Why John Lennon Sucks

Fuck it, I've been doing a lot of reading lately and I've had a change of heart about John Lennon, so I'm going after the Sacred Cow of Music, Peace, & filthy hippies everywhere. Today I'm writing about why John Lennon sucks.

John Lennon was a Violent Wife Beater

It's true: He was a violent man, and admitted as such openly. That line in McCartney's song Getting Better, which goes "I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved . . ." was written by Lennon.

"It is a diary form of writing. All that "I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved" was me. I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically -- any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn't express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women." - John Lennon from a 1980 Playboy Interview.

Author Larry Kane in his book Ticket to Ride documents an incident in 1964 when Lennon slapped a lady journalist across the face. It required a lot of diplomacy and public relations skills from Brian Epstein to suppress the story.

Albert Goldman's book, "The Lives of John Lennon," even alleges that Lennon caused the death of an unborn baby he'd conceived with Yoko Ono during 1968, when he kicked the pregnant Ono in the belly during an argument.

But he wasn't just violent against women. According Goldman's book, Lennon suffered feelings of extreme guilt when his friend Stu Sutcliffe died of a brain hemorrhage. Two weeks before he and Lennon had gotten into a fight and Lennon reportedly kicked him in the head with a steel-toed boot. (He always blamed himself for Sutcliffe's death at 23.) Lennon would also get into street fights.

So John Lennon, the hippie champion of peace and love in reality had a hair-trigger temper, and he'd unleash on men, women, dogs, inanimate objects: anyone who was around. 


John Lennon Emotionally Abused His Son

It's well documented that John Lennon was a terrible father to his oldest son Julian Lennon. Julian was all but ignored by the absentee musician who would go for years at a time without seeing him and when he did see him he could be abusive. 

The book, “John Lennon: The Life” by Beatles biographer Philip Norman recounts a story by a family friend who recalls Lennon yelling, “No, I’m not going to mend your fucking bicycle!” to his young son.

 Julian Lennon even said once that Paul McCartney was more of a father to him then John Lennon was. 


John Lennon Broke Up The Beatles 

  Yes Paul McCartney was the first to publicly announce that he was leaving The Beatles in April 1970 but Lennon was the first to announce he was leaving the group in September 1969.


John Lennon was a Liar

Although most everyone embellishes or exaggerates details of their lives in some way or another, John Lennon rewrote almost every major event in his life to suit his tastes.

He claimed to be working class yet he was raised in a very comfortable middle class home. 

He denied being married during the early years of Beatlemania.

He claimed he met Yoko Ono at an art gallery but in reality their romance didn't start in some romantic fashion. She had been stalking him for months before he finally caved in to her advances.

He said he left The Beatles over Paul McCartney taking on an increasingly dominant role, but in reality it was due to a serious heroin addiction.

He said he took a few years off in the 1970's to be a stay at home dad when in reality he was in a drug induced haze. The Goldman book, "The Lives of John Lennon,"  describes Lennon spending these years watching tv all day while servants attended to his son while he did nothing but shoot heroin, and did so much coke that he was actually scheduled to have plastic surgery to repair his nasal septum several days after the day he was murdered.

John Lennon was an Unremarkable Musician

  He was never anything special on the guitar, relegated to playing the most basic rhythm parts. Nothing he ever did on the guitar has ever made anyone ever go "Holy Shit, how did he do that!?"  

  Musically his early work ripped off Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly, his late Beatlemania work directly ripped off Bob Dylan and his post Sgt. Pepper work was just drug fueled psychedelic gibberish. Have you ever read the lyrics for I am the Walrus or Come Together?  

  Incidentally, John Lennon was sued for ripping off Come Together from an old Chuck Berry song and settled the matter out of court. 


John Lennon was a Hypocrite

"I have to say that, from my point of view, I felt he was a hypocrite. Dad could talk about peace and love out loud to the world but he could never show it to the people who supposedly meant the most to him: his wife and son. How can you talk about peace and love and have a family in bits and pieces - no communication, adultery, divorce? You can't do it, not if you're being true and honest with yourself." - Julian Lennon

  The man who sang “imagine no possessions” lived a millionaire’s life in a posh New York hotel. The man who sang “imagine no religion” was obsessed with every spiritual and New Age fad that came his way, including Hindu meditation, the I-Ching, and astrology of all kinds. The man who sang “all you need is love” was a bitter, violent, and angry man who abused his family and friends. The man who praised having “nothing to kill or die for” helped finance and publicize radical groups who extolled the use of violence like the Black Panthers.



 Quite literally everything his fans see personified in the icon of John Lennon are ideals the man himself either couldn’t or wouldn’t live up to.