Thirteenth in the Famous People (FP) Series.
John Lennon was usually considered the "leader" of The Beatles, as he founded the original group, inviting McCartney to join later, who in turn invited Harrison. Most group decisions were democratic though (with the golden rule that if any member objected to an idea, the group wouldn't pursue it). Musically, Lennon most often played the rhythm guitar role, while George Harrison played lead guitar. Lennon also frequently played keyboards, as also did McCartney.
Lennon largely abandoned his leadership role in the mid-Sixties, under the influence of LSD and Timothy Leary's book The Psychedelic Experience, believing he needed to "lose his ego" to become enlightened. He resented McCartney's taking effective control of the band after Brian Epstein's death in 1967, and disliked some of the resulting projects, such as Magical Mystery Tour, and particularly Let It Be ("That film was set up by Paul, for Paul," as he said later to Rolling Stone). Lennon was the first to break the band's all-for-one sensibility, and also the rule that no wives or girlfriends would attend recording sessions, as he brought Yoko into the studio.
Lennon was also the first member to permanently quit the group (Starr had left during 1968, but was persuaded to return, while Harrison walked out on a filming session early in 1969, but turned up at a business meeting a few days later), which he did in September 1969. He agreed not to make an announcement, with the band renegotiating their recording contract, and blasted McCartney months later (with the negotiations complete) for going public with his own departure in April 1970. With the public unaware of the details, McCartney appeared to be the one who dissolved the group, depriving Lennon of the formalities. Lennon told Rolling Stone "I was a fool not to do what Paul did, which was use it to sell a record," and later wrote "I started the band. I finished it."
McCartney later admitted Lennon had been the first to quit, re-explaining the circumstances to CBS-TV's 48 Hours in 1989. In a subsequent Playboy interview, McCartney asserted "We all looked up to John. He was older and he was very much the leader; he was the quickest wit and the smartest and all that kind of thing."
At 10:50 p.m. on 8 December 1980, Mark David Chapman shot and fatally wounded John Lennon in front of Lennon's residence, the Dakota, when Lennon and Ono returned from recording Ono's single "Walking on Thin Ice" for their next album.
May they live forever!
The coordinates were averaged over a 6 minute span with a Garmin eTrex Legend Cx and a Garmin eTrex Vista. The units would not agree on the coordinates, but the accuracy was down to 8.3'.
