John Lennon and Yoko Ono: Robin Hood and Maid Marian in New York

John Lennon is a ghost it is always a pleasure to meet in the corridors of history. For convenience, we speak of him in the singular, as if there were only one ghost. In reality, there were many Lennons, even in the short span of a life cut tragically short at forty. There is the boy who pours his grief over his mother’s death into music, falling in love with rock and roll and adopting a teddy boy persona. Then there is John the superstar with the Beatles – the protagonist of an incredible fairy tale that helped shape the 20th century. Finally, there is the Lennon of the late 1960s, trapped in a gilded cage and persuaded that Yoko Ono is the muse who will set him free. We could continue: Lennon confronting the post-Beatles era with a bold, provocative stance; the populist who imagines himself as a guitar-wielding […]