The Lives of John Lennon is a 1988 biography of musician John Lennon by American author Albert Goldman. The book is a product of several years of research and hundreds of interviews with Lennon's friends, acquaintances, servants, and musicians. It is best known for its criticism and generally negative representation of the personal lives of Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono.
Upon its release, the book received negative attention from critics, and was largely dismissed by those who knew Lennon.
Lennon in the work When first published in 1988, The Lives of John Lennon was controversial because of its portrayal of Lennon in a highly critical light. Lennon was presented in the book as a talented but deeply flawed man who manipulated people and relationships throughout his life, flinging them aside when they were no longer useful to him. Goldman, who was Jewish, also suggested that Lennon was an anti-Semite, that he was a heavy drug user, and that he was dyslexic and schizophrenic.
Sexuality The book goes into detail about the long-rumoured homosexual affair between Lennon and The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein (previously discussed in both Pete Shotton’s Lennon in My Life and Peter Brown's The Love You Make), as well as alleging several liaisons by Lennon with other men, including a claim that he solicited underage male prostitutes in Thailand. This latter assertion greatly angered Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney. The book was criticized by Lennon fans for allegedly containing much unsubstantiated conjecture, and tending to present worst-case scenarios when doing so.
Violence According to accounts in Goldman's book, Lennon felt guilty over having attacked a sailor he met during the Beatles' time in Hamburg, and also over the sudden death of bandmate Stuart Sutcliffe, whose sister, Pauline, later falsely accused Lennon of murdering him. Goldman also presents a story from an Ono assistant that Ono's 1968 miscarriage was triggered by a beating from Lennon. Other primary sources also support Goldman's claims about Lennon's tendency toward violence, a tendency Lennon himself owned up to in a Playboy interview.
Drug use Lennon was a heavy drug user, as has been acknowledged by most people who knew him well, including Ono and Lennon's first wife, Cynthia Lennon. Goldman also claims that when Lennon started making music again in 1980 following a long seclusion, he was not oblivious to Manhattan's cocaine-fueled disco scene. According to Goldman, on the day Lennon was murdered he was scheduled to undergo plastic surgery several days later to repair his nasal septum due to snorting cocaine, which he supposedly did at the Hit Factory recording studio where he and Ono recorded their album Double Fantasy. Goldman does not cite anyone who might have witnessed this at the studio.
Goldman alleges further that on December 8, 1980 (the day of Lennon's murder) not only did the singer's cocaine-snorting warrant plastic surgery, but he was in such bad physical condition from drug abuse and lack of exercise that during his autopsy the medical examiner recorded observations to that effect, overlooking the five bullet wounds momentarily.
Goldman further asserts that this drug-addled, dangerously unhealthy isolation was a result of Lennon's natural laziness and dependence on strong women throughout his life. Goldman also claims that Lennon’s isolation and physical decline were instigated by Yoko Ono, who Goldman claims was jealous of Lennon and saw his fame as competition for her musical ambitions.
Musical achievement and public image Goldman does show genuine respect for Lennon's musical achievements with the Beatles and his solo work (although he dismisses the widely acclaimed "Imagine"). Lennon's copyright infringement lawsuit for "Come Together" is also explored in the text.The Lives of John Lennon by Ray Albert Goldman (1988, William Morrow and Co.) chap. "You Can't Catch Me", p. 517 et al.Joseph C. Self, Lennon vs. Levy Attorney's account of what happened in the second case brought by Morris Levy against Lennon, and Lennon's counterclaim, both at the federal district court level and on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. Self includes footnotes with the names of the original legal cases and explaining how to read them.
The overarching theme of the book is to debunk the notion that Lennon retired from the music business for five years, from 1975 until the rehearsals for his 1980 comeback album, Double Fantasy, to live as a "househusband," as Rolling Stone magazine and Playboy described him, and to raise the couple's son, Sean. Goldman asserts that in reality, a drug-addicted Lennon retreated into a secluded, darkened room in Manhattan's Dakota building watching television all day, every day, leaving domestic servants to tend to his son, while Ono was feeding a chronic heroin habit and managing his share of profits from the Beatles’ music. This portrayal is supported by Robert Rosen's book Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon, a controversial book which is supposedly based on the author's "memories of reading Lennon's diaries" from the months and weeks leading up to his murder. These diaries have never been made public.
Goldman quotes Harold Seider, Lennon's lawyer for the last few years of his life, as saying that much of Lennon's public image was largely fabricated:
Others in the work Cynthia Lennon claims that the material for Goldman's depiction of her and Lennon's marriage was taken from her book A Twist of Lennon and given a negative spin."'He's taken a hell of a lot from my book,' she says. 'And what he's done is twisted a few words to make it sound disgusting, dark, and dreary -- which it wasn’t at all.'" Quoted in Fricke, David, and Jeffrey Ressner, "Imaginary Lennon". In Rolling Stone, October 20, 1988, 42-52, 93. The online version was found on May 31, 2008. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, reviewer Jon Wiener points out that Goldman recounts many incidents already available to fans in May Pang's book Loving John and John Green's Dakota Days, and from John himself in interviews and autobiographical song lyrics. Wiener also reveals that Goldman worked closely with the Lennons' former assistant Fred Seaman, who had served five years probation for grand larceny after pleading guilty to looting John's personal belongings and diaries after his death. Seaman had prepared his biography of John, only to have Simon & Schuster refuse to publish it; he then began collaborating with Goldman.Jon Wiener, "Crushing A Dead Beatle." In the Los Angeles Times, September 4, 1988, page found 2021-01-16. See also Wiener's book about the Lennons, Come Together: John Lennon In His Time (Random House, 1984).See also Vicki Sheff's "The Betrayal of John Lennon", detailing "Project Walrus", Seaman's elaborate attempt to profit from John's life and death. Originally appeared in Playboy, 1984-03-01. Page found 2021-01-17.
Goldman depicts Paul McCartney in an extremely positive light, as being the only true talent among the Beatles, and the man who made the band able to function. On January 16, 1980, customs officials in Japan found 7.7 ounces (218.3 g) of cannabis in McCartney's luggage as he and the other musicians in Wings tried to enter the country for a concert tour. Goldman asserts that this incident was orchestrated by Yoko Ono. She supposedly had advance notice that her husband's friend would be smuggling drugs into her homeland. She allegedly made overseas telephone calls to government officials she knew with the hope that he would be arrested, thereby giving her a good excuse to forbid her husband from communicating with his friend. More controversially, Goldman depicts manager Allen Klein as someone who had the Beatles' best interests in mind, and who was railroaded by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when he was tried, convicted, and served prison time for insider trading and securities fraud.
Goldman implies that Mark David Chapman's murder of John Lennon may have been part of a conspiracy by fundamentalist Christians. Chapman was a fundamentalist who viewed Lennon as a corrupter of youth. Goldman does not offer any conclusions but mentions that the NYPD files on Lennon's murder are sealed and any conclusive answer would have to wait until the files are released to the public.
Yoko Ono Lennon comes across much better than Yoko Ono, for whom Goldman shows unbridled contempt. Goldman insults Ono's appearance, describing her as "simian-looking".Gates, David, "The Battle Over His Memory". In Newsweek, October 17, 1988, pp. 64-73. The online version was found on May 31, 2008. Goldman alleges that Ono had been a prostitute while attending Sarah Lawrence College, and depicts her as a willing participant in various alleged crimes of her previous husband, Tony Cox. Goldman also goes into great detail about Ono's treatment of Lennon's first wife Cynthia, and Ono's unconventional behavior and personality. Goldman also depicts Ono as pressuring Lennon into heroin use, as greedy and stingy, and indulging in infidelity with gigolos.
Goldman contends Ono encouraged Lennon's heroin addiction as a way of controlling him and his vast fortune, to her ends. She also supposedly used tarot-reading charlatansThe Lives of John Lennon by Ray Albert Goldman (1988, William Morrow and Co.) chap. "Making Magic", p. 580 to feed Lennon readings that would urge him to take various courses of action Ono supported. These readings would determine seemingly trivial choices of Lennon's life, such as which route their limousine would take to transport them home from the studio or which day was most propitious on which to record music, but were, in fact, according to Goldman, often part of Ono's constant machinations.The Lives of John Lennon by Ray Albert Goldman (1988, William Morrow and Co.) chap. "Lying In", p. 547 et al.; chap. "Postpartum Depression", p. 564 et al.; chap. "Rock Bottom", p. 605 et al. Ono's concern for routes and directions reflects a belief in Japanese traditional katatagae, but this is overlooked by Goldman, who has been accused of racism.The 1988 Rolling Stone review pointed this out, especially citing the chapter entitled "The Lennons Buy A Lenoir".
Goldman also alleges Lennon's musical comeback in 1980 was only allowed, and then orchestrated, by Ono after she realized her ambitions for performing music on the A list without Lennon were futile.The Lives of John Lennon by Ray Albert Goldman (1988, William Morrow and Co.) "Creature of Habit", p. 624 and ibid
Goldman also enumerates what he describes as Ono's lavish spending habits, wasting of Lennon's resources, abuse of domestic servants and personal assistants, even to the point of setting up May Pang as Lennon's girlfriend during his Lost Weekend when he was separated from Ono from mid-1973 to February 1975.The Lives of John Lennon by Ray Albert Goldman (1988, William Morrow and Co.) chap. Ping Pang Pong, p. 648 These claims by Goldman were largely based on allegations made by Pang herself in her book, Loving John.May Pang "Loving John" 1983
Criticism By those who knew Lennon Yoko Ono threatened to sue for libel, claiming the book made her briefly consider suicide,Lennon: The Definitive Biography by Ray Coleman (1995, Pan Books) p.43. but never pursued any legal action, later stating that she wanted to maintain a positive attitude and that her lawyers had advised her a civil action would only draw more attention to the book.McGuigan, Cathleen, "A Widow Guards Her Husband's Legacy". In Newsweek, October 17, 1988, pp. 64–73.
Cynthia Lennon denounced the book, stating that "Every single person was annihilated. My mother was called a bulldog and a domineering woman, which was nothing—nothing—like my mother. And he called me a spaniel. I thought, I'd rather be a spaniel than a Rottweiler, which is what he was."MSNBC.com