqueline Dykins
Spouses
Cynthia Lennon
Children
About the John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennonwas an English singer, songwriter and musician. He gained worldwide fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. His work included music, writing, drawings and film. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history as the primary songwriters in the Beatles.
Born in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager. In 1956, he formed the Quarrymen, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Sometimes called “the smart Beatle”, Lennon initially was the group’s de facto leader, a role he gradually seemed to cede to McCartney. Through his songwriting in the Beatles, he embraced myriad musical influences, initially writing and co-writing rock and pop-oriented hit songs in the band’s early years, then later incorporating experimental elements into his compositions in the latter half of the Beatles’ career as his songs became known for their increasing innovation. Lennon soon expanded his work into other media by participating in numerous films, including How I Won the War, and authoring In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works, both collections of nonsense writings and line drawings. Starting with “All You Need Is Love”, his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement and the larger counterculture of the 1960s. In 1969, he started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, multimedia artist Yoko Ono, held the two-week-long anti-war demonstration bed-in for peace, and left the Beatles to embark on a solo career.
Lennon and Ono collaborated on many works, including a trilogy of avant-garde albums and several more films. After the Beatles disbanded, Lennon released his solo debut John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and the international top-10 singles “Give Peace a Chance”, “Instant Karma!”, “Imagine”, and “Happy Xmasand David Bowieand the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (twice, as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1994).
Frequently Asked Questions
John Lennon was an English singer, songwriter, and musician who gained worldwide fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist, and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles.
John Lennon’s songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history as the primary songwriters in the Beatles.
Lennon initially wrote and co-wrote rock and pop-oriented hit songs in the Beatles’ early years, then later incorporated experimental elements into his compositions in the latter half of the Beatles’ career as his songs became known for their increasing innovation.
Lennon expanded his work into other media by participating in numerous films, including ‘How I Won the War’, and authoring ‘In His Own Write’ and ‘A Spaniard in the Works’, both collections of nonsense writings and line drawings.
Starting with ‘All You Need Is Love’, Lennon’s songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement and the larger counterculture of the 1960s. In 1969, he started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, Yoko Ono, and held the two-week-long anti-war demonstration bed-in for peace.
After the Beatles disbanded, Lennon released his solo debut ‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’ and had international top-10 singles such as ‘Give Peace a Chance’, ‘Instant Karma!’, ‘Imagine’, and ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’.
As a performer, writer or co-writer, Lennon had 25 number-one singles in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and his album ‘Double Fantasy’ won the 1981 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Lennon was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (twice, as a member of the Beatles and as a solo artist).
54 Quotes by John Lennon
- 1.
I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 2.
The more I see the less I know for sure.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 3.
The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 4.
And God help Bruce Springsteen when they decide he’s no longer God… They’ll turn on him, and I hope he survives it.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 5.
If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 6.
I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 7.
Everything is clearer when you’re in love.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 8.
The cross of the Legion of Honor has been conferred on me. However, few escape that distinction.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 9.
Love is the answer, and you know that for sure; Love is a flower, you’ve got to let it grow.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 10.
We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 11.
Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 12.
Rituals are important. Nowadays it’s hip not to be married. I’m not interested in being hip.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 13.
Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn’t insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 14.
These critics with the illusions they’ve created about artists – it’s like idol worship. They only like people when they’re on their way up… I cannot be on the way up again.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 15.
Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 16.
He didn’t come out of my belly, but my God, I’ve made his bones, because I’ve attended to every meal, and how he sleeps, and the fact that he swims like a fish because I took him to the ocean. I’m so proud of all those things. But he is my biggest pride.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 17.
Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn’t enough and you have to go and get shot or something.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 18.
When you’re drowning, you don’t say ‘I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,’ you just scream.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 19.
The postman wants an autograph. The cab driver wants a picture. The waitress wants a handshake. Everyone wants a piece of you.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 20.
Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 21.
All you need is love.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 22.
If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 23.
I don’t believe in killing whatever the reason!
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 24.
As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 25.
I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 26.
Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 27.
There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 28.
Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 29.
All we are saying is give peace a chance.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 30.
A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 31.
I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 32.
Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 33.
You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 34.
Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 35.
Possession isn’t nine-tenths of the law. It’s nine-tenths of the problem.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 36.
I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 37.
Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 38.
Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 39.
Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewelry.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 40.
My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 41.
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first – rock and roll or Christianity.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 42.
It doesn’t matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I’m a woman or a man.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 43.
If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 44.
It was like being in the eye of a hurricane. You’d wake up in a concert and think, Wow, how did I get here?
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 45.
If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that… I believe in what I do, and I’ll say it.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 46.
Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 47.
Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 48.
You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 49.
The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that’s making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 50.
We were all on this ship in the sixties, our generation, a ship going to discover the New World. And the Beatles were in the crow’s nest of that ship.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 51.
God is a concept by which we measure our pain.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 52.
We’ve got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 53.
You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)
- 54.
You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.
John LennonBritish musician (1940-1980)