History Music / JohnLennon

* WolverinePublicity: Unsurprisingly, most of the promotion for Creator/RichardLester's 1967 film ''How I Won The War'' centered on Lennon, in his only full-fledged acting role outside of a Beatles movie,[[note]]He also had a couple of small character cameos on episodes of ''Series/NotOnlyButAlso''.[[/note]] despite only playing a supporting role (Creator/MichaelCrawford was the film's star).

* BiggerThanJesus, although he [[BeamMeUpScotty didn't actually say that]] (see below for details)

* BiggerThanJesus: The {{Trope Namer|s}}, although John [[BeamMeUpScotty didn't actually say it]]. His actual BlasphemousBoast in 1966 was a claim that the Beatles were "''more popular'' than Jesus", which he said while being interviewed for a feature article by Maureen Cleave, an ''Evening Standard'' journalist who'd known the Beatles for several years. The resulting article passed without notice in Britain (where the decline in church attendance that he was referring to was a well-known phenomenon), and also drew no complaints when the interview was republished in the ''New York Times''. It only landed him and his bandmates in big trouble when the quote was reprinted ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_popular_than_Jesus out of context]]) in media in the more staunchly Christian and conservative American DeepSouth five months later.

* GrowOldWithMe: Title to one of the last songs he ever wrote. [[HarsherInHindsight He wrote it five weeks before his murder]].

* MeadowRun: At the end of the "Oh Yoko!" music video. Though, they did it on a shore of the beach and referencing the famous scene from ''Literature/WutheringHeights'' for they [[NarmCharm shout each other's names]] in the same fashion as the film.

*** Prior to ''Backbeat'', Hart [[RoleReprise had also played Lennon]] in ''The Hours and Times'', a short film about a holiday in UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} Lennon took with Beatles manager Brian Epstein.

* WolverinePublicity: Unsurprisingly, most of the promotion for Creator/RichardLester's 1967 film ''How I Won The War'' centered on Lennon, in his only full-fledged acting role outside of a Beatles movie,[[note]]He also had a couple of small character cameos on episodes of ''NotOnlyButAlso''.[[/note]] despite only playing a supporting role (Creator/MichaelCrawford was the film's star).

* WordSaladLyrics: "I Am the Walrus," "What's the New Mary Jane," "Dig a Pony", "[[Music/AbbeyRoad Come Together]]," "Sun King," "Give Peace a Chance," the chorus to "#9 Dream." Amusingly, "I Am The Walrus" became an example of this trope solely to spite people who he felt were over-analyzing Beatles lyrics. To an extent, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" as well.
* WorkingClassHero: TropeNamer. Ironically, "Working Class Hero" is a subversion in which the working class are duped into feeling like heroes by those with power:
-->[[BreadAndCircuses Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV]]\\
And you think you're so clever and classless and free\\
But you're still [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] peasants [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech as far as I can see]]

* GrowOldWithMe: Title to one of the last songs he ever wrote. [[HarsherInHindsight He wrote it five weeks before his urder]].

In 1975, Lennon left the music business to raise his infant son Sean, before returning in 1980. On December 8 of that year, Lennon was shot dead outside the Dakota apartments in New York City shortly after completing a recording session. He was 40 years old. His killer, Mark David Chapman, was a fan of the Beatles who was incensed by Lennon's lifestyle and public statements, including lyrics in several of his songs ("God" and "Imagine") and his infamous 1966 remark that the Beatles had become "more popular than Jesus".

He left The Beatles in late 1969 to focus on his solo career with his wife Music/YokoOno. Around this time he became notorious and controversial for his political and peace activism; his criticism of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar resulted in a three-year attempt by the [[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon Nixon]] administration to deport him. Jon Wiener's biography ''Come Together: John Lennon in his time'' contextualizes John's personal life and journey within the larger political, cultural and social events of TheSixties and TheSeventies.

In 1975, Lennon left the music business to raise his infant son Sean, before returning in 1980. At the end, on December 8, 1980, Lennon was shot dead outside the Dakota apartments in New York City shortly after completing a recording session, by LoonyFan Mark David Chapman. He was 40 years old.