Today marks 39 years of one of the most painful deaths in the history of world music: it was in fact the 8 December of the 1980 when John Lennon, an all-round artist best known for being the voice and guitar of the legendary Beatles, was murdered in New York by a revolver shot by his own fan, Mark David Chapman. The event shook the entire planet, of which Lennon had become not only a musical but also a cultural idol: in the last years of his short life (he was born in 1940 in Liverpool) he had in fact left his artistic career and the Beatles to devote himself to life private life and political activism, committing himself to rights and peace in the world.
However, it is above all for his art that we all remember such an iconic character as Lennon, who still ranks today at the fifth place in the list of the 100 greatest singers ever according to the authoritative Rolling Stone magazine, which also places him in 55th place on the list of the 100 best guitarists. From 1962 to 1970 he was the composer and singer of the musical group the Beatles, of which, together with Paul McCartney, he also composed most of the songs. With McCartney he formed one of the most important musical partnerships success story of twentieth-century music history.
In fact, he is the most successful singer-songwriter in the history of the British charts, followed by McCartney. In 2002, in a BBC poll of the 100 most important British personalities all-time, he ranked eighth. After the experience with the Beatles, John Lennon was also a solo musician, author of drawings and poetic texts, as well as a political activist and champion of pacifism as said. This caused him problems with the US authorities (FBI), who for a long time spied on all his activities and those of his wife Yōko Ono, considering him a subversive and repeatedly refusing him the Green Card.
Speaking of weddings, John Lennon was married twice: from his first marriage to Cynthia Powell he had his son Julian, while from his second marriage to the Japanese artist Yoko Ono his son Sean was born. Both sons followed their father's artistic career. After marrying Yoko, John legally changed his name to John Winston Ono Lennon.
