All posts tagged: John Lennon

12 emotional celebrity funerals that shook the world

12 emotional celebrity funerals that shook the world

Published by Daniella Wilson

When a celebrity passes on, it’s not only the friends and family that go into mourning. Whether their music made you feel less alone, their work inspired you to pick up a microphone or their honest approach to life provided some needed confidence, famous faces can impact our day to day lives more than we know. Read on to find out which celebrity funerals left a lasting impact on the world. © Getty Images Ozzy Osbourne passed on 22 July 2025 Ozzy Osbourne Born John Michael Osbourne, Ozzy is credited as one of the early pioneers of heavy metal music. He served as the frontman of Black Sabbath, which he co-founded, from 1968, known for hit tracks like ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Iron Man’. When he passed on 22 July 2025, the world of heavy music was devastated to lose one of its greats and fans flocked to show their devotion to the late singer. © Corbis via Getty Images A sea of flowers were left to honour the late Princess outside Buckingham Palace Princess Diana Princess …

How do we confront hatred in rock music?

How do we confront hatred in rock music?

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — The Stones put it this way: It’s only rock ’n’ roll, but I like it. And I do — the Beatles, the Stones, David Bowie. But there are some things I don’t like about it. Author and musician Daniel Rachel has written a new, disturbing and quite overdue book, “This Ain’t Rock ’n’ Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich.” And I interviewed him about it for my podcast.  The book documents something that has been hiding in plain sight for more than 60 years. As Rachel writes: For over seventy-five years, musicians have been drawn to the language and provocative imagery of Nazism, fascinated by its power, menace and underlying sexuality. They have flirted with the theatrical spectacle of the Third Reich, displayed the swastika, flaunted memorabilia, worn Nazi uniforms and marveled at the grandiose rallies of 1930s Germany. Decades ago, Woody Guthrie had a guitar with the words inscribed on it: “This machine kills fascists.” We never thought that future rock stars might have guitars that could say they …

Four Beatles Movies Are Coming Together. Here’s Everything We Know

Four Beatles Movies Are Coming Together. Here’s Everything We Know

Published by Jenni Sidey

Perhaps the most famous Beatles Wife is the artist, musician, and activist Yoko Ono, who Lennon met in 1966. They got together in 1968, while Lennon was still very much with his wife Cynthia, who will be played in the film(s) by Morfydd Clark. After his divorce, Lennon married Ono in 1969. She’ll be played by Japanese actress Anna Sawai, who is best known for her TV work on Pachinko, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and Shogun, for which she won an Emmy. More importantly, she knows Godzilla! And Kong!! Model and photographer Pattie Boyd was married to George Harrison from 1966 until 1977, and subsequently married Eric Clapton, who had been obsessed with her for years and in fact wrote “Layla” about her, along with “Bell Bottom Blues” and “Wonderful Tonight.” He couldn’t quite outdo Harrison, who wrote the much-covered “Something” about Boyd, as well as “I Need You,” “If I Needed Someone,” and “For You Blue” (underrated tune, that). A major figure in Harrison’s life, she’ll doubtless have a lot of screentime in his …

Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams | Anika Banister

Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams | Anika Banister

Published by José Betancourt

In 1945, as the spring air of the Japanese countryside poured in through the unfinished roof of their house, twelve-year-old Yoko Ono and her little brother, Keisuke, scions of the fabulously powerful Yasuda family, stared into the blue sky and starved. Their money was worthless, and their rural neighbors had little pity for the city children driven to their Nagano house by war. Their mother, Isoko, had sent them and their baby sister, Setsuko, away from Tokyo after the US dropped 1,665 pounds of incendiary bombs on the capital on March 9 of that year. That night Isoko gathered her two youngest and fled into their garden bunker. Yoko was sick, too febrile to move, and was left in her room as the smell of burning flesh smothered the city. Ono’s childhood was somber at the best of times. When she fell, her mother instructed her staff of nannies not to lift her up so that she would learn to help herself; in a 1974 essay in Bungei Shunju, she remembered “several women in kimono …