eye opening ..brilliant

so interesting..well read and took you along into the life of John Lennon ...great

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A Complex Man Explored

This book has the feel of an investigative journalism piece and tells the story of the subject’s complexities through the lens of various perspectives. It’s very easy to make the subject of a biography two dimensional - but this doesn’t. Approaching the 43rd anniversary of John’s death, this book is an examination of an adored but deeply complex man.
The only element that let it down for me was the narrator’s mispronunciation of places and names key to the narrative, e.g. Gateacre, a suburb of Liverpool, and the surname of the Radio 1 DJ Andy Peebles. Wouldn’t these errors have been picked up by the production team?

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Revelatory

This is a great book if you want to go beyond the usual factual story telling of the life of John Lennon. The book tells the story of how complex a person John really was. He was not a working-class hero. He was raised in the middle-class neighbourhood of Woolton by his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George, he went to grammar school, and then art college. He would holiday in Scotland with his posh relatives in the summer. He was very different in so many ways to his fellow Beatles. Yet, he was a rebel. That's what we liked about him. He could never fit in. He found his voice in rock 'n' roll music. But that changed with the onset of stardom. Brian Epstein put him in a suit and wanted him to bow after each song. Yet, John, forever the rebel, would find a way of breaking out of the chains of conservatism with his unique blend of non-conformity. The book tells us for instance, John would undo his shirt collar and loosen his tie, as an act of defiance. This was his way of saying no to conventionality. The book tells us how the trappings of success, and life in the leafy suburbs of Weybridge, sent John into a world of 'I'm only sleeping'. Forever, the experimenter, John took refuge in the world of the alternative arts and spirituality. He embraced yoga and meditation when he went to India, which stayed with him throughout his life. The book pinpoints big changes in the life of John Lennon. One such change was the influence of Dylan. In Dylan, John found that he didn't have to write teenage, love songs; that he could write songs such as 'I'm a loser' and 'Help'. Another big change in John's life was the arrival of Yoko Ono. John went headfirst into the underground movement, and the world of alternative arts, under her influence. He found a new voice in the peace movement and radical politics. However, his activism wasn't to last, as his brush with the Nixon administration, and his fight against deportation, led him to take a break. John had had enough. For years he felt under contract to do things for others, and now he just wanted some sort of normality and found it with Yoko and baby Sean. However, mythology would have it that he succumbed to a life of domesticity, which wasn't the case. The book tells us that John never hung up his guitar, but continued to make music. After several years at home, and travelling abroad, he stepped out with a new album and plans for a world tour. Sadly, we were robbed of what was to come, and we will never know what John would have gone on to do. This is a great read if you want to get behind the facts and to explore the complex person that John was, and how he changed over the years. One thing that didn't change however was his rebellious nature. We can only imagine what John would be doing or saying today. The book speculates that he would have been very active on social media, championing good causes and giving voice to the voiceless.

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2 people found this helpful

So Disappointing

The author narrates the intro which begins with a most interesting explanation for the reasons behind the global success enjoyed by the Beatles. However, it progressed into ramblings on how John Lennon would have progressed had he not been murdered. The book does thereafter contain a number of fascinating historical facts but these are drowned in a sea of hypothesis. The printed version would enable the reader to seek out these hidden gems.

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Save your money and ears

The title is very misleading. There isn’t anything in this ‘book’ that you haven’t already heard etc.

Don’t waste your time, money or ears with it. We all know who killed John Lennon.

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