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The 1960s in America: Crash Course US History #40

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Not Happy With Your Modern Day Life? Check Out What Life Was Like in 60s!

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The 1960s were a decade of revolution and change in politics, music and society around the world. It started in the United States and the United Kingdom, and spread to continental Europe and other parts of the globe.

The 1960s were an era of protest. In the civil rights movement blacks and whites protested against the unfair treatment of races. Towards the end of the decade more and more Americans protested against the war in Vietnam. Many people in the United States thought that Americans had no reason to fight in war that was so far away from home.

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The 1960s were a decade of political change and protest in society, especially in America

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The History of John Lennon's Five-Year Battle With the FBI

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John Lennon was engaged in a five-year fight with the U.S. government due to his political activism.

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Her name may have become a synonym for breaking-up and discord, due to her relationship with John Lennon and connection with the Beatles' break-up, but what cannot be overshadowed even by that infamous status is the fact that Yoko Ono is a ground-breaking figure, fierce activist and an original creator. With her oeuvre spanning over a variety of mediums from music, film and performance art, to painting, sculpture and text, Ono has been an eclectic author with groundbreaking notions. Blending her creative force and artistic expression with activism and performance, Yoko Ono art pioneered the ideas of feminism in artistic practice , and she dedicated her whole life to campaigning for world peace. Even though she was frequently criticized and even ostracized by the press and the public, she fought her way through all the hardships with her creativity and challenging artwork. The simplicity of her work may have been derided for years, but it is exactly that which makes it greatly accessible. With each successive generation, her blend of artwork and activism found a new audience, breaking her infamous status, one piece at a time. Activist for peace and human rights since the 1960s, a versatile persona and performer, courageous and unrelenting woman fighter, Yoko Ono still stands proud and strong after decades of misconception, misunderstanding and unfairness.

Early Life and Beginnings of Yoko Ono Art

Born and raised in Tokyo, Yoko Ono grew up in a wealthy Japanese banking family. Ever since she was a student, Yoko excelled at whatever she did. In 1952, she became the first woman to study philosophy at Japan's Gakushuin University. In the following year, young Ono moved to the U.S. to study at Sarah Lawrence College, but that educational pursue did not last long either. After dropping out, she became involved in the Fluxus movement which was led by conceptual artists from New York, like George Maciunas, Diane Wakoski, Walter De Maria and La Monte Young. Once Ono was settled in her new surroundings, she began writing poetry. Even at her early age, her work was considered as too radical by many, so it did not receive much recognition and acceptance. It was only later on when she became involved with American jazz musician/film producer Anthony Cox that she gained some recognition, for it was Cox who financed and helped coordinate her "interactive conceptual events" back in the early 1960s. Even her earlier pieces often demanded the viewers' participation and forced them to become involved with the artwork. Staged in 1964, one of her most famous works was the Cut Piece, where the members of the audience were invited to cut off pieces of her clothing until she was naked, thus making an abstract commentary on discarding materialism and its impact on society. Many of her conceptual pieces were exhibited and/or performed at the Carnegie Recital Hall, Village Gate, and various New York galleries. In 1966, her lecture brought her to Indica Gallery in London, where she met John Lennon.

Yoko Ono and John Lennon

It would be fair to say that Lennon influenced Ono as much as Ono influenced Lennon, in some ways that improved and progressed both of their careers. The "pre-Lennon" phase in Ono's artworks encouraged a Zen-like dissolution of thought, and after she met the love of her life, she began shifting towards a greater campaign for world peace, using not only galleries but the mass media as well. The couple explored avant-garde art, music and film. It soon became obvious that Lennon considered his relationship with Ono as the most important thing in his life, and their inseparability, combined with Ono's influence over Lennon, would develop as a source of great tension among the Beatles, only to announce the coming of their last days as a band. After getting married in 1969, the couple invited the press to their hotel room in Amsterdam, where they stayed in bed for a week. This was to become their first "Bed-in for Peace," project which was part of the peace movement that gained much publicity. The Lennons campaign continued with speeches to the press; "War Is Over! If You Want It" billboards sprang up in 12 cities around the world. Throughout the Beatles' break up and fall out between the members, Yoko Ono and John Lennon pursued their anti-war goals and dedicated their lives to the cause. The couple collaborated on art, film and musical projects, becoming famous for their series of conceptual shows which were dedicated to promoting world peace.

Misunderstood, Derided and Underappreciated

Yoko Ono has been, without a doubt, one of the most misunderstood artists in the past 60 years. It is her massive fame, association with the Beatles, and heal-the-world rhetoric that have obscured her groundbreaking contributions to the world of art of the 1960s and beyond. Her wide-ranging artistic expression encompasses film, sculpture, text, performance, music and artwork. Although eclectic in nature, her work has been often greeted with incomprehension, mockery and even rage. Her work has always been an indivisible element of her activism and life-long mission of communicating with the world at large. Despite the often hostile response, Ono has won the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Observer Ethical Awards for her activism lasting over half a century. Her combined work has been exhibited in a unique show at The Museum of Modern Art, entitled Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960-1970 , the exhibition featured Ono's artistic practices and her involvement in the Feminist movement. As she explained, art represents a way of showing people how you can think, and even though some people think of it as a beautiful wallpaper that you can sell, Yoko Ono rather perceives it as a direct connection with activism. Her style often included "dematerialization of the art object," which is a phrase that would only come to use when the critic Lucy Lippard employed it to talk about the practice of turning away from objects and towards ideas. So, even before this phrasing, Ono created artworks that could exist in a variety of idea-oriented context. From sumi-ink paintings on unstretched canvas, where one is burned, another placed on the ground and another drips with water, to different artworks that could exist as mere instructions, to be executed once, multiple times, or even never.

Cut Piece, Feminism and Activism

One of her most famous artworks, Cut Piece, still remains as a precursor to a myriad of feminist and body-centered art pieces and performances. Interestingly enough, this artwork also displays her deep influence of Zen Buddhism, as Ono stated recently, when she was creating the controversial piece, she was originally thinking of Buddha and how he gave everything up. It wasn't uncommon for Yoko to draw parallels between spiritual and religious practices and artistic creation. She allowed her Japanese education and American artistic formation to merge into a new mindfulness, creating a vessel through which she viewed artistry as the absence of complexity, a vacuum through which she was led to a state of complete relaxation of mind. Her idea that physical presence of the artist could communicate far more forcefully than a mediated representation influenced generations of future artists . Cut Piece was one of the best examples where the visceral presence of the author confronted the tension between exhibitionism and voyeurism, masochism and sadism, between victim and assailant. The artwork was lauded as an enactment of the physical vulnerability of women in a world where they are reduced to mere objects for looking at. The groundbreaking artwork is hailed as prophetic of feminist activism and of performance art as a form.

Yoko Ono Believes in the Power of Physical Presence of the Artist

Yoko Ono Doesn't seem to be Stopping at 82 years of age

Today, Yoko Ono continues to express her artistic practice strongly as ever. In 2011, the 78-year-old made history as the oldest artist to have a number-one dance hit with her single Move on Fast. Her musical career has received positive acclaim and her songs have been reworked by famous artists like Basement Jaxx and the Pet Shop Boys. Ono continues to honor Lennon's memory and their joint commitment to world peace with a number of different projects. The pioneering conceptual artist, musician, performer and activist, is now 82 years old. Recently, she stated in an interview that she felt like she was starting a new life, a second life. Either way, it doesn't seem like she's done with this one yet, and we can surely expect even more artworks from this prolific creator. Her latest causes include campaigning for gun control and against fracking, her vision remains somewhat utopian and she still pursues the ideals which led her in the past. Ono truly believes that despite the rising terroristic activities, we are finally on our way to world peace, and she predicted that we will have heaven on Earth in 2050. If her hopes, aspirations and dreams will come true, we cannot know, but only time will tell.

Editors' Tip: Acorn by Yoko Ono

Almost 50 years after the publication of her book of conceptual instructions Grapefruit Yoko Ono has picked up where she had left off. In her book Acorn, this legendary avant-garde icon that has inspired generations of artists and performens offers enchanting and thought-provocing excercises that open your eyes and senses to more creative and mindful ways of relating to ourselves and people and world around us. This beautifully designed book also features Yoko Ono's 100 black-and-white drawings. Wildly original, stimulating and hard to label, this book may actually change the way you think and experience the world through this purposeful play, bran poetry, guided motivation or even Zen-like incantations.
All images used for illustrative purposes only

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Yoko Ono - A Groundbreaking Artist, Activist and Fighter behind the Myth of her Name

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Her name may have become a synonym for breaking-up and discord, due to her relationship with John Lennon and connection with the Beatles' break-up, but what cannot be overshadowed even by that infamous status is the fact that Yoko Ono is a ground-breaking figure, fierce activist and an original creator.

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1960s Peace Protest Against Vietnam War, USA

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http://ultimateclassicrock.com/files/2014/03/KeystoneHulton-ArchiveGetty.jpg

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Yoko Ono ( Japanese: 小野 洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana オノ・ヨーコ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist who is also known for her work in performance art and filmmaking. She performs in both English and Japanese.

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hiroshima city museum of contemporary art

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Yoko Ono, My Mommy is Beautiful | Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art

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Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art

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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/11778250/Hiroshima-70-years-on-one-survivor-remembers-the-horror-of-the-worlds-first-atomic-bombing.html

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Featured

Vietnam Background: Uneasy French Rule *&nbsp;1887: France imposes a colonial system over Vietnam, calling it French Indochina. The system includes Tonkin, Annam, Cochin China and Cambodia. Laos is added in 1893. *&nbsp;1923-25: Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh is trained in the Soviet Union as an agent of the Communist International (Comitern). *&nbsp;February 1930: Ho Chi [...]
Read more Read more about Vietnam War Timeline

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Vietnam War: Dates and Timeline | HISTORY

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The Vietnam War lasted about 40 years and involved several countries. Learn about Vietnam War protests, the Tet Offensive, the My Lai Massacre, the Pentagon Papers and more.

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https://www.spin.com/2010/12/archive-1975-john-lennon-interview/

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n April1970, Nixon expanded the war by ordering U.S. and South Vietnamese troops to attack communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.

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At a news conference, President Richard Nixon says that the Vietnam War is coming to a "conclusion as a result of the plan that we have instituted." Nixon had announced at a conference in Midway in June that the United States would be following a new program he termed " Vietnamization."

Under the provisions of this program, South Vietnamese forces would be built up so they could assume more responsibility for the war. As the South Vietnamese forces became more capable, U.S. forces would be withdrawn from combat and returned to the United States. In his speech, Nixon pointed out that he had already ordered the withdrawal of 60,000 U.S. troops. Concurrently, he had issued orders to provide the South Vietnamese with more modern equipment and weapons and increased the advisory effort, all as part of the "Vietnamization" program. As Nixon was holding his press conference, troops from the U.S. 25th Infantry Division (less the Second Brigade) began departing from Vietnam.

Nixon's pronouncements that the war was ending proved premature. In April 1970, he expanded the war by ordering U.S. and South Vietnamese troops to attack communist sanctuaries in Cambodia. The resulting outcry across the United States led to a number of antiwar demonstrations-it was at one of these demonstrations that the National Guard shot four protesters at Kent State.

Although Nixon did continue to decrease American troop strength in South Vietnam, the fighting continued. In 1972, the North Vietnamese launched a massive invasion of South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese forces reeled under the attack, but eventually prevailed with the help of U.S. airpower. After extensive negotiations and the bombing of North Vietnam in December 1972, the Paris Peace Accords were signed in January 1973. Under the provisions of the Accords, U.S. forces were completely withdrawn. Unfortunately, this did not end the war for the Vietnamese and the fighting continued until April 1975 when Saigon fell to the communists.

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At a news conference, President Richard Nixon says that the Vietnam War is coming to a "conclusion as a result of the plan that we have instituted." Nixon had announced at a conference in Midway in June that the United States would be following a new program he termed " Vietnamization."

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Many artists during the 1960s and 1970s opposed the war and used their creativity and careers to visibly oppose the war. Writers and poets opposed to involvement in the war included Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov, Robert Duncan, and Robert Bly. Their pieces often incorporated imagery based on the tragic events of the war as well as the disparity between life in Vietnam and life in the United States. Visual artists Ronald Haeberle, Peter Saul, and Nancy Spero, among others, used war equipment, like guns and helicopters, in their works while incorporating important political and war figures, portraying to the nation exactly who was responsible for the violence

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Many in the peace movement within the U.S. were students, mothers, or anti-establishment hippies. Opposition grew with participation by the African-American civil rights, women's liberation, and Chicano movements, and sectors of organized labor.

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Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War - Wikipedia

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Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War began with demonstrations in 1964 against the escalating role of the U.S. military in the Vietnam War and grew into a broad social movement over the ensuing several years.

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1960s: Counterculture and Civil Rights Movement | HISTORY

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The 1960s were a tumultuous decade defined by the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and the emerging “generation gap.”

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In the late '60s and early '70s, John Lennon began to actively endorse a wide variety of progressive and radical political causes. He championed the anti-war movement as well as Native and African-American rights while demonstrating a deepening interest in feminism. Lennon began to forge potent links between his music and the politics of his time. His craft became a weapon of social and political change. The Englishman demonstrated against US involvement in Vietnam and provided the American anti-war movement with one of its most consequential anthems, "Give Peace a Chance" (1969). In 1971, he also released what is widely recognized as one of the greatest and most important pop songs ever written, a humanist plea and Socialist anthem called "Imagine".

Lennon and Ono's peace protests were highly individualistic and idiosyncratic. Following their marriage in March 1969, the couple spent a week in bed in Amsterdam to protest the human suffering caused by global conflict. The 'bed-in' protest was dismissed by many as politically illegible, pointless and ineffective. From a pacifist perspective, however, the eccentric protest does make sense as it denotes a light-hearted continuation of Gandhi and King's principles of non-violence. "War will cease when men refuse to fight," went the 1930s British Pacifist slogan. The bed-in protest could be said to endorse a loving stasis, a playful passivity over dynamic violence. The protest was intended as an amusing political happening, a stunt with a serious message.

Whether righteous or silly, what can't be denied is Lennon and Ono's willingness to take risks. Lennon was prepared for public mockery and vilification. He explained, "Bed-ins are something that everyone can do and they're so simple. We're willing to be the world's clowns to make people realize it". (Richie York, 1969) Another bed-in was soon held in Montreal where Lennon reiterated his commitment to non-violence. Although sympathetic, Lennon did not believe that an on-going people's occupation of a park south of the border in Berkeley was a cause worthy of dying for. In evaluating the effectiveness of such protests, it is perhaps worth quoting Joan Baez on peace: "The only thing that's been a worse flop than the organization of non-violence has been the organization of violence." (Joan Baez, Daybreak, 1987) The protests were not as spontaneous and stupid as perceived but creative, studied acts with roots in conceptual and performance art. They were an example of what Lennon described as a 'revolutionary happening'. ( The Dick Cavett Show, 1972)

Lennon's involvement with anti-war movement grew deeper and more directly political. "Give Peace a Chance" was the chant of the massive Vietnam Moratorium March in Washington in the fall of 1969. As detailed by Jon Wiener's Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon F.B.I Files (2000) and shown in fairly recent documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon (David Leaf and John Scheinfeld, 2006), Lennon become the target of FBI surveillance for his part in the anti-war movement and engagement with the leftist politics. A planned 1972 anti-Nixon tour with Jerry Rubin and Rennie Davis caught the attention of the authorities. A past drug's offence would be used to threaten the singer with deportation. The American government appeared genuinely fearful of the singer's talent and power. He would struggle to gain permanent resident status in the U.S. period to come.

While Lennon cannot ultimately be said to have advocated violent class war, he was profoundly aware of the politics of class. As a child of working/lower-middle class origins in Liverpool, Lennon was shaped and marked -- if not scarred -- by the English class system. As early as 1966, Lennon noted, 'The class thing is just as snobby as it ever was. People like us break through a little -- but only a little.' ("A Shorn Beatle Tries It on His Own", Leonard Gross, Look, 1966) The observation would be developed in the 1970 track "Working Class Hero". The song reveals a strong political awareness of the deceptions of a class-based society. Social mobility is a con: "Keep you doped with religion and sex and t.v./ And you think you're so clever and classless and free?/ But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see."

Lennon critiqued the lauded break-through of the working-class Beatles in an interview with the British Trotskyite magazine Red Mole: "But nothing has changed except we are all dressed up a bit, leaving the bastards running everything." He also affirmed, "when it comes to the nitty-gritty, they (the establishment) won't let the people have any power; they'll give all the rights to perform and dance for them, but no real power." (Tariq Ali and Robin Blackburn, Red Mole, 1971) "Working Class Hero" is also about working-class psychic pain. The psychological effects of the English class system on working-class children have perhaps never been fully grasped and acknowledged. It is difficult perhaps for an American to understand what it is to be entirely defined when you open your mouth in the United Kingdom.

Lennon was direct and open about the psychological trials of a working-class kid as he navigates a class-ridden society. To Ali and Blackburn, he related: "I mean we had to go through humiliation upon humiliation with the middle classes and showbiz and Lord Mayors and all that. They were so condescending and stupid. Everybody trying to use us. It was a special humiliation for me cause I could never keep my mouth shut and I always had to be drunk and pilled to counteract the pressure. It was really hell." The wounded lines in "Working Class Hero", "As soon as you're born, they make you feel small" and "When you can't really function, you're so full of fear", are perhaps particularly compelling and revealing.

It was also in Red Mole interview that Lennon reflected, "you can't take power without a struggle". This remark would have undoubtedly fuelled the paranoia of the U.S. government. Lennon identified himself as a left-winger. He also expressed left-wing beliefs in his most popular song. Imagine is a Socialist song. It asks the listener to contemplate the destruction of property: "Imagine no possessions / I wonder if you can / No need for greed or hunger / A brotherhood of man / Imagine all the people / Sharing all the world." It is a bland song with an ideological bite as Lennon himself noted: "Imagine is anti-religious, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic... but because it is sugar-coated, it is accepted." (David Scheff, All We Are Saying, 2000) Its radicalism also lies in its powerful secular humanism. Lennon pointedly explained: "The World Church called me once and asked, 'Can we use the lyrics to Imagine and just change it to "Imagine one religion?" That showed they didn't understand it all. It would defeat the whole purpose of the song, the whole idea." (David Sheff, All We Are Saying, 2000)

It was also during the early seventies that Lennon began to express a deeper commitment to the concerns of oppressed people of color. Lennon backed both Native-American and African-American rights. He expressed a human sympathy for the African-American struggle and an understanding of the need for black consciousness. In a 1972 appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, Lennon stated support for the 10-point program of the Black Panthers and their faith in self-defense. The 10-point program encompassed calls for black self-determination, a decent education for black children free of racist historical bias as well as "land, bread, housing... justice and peace." (Huey P. Newton, War Against the Panthers, 1966) The Panthers were criminalized and pathologized by the White Establishment. Hoover even called the group the greatest threat to America's national security and subjected it to FBI surveillance. The party's radical reputation was partly due to its commitment to armed self-defense. Its community programs also sought to provide free health care and clothing for the poor as well as hot breakfasts for children.

Lennon's music in this period sought to reawaken the moral conscience and political consciousness of the people. He wrote songs for Black Panther campaigner Angela Davis and the co-founder of the White Panther party, John Sinclair. The latter had been sentenced to 10 years for a drug possession charge in 1969. Lennon performed at a concert for Sullivan in Ann Arbor in December 1971. He also wrote about Ireland ("Sunday, Bloody Sunday") and in early 1972 attended a demonstration in New York City against the January killing of 13 Catholic civil rights demonstrators in Northern Ireland by British forces.

He penned "Attica State", a song about the insurrection and repression of prisoners in Attica prison and attended a concert benefit for the relatives of the slain inmates on December 17th, 1971 with Ono. He also participated that year in a demonstration with the Native-American tribe the Onondaga Indians against the government's planned construction of a freeway through their land. In 1971, Lennon released an album containing several of these political songs. Some Time in New York City was not a great commercial and critical success but remains a fascinating social and historical document.

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Revolutionary Man: John Lennon As Political Artist

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In the late '60s and early '70s, John Lennon began to actively endorse a wide variety of progressive and radical political causes. He championed the anti-war movement as well as Native and African-American rights while demonstrating a deepening interest in feminism. Lennon began to forge potent links between his music and the politics of his time.

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In a 1972 appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, Lennon stated support for the 10-point program of the Black Panthers and their faith in self-defense. The 10-point program encompassed calls for black self-determination, a decent education for black children free of racist historical bias as well as "land, bread, housing… justice and peace." (Huey P. Newton, War Against the Panthers, 1966) The Panthers were criminalized and pathologized by the White Establishment.

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It was also during the early seventies that Lennon began to express a deeper commitment to the concerns of oppressed people of color. Lennon backed both Native-American and African-American rights. He expressed a human sympathy for the African-American struggle and an understanding of the need for black consciousness.

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Lennon was direct and open about the psychological trials of a working-class kid as he navigates a class-ridden society. To Ali and Blackburn, he related: "I mean we had to go through humiliation upon humiliation with the middle classes and showbiz and Lord Mayors and all that. They were so condescending and stupid. Everybody trying to use us. It was a special humiliation for me cause I could never keep my mouth shut and I always had to be drunk and pilled to counteract the pressure. It was really hell."

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Following the Bed-Ins, Lennon and Ono became even more activist-minded, lending their support to the plight of the working class by way of a shipbuilders’ work-in, railing against the Vietnam War, voicing their discontent over the brutal murders of 14 unarmed civil rights protesters in Northern Ireland (memorialized in “Luck of the Irish” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday”), bemoaning the death toll from the uprising at Attica Prison and holding forth with leading American peace activists of the day such as Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman — all the while, using music as the medium for their message. Released in October 1971, Lennon’s Imagine album would become his musical calling card for world peace.

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As the Vietnam War raged in 1969, John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono held two week-long Bed-Ins for Peace, one at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam and one at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth in Montreal, each of which were intended to be non-violent protests against wars, and experimental tests of new ways to promote peace.

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John took a very active role in trying to persuade people to protest against the Vietnam War, by doing many different things. He usually worked with his wife, Yoko Ono. Together they peacefully protested against the Vietnam War and asked the world for peace.

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The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was a conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.

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Political events of the 1970s also contributed to the decade's unrest. The Watergate scandal and subsequent resignation of President Richard M. Nixon, as well as the divisiveness caused by the Vietnam War, resulted in a growing lack of support for and suspicion of the government.

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The 1960s were one of the most tumultuous and divisive decades in world history, marked by the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and antiwar protests, political assassinations and the emerging "generation gap."

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John Lennon was an atheist in the '70s, though in 1980 in his interview with "Playboy" he said that we should "thank God or whatever it is that's up there" for surviving the '60s and '70s, which suggests he was agnostic towards the end

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Lennon was a radical–a radical who saw through politics for what it is, a struggle for power and wealth at the cost of human lives and freedom. We might call him an anarchist or a libertarian.

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the effect of the hippie movement of the 1960’s, Lennon said:
"The people who are in control and in power, and the class system and the whole bullshit bourgeois scene is exactly the same except that there are a lot of middle-class kids with long hair walking around in trendy clothes… The same bastards are in control, the same people are running everything".

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Politically, Lennon was unattached and actually quite radical. Returning again to the lyrics of imagine, Lennon sang:

Imagine there’s no countries, It isn’t hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too, Imagine all the people living life in peace.

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During the writing of The Beatles’ album, The White Album, John and the rest of the band studied under the Hindu yogi Maharishi Mahesh, who heavily influenced much of The Beatles’ music and, to some extent, the spirituality of The Beatles themselves. However, while George Harrison was particularly taken by Indian mysticism, John ended up thinking the Maharishi was a fraud who used The Beatles for his own purposes of fortune and fame

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Lennon was baptized, as most young English children are, in an Anglican/Episcopalian church. However, by the time he was a teenager, Lennon was banned from the parish church his family attended for laughing out loud at a sermon.

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their [John and Yoko's] marriage projected as powerful an image as their activism had.

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Lennon’s most enduring political commitment was to feminism. When he and Ono separated in the fall of 1973, he spent a “lost weekend” of more than a year drinking and making highly uneven music in Los Angeles.

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Lennon’s genius encompassed writing and the visual arts, the only field in which he received formal training. His natural gifts in both were considerable, but in the end he proved a minor humorist and a casual if indelible cartoonist. In music, he had less inborn facility, though his paternal grandfather worked for years as a blackface minstrel. But music was where he put his substance

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"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; 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".

It’s safe to say that, by this time, John had either rejected Christianity outright or had at least developed a very cynical view of it.

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The Beatles were essentially a joint venture between practical pop adept Paul McCartney and alienated rock-and-roll rebel Lennon, but, as a disruptive cultural force, they always bore Lennon’s stamp.

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Lennon and Ono moved to the United States in September 1971, but were constantly threatened with deportation by the Nixon Administration. Lennon was told that he was being kicked out of the country due to his 1968 marijuana conviction in Britain, but the singer believed that he was being removed because of his activism against the unpopular Vietnam War

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Lennon and Ono invented a form of peace protest by staying in bed while being filmed and interviewed, and their single "Give Peace a Chance" (1969), recorded under the name "the Plastic Ono Band," became a national anthem of sorts for pacifists.

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Lennon's remark that the band was "more popular than Jesus now" incited denunciations and Beatles record bonfires in the U.S. Bible belt.

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As a child, Lennon was a prankster and he enjoyed getting into trouble. As a boy and young adult, he enjoyed drawing grotesque figures and cripples. Lennon's school master thought that he could go to an art school for college, since he did not get good grades in school but had artistic talent.

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John Winston Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, during a German air raid in World War II.

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Part of me would like to be accepted by all facets of society and not be this loudmouthed lunatic poet/musician. But I cannot be what I am not ... I was the one who all the other boys' parents—including Paul's father—would say, 'Keep away from him' ... The parents instinctively recognised I was a troublemaker, meaning I did not conform and I would influence their children, which I did. I did my best to disrupt every friend's home ... Partly out of envy that I didn't have this so-called home ... but I did ... There were five women that were my family. Five strong, intelligent, beautifulwomen, five sisters. One happened to be my mother. [She] just couldn't deal with life. She was the youngest and she had a husband who ran away to sea and the war was on and she couldn't cope with me, and I ended up living with her elder sister. Now those women were fantastic ... And that was my first feminist education ... I would infiltrate the other boys' minds. I could say, "Parents are not gods because I don't live with mine and, therefore, I know."

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His parents named him John Winston Lennon after his paternal grandfather, John "Jack" Lennon, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

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Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace, you
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one