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Home | Early years: 1940–57 | The Beatles: 1957–70 |Murder | Political activism
Solo career
At the end of 1968, Lennon performed as part of the group Dirty Mac, in The Rolling Stones' film Rock and Roll Circus. The supergroup, made up of Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Mitch Mitchell, also backed Ono's performance. Lennon and Ono were married on 20 March 1969, and he soon released a series of 14 lithographs called "Bag One" depicting scenes from their honeymoon, eight of which were deemed indecent and most were banned and confiscated.
Lennon and Ono recorded three albums of experimental music together: Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins, an album known more for its cover than the musical content, Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions, and Wedding Album. His first "solo" album was Live Peace in Toronto 1969—recorded prior to the breakup of The Beatles—recorded at a Rock 'n' Roll Festival in Toronto with The Plastic Ono Band. He also recorded three solo singles: the anti-war anthem, "Give Peace a Chance", "Cold Turkey", and "Instant Karma!". Following The Beatles' split in 1970, Lennon released John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, a raw emotional album that dealt with Lennon's pain in losing his mother and split with The Beatles. It included "Working Class Hero", which was banned by BBC Radio for its inclusion of the word "fucking".
His album Imagine followed in 1971, and the title song would later become an anthem for anti-war movements. It also included the track "How Do You Sleep?" -- a musical attack on McCartney. Although Lennon softened his stance in the mid-70s and claimed he wrote the song about himself, he revealed in 1980, "I used my resentment against Paul... to create a song... not a terrible vicious horrible vendetta... I used my resentment and withdrawing from Paul and The Beatles, and the relationship with Paul, to write 'How Do You Sleep'. I don't really go 'round with those thoughts in my head all the time".
On 31 August 1971, Lennon left England for New York, and released the "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" single in December 1971. To advertise the single, Lennon and Ono paid for billboards in 9 major cities (and 7 different languages) which declared: "WAR IS OVER!... if you want it". Some Time in New York City was then released in 1972. Recorded with Elephant's Memory, it contained songs about women's rights, race relations, Britain's role in Northern Ireland, and Lennon's problems obtaining a United States Green Card. Lennon had been interested in left-wing politics since the late 1960s, and reportedly donated money to the Trotskyist Workers Revolutionary Party.
In 1972, Lennon released "Woman Is the Nigger of the World". Many radio stations refused to broadcast the song, although Lennon was allowed to perform it on The Dick Cavett Show. On 30 August 1972 Lennon and Elephant's Memory gave two benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York to benefit the patients at the Willowbrook State School mental facility on Staten Island. These were to be Lennon's last full-length concert appearances.
In November 1973, Lennon released Mind Games, which was credited to "the Plastic U.F.Ono Band". He also wrote "I'm the Greatest" for Starr's album Ringo (his own demo version of the song appears on the John Lennon Anthology), produced Harry Nilsson's album Pussy Cats and also produced "Too Many Cooks (Spoil The Soup)" for Mick Jagger. In September 1974, Lennon released Walls and Bridges and the single "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" (a #1 duet with Elton John). A second single from the album, "#9 Dream", was released in December. He wrote "Goodnight Vienna" for Starr, and played piano on the recording. On 28 November, Lennon made a surprise guest appearance at Elton John's Thanksgiving concert at Madison Square Garden after he lost a bet with John that "Whatever Gets You" would reach #1. Lennon performed "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" and "I Saw Her Standing There".
In January 1975, Lennon co-wrote and recorded "Fame" with David Bowie and Carlos Alomar which became Bowie's first US #1 hit. Lennon released Rock 'n' Roll, an album of cover songs, in February 1975 – with Phil Spector as co-producer.
Lennon made his last stage appearance on ATV's 18 April 1975 special called A Salute to Lew Grade performing "Imagine", "Stand By Me" (cut from the televised edition), and "Slippin' and Slidin'" from his Rock 'n' Roll LP. Lennon's backup band was BOMF (known as "Etc." that evening). The band members wore two-faced masks which were digs at Grade, with whom Lennon and McCartney had been in conflict because of Grade's control of The Beatles' publishing company. Dick James, The Beatles' publisher, had sold his majority share in Maclen Music (Lennon's and McCartney's publishing company) to Grade in 1969. During "Imagine", Lennon interjected the line "and no immigration too", a reference to his battle to remain in the United States. In October 1975, Lennon fulfilled his contractual obligation to EMI/Capitol for one more album by releasing Shaved Fish, a greatest hits compilation.
In June 1976, Lennon wrote and recorded "Cookin' (In The Kitchen of Love)" with Ringo Starr, his last recording session until his 1980 comeback. Lennon also offered to design the cover for an upcoming Beatles compilation album from Capitol/EMI, Rock 'n' Roll Music, but EMI declined his offer.
In 1977, Lennon announced in Tokyo that "we have basically decided, without any great decision, to be with our baby as much as we can until we feel we can take time off to indulge ourselves in creating things outside of the family." During this period he also drafted a manuscript that would be posthumously published as a book called Skywriting by Word of Mouth as well as several series of drawings which would also be published posthumously.
He emerged from retirement in November 1980, releasing Double Fantasy, which also featured Ono. That previous June, Lennon traveled to Bermuda on a 43-foot sloop, where he wrote songs for the album. The name of the album refers to a species of freesia flower that Lennon had seen in the Bermuda Botanical Gardens and saw it as a perfect description of his marriage to Ono. Lennon had written and recorded enough material for another album and was already planning his follow-up, Milk and Honey, which was released posthumously in 1984.