THE BASICS Born John Winston Lennon 70 years ago today in Liverpool, England, during a German air raid, and shot dead in New York in 1980 by a crazed fan.
THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM The most influential pop musician of all time. Artist, philanthropist, peace activist, genius. With Paul McCartney, he made up half of the most enduring songwriting partnership of all time, and had a successful solo career after the Beatles split in 1970.
THE DISSENTING OPINION While critics and fans alike have hailed Imagine (1971) as his greatest song, others have dismissed it as musically and lyrically simplistic, as well as a tad hypocritical. For a rich man to "imagine no possessions" is rather tricky, they argue.
THE CONVERSATION The jury's out on whether Lennon was the working class hero his fans think he was. He actually had a rather comfortable, if rigid, upbringing with his middle-class Aunt Mimi. His anti-establishment streak led him to tell the audience at a Royal Variety Performance to rattle their jewellery, to return his MBE to the Queen, to spend a week in bed in Amsterdam for "peace", and to mix with American radicals in the early Seventies. However, his first wife, Cynthia Powell, has said that if he were still around and were offered a knighthood like Sir Paul, he would accept it with pride.
