john lennon

One to One: John & Yoko

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John and Yoko embrace on stage

Like all the Beatles anthologies attempting to squeeze new juice out of old fruit, One to One: John & Yoko digs through the archives to document two years in the lives of the famous couple, when they lived in Greenwich Village and went about their lives almost like normal people did. The seclusion of the Dakota Building years were still in the future. Starting out in 1971, Kevin Macdonald’s film catches Lennon at the intersection of two eras. Lennon the ex-Beatle is still largely of the opinion that he is a spokesman for progressive youth, but between the lines Macdonald’s film gives us a glimpse of Lennon either realising he no longer is … Read more

The U.S. vs. John Lennon

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John Lennon and Yoko Ono in front of a version of the Stars and Stripes

Professional musician and amateur situationist John Lennon has always been an easy target for anyone wanting to level a charge of hypocrisy. “Imagine no possessions,” he sang, and the fingers started pointing at his lavish lifestyle – insert your own version of the story about the fur coats kept in a refrigerated room in the Dakota Building. David Leaf and John Scheinfeld’s documentary will provide fuel for both the haters and the idolisers, it being the story of how the US authorities revoked the chippiest man in rock’s Green Card in the 1970s, in an attempt to get this dangerous dissident out of the country. Well, that’s ostensibly what it’s about. In fact for … Read more

Nowhere Boy

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Aaron Taylor and Anne-Marie Duff in Nowhere Boy

A movie for every day of the year – a good one 8 December John Lennon murdered, 1980 On this day in 1980, John Lennon was murdered by Mark Chapman outside the south entrance of the Dakota building, where Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, had had an apartment since 1973. Chapman shot Lennon four times in the back and Lennon probably died immediately. He was certainly dead by the time medics at the Roosevelt Hospital saw him. Lennon and Yoko Ono had been out for the evening, mixing a track from their forthcoming album. Lennon had the final mix of the track, Walking on Thin Ice, appropriately, in his hand when he … Read more