John Lennon MBE |
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Lennon at the Montreal bed-in, 1969
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Born |
John Winston Lennon 9 October 1940 Liverpool, Merseyside, England, U.K. |
Died | 8 December 1980 Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S. |
(aged 40)
Cause of death | Murder by shooting |
Resting place |
Cremated (Ashes scattered in Central Park) |
Occupation |
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Years active | 1957–1980 |
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Website | johnlennon |
Musical career | |
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John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter and activist who co-founded the Beatles, the most commercially successful and musically influential band in the history of popular music. He and fellow member Paul McCartney formed a much-celebrated songwriting partnership.
Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager; his first band, the Quarrymen, was named the Silver Beatles, and finally evolved into the Beatles in 1960. When the group disbanded in 1970, Lennon embarked on a sporadic solo career that produced albums including John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and songs such as "Give Peace a Chance", "Working Class Hero", and "Imagine". After he married Yoko Ono in 1969, he added "Ono" as one of his middle names. Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to raise his infant son Sean, but re-emerged with Ono in 1980 with the new album Double 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 Manhattan in 1971, where his criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a lengthy attempt by Richard Nixon's administration to deport him. Some of his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement and the larger counterculture.