Phil Strongman - John Lennon: Life, Times and Assassination

JOHN LENNON

LIFE, TIMES & ASSASSINATION

Phil Strongman

Phil Strongman 2010

Phil Strongman has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

First published in 2010 by The Bluecoat Press.

This edition published in 2019 by Lume Books.

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO:

Harry & Dodo, Jay & JD, Vince & Christo, Gerry, Andy, Barbara,

Simon, Guy, Selena, Maddee, David, Kathy, Paola, Cherry.

Table of Contents

AUTHORS INTRODUCTION

Like John Kennedy and Martin Luther King, also victims of assassination, John [Lennon] has become a figure larger than life, a true icon of our times.

Sir George Martin

Political rock and around the time of The Beatles, CSN&Y, the Byrds and Pink Floyd, most rock had some sort of a political imaginatively militant dimension has helped produce a world where everyone is forever young. It won a kind of battle. It had to fight hard to do it, and in a way the fight is over. Rock isnt against the conventional world anymore, it is the conventional world.

Paul Morley, M Magazine 2009

The thirty years since John Lennons death have not diminished his standing, only added to it. When he was shot dead in New York, on 8 December 1980, his reputation, his cultural and financial wealth and his track record had already been established. His comeback had thrown him back into the public eye and the charts once again, but he was already acknowledged as a vibrant and much-loved influence.

What surprised many of the more mainstream commentators was the fact that the period of mourning for Lennon lasted so long and went so deep and so wide; across oceans, across generations, across races, religions and continents. According to tabloid reporters, only Princess Dianas death matched Lennons for impact. Everyone, bar the bigots of the Far Right, felt his passing. Not just the usual suspects the thirtysomethings whod grown up with him, the hardcore Beatle and Lennon fans but young Punks as well, and New Romantics, Rappers and, to their own surprise, many of the middle-aged cynics whod been dismissing Lennon for years.

Lennons alleged killer was Mark David Chapman. His family name came from the medieval Chapmans, the men who delivered material and messages to Britains cottage industry weavers. Like Lennons name, it is one that has some Irish connections. This particular Chapman, Mark David, was from Georgia, USA, the Deep South. He was, we were told within hours, a schizophrenic, a loner, a Beatles obsessive, an attention-seeker and a manic autograph-hunter.

Of equal importance was the fact, we were smoothly assured, that Chapman was a lone nut. Just like all those other lone madmen assassins of recent American history; Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray and Sirhan Sirhan. We were told that Chapman was a half-crazy fan of John Lennon Lennons Biggest Fan! a stalker who would do almost anything to be famous.

As anyone who has studied the case knows, these are actually all myths. Chapman was not a big John Lennon fan; nor was he a Beatles fan; nor was he an autograph-hunter; nor was he an attention-seeker; nor was he crazy, nor was he a loner. Three decades on, it seems increasingly likely, as we shall see later, that Chapman did not even fire the fatal shot. He was, however, still significant and would have been even if this attempt to kill Lennon had failed. Significant not just because of his actions but because of his connections; those who knew him, those who trained him, those who supported him then and still support him now.

But myths have always surrounded the legends of stage, screen and sound and Lennon was no exception. The working-class boy from the Liverpool slums, allegedly born in the midst of a Nazi bombing raid, was actually just as much a member of the lower middle-class. After five and a half uneven years with his bohemian showgirl mother, he was offered to his sailor father and then traumatically snatched back, before being left with his Uncle George and Aunt Mimi. From then on his life was to have structure, support and, last but not least, regular meals. But, for all Georges kindness and Mimis strict affection, John was not living with his mother, while his father had quite simply disappeared. The bitter rejection that most people do not feel until their teens or twenties came earlier to John; came earlier and cut deeper. Georges death only added to this. In that sense, as the nuclear family began to implode across the West, Lennon was to become symbolic of a growing phenomenon; a child raised by people who were not his parents, a child relying on the kindness of relative strangers.

Yet this difficult start undoubtedly helped to make him the artist he was. It explains, if only in part, the dynamic drive that was to take him from obscurity and a total lack of qualifications to stardom and wealth beyond his wildest dreams, the life of a best-selling recording artist, singer, poet and writer, a life where he could count presidents and kings as virtual equals. He was to be connected to some of the biggest events and the most famous names of the twentieth century: Kennedy, Luther King, Nixon, Reagan.

It may seem that these are pretty big names for a guitar-playing Liverpudlian to be amongst, but many of us too often underplay the potency of music easily done now its most unruly child, rock n roll, is, in the main, a toothless old man (and an old man moreover, whose audio wares are now virtually valueless, easily picked up for free on the world wide web).

Its easy to forget that Irish war drums were banned for centuries, that Beethovens music was considered far too sexy, causing young maidens to swoon, that Tchaikovsky was thought to have bewitched the Russian Tsarina as much as Rasputin and that even in the staid classical theatres of the 1920s, new works by Ravel and Prokofiev could provoke violent arguments and even riots. The 60s beat groups like the 50s rock n rollers before them and the 70s punks afterwards really did cause angry newspaper editorials, really did raise questions in parliament and really did change many of the leading lights of several generations; for both better and worse.

We forget too that, following John Lennons death, there were memorial gatherings that were, in total, millions strong. Millions more joined in a ten minute worldwide silent vigil.

Popular music had power and generated big money. Less so now, but worldwide profits still number in the billions for CD recordings, downloads, ringtones, tours and live concerts.

During the key Cold War period of 1945-1991, popular music was strictly controlled. Right into my lifetime, right up until the early 80s, popular music shows on British television lasted for less than thirty minutes a week. When The Old Grey Whistle Test was being broadcast it crept up to one hour. That was it. The limit. Live music even a single guitarist was licensed like a dog in Britain.

But recorded music is everywhere now, like the air we breathe, and like the air we depend on, its easy to take it all for granted. Many of us, including myself, took John Lennon and The Beatles for granted right up until that foggy day in December 1980 when every TV screen in every electrical goods store showed only one image: John Lennon. Everyone then knew that the news about Lennon was the worst it could be. Rock stars could only lead the news in those days by dying.

Millions of us suffered a little death on 8 December 1980. The Beatles had been part of our childhood, our adolescence, our youth, our lives. To almost every young man and woman Lennons Beatles were once everyman, just like him next door and that lad over the road. They knew us, we knew them. A smile, a wink, a song. Except that The Beatles were just that bit more talented, that touch more amusing and though age and honesty later revealed their faults, we still loved them then, and love them still.