The Lives Of

John Lennon

Imagine one of those detective movies from the 1940s, with the opening shots of the New York skyline (shot in black and white, of course)as the languid saxaphone wails underneath. The camera cuts to a grubby little interior and we see the doorway to an office saying Albert Goldman, private detective. Cut to the inside of the office and there's Albert (played by Humphrey Bogart) looking at his nails. Cut to the close-up, Alberts got pancake make-up on, mascara and starts applying some rouge to his extra-white face...

Albert Goldman: The Lives Of John Lennon book review Now, that's the position that we as readers are placed in with The Lives Of John Lennon. We have a large, mostly well researched (yes, there are some howlers, I'll admit) over-the-top rave by an astute academic, who is as bitchy and prone to exaggeration as the average drag queen.

That's not to say that his observations and deductions aren't near to the truth. It's just that they're delivered in such an hissy-fit "...Lennon, oh, she's such a drama queen..." that if you can't get beyond that prism, you're unlikely to be able to take Goldman seriously, especially if you're a Lennon fundamentalist and prescribe to the great John & Yoko love story whitewash.

I don't, despite what the general public seems to want to remember John Lennon as. They want a man of Peace. I hear a man on the edge, frequently over the edge "Cold Turkey has got me...on the run..." who's best music reeked of sometimes introspection, but more often, frustration, anger and rage. I also don't hear a man at peace with his woman and Goldman is of the same mind, too.

His research has dovetailed with several other Beatle books:

1 The Love You Make by Peter Brown (#9 in Beatle Books) Beatle manager's Brian Epstein's right hand man, who was there right from the start until virtually the end

2 Cynthia Lennon's first memoir. She's now written a second, John

3 The Longest Cocktail Party (#11 in Beatle Books) about Apple's mismanagement and bizarre everyday business

4 Lennon Remembers. Lennon's sometimes bitter rant to Rolling Stone soon after the Beatles split. You can find it at John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band

5 May Pang's book. Chosen by Yoko to be Lennon's lover during 1973-4 (and possibly beyond) her book has now been re-released as Loving John. You can find it at Walls & Bridges)

6 Frederic Seaman's book (then unreleased) now available as The Last Days Of John Lennon, You can find it at #6 Lennon Books

...as well as extensive interviews with:

drug-friend, session guitarist Jesse Ed Davis (who died of a heroin overdose in 1988)
Harry Nilsson & his lover, who were tight with Lennon during his time away from Yoko in 1973-4 &
Yoko's New York friends, who are candid about her lovers, occult obsessions and drug addiction

What emerges is a snapshot of two pathetic people who lived their ideal lives through press releases but who were just plain bad for each other. Lennon is seen to be petty, mean and frequently schizophrenic. Yoko is seen as a grubby manipulator who considers her husband an oaf and had no intention of letting go of her cash cow. Goldman's scathing recounting of her avant-garde art exhibition in 1971 is hilarious and just on its own, makes the book worth every penny!

If The Lives Of John Lennon had been written by someone less queeny than Goldman, this might have been a seriously impressive biography. It's packed with information and quoted interviews that paint a very powerful and consistent picture of a very troubled man. Goldman's reviews of Lennon's work are spot-on, very astute, certainly amongst the best I've read*.

However, that homo-obsession is seriously, hormonally ridiculous, dangerously turning faggy conjecture into fact, whether it's Lennon's rumoured tryst with Beatle manager Brian Epstein or his supposed cruising for Thai rent boys! That's such a shame, because they seriously demean the rest of the book. I'm not perturbed by Lennon being bisexual. Hell, Yoko's enough to turn anyone gay! It's just not a big deal for me, that's all. The music and the analysis is, and it hits the Lennon creative nail right on the head. No-one has analysed Lennon's music and songs as well as Goldman. Trust me!

"..The original publication of The Lives Of John Lennon in 1988 was accompanied by hysteria. Much of it emanated from Yoko Ono, who likened Goldman's book to "being punched in the face."...Now, however, the dust has settled, and The Lives Of John Lennon holds up beautifully. Each contention of Goldman's which was alleged to be outrageous in 1988 stands:

(Lennon's) drug use has now been acknowledged by just about everyone who knew Lennon, including Ono and Lennon's first wife, Cynthia Powell...
...Goldman's claims about Lennon's tendency towards violence (a tendency Lennon himself owned up to in his Playboy interview)...
...and while Ono and others acted agitated over Goldman's depiction of Lennon as bi-sexual, Ono herself is found to have said she considered John Lennon a "closet fag" in a 1981 interview...

It will be clear to anyone who approaches Goldman's book with a fair mind that the outrage its publication originally sparked was unjustified..." Amazon reviewer Richard Cutler

"...At last!...A badly needed and long overdue reality check for all those zombie-brained Beatle fans who refuse to see any shortcomings in their holier-than thou heroes!! Maybe now they will grow up, or at the very least, understand that this book in no way demeans Lennon's phenomenal talent as an artist and musician, rather, it gives us a more balanced and realistic view of John Lennon the man as opposed to the superstar celebrity. It certainly increased my respect and admiration for Lennon's courage to assert his unique individuality..." Amazon reviewer Erik Selvia

"...If somebody wrote a book examining your life in intimate detail, with much of the data provided by people who don't like you, that focuses on every mistake or mean thing you ever did (while ignoring or downplaying every good thing you did), takes gossip about you as gospel, and looks at every one of your motives with utter cynicism and suspicion, I daresay you wouldn't come out looking very good either..." Amazon reviewer Nancy Mc"gerette"

"...Lennon started out as a banality-mongering showbiz butt-hole but then LSD transformed him into a mystic and then he descended back into banality and showbiz butt-holery..." Amazon reviewer Gooch McCracken

"...I think Goldman's thesis is that Lennon's great genius (being able to communicate the deepest and most honest emotions via music) was thwarted at almost every point of his career. Whether it was Brian Epstein turning the Beatles into adorable mop-tops, thus selling out the hard-living rock and roll lifestyle of the Hamburg years, or Yoko Ono forcing him toward a bogus avant-garde lifestyle, Lennon's life is a harsh reminder or how impressionable the very talented often are..." Amazon reviewer Matthew Williams "willhomes"

The Lives Of John Lennon is a superb, flawed, sometimes inaccurate, often unfair biography that all fans who have sensed the dark side of John Lennon should read.

As you will see from the Amazon reviewers, there's absolutely no concensus about this book. Like a livid drag queen, Goldman is hard to believe. However, get beyond that and he has an awful lot to say and together with Ray Coleman's bio, Lennon and Peter Brown's book (see above) you can paint a pretty interesting portrait of who the real John Lennon was.