Jim Colyer

Click on The Beatles for pictures.

John Lennon was the heart and soul of The Beatles. He was the one who wanted to be Elvis. When it was over, he said the only good thing about The Beatles was being bigger than Elvis. John Lennon met Paul McCartney in their hometown of Liverpool, England, in 1957. They had something in common. Both were mesmerized by American rock & roll. John covered Chuck Berry. Paul sang Little Richard. A bond formed, and they wrote songs together. George Harrison soon joined them on lead guitar. George was a student of Carl Perkins and rockabilly. Ringo Starr came last on the drums. The Beatles' personalities were such that they fit together to make a whole. John was the brooding intellectual, always questioning himself and others. His wit was razorlike. Paul was politically correct, the cute one who wanted to please. George was spiritual and introverted. Ringo was a comedian who got along with everybody. In the beginning, The Beatles dressed alike and looked alike. It was hard to tell them apart. They were regulars at a club in Liverpool called The Cavern. The Cavern was where they were approached by Brian Epstein, who became their manager. He took them to London and to George Martin. Martin became the producer. If there was a fifth Beatle, it was Martin. The Beatles released Love Me Do in October, 1962. Beatlemania ensued. Songs like From Me To You, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, I Saw Her Standing There & She Loves You drove girls berserk at concerts. The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show as Elvis had done. It was pandemonium. Audiences went wild. The Beatles were chased by fans and the press everywhere they went. Records were released on five labels. The albums were solid. Every song was good. The Beatles made a movie called A Hard Day's Night, which portrayed something of what Beatlemania was. Teenage girls screamed in theaters to the point that the dialogue was inaudible. It was The Beatles' sound. It was their look. It was the long hair. The Beatles annihilated everyone in music except Elvis, and even he reeled.

After 1964, things cooled. The one constant was the music. The Beatles continued to make good records. They recorded Ticket To Ride, which John Lennon called the first heavy metal song. There was a second movie: Help! It was silly with its James Bond parody, and being in color took away. A Hard Days Night was black & white. The Beatles introduced the concept album with Rubber Soul, making rock music an art form. Revolver was released the following year. These were tough times in the United States. The Vietnam War and race riots were out of control. When The Beatles were threatened by the Ku Klux Klan, the tours ended. They retired to the studio. Lennon's songs remained the best on Beatle albums, although they became morbid in a way which is hard to explain. The idea of death pervaded song after song, even the image of being killed by a gun.

No Reply - I nearly died
In My Life - Some are dead and some are living
Run For Your Life - I'd rather see you dead
Girl - Will she still believe it when he's dead
We Can Work It Out - Life is very short
Rain - They might as well be dead
Tomorrow Never Knows - Ignorance and hate mourn the dead, It is not dying
She Said She Said - I know what it's like to be dead

This drift continued through Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, the White Album, Let It Be and Abbey Road.

Good Morning Good Morning - Nothing to do to save his life
A Day In The Life - He blew his mind out in a car
I Am The Walrus - Dripping from a dead dog's eye, See how they run like pigs from a gun, Bloody Tuesday
Yer Blues - Wanna die, If I ain't dead already, Feel so suicidal
Happiness Is A Warm Gun - Bang bang shoot shoot, My finger on your trigger, Mother Superior jumped the gun
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill - What did you kill, Bullet-headed, If to kill was not a sin, If looks could kill, His elephant and gun
Glass Onion - See how the other half live
Revolution #9 - Turn me on, dead man
The Ballad of John & Yoko - They're gonna crucify me; Oh boy, when you're dead
Come Together - Shoot me

In the Rolling Stone interview after the breakup, Lennon was distracted, incoherent. He rejected the Beatles, never to embrace them again. When he did Double Fantasy, he said he did not want to be thought of as a Beatle but as John Lennon whose life was changed by American rock & roll. His preoccupation with death extended into his solo work.

Instant Karma - Pretty soon you're gonna be dead
Cold Turkey - I wish I was dead, Can't see no future
My Mummy's Dead - Title
Working Class Hero - Smile as you kill
Imagine - Nothing to kill or die for
How Do You Sleep? - When they said you was dead
I Don't Want To Be A Soldier - I don't wanna die
John Sinclair - Shooting gooks in Vietnam
Angela - They shot down your man
The Luck of the Irish - Wish you were dead, Death and the glory
We're All Water - If we check their coffins
Sunday Bloody Sunday - When they shot the people, When they nailed the coffin lids
Born In Prison - Die in prison
Attica State - The prisoners did not kill (Strangely enough, Lennon's killer was given a life sentence in Attica Prison.)
Woman Is The Nigger Of The World - We kill her will
Intuition - It seemed like suicide
Scared - I just wanna stay alive, Gonna be the death of me, The straws slip away
Old Dirt Road - Breezing thru the deadwood
Whatever Gets You Through The Night - A gun to blow your mind.

It was as if Lennon had a premonition of his death. He was shot and killed in New York City by a deranged fan named Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980. Lennon had turned 40 on October 9. He once made the remark that he did not want to work in a factory because he would be dead by 40. There is irony, too, in the hoax about McCartney being dead. The hoax was never explained. No one has claimed responsibility for the clues which popped up on album covers as well as in the music. John Lennon admitted he wanted out of The Beatles as early as 1966 but was afraid to leave the group. Instead, he used his disenchantment to craft classic tunes like Revolution and The Ballad of John & Yoko. He was the edge. He broke down the English language and reformed it using nonsense lyrics like those in I Am The Walrus and Come Together. Lennon's songs are superior to McCartney's even if McCartney fans claim otherwise. In My Life is a better song than Yesterday. Someone called Lennon a diarist and McCartney a dramatist. It is true. Ego was at the center of Lennon's work. Even during the peace movement, he acted as if he had invented peace. McCartney developed characters like Eleanor Rigby.

When Lennon brought Yoko into the studio, it drove a wedge between him and McCartney. Yoko had no talent. Nor did McCartney's wife, Linda, who accompanied her husband on stage with Wings. It was up to ABBA from Sweden, a country known for sexual equality, to produce a group in which men and women co-existed. As The Beatles were breaking down, they left a niche for the band which would take rock & roll to its next level. Elvis Presley may have never heard of ABBA, but The Beatles evolved into them.

The Beatles official
The Beatles Story Liverpool
The Internet Beatles Album
Tribute to Lennon
Abbey Road on the River
John Lennon official
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Saw Her Standing There
A Hard Days Night
If I Fell
One After 909
Dizzy Miss Lizzy
Paperback Writer
Get Back
She Loves You
From Me To You
I Feel Fine
Kansas City
Ticket To Ride in Paris
Beatles in Germany awesome
Beatles in Germany 2
You Can't Do That
Rock & Roll Music
She's A Woman in Italy