The assassination, unfortunately the successful assassination of John Lennon, one of the frontmen of the (then defunct but legendary) English rock group The Beatles, was an event that shook the entire world. The fact that the life of an extraordinarily gifted – what gifted, genius – “bug” from Liverpool ended so suddenly was simply incomprehensible. As well as in many respects his too short life story – he was only forty years old.
John Winston Lennon, as his full name sounded, was born in October 1940, i.e. during the harsh times of war, specifically during the height of the aerial “Battle of Britain” (Battle of Britain), which the island nation already with Winston Churchill (after which after all, John had his middle name) at the head of the government, he quarreled with Nazi Germany.
His childhood was pretty bleak and raw, if I may say so. While he did not remember much from the terrible war years of 1940-1945, the following “Austerity Years, 1945-1951” had already remained firmly “under his skin”. Add to that the fact that the North of England and Liverpool’s great harbor on the River Mersey, open to the world, was “rough” in itself, and we have a good basis for the quirky, inimitable poetry/poetics that characterized The Beatles’ work .
The story that began with the founding of the skiffle (specific urban folk, peculiarly “seasoned” with jazz and blues elements, often played on amateur-made instruments) band The Quarrymen in September 1956, friendship with the equally brilliant Paul McCartney (* 1942) and the formation of The Beatles four years later, is well known to most of the people in our circle of civilization, with the exception of a portion of today’s younger generation. Perhaps never in the history of popular music has a pair of authors (with all due respect to George Harrison and Ringo Starr) produced as many ideas and as many fantastic melodies and lyrics as Lennon and McCartney.
Tags: Kill Musician Troubled Legacy Genius Bug Sad Prologue Reagan Administration
