"You make your own dream. Don't expect Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself...I can't wake you up. You can wake you up. I can't cure you. You can cure you." ~ John Lennon
At a September 1999 London auction, scrawled lyrics on a piece of paper--20 lines of the 1967 Beatles song I Am the Walrus--sold for $125,600 (78,500 pounds).
Known for idealism and irreverence, lyricist and recording artist John Winston Lennon (1940-1980) used rock and roll to tell his truth and his words continue to sell.
John Lennon was born on this day in Liverpool during a World War II air raid. He met future musical partner Paul McCartney at a 1957 church picnic. They started playing music together and their collaboration evolved into The Beatles, giving (as Lennon put it) "everything on God's earth" until their breakup ten years later.
"Walking away is much harder than carrying on," he said. He wed Japanese artist Yoko Ono in 1969 and continued to spread peace with songs like Imagine (1971).
On this day in 1975, Lennon's son Sean was also born, prompting the artist to take a five year break from music to change diapers and bake bread.
"I just stopped talking to the press," Lennon explained, "It got to be pretty funny. I was calling myself Greta Hughes or Howard Garbo through that period."
On this day in 1980, Lennon, excited about writing new music, released the song Starting Over. The Double Fantasy album followed, a month before his tragic assassination.
Fans continue to visit Strawberry Fields, New York's memorial to John in Central Park just across the street from where he lived and died...
