John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE, was an English singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, and together with Paul McCartney formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.
Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager, his first band, The Quarrymen, evolving into The Beatles in 1960. As the group began to undergo the disintegration that led to their break-up towards the end of that decade, Lennon launched a solo career that would span the next decade, punctuated by critically acclaimed albums, including John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and iconic songs such as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine".
Lennon revealed a rebellious nature and acerbic wit in his music, his writing, on film, and in interviews, and became controversial through his work as a peace activist. He moved to New York City in 1971, where his criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a lengthy attempt by Richard Nixon's administration to deport him, while his songs were adapted as anthems by the anti-war movement. Disengaging himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to his family, Lennon reemerged in October 1980 with a new single and a comeback album, Double Fantasy, but was murdered weeks after their release on the sidewalk outside his home in the Dakota. Ironically, "Imagine" (imagine all the people, living life in peace) was a featured cut from this album.
Lennon's album sales in the United States alone stand at 14 million units, and as performer, writer, or co-writer he is responsible for 27 number one singles on the US Hot 100 chart. In 2002, a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted him eighth, and in 2008 Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth greatest singer of all time. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
--Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia --
“The sun is up, the sky is blueIt's beautiful, and so are you”
“if everyone could just be happy with themselves and the choices people around them make, the world would instantly be a better place!”
“Everything is true and not true about everything. That’s one thing I’ve learned.”
“Only by trying on other people's clothes do we find what size we are.”
“Rituals are important. Nowadays it's hip not to be married. I'm not interested in being hip.”
“Lako je živjeti zatvorenih očiju, ne shvaćajući ono što vidiš...”
“Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream.”
“The world is still spinning and so are we and so are you. When the spinning stops, that'll be the time to worry. Not before.”
“Look at meWho am I supposed to be?Look at meWhat am I supposed to be?Look at meOh my love”
“The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that's making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?”
“I think the music reflects the state that the society is in. It doesn't suggest the state. I think the poets and musicians and artists are of the age - not only do they lead the age on, but they also reflect that age. [...] Like The Beatles. We came out of Liverpool and we reflected our background and we reflected our thoughts in what we sang, and that's all people are doing.”
“Trying to please everybody is impossible - if you did that, you'd end up in the middle with nobody liking you. You've just got to make the decision about what you think is your best, and do it.”
“If you wanna be a hero, well Just Follow ME.”
“Reporter lady: What's that color?John: Hm. I'd call this a color!”
“When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle and yet most of the audience still sleeps.”
“Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones.”
“Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn't insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.”
“You know the way people begin to look like their dogs? Well, we're beginning to look like each other.”
“All we are saying is give peace a chance.”
“I still believe that all you need is love.”
“If there hadn't been an Elvis, there wouldn't have been the Beatles.”
“Happiness is just how you feel when you don't feel miserable.”
“Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.”
“Those of you in the cheaper seats can clap your hands, and those of you in the balcony can just rattle your jewelry.”
“Love is the Answer. What was the Question?”
“I once had a girl, or should I say she once had me.”
“And so this is Christmas...what have you done?”
“Let It Be”
“Sometimes you wonder, I mean really wonder.I know we make our own reality, and we always have a choice, but how much is preordained? Is there always a fork in the road, and are there two preordained paths that are equally preordained? There could be hundreds of paths where one could go this way or that way -- there's a chance, and it's very strange sometimes.”
“All you need is love.”
“I am the Walrus...”
“Peace is not something you wish for; It's something you make, Something you do , Something you are, And something you give away”
“Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It’s quite possible to do anything, but not if you put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don’t expect Carter or Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself.”
“Love, Love, Love. All you need is love. Love is all you need.”
“I regret profoundly that I was not an American and not born in Greenwich Village. It might be dying, and there might be a lot of dirt in the air you breathe, but this is where it's happening.”
“Non ci sono problemi solo soluzioni.”
“Everybody seems to think I'm lazyI don't mind, I think they're crazy.Running everywhere at such a speedTill they find there's no need.”
“Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun, and if the sun don't come, we'll be standing in the English rain.”
“If you want peace, you won't get it with violence.”
“Declare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace... we just need to declare it.”
“Creativity is a gift. It doesn't come through if the air is cluttered.”
“One thing I can tell you is you have to be free. Come together, right now, over me.”
“I am the eggmanThey are the eggmen!I am the walrus!”
“I put things down on sheets of paper and stuff them in my pockets. When I have enough, I have a book.”
“I'm not really a career person; I'm a gardener, basically.”
“We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.”
“Please don't wake me, no, don't shake me, leave me where I am, I'm only sleeping...”
“Later, I went back and looked at it and realized that the walrus was the bad guy in the story and the carpenter was the good guy. I thought, Oh, shit, I picked the wrong guy. I should have said, ‘I am the carpenter.’ But that wouldn’t have been the same, would it? ‘I am the carpenter….”
“Paul and I know each other on a lot of different levels that very few people know about.”
“Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friends”