The Life of John Lennon

Peace activist, songwriter, Beatle. Imagine, he would have turned 80 this year.   This is the story of John Lennon.

Transcript

00:00I was always a little political, you know, but it was just manifest more when I got

00:04to be hanging around with politicos, you know, or political people, you know, and

00:09usually you are who you hang around with.

00:12We were always ourselves and you can pick most of the Beatle records, a few of them

00:31are obviously of an era, but most of them sound pretty au courant.

00:42What were you thinking when you were 15?

00:58I was thinking, if only I can get out of Liverpool and be famous and rich, wouldn't it be great?

01:04I was always thinking that I was going to be a famous artist, you know.

01:34He's one of the most famous people of the 20th century and probably one of the most

01:52important musicians of all time.

02:03This truly is a social document for our time.

02:34I'm not saying that we're better or greater or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person

02:40or God as a thing or whatever it is, you know, I just said what I said and it was wrong or

02:45was taken wrong.

03:03He had a message that transcends all the ages, it wasn't just for, like I said, I was a young

03:26Beatle fan, it's not just for people in their 50s and 60s, he's got a universal message

03:31and it was just, you know, love each other and peace, that's all he wanted.

04:01We're going to stay in bed for seven days, instead of having a private honeymoon, it's

04:24a private protest for the violence that's going in the world, you see, to show that

04:30instead of making war, it's better to just stay in bed, let's stay in bed.

05:00You said that there was almost nothing left of Beatle.

05:12When I said those statements, A, I was bitter and upset, emotionally upset because we just

05:17split up, you know, I call it a divorce, right?

05:21But when I think about it, obviously, you know, I can change my mind.

05:37John said, imagine all the people living life in peace, peace.

05:44Peace is so important, it was so important for John and it's so important for all of

05:49us now.

05:52And so John knew how urgent it was, but also he knew that what we believe in becomes reality.

06:19When it first started, I was followed in a car and my phone was tapped.

06:49We'll probably carry on writing music forever, you know, whatever else we're doing, because

07:10you just can't stop, you know, you find yourself doing it whether you want to or not.