John Lennon’s Enduring Legacy After His Tragic Murder

His death cut short a new phase of his songwriting that was hopeful and serene.

John Lennon
John Lennon (1940 - 1980) of the Beatles plays the guitar in a hotel room in Paris, 16th January 1964. (Photo by Harry Benson/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Before John Lennon was murdered, he had begun starting over. The Vietnam War was over, and he had ceased fighting the political battle himself. He had been one of the first celebrities to bristle at the public eye of the job, to be honest and profane, sexual and weird. He had been through pain, his mom died when he was 17 and his best friend died when he was 21. He took heroin and went to alternative methods of therapy, like primal screaming. But when he died, he had entered into a new phase of his life and songwriting; his work was hopeful but not sentimental, beautiful and serene.

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