History Music / JohnLennon

** John admitted in many, many, many interviews, especially by 1980, that he developed a tough guy, chauvinistic, sarcastic, "teddy boy" facade, a "working class hero" image in leather jacket, and was cruel to his woman and beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved, [[BrokenAce because he was hiding his painful, broken childhood, the loss of his parents, hiding his embarrassment at being from a well-to-do family (particularly where Aunt Mimi was concerned) who became a rich rock star (hence "imagine no possessions"), had a hard time coping without a woman as his beck and call (hence the "baking bread" business), and had difficulty communicating, so he resorted to violence]]. [[JerkAssFacade He dressed like a teddy boy, but admitted that around any ''real'' "teddy boys", he would have gotten beat up]]. It took him a long time and the help of Yoko to start getting straightened out, and by then he was killed.

** John admitted in many, many, many interviews, especially by 1980, that he [[BrokenAce developed a tough guy, chauvinistic, sarcastic, "teddy boy" facade, a "working class hero" image in leather jacket, and was cruel to his woman and beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved, because he was hiding his painful, broken childhood, the loss of his parents, hiding his embarrassment at being from a well-to-do family (particularly where Aunt Mimi was concerned) who became a rich rock star (hence "imagine no possessions"), had a hard time coping without a woman as his beck and call (hence the "baking bread" business), and had difficulty communicating, so he resorted to violence]]. [[JerkAssFacade He dressed like a teddy boy, but admitted that around any ''real'' "teddy boys", he would have gotten beat up]]. It took him a long time and the help of Yoko to start getting straightened out, and by then he was killed.

** John admitted in many, many, many interviews, especially by 1980, that he [[JerkassFacade developed]] a tough guy, chauvinistic, sarcastic, "teddy boy" facade, a "working class hero" image in leather jacket, and was cruel to his woman and beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved, because he was hiding his painful, broken childhood, the loss of his parents, hiding his embarrassment at being from a well-to-do family (particularly where Aunt Mimi was concerned) who became a rich rock star (hence "imagine no possessions"), had a hard time coping without a woman as his beck and call (hence the "baking bread" business), and had difficulty communicating, so he resorted to violence. He dressed like a teddy boy, but admitted that around any ''real'' "teddy boys", he would have gotten beat up. It took him a long time and the help of Yoko to start getting straightened out, and by then he was killed.

** Also belonging in the FunnyAneurysmMoment category was the cynical observation Lennon made in a rare interview from 1980 found on {{YouTube}}, about those who criticized him for being in seclusion for five years and not calling any of his rock star drinking buddies to party, was that when John dies, the rock community who criticized him for hiding would say nothing but nice things about him when he's dead, but the fact that he didn't die in L.A. from his "lost weekend" excesses in the mid-1970's meant that they were free to judge John for settling down and for not partying with his rock star friends until he became a "rock casualty".

** Not that Lennon himself was entirely immune to these. "Woman", anyone?

[[caption-width-right:350:You may say I'm a dreamer...but I'm not the only one.]]

* DisappearedDad: When John was five, his father abandoned his family after a heated marital argument and didn't re-establish contact with his son for twenty years (conveniently re-entering his life, twice, after the Beatles became famous).

* YoungFutureFamousPeople: ''Nowhere Boy'' is a film starring [[KickAss Aaron Johnson]] released in 2009 (in the U.K.; 2010 everywhere else) based on John Lennon's early life. Co-starring [[PhineasAndFerb Thomas Sangster]] as [=Paul McCartney=].

* ShoutOut: "I don't believe in [[BobDylan Zimmerman]]" ("God")
* SillyLoveSongs: The inspiration behind the TropeNamer. John criticized PaulMcCartney for writing "silly love songs"... and so Paul wrote a song with that exact title.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: "How Do You Sleep?", from 1971's ''Imagine'', directed toward PaulMcCartney at the depth of their mutual hatred. A response to Paul's "Too Many People" from ''Ram'', released earlier the same year. (The two buried the hatchet a few years later.)

* GriefSong: "Mother" and "My Mummy's Dead," which respectively open and close his album ''John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band''. Later, his death inspired several, including his old Beatles bandmate George Harrison's "All Those Years Ago," released five months after Lennon was killed. In a rare reunion of ex-Beatles, Ringo Starr also played drums and Paul [=McCartney=] the bass on the single, which reached No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard chart.

John Winston Ono Lennon (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980) was one of the leaders of the revolutionary band TheBeatles.

** John even wrote two songs about it: with TheBeatles it was "I'm Only Sleeping", and solo it was "Watching The Wheels".

* BillingDisplacement: ''How I Won The War'', a 1966 film in which Lennon has a supporting role as Private Gripweed, was marketed with Lennon prominently featured. Roger Ebert noted this in a [[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19680107/REVIEWS/801070301/1023 contemporary review]] of the film and it [[http://www.seat42f.com/how-i-won-the-war-dvd-contest.html remains true]] in the recent DVD release.

* BiggerThanJesus: The TropeNamer, although John [[BeamMeUpScotty didn't actually say it]]. His actual BlasphemousBoast (which wasn't actually a boast, either)[[hottip:* :Lennon was actually deploring the fact that a pop group could be more important to kids than their religious faith.]] in 1966 was a claim that the Beatles were "''more popular'' than Jesus," which passed without notice in his native England, landed him and his bandmates in big trouble when the interview was reprinted in America. However, in 2008 the official Vatican newspaper played down the significance of his remark, effectively absolving him.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: When Lennon returned his MBE to Buckingham Palace in 1969 (six years after receiving it with the other three Beatles), he enclosed a note giving his reasons: "I am returning this MBE in protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra [[BuffySpeak thing]], against our support of America in Vietnam, and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts." "Cold Turkey," his most recent single, was turning in a relatively poor performance on the music charts, peaking at No. 14 in the UK and No. 30 in the U.S.

[[quoteright:400:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flower_4486.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:400:You may say I'm a dreamer...but I'm not the only one.]]

!!'''JohnLennon provides examples of:'''

-->"Working Class Hero"

->''A working class hero is something to be''
->''If you want to be a hero, then just follow me''

* AGodAmI: Following an LSD trip in May 1968, he was convinced he was {{Jesus}} reincarnated and convened a private meeting with his bandmates the next day to tell them so. They wisely humoured him and said they needed time to mull it over before announcing it to the world. Sure enough, by day's end he'd forgotten all about it and instead spent the night recording ''Two Virgins'' (and engaging in other [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean non-virginal activities]]) with Yoko.