The Lives of John Lennon

The Lives of John Lennon was a 1988 biography of Lennon by American

Related Topics:
John Lennon - 1988 - American

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author Albert Goldman.

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It was extremely controversial upon its issue because of Lennon being portrayed in a less than admiring light; Goldman went into detail about the alleged homosexual affair between Lennon and The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, as well as a number of Lennon's liaisons with other men. This greatly angered Yoko Ono, despite much of this material appearing in previous biographies of Lennon, and Lennon in an interview with Rolling Stone hinting that he was bisexual. Goldman also alleged that Lennon was a schizophrenic, a charge which had never been made before and of which there is scant evidence, and an anti-Semite, which seems to be based on casual offhand statements typical of working class Liverpudlians of a certain generation rather than any actual behavior. Despite this, Goldman does show genuine respect for Lennon's musical achievements with the Beatles and some of his early solo work (although largely dismissing most of it, even the widely acclaimed Imagine).

Related Topics:
The Beatles - Brian Epstein - Yoko Ono - Rolling Stone - Bisexual - Schizophrenic - Anti-Semite - Liverpudlians - Imagine

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Lennon comes across much better than Yoko Ono, who is portrayed in an extremely negative light. Goldman alleges that Ono had been a prostitute while attending Sarah Lawrence College, and depicts her as a willing participant in the petty crimes and sexually based blackmail schemes of her second husband, Tony Cox, whom she had been married to prior to Lennon. He also goes into great detail about Yoko's harassment of Lennon's wife Cynthia, and her rather bizarre behavior which successfully lured in Lennon, material largely taken from The Love You Make by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, a book in which all four Beatles cooperated with and which was authorized by all members except Lennon. This behavior if practiced with a current celebrity would get the person who acted in such a manner arrested for stalking. The book also depicts Yoko as getting Lennon involved in heroin, a claim validated by virtually all Beatles and Lennon biographies , being greedy and money-obsessed, and openly cheating on Lennon with gigolos.

Related Topics:
Prostitute - Sarah Lawrence College - Tony Cox - Cynthia - The Love You Make - Peter Brown - Steven Gaines - Stalking - Heroin - Gigolo

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Goldman depicts Paul McCartney in an extremely positive light, as being the man who made the band able to function. (McCartney didn't return the favour, and denounced Goldman's account of his old bandmate: "Look, don't buy it.") Much more controversially, Goldman depicts manager Allen Klein as being somewhat of a saint, as someone who had the Beatles' best interests in mind, and who was railroaded by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when he was tried, convicted, and served prison time for insider trading and securities fraud.

Related Topics:
Paul McCartney - Allen Klein - U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission - Insider trading - Securities fraud

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Goldman implies that Mark David Chapman's murder of John Lennon may have been part of a conspiracy by Fundamentalist Christians. Chapman was a fundamentalist who viewed Lennon as a corrupter of youth. He does not offer any conclusions, but mentions that the NYPD files on Lennon's murder are sealed and any conclusive answer would have to wait until the files are released to the public.

Related Topics:
Mark David Chapman - Conspiracy - Fundamentalist Christians - Fundamentalist - NYPD

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Yoko threatened to sue for libel, claiming the book drove her to attempt suicide, but never pursued any legal action, in spite of her litigious past history. Singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson, whose friendship with Lennon peaked during his 1974 separation from Yoko, told Rolling Stone that Goldman "got me drunk" while interviewing him, probing Nilsson for 'the dirt' about Lennon, and Nilsson wouldn't cooperate. (Nilsson gets a chapter in the book, "Harry the Hustler", which credits him with having better confidence-man skills than singing talent.) Other celebrities who'd known Lennon personally, including Geraldo Rivera and Tom Snyder, largely expressed an attitude of "Interesting story—who's it about? That's not the man I knew."

Related Topics:
Libel - Suicide - Harry Nilsson - Rolling Stone - Geraldo Rivera - Tom Snyder

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On their 1988 album Rattle and Hum, U2 attacked Goldman's allegations about Lennon in the song "God Part 2", a "sequel" of sorts to Lennon's song "God", with the lyrics "Don't believe in Goldman/his type is like a curse/Instant karma's gonna get him if I don't get him first."

Related Topics:
1988 - Rattle and Hum - U2 - Instant karma

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