Music for Grownups: 'John Lennon: The Life'

By: Richard Gehr | Source: AARP.org | 2008-10-30

One of the more remarkable things about the Beatles, among many, is that the whole wild and beautiful ride was over before any of them turned 30. John Lennon, the Beatles' unofficial leader, was only 29 when he announced his surprising decision to leave the group in September 1969.  "I started the band, I disbanded it. It's as simple as that," he later said by way of explanation.

What seemed like an ending to the group's countless fans was actually the beginning of a very productive period for Lennon. He released 10 solo albums and collaborations with Yoko Ono between 1968 and 1975. Indeed, British novelist-biographer Philip Norman devotes half of his comprehensive and highly readable 851-page biography, "John Lennon: The Life," to John's activities before and after the Beatles.

During the '60s, Lennon was pigeonholed as the "smart" Beatle. According to Norman, however, he was also the mean Beatle, the wild Beatle, the stoned Beatle, the sexually insatiable Beatle, and the insecure Beatle.

Privy to new information about Lennon's upbringing by his beloved Aunt Mimi, Norman depicts the young Lennon as something of a feckless bounder with a cruel streak. This extended to his first wife, Cynthia, as well as to his best friend, Stu Sutcliffe, whose 1962 death, some believe, may have been caused by a beating at the hands (and feet) of the volatile-when-drunk Lennon. Norman provides the most detailed account of the colorful and labor-intensive Hamburg residency that forged Lennon, Sutcliffe, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison into a great rock 'n' roll band prior to Ringo's arrival.

In addition to the new information about Lennon's childhood that the biographer received from John's cousins, Norman (who also wrote "Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation") draws upon new interviews with George Martin, Paul McCartney, Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, and many others. It turns out, not unexpectedly, that Lennon was both difficult to live with and impossible to dismiss. Although McCartney went to great lengths to establish his own artistic (rather than mere pop) credentials, Lennon was always the personality and sensibility to be reckoned with in the Beatles.

After the Beatles, John continued to perform with the Plastic Ono Band and Elephant's Memory. His political activism made him a target of the Nixon administration, and much of his energy was devoted to maintaining his U.S. residency. As Lennon was the first to admit, it was never easy being a Beatle.

Devoted as they were to one another, Ono couldn't satisfy Lennon sexually and agreed to let him find other partners. This led to his infamous 18-month "lost weekend" in Los Angeles, sordid details of which Norman both debunks and embellishes. When Lennon returned home to Ono in 1975, Norman writes, it was as if "both had been born again" and "with all the demons seemingly exorcized from his system." Eschewing music, Lennon became a house-husband following the birth of their son, Sean, and the family seems to have been happy together until 1980. When Mark David Chapman arrived at their doorstep with a gun, both John Lennon's life and Philip Norman's biography end abruptly.

"John Lennon: The Life" completes a set of excellent Beatles books that includes Bob Spitz's "The Beatles: A Biography," Jonathan Gould's "Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America," and Barry Miles's authorized biography, "Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now." The Beatles' lives will undoubtedly be revisited until their music no longer excites listeners, it’s nearly impossible to imagine that happening.