John Lennon

John Winston Ono Lennon, (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980), was best known as a singer, songwriter, poet and guitarist for The Beatles. His creative career also included the roles of solo musician, political activist, artist, actor and author. As half of the legendary Lennon-McCartney songwriting team, he heavily influenced the development of rock music, leading it towards more serious and political messages.

Trivia

• Some people believe that Lennon's murder was actually a political assassination, although this idea is often dismissed as a conspiracy theory
• Who Authorized The Assassination Of John Lennon by Mark R. Elsis
• The Assassination of John Lennon
• Dead Silence in the Brain
• Rethinking John Lennon's Assassination -- A new book by Salvador Astucia that looks at a different angle of the murder.
• Heavy metal musician Dimebag Darrell was murdered in 2004 on the anniversary of Lennon's death in an unrelated shooting spree.
• Though Lennon is widely remembered as a vocal campaigner for peace, in 2000 the late rock star was accused of secretly funding the IRA during the 1970s. A former MI5 agent, David Shayler (exiled in France after breaking the British Official Secrets Act), went public with the accusation, referring to MI5 documents he had seen while in service. These alleged MI5 documents were based on information from the FBI, and where Shayler claimed to have learned of a £175,000 donation to the IRA. Lennon is known to have identified with and spoken in favour of the Irish civil rights movement, especially during his Some Time In New York City-era fling with radical-militant politics. Yet both Lennon's widow Yoko Ono and biographer Jon Wiener have disputed Shayler's charges. Wiener, a history professor, had previously filed for Lennon's FBI records under the Freedom of Information Act. Many of the documents that have been released are available at Wiener's website, and no proof has yet surfaced to support Shayler's accusation. Ten pages remain unreleased by the FBI, with reports indicating that the British government may have asked the US to keep Lennon's file secret.
• BBC News article from 2000, detailing Shayler's claim
• Jon Wiener's article debating Shayler's claim
• 2004 Associated Press article, announcing judgment against FBI, ordered to release last pages of Lennon's file.
• Cached news article, Irish Republican claims he and Lennon discussed the "Troubles" in early 1970s
• Lennon's friend, musician Klaus Voorman, did the artwork for The Beatles Revolver album cover. In addition to playing bass guitar with Lennon's Plastic Ono Band, Voorman also performed with George Harrison and Manfred Mann.
• He had an apartment at the Dakota set aside for his collection of fur coats. Another was used to store his and Yoko's videotape collection.
• On Lennon's posthumous compilation album Acoustic, a demo recording of the song "God" contains the lines "I just believe in me/And that's reality". This lyric was changed to "I just believe in me/Yoko and me/And that's reality" when the song was included on the Plastic Ono Band album. It has been suggested that the change of the song's lyrics was due to Ono's persuasion of Lennon.
• One of his closest friends was actor Peter Boyle (Everybody Loves Raymond).
• On July 28, 2005 Lennon's handwritten lyrics sheet for the classic "All You Need is Love" sold for £600,000 at an auction in London.