Column: New books remember John Lennon

A flood of books to coincide with John’s birthday has me championing two of the best.

John Lennon 1980 (Omnibus Press, £14.99), by Kenneth Womack teased me enough to call him up at his home in New Jersey USA to find out more.

He has written over 35 books on subjects like Abbey Road and The Beatles last days and George Martin, producer of the vast majority of their music.

He saw the final recordings of 1969 as the band’s peak while Lennon’s Double Fantasy album was a reason to celebrate as he was making great music again after an absence.

This means he does not dwell on the death of Lennon apart from the last chapter where he paints a powerful picture.

The loss was felt by us all but to Yoko and young Sean it was immeasurable. Womack has researched on how New York City was back then, grimy and fueled by crime - nothing like today when tourists stop off at the Dakota murder scene then visit Strawberry Field over in nearby Central Park.

He concludes John was happy in those final days having completed a full record, gaining confidence again and enjoying life as a new father.

He would have returned to his homeland too in his plans for 1981 and sail into the UK on the QE2 a point recalled too by writer Lesley-Ann Jones for her new book published this week. Who Killed John Lennon? (John Blake, £20.00), follows her accomplished biographies on both David Bowie and Freddie Mercury.

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But when I spoke with her this week her research into the lives, loves and deaths in the Lennon story has been a long time coming.

Jones had been writing with John’s first wife Cynthia, but the project was abandoned and again with Paul’s wife Linda called Macc the Wife but again, never published. Her book becomes a social and musical history having absorbed other publications but adding her opinion gleaned by the countless interviews over the years.

There is a section called Days In The Lives where a full timeline of events takes us from the birth of his parents up to 2020 .

Many insiders were probed, a friend of DJ Andy Pebbles she had access to his full John & Yoko interview recorded the day before he was shot dead.

She spoke with May Pang who worked with the Lennon’s, but Yoko set her up to be John’s lover which he accepted.

She met with Julian Lennon who rarely speaks to the press and, although he had an abandoned childhood and a rough ride with the music industry he has reassessed his relationship with his father and now concentrates on his charity the White Feather Foundation.

This week though we all can reflect on the legacy of his father John Winston Lennon.

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