Named: John Winston Lennon
Born: 9th of October, 1940
Died: 8th of December, 1980
Parents: Alfred and Julia
Siblings: None

           John Lennon was born on the 9th of December, 1940 to Alfred and Julia Lennon. His
 father, a seaman, left home shortly after John was born, and was sent to her sister Mimi 
because, it was sad, she could not support her child. John was 4 1/2 when he was turned cut 
to the suburbs. All the sorrow, rage and confusion of his early boyhood were taken up again 
in songs like Julia and Mother. These early years were not an unhealed would for John, but 
more nearly a root, a deep physics wellspring from which he could draw reserves of hand
truth. He had brown eyes and brown hair. He likes the colour black, steak and chips and
jelly. John played the harmonica, maracas, and "a bit of piano and banjo," and spends most
of his spare time writing, playing records, and composing. He likes music, books curries,
painting, television and some modern jazz. He dislikes thickheads and traditional jazz. 

           John was already into his teens, living fifteen minute from his mother but seldom
seeing her when rock 'n' rol grabbed hold of him and never let loose. All the raw glories or
Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis shook him by his shoe. He 
responded with the rowdiness that already set him apart from his peers and caused their 
parents concern. Paul McCartney's father warned his son clear of John, which amounted 
to an open if inadvertent invitation to frendship.
       
           By his 16th year, John had formed his first band, The Quarrymen, and Paul 
McCartney had enlisted as guitar player. John and Paul began to write songs together
almost as soon as they had finished tuning up, and they played any gig the band could get.
By the end of 1956, though he had his first rock group and a best friend, Lennon
suffered a lasting wound. His mother was killed in an accident, while she stood 
waiting for a bus. As he said, "I lost her twice."

           Two years later, George Harrison had joined the Quarrymen, and the band 
was actually earning some money. They had their own fans, and a growing reputation
that took them to club dates in the rest of the boys, they favored black leather 
jackets, pegged pants and stomper boots. John was sending long and passionate mushy
notes back home to Cynthia Powell, his future wife.

           He was also a student at the Liverpool College of Art whil the Quarryman
were still gigging around. "I knew John would always be a bohemia," his Aunt Mimi
recalled. "But I wanted him to have some sort of job. Here he was nearly 21 years
old, touring around halls for £3 a night. Where was the point in that?"

          Toward the end of 1967 and in early 1968, the Beatles did start trying to make 
contact with the real world again. They found that their faces had become so famous that,
like the Queen, people don't expect to see them in the street, or in a Whimpy bar. They 
managed quite easly to go into little cafes in Soho during the cutting of the Magical 
Mystery Tour. By getting in a corner with a few technicians and talking away, 
they just looked like another group of film people. So many people at the time looked
like the Beatles anyway, with sideboards and moustaches. "I did a run with Ringo once. 
We went to the pictues, for the first time in years and years, since we'd lived in 
Liverpool. We went to see a Morecambe and Wise film in Esher. We choose a Matinee, 
thinking it would be quiet, but we forgot the schools were off, and it was packed. 
We didn't get to see the whole film. We had an ice cream, them left. Nobody bothered 
us. It was a picture run. I might do it more often."

	Then along came Yoko Ono. At last, he had found a kindred spirt, if of a very
unusual kind. John was immediately sparked into life. He was away on a new plane, 
realizing at once that Paul, who until then, had been his best buddy, his soul mate,
was in many ways as conventional as Cynthia. Together, John and Yoko discovered new
and all-consuming aims. The rest of the Beatles didn't matter any more. When Paul 
came up with the idea for, say, a live TV show, John wasn't really interested. Yoko 
moved into John's life and into his work--sitting with him during the final Beatle 
sessions. The others weren't exactly thrilled at her influence over John on her 
continual presence in the studio. George and Ringo had become bored anyway, and 
this took the remaining fun out of it. John and Yoko's own fun was moving in new 
and different directions. Making music as Beatles finally finished in 1969. Let 
It Be came out in 1970, but it had been recorded almost a year before.

	The death of John highlighted his enormous contribution to popular music
and to the youth of the west. It also brought to an and any suggestion that the 
Beatles would never get together again. The Beatles had died emotionally by 1970, 
there was the first buiral in 1980.

	One of the effects of John's death was that three remaining ex-Beatles 
immediately became highly concerned about security matters. They had tried of 
live fairly private lives after the split, and go their various ways. Since 
1980, they have realized that even as private figures, they must take great care.