John Lennon

[John52]

How much of it was a PR campaign.... https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/how-well-do-you-know-john-lennon/p081v7d4?playlist=russell-kanes-alternative-obituaries

[Bulletguy]

To answer Kanes question....a musical visionary genius. But much more.

 

I've no idea what Kane had in mind by making this clip. Has he led a virtuous life? I didn't even know who he was until i googled and his Wiki page shows he joked about autistic children on an Australian tv show resulting in an apology from the network.

 

John certainly had a pretty wretched start in life. Abandoned by his father and a mother who left her sister, Aunt Mimi, to bring him up. Johns mother, Julia, visited occasionally....only for her to get mown down and killed by a drunk off duty policeman when she was crossing the road outside Mimi's house. John was 17 then and witnessed his mother being killed. So when Kane mentioned "psychological scarring of a child", Lennon certainly had his share of that. He wrote "Julia" in dedication to his mum which was on the white album.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/the-beatles/10323224/Death-of-John-Lennons-mother-at-hands-of-policeman-hardened-his-anti-establishment-views-new-book-claims.html

 

John was certainly no saint and i always felt his acerbic wit was like a defence. One example i remember from a documentary when Lennon and Yoko were living at Tittenhurst Park, the sprawling Ascot mansion he'd bought. An American Viet vet youth had been writing wacky letters to him about Lennons lyrics. One day this bedraggled youth turned up unannounced outside Tittenhurst. Lennon chatted to him for some time at the front door, then invited him inside for a meal as he was hungry.

 

I know when he and Yoko eventually upped and left for New York, they went through a bad patch and she told him to go off and sort himself out...which he did. He came back a changed man and Radio One DJ Andy Peebles interviewed him at their apartment in the Dakota building....talking about how much he enjoyed cooking and had learned how to make bread. Peebles flew back to UK with taped interview unaware of what had happened until he landed in London.