John Lennon
FREE!
John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band (Apple)/ Yoko Ono: Plastic Ono Band (Apple)
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1971
BOTH OF THESE records are remarkable in some aspect, a sort of East-West five years after Butterfield and Allan Watts. Certainly, until this point, John ...
John Lennon: Please, Your Majesty, Can Our John Have A Free Pardon?
Interview by Andrew Tyler, NME, January 1974
Heavy breathing over the phone as ANDREW TYLER gets the lowdown from LENNON in L.A. Genius is police harassment, says the Walrus ...
ARTICLES IN LIBRARY
John Lennon: Happy Birthday to the Head Beatle
Interview by Keith Altham, Fabulous, October 1964
Although The Beatles have never officially had a leader, John Lennon has always been regarded as Beatle-boss because of his major role in their success. ...
How Does a Beatle Live? John Lennon
Profile and Interview by Maureen Cleave, Evening Standard, March 1966
IT WAS THIS TIME three years ago that The Beatles first grew famous. Ever since then, observers have anxiously tried to gauge whether their fame ...
Letters to the Editor: Lennon Vs. Christianity
Readers' Letters by Various Writers, KRLA Beat, September 1966
(Ed. NOTE: The BEAT has received hundreds of letters, both pro and con, concerning John Lennon's remarks about Christianity. Unfortunately, we do not have nearly ...
John Lennon: Fighting The Good Fight With All Of His Might
Comment by Derek Taylor, Disc and Music Echo, November 1968
THIS IS addressed to those who love Lennon, who call him John and who give thanks for his being alive, hard by, at hand, dear ...
Rolling Stones: The Greatest Show On Earth
Report by Keith Altham, NME, December 1968
THE ROLLING STONES put in some overtime last Wednesday when they spent 17 hours working on their telethon production of The Rock and Roll Circus ...
John Lennon and Yoko Ono: Life With The Lions (Apple)
Review by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, May 1969
JOHN AND YOKO DO THEIR OWN THING (Part 2) ...
John Lennon/Yoko Ono Interview
Interview by Miles, unpublished, September 1969
These tapes were made on September 23rd and 24th, 1969, at Apple. When Allen Klein fired Ron Kass, the head of Apple Records, John and ...
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, December 1969
"We had to do a lot of selling out. Taking the MBE was a sell-out for me". Part 1 of a new series by RICHARD ...
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, December 1969
"People prefer a dead saint to a living annoyance like John and Yoko. But we don't intend to be dead Saints for people's convenience". Part ...
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, December 1969
"We're always together, like 24 hours a day. We're never apart by more than a 100 yards". RICHARD WILLIAMS concludes his exclusive series ...
The Beatles: It's Open Warfare
Report by Alan Smith, NME, March 1971
Why Beatles ended in a sordid mudbath.It isn't coincidence that these solo singles have just been released, says Alan Smith ...
John Lennon & Yoko Ono: Doing The Rounds For Publicity
Interview by Alan Smith, NME, July 1971
He knows it, I know it – the next Lennon album is the greatest says Alan Smith ...
At Home With The Lennons, Part 2
Interview by Alan Smith, NME, August 1971
In which John burns down the Beatles 'cause he loves 'em ...
Review by Alan Smith, NME, September 1971
JOHN SINGS LONG TRACK ABOUT PAUL ...
Essay by Felix Dennis, Ink, November 1971
"I still think that kids are more influenced by us than by Jesus". ...
Rocking Chair: Popular & Vital
Column by Michael Lydon, Fusion, December 1971
JAMES TAYLOR came on the jukebox in the bar last night, singing that pretty Carole King song about "Call me and I'll come running and ...
John Sinclair: Free John & Yoko
Report by uncredited writer, Dave Marsh, Creem, March 1972
The new Plastic Ono Band comes to Ann Arbor to Free John Sinclair – Starring David Peel, Archie Shepp, Ed Sanders, Stevie Wonder, Commander Cody, ...
John Lennon: Sometime In New York City (Apple); Elephant's Memory: Elephant's Memory (Apple)
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, August 1972
I'M LISTENING TO a tape of The New John and Yoko lp. If you thought, as I did, that Sometime in New York City was ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, November 1973
WHERE DOHENY DRIVE cuts Sunset at the edge of the Beverly Hills estate, there's a tobacconist shop that carries all makes and brands. It's called ...
Report by Jacoba Atlas, Circus, April 1974
AFTER YEARS of the Dylans, the Tim Hardins, the jazz aficionados, and the Elton Johns, almost nothing could shock either the people or the environment ...
Lurching Lennon: Beatle Bounced
Report by Jacoba Atlas, Circus, June 1974
WHAT IS happening to John Lennon? Last month it was the infamous Kotex caper. Recently the former Beatle with the mellow voice was at it ...
Report by Al Aronowitz, Rolling Stone, August 1974
NEW YORK – John was wearing shades, his chestnut hair glistening in the fancy studio lights, big ones over his cars, sitting in a booth ...
John Lennon: Walls And Bridges
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, October 1974
IT'S A FINE, warm day here in London, Johnny. What's the weather like in New York? ...
John Lennon: Walls And Bridges (Apple)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, January 1975
WELCOME TO THE latest chapter in John Lennon's Identity Crisis. Fresh from troubles with the immigration authorites, the breakup with Yoko and public behavior reminiscent ...
Plastic Ono Band: The End Of Another Dream
Essay by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, February 1975
Idris Walters describes the strange marriage of rock'n'roll and conceptual art which produced some of the most arresting sounds of the last few years and ...
John Lennon Talks About Music, Money, Marriage, and Fame
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Viva, March 1975
ONE OF John Lennon's friends, Elton John, spends $5,000 for a pair of sunglasses and buys his manager a yacht for a birthday present. Another ...
John Lennon: Rock 'N' Roll (Apple)
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1975
IN OCTOBER 1973 John Lennon was reported cutting an album of oldies with Phil Spector. After only four sides had been cut, Spector was seriously ...
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, March 1975
It's a busy time for JOHN LENNON – hit singles, a new album of oldies and recording with Elton John and and David Bowie. Plus ...
John Lennon's battle with the US Immigration Department
Report by Andrew Tyler, NME, July 1975
JOHN LENNON, IN his battle of wits with the US Immigration Department, is looking less like the stoical pre-doomed crazy of old, and more like ...
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, November 1975
SHAVED FISH is all of John Lennon's post-Beatle singles scooped up and dumped onto one album, spiced up with a few relevant album tracks and ...
John Lennon Gets His Ticket To Ride
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, August 1976
NEW YORK: John Lennon has won his five-year battle against the immigration authorities in the United States. ...
Report by Miles, NME, May 1977
DAVID PEEL and the Apple Band have released an album dedicated to that all-American cause of re-uniting The Beatles. ...
John Lennon & Yoko Ono: Double Fantasy (Geffen)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, November 1980
IN THE cocoon, something stirs. John Lennon – one of the people who used to be in The Beatles, a group reckoned to be hot ...
John Lennon: I Was Never Lovable – I Was Just Lennon
Obituary by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, December 1980
ONE OF THE more persistent myths surrounding John Lennon claims that he was brought up in poverty by working-class Liverpool parents. ...
Obituary by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, December 1980
WHEN WE were growing up, my brother and I, he loved John Lennon especially. Our parents used to give us a Beatles album every Christmas. ...
John Lennon: My Brilliant Career
Obituary by Simon Frith, New York Rocker, March 1981
'Death Of A Hero' it said in big black letters across the front of the Daily Mirror, and if I hadn't known already I'd have ...
Report and Interview by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, June 1981
IT IS FIVE months since the shots were fired. The Dakota Building shares in that relief which Spring fleetingly gives to New York. Beside the ...
Interview by Richard Cook, NME, February 1984
How does the widow of John Lennon face up to a world that won't leave her husband's memory alone, three years after his death? In ...
Julian Lennon: The Lennon Legacy
Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, October 1984
Four years after a madman took out his father, JULIAN LENNON launches his own career in music. In his first major interview he tells Colin ...
A Strangely defanged portrait of John Lennon
Book Review by John Mendelsohn, San Francisco Chronicle, June 1985
ACCORDING TO LABOR Department projections, John Lennon biographers will outnumber Elvis Presley impersonators by mid-October. ...
Dead Aid/Instant Bad Karma By The Mersey: The John Lennon Memorial Concert, Pier Head, Liverpool
Report by Michael Gray, Times, The, May 1990
IT HAS TAKEN the music industry five years to transform the rock-stars-for-charity mega-event from Bob Geldof's coherent effort to ameliorate a real tragedy to this ...
Live Review by Tom Hibbert, Q, July 1990
AS WE ENTER the scene, we spy a rockin' Reverend on the stage performing a boisterous version of an old Beatles' tune. ...
Some Time in New York City: John Lennon’s Manhattan
Essay by Steve Turner, Independent, The, August 1990
"I should have been born in New York," John Lennon once said. "I should have been born in the Village. That’s where I belong. Everybody ...
Eyewitness: The 14-Hour Technicolor Dream, April 29, 1967, Alexandra Palace, North London
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Q, June 1995
Pink Floyd, The Soft Machine, The Move... Some of Swinging London's swingiest played at the legendary International Times benefit at Alexandra Palace. Johnny Black rounds up a ...
Bob Gruen: Just Like Starting Over
Interview by Graham Reid, New Zealand Herald, August 1995
New Yorker Bob Gruen is famous in the field of rock'n'roll photography but his association with John Lennon overshadows everything. GRAHAM REID hears the stories. ...
Interview by Miles, MOJO, November 1995
WE DID THESE interviews on September 23 and 24, 1969, at Apple. When Allen Klein fired Ron Kass, the head of Apple Records, John and ...
Eyewitness: John & Yoko record 'Give Peace A Chance'
Retrospective by Paul Williams, Q, November 1995
Give Peace A Chance may not be the last word in protest performances, but it can lay claim to one of the weirdest musical births ...
Interview by Nick Hasted, Independent, The, June 1997
YOKO ONO was a lightning rod for the Sixties' most vicious currents. John Lennon was a man she'd barely heard of, a man she fell ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: Various Reissues
Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, August 1997
A LOT of claims are being made for Yoko Ono. That those first albums she made with Lennon in the late Sixties weren't the random ...
John Lennon: So This Is Christmas…
Retrospective by Richard Williams, Uncut, January 1998
UP ON THE 17TH FLOOR OF THE St Regis Hotel in New York City, John Lennon is learning to type. P...I...M...P, he types. I AM ...
Interview by Carol Clerk, Uncut, January 1998
AND SO THIS is Christmas. Well, nearly. The stores in Manhattan are already sparkling with trees and tinsel, and here in Central Park, the traditionally ...
John Lennon: The John Lennon Anthology
Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, December 1998
WE GET USED TO THE VOICE. THE SOUND of a largely self-educated, rawly-talented, troubled and often wildly erratic Englishman who, by means of the various ...
John Lennon: Imagine (Apple/EMI)
Review and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, April 2000
Straight reissue of classic album, with digital remastering treatment. ...
John Lennon: From the Quarrymen to the MBE
Retrospective by Johnny Black, MOJO, October 2000
"THAT WAS THE day," said John Lennon. "The day that I met Paul, that it started moving." ...
Memoir by Chris Charlesworth, Rock's Backpages, 2001
THE FIRST TIME I heard John Lennon’s voice was in mid-January 1963 in my father’s white Triumph Vitesse car, travelling from Skipton to York, going ...
How I Almost Met the Late John Lennon
Memoir by John Mendelsohn, Rock's Backpages, June 2002
LEGEND AND VH1 have it that when Elton John made his Los Angeles debut at the Troubadour in August 1970, he blew everyone away, and ...
Retrospective by David Stubbs, Uncut, November 2002
THE LAST THREE YEARS OF the decade he had to an almost unbelievable extent inspired and defined had been for John Lennon a sullen, hellish ...
Retrospective and Interview by Carol Clerk, Uncut, September 2003
IT'S THE summer of 1969, and John and Yoko are in bed in room 1742 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal. They are in their ...
Retrospective by Gavin Martin, Uncut Legends, 2005
IN 1966 JOHN Lennon had approached Godhead status for a generation when he sounded the call to "relax turn off your mind and float down ...
Comment by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, November 2005
When You Can't Really Function You're So Full Of Fear, A Digital Downloader Is Something To Be ...
Learning The Game: How John Lennon Learned to Stop Worrying and Love His Inner Geek
Essay by Tim Riley, Rock's Backpages, November 2006
LONG BEFORE "POST-MODERN" became pure jargon, Buddy Holly put quotes around his "normalcy" to disarm rock machismo. ...
The Vulnerable Beatle: John Lennon's Narrative-like Solo Catalog Tailor-made for Digital Delivery
Retrospective by Mark Kemp, Paste, October 2007
ONE OF THE MORE telling songs in John Lennon's solo catalog is the tender 'Look at Me.' Not the well-scrubbed version on his first album, ...
Interview by Carol Clerk, Uncut, January 2008
THOUGHTS FROM YOKO ONO ON THE EVE OF JOHN LENNON'S BIRTHDAY (OCTOBER 9, 2007) IN ICELAND, WHERE SHE INAUGURATED THE IMAGINE PEACE TOWER IN HIS ...
John Lennon: Give New York A Chance
Guide by Philip Norman, Daily Mail, December 2008
FEW EXILES have been so cherished by a city as John Lennon was by New York. Certainly, none has ever left such a legacy of ...
Sympathy for the Devil – A Kind Word for Albert Goldman
Essay by Tom Graves, Rock's Backpages, April 2009
ALBERT HARRY GOLDMAN is inarguably the most controversial music biographer of the last generation. His biographies of first Elvis, then John Lennon, have been spit ...
see also Beatles, The
see also Elephant's Memory
see also Yoko Ono
back to LIBRARY
Best Databases: RBP is Runner-up in Best Niche category
Video: Johnny Marr talks about Rock's Backpages
download eBooks and audio interviews
RBP on Spotify: The Very Best of 40-year-old Virgin
RBP Album Club, June 13th: Miki Berenyi and Lucy O'Brien celebrate a Blondie classic
Essential Listening: Green Day grilled by Roy Trakin
RBP Album Club, July 11th: Nick Hornby and Nick Coleman celebrate Southside Johnny's debut
Essential Reading: Bud Scoppa's 1971 Byrds classic