“Of the many things that will be long remembered about John Lennon - his genius as a musician and singer, hit wit and literary swiftness, his social intuition and leadership - among the most haunting was the stark, unembarrassed commitment of his life, his work, and his undernourished frame to truth, to peace and to humanity.” (Rockhall)
John Lennon was a singer songwriter, poet, artist and political activist from the 20th century.
As a member of the Beatles he gained worldwide fame and succeeded in changing lives for the better. With the Beatles, Lennon's writing was great because he didn't try to tell others what to feel but wrote as an expression of everyone. He tried to reflect everyone's feelings and shaped the world he lived in socially and politically. Following the end of The Beatles, Lennon, through his writing educated the world with the idea of world peace and is still changing people to this day.
Lennon used his writing to try and change the world during his lifetime. He wrote
about things such as women's rights, world peace, and resentment against politics. Lennon's writing has continued to grow far after his death. For example during the gulf war in 1991, representatives who were against the war unconsciously used his words “Give Peace a Chance”, a song released in 1969. John Lennon wrote as a surrealist, which he believed in as reality. Lennon has been described as a new and inspiring writer, who wrote spontaneously and was selfish with his writing. He never altered much after it was written.
Lennon after the Beatles chose to make his writing as simple as possible in order to understand his life. He wanted no boundaries between his writing, his life, and music. As he explained it, he started trying, “to shave off all imagery, pretensions of poetry, and illusions of grandeur… Just say what it is, simple English, make it rhyme and put a backbeat on it, and express yourself as simply and straightforwardly as possible.” (Rockhall)
John Lennon was born in 1940 during the bombing of Britain by the Nazis. He given the middle name Winston after Churchill, and later added Ono to it. At five years old Lennon was sent to live with his Aunt Mimi who bought him his first guitar. She said, “The guitar's all very well John, but you'll never make a living out of it.” That same year, Lennon formed his first group The Quarrymen, which evolved into the Beatles. 40 years later on December 8th 1980 Lennon was shot and killed in New York City by an obsessed fan Mark David Chapman.
"You make your own dream. That's the Beatles' story, isn't it? That's Yoko's story. That's what I'm saying now. Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save
Peru. It's quite possible to do anything, but not to put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don't expect Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself. That's what the great masters and mistresses have been saying ever since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books that are now called holy and worshiped for the cover of the book and not for what it says, but the instructions are all there for all to see, have always been and always will be. There's nothing new under the sun. All the roads lead to Rome. And people cannot provide it for you. I can't wake you up. You can wake you up. I can't cure you. You can cure you."
- John Lennon
