John Lennon - Man Of Peace

“We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.” – John Lennon

‘John Winston Ono Lennon’ more popularly known as ‘John Lennon’ was a songwriter and singer who co-founded “The Beatles” probably one of the most commercially successful and popular music bands till date. John Lennon was also a peace activist who wished to bring peace to this world by his music.

John Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, Liverpool in England during an air raid. When he was 4 his parents were separated and he had to live with his Aunt Mimi. Lennon’s father was a merchant seaman.

Lennon’s mother remarried after she got separated and used to visit him quite often, in fact, she even taught him how to play banjo and piano, and brought Lennon his first guitar, bringing him close to music.

In July 1958, she died after she was struck by a car driven by an off-duty policeman, this broke him and her death was one of the most traumatic events of his life.

When Lennon was 16 years old, he was very much inspired by ‘Elvis Presley’ and decide to start a skiffle band “Quarry Men” named after his school. He met ‘Paul McCartney’ in 1957 and invited him to join his music group and these two formed successful songwriting partnership. Lennon and McCartney along with ‘George Harrison’ and ‘Ringo Starr’ founded “The Beatles” in 1960 and transformed the popular music forever for future generations.

In 1969 Lennon started his band ‘Plastic Ono Band’ with his second wife ‘Yono Oko’ and started to pursue his solo career, which was followed by The Beatles break up in 1970.

Lennon moved to New York in 1971 and never moved back to England. He was also the high light of controversies due to his political and peace activism, from 1971 he started to criticize the Vietnam war and used to his words for world peace which resulted in a 3-year attempt by Nixon’s government to deport him.

Lennon wanted to bring a peaceful revolution, his rebellious nature and revolutionary wit were revealed in his music, writings, drawings and even on interviews. Some of his songs were adopted for anti-war movements.

In 1975 he distanced himself from music to raise his son ‘Sean’. But he was a true artist and hence he made his comeback in 1980 with Ono releasing the album “Double Fantasy”.

Three weeks after the release of this album, on December 8, 1980, he was shot and killed in his Manhattan apartment by a crazy fan named ‘Mark David Chapman’.

John Lennon wanted world peace more than anything else and he criticized war for what it did to humanity, and this is the reason he became quite popular among youth and still remains an inspiration to many even after many years of his death.