Francis Kenny

Overall, this book is an essential part of the literature devoted to the Beatles, and to Lennon himself. It can be a bit of a slog, but it's due to the fact that Kenny does a hell of a lot of research into the man and the myth that was John Lennon. It's worth the time.

What it also does, and will likely not be appreciated by most fans, is cast an unblinking lens on Lennon and all his faults, as well as most of the circumstances around them, giving us—or, at least, me—a glimpse into the heartbreaking world of my favourite of the four Beatles.

I was always one of those kids that hero-worshipped Lennon, from my late-teens discovery of the Beatles. I'm still the guy, almost forty years later, that pauses on October 9 every year to recognize his birthday, and tear up a little bit every December 8th (not the 9th as the author erroneously indicates in the epilogue) to mourn the musician, poet, father, husband, and icon we lost. I was the guy that teared up this year when the movie Yesterday showed us a Lennon in his late 70s.

All to say that, while he's my favourite, and the one I think about the most, I do know that underneath that veneer of peace champion and musician, there was a right bastard lurking. And I think that's part of what's always drawn me to Lennon—such polar opposites held in one person, and ultimately the things that made him the icon he's become.

As the book details, this is the man who gave us "All You Need Is Love" and sang it to the world...but also fought furiously with his bandmates, who publicly embarrassed women with infantile sexual comments, who made fun of handicaps, who cracked jokes about Jews and threw out Nazi salutes, and dropped racial epithets with wild abandon. This is the man who invited his estranged father, Freddie, along with his new wife and young son to his home so he could rip him a new asshole for abandoning John all those years ago...while he himself was just as guilty of abandoning his own wife Cynthia and son Julian in a similar manner. He referred to his mother as a whore for getting pregnant with another man while still married to a long-absent Freddie. Freddie came home to find her with a new man...yet John did the same damn thing to Cynthia, when she came home to find Yoko in her bathrobe.

Lennon is the guy who sang "Give Peace A Chance" while fighting—both verbally and physically—with those that cared for him. He purposely pushed people away, and sabotaged himself and his life.

He's the one that wrote "Imagine" and yet had a house full of possessions, who stayed on with the Beatles long after he wanted to leave simply to gather more wealth before breaking away. He's the one that imagined a world where all were free, but used his status to get waiters to cut his food for him, or to hire a limousine to return his MBE.

Lennon is a paradox, and this book does a great job of building a case for where much of it came from, starting with his messed up parents, Freddie and Julia, then moving to the manipulative Aunt Mimi, then showing how Lennon clung desperately (all while furiously insulting) first to Stu Sutcliffe, then to Brian Epstein as examples of what he could possibly be, and who could get him there. And finally, to Yoko, who finally showed him a path to get out of the Beatles.

This book also, in my opinion, details quite clearly why the Beatles ultimately broke up. It wasn't Yoko. It wasn't Paul. It was, as is much more realistic, a series of things occurring over a short span of time between 1966 and 1969.

First, the Beatles stopped touring, which gave the four members more time to themselves. Yes, it allowed them to up their studio game, which they took full advantage of, but it also allowed George to come into his own as a songwriter. Ringo was always Ringo, carrying on as he's always done. Paul utilized this time to improve his own writing, while also building on his polymath skills and social climbing skills. He literally pulled himself up by his own bootstraps. And Lennon? Lennon sank into a deep depression, increased drug use, and self-destructive boredom.

Seeking some way out of it, Lennon tried Transcendental Meditation along with the others, but by then, he had Yoko on the mind. But the band's rudder, Brian Epstein died, and it left Lennon casting about for another life raft to cling too.

Through all of this, Paul made his play to step in as leader of the band. At a time when Lennon was initially doubting his own talent. Yoko showed him a different way to ply his art. And then, as it all began to blow up, there came the disagreements over the Let It Be session, and who their new management would be.

The Beatles' story is far more complicated than any one book can possibly cover. It's also a lot more down and dirty than the revisionist history we get of the "Fab Four" or those four zany mop tops that McCartney gives us, or the scion of Peace and Love that Ono would have us believe.

When I was young, the Beatles were the four gods of music. I wish it were so. Reading this book hurt my heart, but it really did show me that Lennon, for all the wonderful music he gave us, both with and after the Beatles, was just a very confused, conflicted man who wanted to be better, but, like most of us, couldn't ever really get over his past, or get out of his own way, to become that greater man.

He's still my favourite. He always will be. But now I see him for the man he was. And that's okay.… (plus d'informations)