Johnny We Hardly Knew 'Ya - On The 28th Anniversary of John Lennon's Murder

Johnny We Hardly Knew 'Ya

Please comment on your feelings about John Lennon.

Today is the twenty-eighth anniversary of the murder of John Winston Lennon (9 October 1940 - 8 December 1980). He would have been sixty-eight years old. This is the second year I have written about Lennon on the anniversary of his death. This year I had mixed feelings as I just finished reading The Lives of John Lennon by Albert Goldman. I still feel John is someone we can emulate. I think we have an expectation of those people we consider great that they be perfect, that they somehow be better than us. I have seen this many times pertaining to many different people. Someone on Gather made reference to Thomas Jefferson because of the flaws in his character and wasn't John Adams so much better because of it. I would have to say no to this, the character of their greatness does not change because they have flaws, the reason for this in my opinion is because they have stood up and showed their particular signs of greatness despite these flaws, this is a sign of greatness. John Lennon was such a man.

Lennon was born in Liverpool, England during a World War II air raid. He is said to have been in many ways a very angry man. I would attribute this to the events of his childhood. Lennon's mother Julia was a very vivacious women. She was not the typical woman of that time. His father Freddie (Alfred Lennon) was often at sea. By the time Lennon was four Julia had taken a lover. She soon became pregnant. While she was pregnant John lived with Freddie's brother's family. The child Victoria was given up for adoption. John was then returned to Julia who soon took up with a man named Bobby (John) Dykins. Julia basically cut Freddie out of her life. When John was about five Freddie decided to emigrate to New Zealand with a friend and take John with him. Julia would not have it, they forced John to decide which parent he wished to stay with and he chose Julia. Julia then turned John over to her sister Mimi as his foster parent. He became reunited with Julia (now calling herself Julia Dykins) and met his two half sisters Julia and Jacqueline Dykins when he was eleven (while still living with Aunt Mimi), only to lose her again at age seventeen when she was hit and killed by a car driven by a drunk off-duty policeman on 15 July 1958. The policeman was acquitted of all charges and given a short suspension from duty. Lennon's first child by his wife Cynthia Lennon, John Charles Julian Lennon was called Julian after Lennon's mother. Lennon was not to be reunited with his father until after The Beatles became famous. Lennon's early life was filled with many losses. The events of his childhood and his problems in school (undiagnosed dyslexia) made him a very angry and lost boy and that anger and loss never fully went away.

What can I say about John Lennon and music without writing a book? When The Beatles first came on the American scene I was seven or eight. I was into music but they did not seem that much different then many other groups of that time. I liked their music. I have never been a screamer, even then I was into content over form. There was the inevitable question of who was your favorite Beatle. I always said Ringo because no one else seemed to pick him. It was not until the albums Rubber Soul and Revolver that I really starting to see the true genius (yes I said genius) of John Lennon. As Lennon grew as a person, as he grew to feel more confident he began to speak his mind through his music. Each Beatle seems to hold a position in the public eye. Paul was the cute one, he had public relations abilities, he aspired to know the other art worlds and incorporate these into his music. Ringo was seen as the jester. George was seen as the shy but serious musician. John was everyman. He spoke to issues that most of us think about using song lyrics as poetry to portray these images. In the documentary Imagine there is a man waiting around where Lennon lived. Lennon goes out to speak to him. The man tells Lennon that he has been singing about his life, dreams and aspirations. Lennon tries to explain that the songs come from his life, that he does not represent anything but himself. Then he asks the man if he is hungry and would he like to come in for something to eat.

Many people see Lennon's behavior in many cases as pure antics. Take Bagism. At first glance its silly. But, my feeling is if you really think about it you will find it makes some sense. What would the world be like if we could look beyond the external to the internal. He is called a working class hero even though he was brought up strictly middle class. Many people take issue with this. I would disagree. I do feel that through his music Lennon was everyman. I think in his heart he did stand for the issues of peace and justice. He stood for the rights of all people. So he may have been rich, had houses etc. (and we must also look to Yoko Ono for alot of the conspicuous consumption) he still held in his heart the common person that I think in many ways he saw himself to be.


The John Lennon song that effects me most is called In My Life, it is from the Revolver album. It says many things that I feel about my life. It is like many Lennon songs reflective in nature. No, John Lennon was not perfect, he made many mistakes in his life. Many people fault him for his treatment of his first wife Cynthia and their child Julian. Could he have handled this better? Was he able to? Some attribute Stuart Suttcliffe's (the fifth Beatle) death to a fight he had with Lennon. Lennon says he kicked Sutcliffe in the head and he eventually died in Germany of a brain hemorrhage. Sutcliffe was seen to have a great future as an artist. I think Lennon was haunted by the events that his anger precipitated throughout his life. But do these events lessen his greatness. I think not. His music transcends this. It makes us think and feel. It makes us imagine a better world.

I have one of his pictures on Gather. Someone recently asked where would he be today. I have no answer to this question. I don't think he would still be with Yoko Ono. I would like to think he would still be making music.

The official John Lennon site (run by Yoko Ono) is http://www.johnlennon.com/

Please comment on your feelings about John Lennon. Sorry the article is a little late, I had a really BAD day.

 In My Life - Lennon & McCartney

Imagine - John Lennon