Yoko had gotten pregnant after a long time of troubles with miscarriages and not being able to conceive and John stayed home. John was the one getting up with Sean at night, and John was the one feeding him as well as taking care of him when he was sick. According to the book Lennon in America, John was also a hypochondriac. Was always worrying about Sean. The book also explains that Sean was also sick as a child. So I guess he had every right to be. Nevertheless, John had become the House Husband
From what the story goes, John pretty much hung his guitar up behind the door and that is where it sat for almost five full years. Here is his exact quotes from the 1988 Imagine movie.
John: Sean was born on October the 9th, which I was, so we're almost like twins. It's a pleasure for me to hang around the house. I was always a homebody. I think a lot of musicians are. I had been so locked in to home environment, and completely switched my way of thinking, that I really didn't think about music at all. My guitar was sort of hung up behind the bed, literally. And I just don't think I took it down in 5 years.
As he stated in his Playboy interview when asked what he has been doing for the past five years he said, "Baking Bread!" This was true. John was just hanging around and baking bread. He would take Sean out for walks around the park, he would take Sean out to eat.
When Sean started to get a little older it was going to be John and Yoko's decision to not send Sean to school but to have him home schooled. This might have had something to do with the threats that the Lennon's were receiving at home. They were receiving late night calls to the apartment by a stranger who was threatening their lives as well as Sean's. This went on for some time. John and Yoko had hired a bodyguard for Sean when he was out. I'm not quite sure whether or not this person was ever caught or not.
There was also a photographer that actually acted as a repair man and sneaked inside the Dakota and was snooping around until he was caught inside John and Yoko's bedroom. This photographer was also the same one who took the famous "Last picture of John Lennon". This was the picture that was taken out side of the Dakota building when John Lennon signed what would turn out to be his death certificate. It was the picture that was of John Lennon signing the Double Fantasy album for Mark David Chapman.
Along with this John's paranoia grew quite large. He thought everyone was out to get him. Little did he really know. So John hung out at the Dakota and had visitors. I'm not sure how frequent but Paul McCartney was one of them. John said in one of his interviews that "The only thing about living in New York is that, every single person who you ever knew in the music business thinks it's ok to just come and knocks at your door."
I take it John was not one for visitors.
John started to get a little restless and was kind of growing bored not being in the light of music anymore. He decided to it was time to start writing again.
John from the movie Imagine:
John:" I'd go through periods of panic, because I was not in Billboard or being seen at Studio 54 with Mick and Bianca. I mean, I didn't exist anymore. And I realized there was a life without it. I thought, "This reminds me of being 15!" I didn't have to write songs at 15. I wrote if I wanted to. That's when I suddenly could do it again with ease. All the songs that are on Double Fantasy all came within a period of 3 weeks."
What would be their first album in five years and what turned out to be John Lennon's last album. Not only did John sound so good. But he also looked much better. He looked well rested. And It was time for John to make the 80's the best time of his life. John said "They say life begins at 40, and if that is true ....I am ready.........
Double Fantasy was released in November of 1980. The album was a masterpiece and just the beginning of what John thought was going to be a series of albums. He was going to be a chart topper again. He was giving interviews, he was taking pictures, and he was signing autographs. He was being seen in public again. He was going to his favorite coffee shop for his java. He was a new man. He was going into the eighties feeling good.
John:: "When I was singing and writing this and working with her, I was visualizing all the people of my age group. I'm singing to them, I'm saying, Here I am now. How are you? How's your relationship going? Did you get through it all? Wasn't the 70s a drag, you know? Here we are. Well, let's try and make the 80s good, you know?"
John and his assistant sailed down to Bermuda. This is where John created some of his best solo material. Watching the wheels, Woman, Grow old with me, this list just goes on. He was loving himself and his life. He was recording everything he was doing. He knew this was going to be the big one. When he returned to New York he continued to record at home. Putting all of his thought and You could hear it in his voice that he was ready.
He was ready.
John:" It's not out of our control. I still believe in love, peace. I still believe in positive thinking. While there's life, there's hope. Because I've always considered my work one piece. And I consider that my work won't be finished until I'm dead and buried. And I hope that's a long, long time."
I think he knew someway, somehow, he knew something was about to go wrong. Dead wrong.
Back to Main......or.....December 8 ,1980