Lennon: The definitive Biography - Ray Coleman

The main advantage of this biography is that Coleman actually knew Lennon. He is honest (sometimes painfully so), but not interested in digging up dirt. He doesn't set out to be controversial, nor does he glorify Lennon and his life: it's all there; the drugs, the affairs, everything.

The layout is very comprehensive: it starts with an overview, goes on to a full, detailed and almost-linear account of Lennon's childhood, through the ...
...his murder. I found it very easy to read and it was detailed without over-analysing. I literally could not put it down - to the point where I spilt an orange alcopop over it because I was trying to pour while reading, there is now an attractive orange stain over some of the pages!

Coleman has done his research and peppers it with little nuggets of information from his personal experience. He obviously liked Lennon very much (and is ... more

The main advantage of this biography is that Coleman actually knew Lennon. He is honest (sometimes painfully so), but not interested in digging up dirt. He doesn't set out to be controversial, nor does he glorify Lennon and his life: it's all there; the drugs, the affairs, everything.

The layout is very comprehensive: it starts with an overview, goes on to a full, detailed and almost-linear account of Lennon's childhood, through the Beatles years, the solo career, the house-husband period and finally his murder. I found it very easy to read and it was detailed without over-analysing. I literally could not put it down - to the point where I spilt an orange alcopop over it because I was trying to pour while reading, there is now an attractive orange stain over some of the pages!

Coleman has done his research and peppers it with little nuggets of information from his personal experience. He obviously liked Lennon very much (and is apparently one of the few reporters Lennon and The Beatles trusted), but doesn't worship him in the way that some biographers do their subjects. He also has the advantage of having had access to the people in Lennon's life and spending a lot of time with The Beatles (he used to type and file his stories while everyone else partied).

He is respectful to both Lennon's first wife, Cynthia, and his widow, Yoko Ono: particularly refreshing, as most people try to villainise one of them, usually the latter. I think I have the advantage over older fans where Coleman's portrayal of Lennon's second marriage is concerned: I wasn't around to pay attention to the media villification of Yoko. A lot of fans would disagree with me and see Yoko as an evil woman who stole Lennon from his first wife and hindered his career, but I'd rather believe direct quotes from Lennon himself and this biography highlights the fact that Lennon was not brainwashed, he made his own decisions and Yoko is not a bad person.

This biography is an excellent source of information on Lennon's childhood, which was both happy and tragic. Lennon was mainly raised by his Aunt Mimi, a loving woman who did everything she could to make him happy, but his father left at an early age and his mother met some one else, meaning that she featured fairly little in Lennon's life. She was tragically killed by an off-duty policeman when Lennon was seventeen and his song Mother tells of his anguish at her death just as he was beginning to get to know her: "you had me, but I never had you".

I love all the little background details included - from the fact that the only childhood illness Lennon suffered from was chicken pox to how he would play his guitar in the porch because of the good acoustics. I would've loved more, although other people would maybe find it boring to have too many trivial details included.

Like all accounts of Lennon's life, this biography is a little dismissive of the final five years of his life, where he stayed at home to raise his second son, Sean. I would have liked more details on this, although I am aware that they may not have been available or important. To be honest, his songs on the Double Fantasy album give you more information on that time than this book.

This biography does answer a lot of questions; from Lennon's early musical influences to why he left Cynthia to be with Yoko. I was surprised by a lot of it and appreciated Coleman's honesty, like the acknowledgement that despite Lennon telling Cynthia there had been "hundreds of women" he listed her infidelity as the reason for their divorce. I think that despite his bias, Coleman does try to portray everyone accurately, even including the (somewhat dubious) opinion of one of Cynthia's friends that they would've married even if she hadn't gotten pregnant.

One major aspect that is missing is more information on Lennon's sons and their experience of him, although I realise that it is difficult since they probably don't want to talk about it a lot and 'cash in' on their father. Maybe it would be different if all the persons involved were dead and we could have a fuller, even more honest account of the lesser-mentioned parts of Lennon's life.

Having said all that, this biography really drives home the fact that Lennon was -and indeed is - a creative genius who possessed a unique talent. If you're a fan, do not delay in buying this book - it is ESSENTIAL reading and contains more than I could derive from various other sources. I suppose it is selfish of me to want more, but this excellent biography has given me a thirst!

 

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