How John Lennon was made into a myth – By David Barnett (BBC) / Dec 7 2020
Forty years ago today, the Beatles star was assassinated – and has since held a god-like status around the world. David Barnett looks at the many manifestations of him in popular culture.
John Lennon has been dead as long as he was alive – it was 40 years today that he was shot on the steps of the Dakota apartments in New York. And since his death, Lennon has achieved, as is typical for musicians who die young or in their prime, legendary status.
But perhaps that’s not right – or at least that’s not the whole story. As well as earning the tag “legend”, which has perhaps lost some of its power because of its sheer ubiquity, Lennon has been elevated to something equally nebulous and folklorish; a myth.
In Prague, a wall devoted to John Lennon is a major tourist attraction (Credit: Alamy)
Legends are for heroes. Myths are for figures even greater than that; gods. And John Lennon has indeed achieved a kind of deific immortality – thanks in part to the appropriation of his persona in works of fiction and drama. With portrayals of him that have cast him as everything from unemployed layabout to Labour Party leader, wise old fisherman to actual psychedelic godhead, Lennon’s life has been romanticised, rehashed and rewritten since his death, to the point where the myth is often more real than the man. But more real doesn’t necessarily mean more true. And the re-imagining of John Lennon began almost as soon as his life ended.
CONTINUE > https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20201207-how-john-lennon-was-made-into-a-myth
