John Ono Lennon: The Music And The Life (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
Well, not quite definitive. Philip Norman's 2008 John Lennon: The Life still holds that rank. I suppose new biographies of fascinating people will always be produced, but we're dealing with some well-trodden ground here. Several major "event" bios of Lennon are out there, beginning with Ray Coleman's somewhat hodge-podge and unfocused Lennon, a hero-worshipping whitewash released at the height of John's martyrdom in 1984. This was followed in 1988 by the opposite extreme, the widely despised The Lives of John Lennon, by noted vile hack Albert Goldman, who only seems to write biographies of people he dislikes on a visceral, personal level. (See also: Kitty Kelly.) Goldman's (admitted) tactics are to favor interview sources who have an axe to grind, and chop up quotes from neutral sources and take them out of context to create the most salacious text possible. (There's a hilarious SNL sketch dating from the era of the book's publication which theorizes that Goldman's bitterness was due to the fact that he was an original member of the Beatles -- on trombone -- and was kicked out before their rise to stardom: "C'mon guys, we've got to rehearse 'She Loves You Wah-Wah-Wah.'")Is another Lennon bio worth reading, then? Yes. Riley is an outstanding music writer whose 1988 work on the technicalities of Beatles songs, Tell Me Why, brought a musicologist's touch to something that had previously been written about mostly as a social or cultural phenomenon. (A battered, well-thumbed copy of that book sits on the Holy Bee's bookshelf.) Like many biographers, Riley assumes the reader will find the Beatle years the most fascinating -- Lennon's solo career begins on page 473, leaving little space for the last decade of his life. (This is where Norman's book trumps Riley.) Any new biography will have some fresh tidbits, but there's nothing too earth-shattering here. Still, it's a good story well-told, which is always worthwhile.Riley does not gloss over Lennon's psychological issues and personal foibles (the great peace advocate had a vicious temper and mean streak a mile wide when he hit the bottle), but falls over himself gushing over his musical contribution to the Beatles -- rightly so, of course, but he can't seem to do it without taking unrelenting potshots at McCartney. I'm no McCartney apologist, but Riley seems to believe the only way to build Lennon up is to tear McCartney down, to the point that it seems compulsive. Even McCartney's best stuff -- such as his terrific, belting lead vocal on "Oh! Darling" -- is met with Riley's statement "If only McCartney had let Lennon take a run at the lead vocal of 'Oh! Darling.'" Jesus, let the man have something, Tim! (Oddly, Riley's attitude toward Paul softens considerably during the solo years when he was doing his weakest work. Perhaps he was no longer perceived as a threat to Lennon's legacy at that point...)Riley also has a tendency to attach far more importance to small events than seems necessary -- the two-and-a-half page breakdown on the significance of the Beatles' jokey 1963 guest appearance on the BBC comedy-variety program The Morecambe & Wise Show seems like overkill. And some digressions read like Riley is pilfering his own desk drawer, squeezing earlier essays he wrote on other topics into the Beatles' story. At least this is my impression. (We recognize our own -- Your Humble Narrator is 100% guilty of doing the same thing.) Almost five pages on the impact of American garage-rock? Interesting, but only tangentially connected to the story of John Lennon. Very thorough, quite fair IMO both in good and in bad; shows Lennon was a human being with his strengths and weaknesses, and so was Yoko, Paul, etc... Doesn't take sides, but introduces different theories and let's the reader make up their own mind, which is rare in biographies. Usually the author just chooses one theory and goes with that. This is how I would like all bios to be written. Professionally, avoid of stupid gossip (leaves out the most outrageous stories I have heard and that have no other witness but the "author" of such stories) that is just that, and offers two sides to all things that are under debate. Very good.
What do You think about John Ono Lennon: The Music And The Life (2010)?
Incredibly captivating. I will be thinking about Riley's narrative for weeks to come.
—reader
Fair, well-researched, but too much musical theory for this non-musician.
—Kaysha
Well written about a pretty complicated character.
—jared14
