John Lennon's Life Story and Group Activity - Essay Example

Introduction This paper gives an indepth analysis of John Lennon’s life from his birth in 1940 till his premature death in1980. The excerpt seeks to unravel his adolescent life, challenges he went through, the successes he made in the formation of the group, the Quarrymen. Later transformed to be called the beatles and the significant lessons from his life until his death at 40 years at his home in New York. History of John Lennon People are born with innate talents and gifts, attain the earthly knowledge through progressive years in school and eventually die with all these attainments. In this case, John Lennon’s life is no exception. He grew up to become one of the most celebrated pop star, an ardent composer of all time, a meticulous songwriter of old and a purposeful recording artist. Born in NW England during the World War II period in Merryside, Liverpool, John Lennon, grew up to become celebrated on the 9th October, 1940. His father was Alfred Lennon merchant involved in the sea transport of an Irish ancestry. On the other hand, his mother was christened Julia, the two were the paternal family members of John Lennon together with his other siblings. Challenges abound in every family irrespective of the social status, race, color or background and so was the family of Lennon. Owing to the nature of business of John Lennon’s father, he was on a number of occasions away from home and could send in money for the upkeep of the family. As a matter of consequence, this absenteeism from home, in February 1944, brought about the formation of a relationship to satisfy conjugal inadequacies. Julia, her mother, became pregnant for another man, Boby Dykins. On arrival of Alfred Lennon, shortly after six months, her wife felt uncomfortable to accommodate him in the home and a tussle ensued between them, Julia and Alfred. Eventually, it led to Lennon’s choice of either parting ways with his father. Alfred Lennon was the precursor of the idea of separation based on John Lennon free choice. Julia her mother, could not fathom the agony she went through and opted to take John Lennon to stay over at his relatives place in the Mendips, Woolton. It was indeed a blessing to the family of Mimi and George Smith, who had no children of their own, they adopted John as their niece. John Lennon grew up, Mimi, her aunt, purchased a number of short story books to build on his cognitive abilities. In addition, these books developed his mind into a young self-reflective and thoughtful citizen. George Smith, his uncle, had the pleasure of purchasing him a mouth instrument, to build on the listening skills and form a basis of inherent talents within the young boy. Crossword puzzles were taught to John Lennon at his developmental stages to improve the mathematical and reasoning abilities. John Lennon’s musical career was vividly nurtured during his years of infancy. At age 11, his mother made several visits to Mendips at her sister’s home. Julia could teach his son regularly how to play the banjo. It was literally her mother’s duty to show him how to play a number of records such as “Aren’t that a shame” initially by Fats Domino. On a number of occasions, in his adolescent life, John Lennon stayed at his cousin who took him to local cinemas and motivated him to watch shows. However, it was ill-fated when a demise befell his uncle and he succumbed to a liver disease on the month of June, 1955. That notwithstanding, he was raised a stout Anglican, and during his early years he attended the Dovedale Primary School, where he was successful and passed the wrought exams. On completion of eleventh grade examinations, he advanced his education to Quarry Bank High School (Lawrence, 47). Julia believed in the musical prowess of his son, John Lennon, even though his life was cut short by an unimaginable accident by an off duty strain police officer in 1958. However, his mother had bought him the piano and guitar in 1956 to build on his musical career since she knew her sister did not resonate well with the idea of Lennon becoming a musician. In college, he wholly became a comic character and never performed well in grades. Infrequently, he was threatened with expulsion for his unmatched bad behavior of disrupting classes and persistent ridicule and mimic to his educators. The Beatles In the year 1957 an unprecedented breakthrough came to the life of John Lennon. He formed a musical partnership band known as the Quarrymen, a name christened from their high school. Paul McCartney was involved in this formation of qarrymen during a fete organized by the Anglican Church. Besides, George Harrison, a friend of Paul and a guitarist, was introduced into the band after a formal introduction to Lennon. Stuart Sutdiffe, was in no exception brought in, due to the need for a drummer into the band and the twist of events and introductions saw the formation of this highly sophisticated band in 1960. A number of presentations and auditions were done by the group, during church fetes and other performances as the bus deck arrangement, McCartney’s’ forward-facing room, where their skills were highly sharpened and their revolutionary music advanced. Throughout this year an unparalleled decision was arrived at when the group changed their name into ‘The Beatles’. The group, the Beatles, suffered setbacks of management as their manager then, Brian Epstein, was oblivious of stage organization. In spite of the impediment, he come up with the idea of a dress code for proffesionalsim and identity. Brian Epstein also developed a better attitude within the group to motivate them build the musical career.. Even though grievances emerged from the dress code issue, later a consensus was arrived at and they all complied with the directive John Lennon included (Lawrence, 53). As a result of the many developments, a technical shakeup followed where Ringo Starr replaced the all famous Stuart. The lineup for the four man musical partnership was now substantially in place. The first song wrote by the group was ‘love me do’ a single that hit the British charts of position seventeen in 1962 October. Subsequently, ‘Please please me’ was recorded amid a cold suffered by John Lennon. This partnership generated fourteen tracks and ensured the members naturally developed in wits and minds (Lawrence, 9). International prominence stood in the wake of the group, when they made presentations in the United Kingdom and the United States that were full of screams and attendance by the fans. Precisely, it was named the Beatlemania in the United Kingdom. During this period, it was marked by an ostensible constant songwriting, moviemaking, arrangement and touring. They constantly appeared on the television stations and brought revolution into the music industry. The partnership was used to singing rock and roll, which was as a result of the rock bands in the United States. The group first movie, ‘A Hard day’s Night’, made them make a tour of the world. Since it was a movie full of insights as preaching the message of peace, love and happiness. The Queen of England bestowed upon the association an MBE for the, Member of the Order of the British Empire. The aftermath was followed by the largest presentation of 55,600 fans which set the world record at the time. However, the group lost track in 1966 due to perceived accusation of involvement in snubbing the first family of the Philippines. In addition, unfortunate remarks by Lennon, of substituting their superiority to that of Jesus made their supporters denounce them and they hit low. Not only did they suffer this, but also their longtime manager, died after an overdose of sleeping pills that adversely affected the career of John Lennon. The family mans life of John Lennon was not rosy. He was once married to Cynthia Powell, with whom they had a son, then later divorced. In his errands, he met a Japanese woman, Yoko Ono, who had a musical background. The relationship caused a shakeup in the Beatles and eventually there was the dissolution of the group. In 1969, John Lennon moved officially out of the group and ventured into a solo career with his wife. They came up with different tracks as ‘Let it Be’ and ‘imagine’ that was successfully acclaimed by lovers and haters alike of John Lennon. Even though the times seemed hard for the duo, he usually advocated for peace, love and happiness and was always seen as a revolutionary of social ills. In 1971, John Lennon migrated with his wife to the United States. Revolutionary music and the message of peace love and happiness made the Nixon administration deny Lennon permanent residence. However, on the resignation of the administration, they were granted full residence. Owing to the love and admiration John Lennon had for his wife Yoko, he reconciled with her and eventually bore him a son Sean after a break up. Lennon decided to take some time off to raise his son and become a family man on his 35th birthday (Lawrence, 133). On return to music in 1980, with a hit album ‘Double fantasy’ an uncalled for event occurred where John Lennon met his untimely death by a deranged supporter who shot him dead at his house in New York. Upon admission into the Roosevelt hospital, he was pronounced dead, owing to numerous gun shots. Conclusion In a nutshell, John Lennon never knew that his life would end that way. Though he was dedicated to the advancement of society through the correction of vices and ensuring peace, love and happiness prevails, he died at the age of 40years and left a widow and a son, Sean. Supporters and fans of his rock and roll music sent in condolence messages to the family and utterly condemned the incident. John lennon lived in the hearts of listeners as his music receieved air play for years after his death. Works Cited Lawrence, Ken. John Lennon: In His Own Words. Kansas City, Mo: Andrews McMeel Pub, 2005. Internet resource. Read More