John Lennon
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Without John Lennon there would be no Beatles, since he's the guy who started the group and gave it its name. "But ours is a cooperative group," John says. "Nobody lays down any laws. We talk things over. We have our rows - nothing serious, just differences like other human beings."
John is the only married Beatle and he has a small son, but he refuses to talk about him. "I'm dead keen to keep my private life separate from business," he says.
The girls, however, make pilgrimages to his Liverpool home where he lives with his family, and this has occasionally upset the young guitarist. "I want my wife to lead a normal life and not be pestered night and day just because she's married to one of the Beatles."
John was born in Liverpool, England, attended Liverpool High School and later the Liverpool College of Art. "My whole school life was a case of 'I couldn't care less,'" he says. "It was just a joke as far as I was concerned, but don't think I'm proud of it. I wouldn't want anybody to follow my example."
The Beatles started playing in a Liverpool club called the Cavern. They didn't exactly cause a sensation there, and they jumped at an offer to play in Hamburg, Germany in a raucous and rowdy strip joint, the Indra Club. This was it for the young group, and they were an instant hit, chiefly because they were the first performers to ever play louder than the audience. A short time later they were discovered by promoter Brian Epstein, and the rest is history.
Like his three fellow Beatles, John Lennon is a man unafraid to speak his mind. "I'm 23 and I've never bothered to vote," he says. "The bomb? Nuclear disarmament? Well, like everybody else I don't want to end up a festering heap, but I don't stay up nights worrying. I'm preoccupied with life, not death."
British handwriting expert Bill Hogarth has analyzed John's writing, and he finds him "a live wire, prepared to take chances." He finds him to be almost too honest, and capable of being even tactless. "I'd say this man is impulsive," Hogarth says, "and he likes being with his own kind. This could lead to a little selfishness, though in a rather nice way - he knows the people he can trust. He's clearly an artist, and he has high standards of taste. He is at heart a quiet person, yet it's possible, the sort of chap who could mix with royalty or with somebody down the scale.
"I see modesty and dignity in John Lennon," Hogarth says, "yet I'm sure he knows his own value. I'd say he wants to get his own way, an dusually does. You have to know him well to be fully accepted by him."
Today John is at the top, yet he's not overwhelmed by success. "We all go out ot have fun," he says. "If others have fun, that's great!"
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