By Amit Kshirsagar

My main purpose in writing this article is to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the assassination of former Beatle John Lennon. Very few tragic events in the history of popular music — with the exception of the untimely death of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley — have had such a cross generational impact and continue to affect the world today.

Even before they had arrived at Kennedy Airport on February 7th, 1964, the Beatles were a worldwide phenomenon. Although the songwriting genius of John Lennon and Paul McCartney was the main reason for their success, their 4 consecutive appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show made them a permanent fixture in households across the United States.

After four straight years of BEATLEMANIA, In March 1966, the London Evening Standard had published a series of articles by Maureen Cleave wherein John Lennon was quoted as saying that “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I know I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first - Rock ‘n’ Roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” John Lennon’s remarks had created a stir of hatred of the Beatles and their music and as a result, a boycott and burnings of all their music were had across all Bible belt in the Southern United States.

Supported by his fellow Beatles, John Lennon issued a public apology by saying, “If I’d had said that, “Television is more popular than Jesus, then I might have gotten away with it. Even if I’d said that Rock and Roll was more popular than Jesus, then also most ordinary people would have known just what I mean. But, no I had to say the word Beatles, like those beetles you ride on. I was saying as a fact, more with reference to England than here, because it was a fact! I know. I know what I said was wrong, or it was taken wrong and now it’s all this!” On August 29, 1966, the Beatles had reached the pinnacle of their hectic touring schedule of Worldwide concert appearances and had become exhausted both mentally as well as physically, as a result of numerous death threats after having inadvertently snubbed Queen Imelda Marcos of the Philippines and continued global uproar over John Lennon’s “Bigger than Jesus” comments, that the Beatles’ concert at San Francisco’s Candlestick would turn out to be their last official public concert appearance.

Upon his return from Spain, where John had spent the early months of autumn in filming “How I Won the War”, he was introduced to avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, through a mutual friend, namely a Mr. John Dunbar, from whom John Lennon had received a catalog describing an exhibition by Ono, which was scheduled to be held in early November 1966.

While a student at the prestigious Sarah Lawrence Women’s College,Yoko Ono had heard of the ever increasing popularity of the Beatles, but her only interest was in that of John, this made it extremely hard for the other members of the Beatles to remain controlled in their criticism of Yoko Ono.

Finally, on March 20th, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were married in matching white suits, while boarded on a private jet which was returning from Paris, France to London, England, at the British Consulate, with the help of Cecil Wheeler, who had served as Registrar, and Peter Brown, who had served as John Lennon’s best man.

The message of the Beatles for the 1960s was this: "That the people who are hung up on the Beatles’ music and the Sixties’ dream have simply missed the point. Carrying it around all your life is like carrying the Second World War and Glen Miller around. That’s not to say that you cannot enjoy Glenn Miller or the Beatles, but to live in that dream is the twilight zone.” (p.633 John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman.)

After the break-up of the Beatles in 1970, John Lennon had continued to have a string of hits singles which had included “Cold Turkey”, “Happy Christmas (War Is Over), “Imagine”, and “Instant Karma”. From 1975 onwards, John and Yoko had decided to spend most of their time in raising their son Sean (Taro Ono) Lennon. In 1976, John had visited Los Angeles, California on what was deemed his “Lost Weekend”, which was his first time away from Yoko Ono, to record his famous Rock’n’Roll album. No one knows for sure exactly what John Lennon would have done had he lived, but his son Sean Lennon had this to say of his father:

“I don’t think he’d be all that bothered that I’ve inherited his streak of rebelliousness. I have the music and I have the memories and that’s what is precious to me. I have him in my heart.” (p.817 John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman.)