John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman

I recently finished up Philip Norman’s excellent new biography John Lennon: The Life.

Since falling in love with the music of the Beatles when I was 13, I’ve always harbored some ambivalent feelings toward Lennon. As a songwriter and musician, is influence is difficult to overstate; dozens of his songs (Beatles and solo) are dear to me. His best material crackles with his legendary humor and wit. Yet, stories of his surliness, his mammoth intake of drugs, his sometimes-bizarre relationship with Yoko Ono, and his fierce advocation of left-wing extremism often left me cold.

I picked up Norman’s well-reviewed, 815-page text in an effort to understand the man. It’s a long, strange trip, but well worth checking out. Ultimately, I came to feel that despite his many shortcomings and personal demons, Lennon was an endearing, engaging man worthy of such a study.

As always, here are some illustrative bits from the text:

-Lennon had a famous temper and, on many notable occasions, behaved like an asshole. Norman traces these behaviors to deep insecurities rooted his his traumatic childhood. His father (a merchant seaman) was often absent until being forced out of the picture by his mother’s family; his mother was a rebellious, irresponsible free spirit (much like her son) who proved unable to care for him. At age six, Lennon was perversely forced to choose between his parents (he chose his mother, and wouldn’t see his father again until he was an adult). Lennon was later raised by his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George, but kept some contact with his mother, albeit in a confused fashion – she behaved like a friendly, flirtatious older cousin to him (many people recount Lennon confessing sexual desires for his mother). Lennon’s Uncle George died when he was reaching adolescence, his mother died when he was 16, and his close friend and confidante (and one-time Beatle) Stu Sutcliffe died when he was in college. Unwinding this tightly-wound bundle of issues, Norman tries to paint a human side to Lennon’s adult blow-ups and irresponsibilities while recognizing the very real emotional destruction he often left in his wake.

-John Lennon bought his first real six-string at the five and dime and played until his fingers bleed during the summer of ’69. Also, he habitually cheated on his first wife before callously demanding a divorce.

-Lennon and McCartney are meaningless imbeciles compared to the unassailable character and entertaining skills of Michael Jackson. Hi folks, I’m the Rev. Al Sharpton.

-For most of his adult life, Lennon was earnestly in search of “the Answer” that would relieve him from his many neuroses and struggles from childhood. From the “illumination” of LSD, to Transcendental Meditation, to an obsessive relationship with Yoko Ono, to Primal Sceam Therapy, to left-wing extremism (advocating on behalf of the IRA and domestic revolutionary factions, among others). At each stage, he preached the gospel of his new awakening, only to cool off with the passage of time.

-The Lennon/McCartney songwriting collaberation was as much a competition as anything else. In fact, the song “I Am the Walrus” is mostly a coded message from John gloating that he drink a half-gallon of milk without puking.

-For all his years spent on stage with the Beatles from 1958-1966, Lennon suffered tremendous anxiety about live performances; his concert appearances in later years were a mix of exhilaration and terror. Also, he was afraid of big dogs with fangs and black, leathery wings who call us out by name.

-For all that’s been said about her over the years, Yoko Ono comes across in the text as a warm, intelligent, insightful woman (albeit in her own peculiar way). Norman argues convincingly that it was Lennon who initiated their whirlwind relationship and insisted on their intense level of constant companionship for four years – these parameters being a result of his own insecurities that he wrote about so honestly on “Jealous Guy”. Ono is certainly no angel, but it was illumninating to examine her beyond her long-demonized persona.

-On the other hand, she’s a succubus from the Orient who used her pagan wiles to break up the Beatles. Let’s get her!

-When Lennon grew out his hair and let his beard go nuts in the late 60s he looked like the Cowardly Lion, except in a pissed-off, heroin-addicted kind of way.

-Lennon finally found a measure of peace in the last five years of his life by devoting himself to family life. After the debauched craziness of his 14-month “Lost Weekend” (an Ono-enforced “pause” in their marriage), he became a doting househusband to his wife and son Sean. He stopped writing music, stopped giving interviews, and got off the merry-go-round, as he put it in one of his best songs. He became the father to Sean that he never was to his son Julian from his previous marriage (his behavior in that marriage and toward Julian was, frankly, pathetic). Tragically, when he emerged from this hiatus in 1980 with Double Fantasy, he was at the happiest, most contented point in his life. That ended, of course, in December of that year.

-Lennon’s cat Alice jumped to its death from their 7th floor apartment in the late 70s chasing a pigeon. According to my wife, this is not funny at all.

-John Lennon lives on in the music of Nickleback.