The John Lennon Handbook - Everything you need to know about John Lennon

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John Ono Lennon, MBE (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a founder member of the Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. With Paul McCartney, he formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.

This book is your ultimate resource for John Lennon. Here you will find the most up-to-date information, photos, and much more.

In easy to read chapters, with extensive references and links to get you to know all there is to know about John Lennon's Early life, Career and Personal life right away. A quick look inside: John Lennon, Death of John Lennon, Imagine: John Lennon, Imagine: John Lennon (soundtrack), Imagine (1972 film), Imagine (album), Imagine (song), In His Life: The John Lennon Story, John Dunbar (artist), John Lennon's musical instruments, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon Anthology, John Lennon Artificial Intelligence Project, John Lennon Museum, John Lennon Park, John Lennon Peace Monument, John Lennon Signature Box, John Lennon Songwriting Contest, John Lennon discography, John and Yoko: A Love Story, Lennon (album), Lennon (musical), Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon, Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon (DVD), Lennon Naked 113…and more pages!

Contains selected content from the highest rated entries, typeset, printed and shipped, combining the advantages of up-to-date and in-depth knowledge with the convenience of printed books. A portion of the proceeds of each book will be donated to the Wikimedia Foundation to support their mission.

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Biography

Autobiography

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Publié par	Emereo Publishing
Date de parution	05 avril 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781486480784
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	9 Mo

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Topic relevant selected content from the highest rated entries, typeset, printed and shipped.

Combine the advantages of up-to-date and in-depth knowledge with the con-venience of printed books.

A portion of the proceeds of each book will be donated to the Wikimedia Foundation to support their mission: to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it eectively and globally.

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Contents

Articles John Lennon Death of John Lennon Imagine: John Lennon Imagine: John Lennon (soundtrack) Imagine (1972 film) Imagine (album) Imagine (song) In His Life: The John Lennon Story

John Dunbar (artist) John Lennon's musical instruments John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band John Lennon Anthology John Lennon Artificial Intelligence Project John Lennon Museum John Lennon Park John Lennon Peace Monument John Lennon Signature Box John Lennon Songwriting Contest John Lennon discography John and Yoko: A Love Story Lennon (album) Lennon (musical) Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon (DVD) Lennon Naked

References Article Sources and Contributors Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

Article Licenses License

1 30 38 39 42 43 50 61 63 64 68 73 79 79 80 81 84 86 88 95 98 101 103 108 113

117 121

122

John Lennon

Birth name

Born

Died

Genres

Occupations

Instruments

Years active

Labels

Associated acts

Website

John Winston Lennon

9 October 1940 Liverpool, England, UK

John Lennon MBE

Lennon with The Beatles in 1964

Background information

8 December 1980 (aged 40) New York City, New York, US

Rock, pop, experimental

Musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, artist, writer, actor

Vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica, bass guitar

1957–75, 1980

Parlophone, Capitol, Apple, Geffen, Polydor

The Quarrymen, the Beatles, Plastic Ono Band, the Dirty Mac, Yoko Ono, David Bowie, Elton John

[1] www.johnlennon.com

Notable instruments

Rickenbacker 325 Epiphone Casino Gibson J-160E

John Ono LennonMBE(bornJohn Winston Lennon; 9 October 1940–8 December 1980) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a founder member of the Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. With Paul McCartney, he formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.

Lennon's signature

John Lennon

Born and raised in Liverpool, as a teenager Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze; his first band, the Quarrymen, evolved into the Beatles in 1960. As the group disintegrated towards the end of the decade, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the critically acclaimed albumsJohn Lennon/Plastic Ono Bandand Imagine, and iconic songs such as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine". After his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he changed his name to John Ono Lennon. Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to raising his infant son Sean, but re-emerged with Ono in 1980 with the new albumDouble Fantasy. He was murdered three weeks after its release. Lennon revealed a rebellious nature and acerbic wit in his music, writing, drawings, on film and in interviews. Controversial through his political and peace activism, he moved to New York City in 1971, where his criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a lengthy attempt by Richard Nixon's administration to deport him, while some of his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement. As of 2012, Lennon's solo album sales in the United States exceed 14 million units, and as writer, co-writer or performer, he is responsible for 25 number-one singles on the US Hot 100 chart. In 2002, a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted him eighth, and in 2008,Rolling Stoneranked him the fifth-greatest singer of all time. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Biography

1940–57: Early years Lennon was born in war-time England, on 9 October 1940 at Liverpool Maternity Hospital to Julia (nbe Stanley) and [2] Alfred Lennon, a merchant seaman who was away at the time of his son's birth. His parents named him John [3] Winston Lennon after his paternal grandfather, John "Jack" Lennon, and then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill. His father was often away from home but sent regular pay cheques to 9 Newcastle Road, Liverpool, where Lennon [4] [5][6] lived with his mother, but the cheques stopped when he went absent without leave in February 1944. When he eventually came home six months later, he offered to look after the family, but Julia—by then pregnant with another [7] man's child—rejected the idea. After her sister, Mimi Smith, twice complained to Liverpool's Social Services, Julia handed the care of Lennon over to her. In July 1946 Lennon's father visited Smith and took his son to Blackpool, [8] secretly intending to emigrate to New Zealand with him. Julia followed them—with her partner at the time, 'Bobby' Dykins—and after a heated argument his father forced the five-year-old to choose between them. Lennon [9] twice chose his father, but as his mother walked away, he began to cry and followed her. It would be 20 years [10] before he had contact with his father again. Throughout the rest of his childhood and adolescence he lived with his aunt and uncle, Mimi and George Smith, who had no children of their [11] own, at Mendips, 251 Menlove Avenue, Woolton. His aunt purchased volumes of short stories for him, and his uncle, a dairyman at his family's farm, bought him a mouth organ and engaged him in [12] solving crossword puzzles. Julia visited Mendips on a regular basis, and when he was 11 years old he often visited her at 1 Blomfield Road, Liverpool, where she played him Elvis Presley records, and taught him the banjo, learning how to play "Ain't That a Shame" by Fats [13] 251 Menlove Avenue, the home of George and Domino. Mimi Smith, where Lennon lived for most of his childhood and adolescence In September 1980, Lennon commented about his family and his rebellious nature:

Part of me would like to be accepted by all facets of society andnot be this loudmouthed lunatic poet/musician. But I cannot be what I am not ... I was the one who all the other boys' parents—including Paul's

John Lennon

father—would say, 'Keep away from him'... The parents instinctively recognised I was a troublemaker, meaning I did not conform and I would influence their children, which I did. I did my best to disrupt every friend's home ... Partly out of envy that I didn't have this so-called home ... but Ididwere five women... There that were my family. Fivestrong,intelligent,beautifulwomen, five sisters. One happened to be my mother. [She] just couldn't deal with life. She was the youngest and she had a husband who ran away to sea and the war was on and she couldn't cope with me, and I ended up living with her elder sister. Now those women were fantastic ... And that was my first feminist education ... I would infiltrate the other boys minds. I could say, [14] "Parents are not gods because I don't live with mine and, therefore, I know.' He regularly visited his cousin, Stanley Parkes, who lived in Fleetwood. Seven years Lennon's senior, Parkes took [15] him on trips and to local cinemas. During the school holidays, Parkes often visited Lennon with Leila Harvey, another cousin, often travelling to Blackpool two or three times a week to watch shows. They would visit the Blackpool Tower Circus and see artists such as Dickie Valentine, Arthur Askey, Max Bygraves and Joe Loss, with [16] Parkes recalling that Lennon particularly liked George Formby. After Parkes's family moved to Scotland, the three cousins often spent their school holidays together there. Parkes recalled, "John, cousin Leila and I were very close. From Edinburgh we would drive up to the family croft at Durness, which was from about the time John was [17] nine years old until he was about 16." He was 14 years old when his uncle George died of a liver haemorrhage on [18] 5 June 1955 (aged 52). [19] Lennon was raised as an Anglican and attended Dovedale Primary School. From September 1952 to 1957, after passing his Eleven-Plus exam, he attended Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool, and was described by Harvey at [20] the time as, "A happy-go-lucky, good-humoured, easy going, lively lad." He often drew comical cartoons which [21] appeared in his own self-made school magazine calledThe Daily Howldespite his artistic talent, his school, but reports were damning: "Certainly on the road to failure ... hopeless ... rather a clown in class ... wasting other pupils' [22] time." His mother bought him his first guitar in 1956, an inexpensive Gallotone Champion acoustic for which she "lent" her son five pounds and ten shillings on the condition that the guitar be delivered to her own house, and not Mimi's, [23] knowing well that her sister was not supportive of her son's musical aspirations. As Mimi was sceptical of his claim that he would be famous one day, she hoped he would grow bored with music, often telling him, "The guitar's [24] all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it". On 15 July 1958, when Lennon was 17 years old, his [25] mother, walking home after visiting the Smiths' house, was struck by a car and killed. Lennon failed all his GCE O-level examinations, and was accepted into the Liverpool College of Art only after his [26] aunt and headmaster intervened. Once at the college, he started wearing Teddy Boy clothes and acquired a reputation for disrupting classes and ridiculing teachers. As a result, he was excluded from the painting class, then the graphic arts course, and was threatened with expulsion for his behaviour, which included sitting on a nude [27] model's lap during a life drawing class. He failed an annual exam, despite help from fellow student and future [28] wife Cynthia Powell, and was "thrown out of the college before his final year."

John Lennon

1957–70: The Quarrymen to the Beatles

1957–66: Formation, commercial break-out and touring years

The Beatles evolved from Lennon's first band, the Quarrymen. Named after Quarry Bank High School, the group was established by him in [29] September 1956 when he was 15, and began as a skiffle group. By the summer of 1957 the Quarrymen played a "spirited set of songs" [30] made up of half skiffle and half rock and roll. Lennon first met Paul McCartney at the Quarrymen's second performance, held in Woolton on 6 July at the St. Peter's Church garden fcte, after which McCartney [31] was asked to join the band. Lennon (right) performing with the Beatles in 1964 at the height of BeatlemaniaMcCartney says that Aunt Mimi: "was very aware that John's friends were lower class", and would often patronise him when he arrived to [32] visit Lennon. According to Paul's brother Mike, McCartney's father was also disapproving, declaring Lennon [33] would get his son "into trouble"; although he later allowed the fledgling band to rehearse in the McCartneys' front [34][35] room at 20 Forthlin Road. During this time, the 18-year-old Lennon wrote his first song, "Hello Little Girl", a [36] UK top 10 hit for The Fourmost nearly five years later. [37] George Harrison joined the band as lead guitarist, even though Lennon thought Harrison (at 14 years old) was too young to join the band, so McCartney engineered a second audition on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, where [38] Harrison played "Raunchy" for Lennon. Stuart Sutcliffe, Lennon's friend from art school, later joined as [39] bassist. Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Sutcliffe became "The Beatles" in early 1960. In August that year, the Beatles engaged for a 48-night residency in Hamburg, Germany, and desperately in need of a drummer, asked Pete [40] Best to join them. Lennon was now 19, and his aunt, horrified when he told her about the trip, pleaded with him [41] to continue his art studies instead. After the first Hamburg residency, the band accepted another in April 1961, [42] and a third in April 1962. Like the other band members, Lennon was introduced to Preludin while in Hamburg, [43] and regularly took the drug, as well as amphetamines, as a stimulant during their long, overnight performances. Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager from 1962, had no prior experience of artist management, but nevertheless had a [44] strong influence on their early dress code and attitude on stage. Lennon initially resisted his attempts to encourage the band to present a professional appearance, but eventually complied, saying, "I'll wear a bloody balloon if [45] somebody's going to pay me". McCartney took over on bass after Sutcliffe decided to stay in Hamburg, and drummer Ringo Starr replaced Best, completing the four-piece line-up that would endure until the group's break-up in 1970. The band's first single, "Love Me Do", was released in October 1962 and reached No. 17 on the British [46] charts. They recorded their debut album,Please Please Me, in under 10 hours on 11 February 1963, a day when [47] Lennon was suffering the effects of a cold, which is evident in the vocal on the last song to be recorded that day, [48] Twist and Shout. The Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership yielded eight of its fourteen tracks. With few exceptions—one being the album title itself—Lennon had yet to bring his love of wordplay to bear on his song lyrics, saying: "We were just writing songs ... pop songs with no more thought of them than tha–tto create a sound. [46] And the words were almost irrelevant". In a 1987 interview, McCartney said that the other Beatles idolised John: "He was like our own little Elvis ... We all looked up to John. He was older and he was very much the leader; he was [49] the quickest wit and the smartest". The Beatles achieved mainstream success in the UK during the beginning of 1963. Lennon was on tour when his first son, Julian, was born in April. During their Royal Variety Show performance, attended by the Queen Mother and other British royalty, Lennon poked fun at his audience: "For our next song, I'd like to ask for your help. For the [50] people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands ... and the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewellery." After a year of Beatlemania in the UK, the group's historic February 1964 US debut appearance onThe Ed Sullivan Showmarked their breakthrough to international stardom. A two-year period of constant touring, moviemaking, and songwriting

John Lennon

[51] followed, during which Lennon wrote two books,In His Own WriteandA Spaniard in the Works. The Beatles received recognition from the British Establishment when they were appointed Members of the Order of the British [52] Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1965. Lennon grew concerned that fans attending Beatles' concerts were unable to hear the music above the screaming of [53] fans, and that the band's musicianship was beginning to suffer as a result. Lennon's "Help!" expressed his own [54] feelings in 1965: "Imeantit ... It was me singing 'help'". He had put on weight (he would later refer to this as his [55] [56] "Fat Elvis" period), and felt he was subconsciously seeking change. The following January he was unknowingly introduced to LSD when a dentist, hosting a dinner party attended by Lennon, Harrison and their [57] wives, spiked the guests' coffee with the drug. When they wanted to leave, their host revealed what they had taken, and strongly advised them not to leave the house because of the likely effects. Later, in an elevator at a [57] nightclub, they all believed it was on fire: "We were all screaming ... hot and hysterical." A few months later in March, during an interview withEvening Standardreporter Maureen Cleave, Lennon remarked, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink ... We're more popular than Jesus now—I don't know which will go first, rock and roll [58] or Christianity." The comment went virtually unnoticed in England but caused great offence in the US when quoted by a magazine there five months later. The furore that followed—burning of Beatles' records, Ku Klux Klan [59] activity and threats against Lennon—contributed to the band's decision to stop touring.

1967–70: Studio years, break-up and solo work Deprived of the routine of live performances after their final commercial concert on 29 August 1966, Lennon felt [60] lost and considered leaving the band. Since his involuntary introduction to LSD in January, he had made [61] increasing use of the drug, and was almost constantly under its influence for much of the year. According to biographer Ian MacDonald, Lennon's continuous experience with LSD during the year brought him "close to erasing [62] his identity". 1967 saw the release of "Strawberry Fields Forever", hailed byTimemagazine for its "astonishing [63] inventiveness", and the group's landmark albumSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which revealed Lennon's lyrics contrasting strongly with the simple love songs of the Lennon–McCartney's early years. In August, after having been introduced to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the group attended a weekend of personal [64] instruction at his Transcendental Meditation seminar in Bangor, Wales, and were informed of Epstein's death during the seminar. "I knew we were in trouble then", Lennon said later. "I didn't have any misconceptions about our [65] ability to do anything other than play music, and I was scared". They later travelled to Maharishi's ashram in [66] India for further guidance, where they composed most of the songs forThe BeatlesandAbbey Road. The anti-war, black comedyHow I Won the War, featuring Lennon's only appearance in a non–Beatles' full-length [67] [68] film, was shown in cinemas in October 1967. McCartney organised the group's first post-Epstein project, the self-written, -produced and -directed television filmMagical Mystery Tour, released in December that year. While the film itself proved to be their first critical flop, its soundtrack release, featuring Lennon's acclaimed, Lewis [69][70] Carroll-inspired "I Am the Walrus", was a success. With Epstein gone, the band members became increasingly involved in business activities, and in February 1968 they formed Apple Corps, a multimedia corporation composed of Apple Records and several other subsidiary companies. Lennon described the venture as an attempt to achieve, [71] "artistic freedom within a business structure", but his increased drug experimentation and growing preoccupation with Yoko Ono, and McCartney's own marriage plans, left Apple in need of professional management. Lennon asked Lord Beeching to take on the role, but he declined, advising Lennon to go back to making records. Lennon approached Allen Klein, who had managed The Rolling Stones and other bands during the British Invasion. Klein [72] was appointed as Apple's chief executive by Lennon, Harrison and Starr, but McCartney never signed the [73] management contract. At the end of 1968, Lennon featured in the filmThe Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus(not released until 1996) in the role of a Dirty Mac band member. The supergroup, composed of Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and [74] Mitch Mitchell, also backed a vocal performance by Ono in the film. Lennon and Ono were married on 20 March

John Lennon

[75] 1969, and soon released a series of 14 lithographs called "Bag One" depicting scenes from their honeymoon, [76] eight of which were deemed indecent and most of which were banned and confiscated. Lennon's creative focus continued to move beyond the Beatles and between 1968 and 1969 he and Ono recorded three albums of [77] experimental music together:Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins(known more for its cover than for its music), Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the LionsandWedding Album. In 1969, they formed the Plastic Ono Band, [78] releasingLive Peace in Toronto 1969Lennon. In protest at Britain's involvement in the Nigerian Civil War, returned his MBE medal to the Queen, though this had no effect on his MBE status, which could not be [79] renounced. Between 1969 and 1970, Lennon released the singles "Give Peace a Chance" (widely adopted as an [80] anti-Vietnam-War anthem in 1969), "Cold Turkey" (documenting his withdrawal symptoms after he became [81] addicted to heroin ) and "Instant Karma!". [82] Lennon left the group in September 1969, and agreed not to inform the media while the band renegotiated their recording contract, but he was outraged that McCartney publicised his own departure on releasing his debut solo album in April 1970. Lennon's reaction was, [83] "Jesus Christ! He gets all the credit for it!" He later wrote, "I started [84] the band. I disbanded it. It's as simple as that." In later interviews withRolling Stonemagazine, he revealed his bitterness towards McCartney, saying, "I was a fool not to do what Paul did, which was [85] use it to sell a record." He spoke too of the hostility he perceived the other members had towards Ono, and of how he, Harrison, andLennon rehearses "Give Peace a Chance" in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1969 Starr "got fed up with being sidemen for Paul ... After Brian Epstein died we collapsed. Paul took over and supposedly led us. But what is [86] leading us when we went round in circles?"

1970–80: Solo career

1970–72: Initial solo success and activism

In 1970, Lennon and Ono went through primal therapy with Dr. Arthur Janov in Los Angeles, California. Designed to release emotional pain from early childhood, the therapy entailed two half-days a week with Janov for four months; he had wanted to treat the couple for longer, but they felt no need to continue and [87] returned to London. Lennon's emotional debut solo album,John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band(1970), was received with high praise. Critic Greil Marcus remarked, "John's singing in the last verse of 'God' may be the finest in [88] all of rock." The album featured the songs "Mother", in which Lennon [89] confronted his feelings of childhood rejection, and the Dylanesque "Working Class Hero", a bitter attack against the bourgeois social system which, due to the [90][91] lyric "you're still fucking peasants", fell foul of broadcasters. The same year, Tariq Ali's revolutionary political views, expressed when he interviewed Advertisement for "Imagine" from Lennon, inspired the singer to write "Power to the People". Lennon also became Billboard, 18 September 1971. involved with Ali during a protest againstOzmagazine's prosecution for alleged obscenity. Lennon denounced the proceedings as "disgusting fascism", and he and Ono (as Elastic Oz Band) released the single "God Save Us/Do the Oz" and joined marches in support of the [92] magazine.

With Lennon's next album,Imagine(1971), critical response was more guarded.Rolling Stonereported that "it contains a substantial portion of good music" but warned of the possibility that "his posturings will soon seem not

John Lennon

[93] [94] merely dull but irrelevant". The album's title track would become an anthem for anti-war movements, while another, "How Do You Sleep?", was a musical attack on McCartney in response to lyrics fromRamthat Lennon felt, [95] and McCartney later confirmed, were directed at him and Ono. However, Lennon softened his stance in the [96] mid-1970s and said he had written "How Do You Sleep?" about himself. He said in 1980: "I used my resentment against Paul ... to create a song ... not a terrible vicious horrible vendetta ... I used my resentment and withdrawing from Paul and The Beatles, and the relationship with Paul, to write 'How Do You Sleep'. I don't really go 'round with [97] those thoughts in my head all the time". [98] Lennon and Ono moved to New York in August 1971, and in December released "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)". The new year saw the Nixon Administration take what it called a "strategic counter-measure" against Lennon's anti-war propaganda, embarking on what would be a four-year attempt to deport him. In 1972, Lennon and Ono attended a post-election wake held in New York by activist Jerry Rubin at his own place after McGovern lost to Nixon. Lennon got intoxicated and caused a scandal by having sex with some female guest in the next room from Ono. She had never truly forgiven him, and wrote "Death of Samantha" song assumed to be inspired by that [99][100] particular incident. Embroiled in a continuing legal battle with the immigration authorities, Lennon was [101] denied permanent residency in the US until 1976. Recorded as a collaboration with Ono and with backing from the New York band Elephant's Memory,Some Time in New York Citywas released in 1972. Containing songs about women's rights, race relations, Britain's role in [102] Northern Ireland and Lennon's problems obtaining a green card, the album was poorly received—unlistenable, [103] according to one critic. "Woman Is the Nigger of the World", released as a US single from the album the same year, was televised on 11 May, onThe Dick Cavett Show. Many radio stations refused to broadcast the song because [104] of the word "nigger". Lennon and Ono gave two benefit concerts with Elephant's Memory and guests in New [105] York in aid of patients at the Willowbrook State School mental facility. Staged at Madison Square Garden on 30 [106] August 1972, they were his last full-length concert appearances.

1973–75: "Lost weekend"

While Lennon was recordingMind Games(1973), he and Ono decided to separate. The ensuing 18-month period apart, which he later called [107] his "lost weekend", was spent in Los Angeles and New York in the company of May Pang.Mind Games, credited to the "Plastic U.F.Ono Band", was released in November 1973. Lennon also contributed "I'm the Greatest", to Starr's albumRingo(1973), released the same month. (an alternate take, from the same 1973Ringosessions, with Lennon providing a guide vocal, appears onJohn Lennon Anthology).

In early 1974, Lennon was drinking heavily and his alcohol-fuelled Publicity photo of John Lennon and host Tom antics with Harry Nilsson made headlines. Two widely publicised Snyder from the television programTomorrow. incidents occurred at The Troubadour club in March, the first whenAired in 1975, this was the last television interview Lennon gave before his death in 1980. Lennon placed a menstruation "towel" on his forehead and scuffled with a waitress, and the second, two weeks later, when Lennon and [108] Nilsson were ejected from the same club after heckling the Smothers Brothers. Lennon decided to produce [109] Nilsson's albumPussy Catsand Pang rented a Los Angeles beach house for all the musicians but after a month of further debauchery, with the recording sessions in chaos, Lennon moved to New York with Pang to finish work on the album. In April, Lennon had produced the Mick Jagger song "Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup)" which was, for contractual reasons, to remain unreleased for more than 30 years. Pang supplied the recording for its eventual [110] inclusion onThe Very Best of Mick Jagger(2007).

Settled back in New York, Lennon recorded the albumWalls and Bridges. Released in October 1974, it yielded his only number-one non-Beatles single in his lifetime, "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night", featuring Elton John on

John Lennon

[111] backing vocals and piano. A second single from the album, "#9 Dream", followed before the end of the year. [112] Starr'sGoodnight Vienna(1974) again saw assistance from Lennon, who wrote the title track and played piano. On 28 November, Lennon made a surprise guest appearance at Elton John's Thanksgiving concert at Madison Square Garden, in fulfilment of his promise to join the singer in a live show if "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night"—a song whose commercial potential Lennon had doubted—reached number one. Lennon performed the song along with "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "I Saw Her Standing There", which he introduced as "a song by an old [113] estranged fiancbe of mine called Paul". Lennon co-wrote "Fame", David Bowie's first US number one, and provided guitar and backing vocals for the [114] January 1975 recording. The same month, Elton John topped the charts with his cover of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", featuring Lennon on guitar and back-up vocals (Lennon is credited on the single under the moniker of "Dr. Winston O'Boogie"). He and Ono were reunited shortly afterwards. Lennon releasedRock 'n' Roll(1975), an album of cover songs, in February. "Stand by Me", taken from the album and a US and UK hit, became his last [115] single for five years. He made what would be his final stage appearance in the ATV specialA Salute to Lew [116] GradePlaying acoustic guitar and backed by an eight-piece band,, recorded on 18 April and televised in June. Lennon performed two songs fromRock 'n' Roll("Stand By Me", which was not broadcast, and "Slippin' and [116] Slidin'") followed by "Imagine". The band, known as Etc., wore masks behind their heads, a dig by Lennon who [117] thought Grade was two-faced.

1975–80: Retirement and return With the birth of his second son Sean on 9 October 1975, Lennon took on the role of househusband, beginning what [118] would be a five-year hiatus from the music industry during which he gave all his attention to his family. Within the month, he fulfilled his contractual obligation to EMI/Capitol for one more album by releasingShaved Fish, a [118] compilation album of previously recorded tracks. He devoted himself to Sean, rising at 6 am daily to plan and [119] prepare his meals and to spend time with him. He wrote "Cookin' (In the Kitchen of Love)" for Starr'sRingo's [120] RotogravureHe(1976), performing on the track in June in what would be his last recording session until 1980. formally announced his break from music in Tokyo in 1977, saying, "we have basically decided, without any great decision, to be with our baby as much as we can until we feel we can take time off to indulge ourselves in creating [121] things outside of the family." During his career break he created several series of drawings, and drafted a book [122] containing a mix of autobiographical material and what he termed "mad stuff", all of which would be published posthumously. Lennon emerged from retirement in October 1980 with the single "(Just Like) Starting Over", followed the next month by the albumDouble Fantasy, which contained songs written during a journey to Bermuda on a 43-foot [123] [124] sailing boat the previous June, that reflected his fulfilment in his new-found stable family life. Sufficient additional material was recorded for a planned follow-up albumMilk and Honey(released posthumously in [125] 1984). Released jointly with Ono,Double Fantasywas not well received, drawing comments such asMelody [126] Maker... a godawful yawn".'s "indulgent sterility