John Lennon 1980

The Last Days in the Life

By: Kenneth Womack

Narrated by: Paul Woodson

Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

The story of the legendary musician’s incredible last year.

John Lennon 1980 traces the powerful, life-affirming story of the former Beatle’s remarkable comeback after five years of self-imposed retirement. Lennon’s final pivotal year would climax in several moments of creative triumph as he rediscovered his artistic self in dramatic fashion. With the bravura release of the Double Fantasy album with wife, Yoko Ono, he was poised and ready for an even brighter future only to be wrenched from the world by an assassin’s bullets. John Lennon 1980 isn’t about how the gifted songwriter died, but rather, about how he lived.

©2020 Omnibus Press (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

In-Depth and Entertaining

I found this book to be well written and very entertaining. It does a great job telling the story of John Lennon's final year as well as filling in the backstory of the previous decade that led up to some of the events in his life in 1980. I have always seen the photos of the Lennon's in Bermuda, in the Dakota and Central Park, or recording their final album, but I never really knew the stories around them. This book goes into great depth and brings the stories surrounding these events, as well as many others, into light. The narration is excellent as well.

moving

for those of us that remember that day, much like the generation b4 us remembering Kennedy death. it is a day no one will forget hearing Howard Cosells announcement on Monday night football. He finally was at total peace with life and got his political mind "right". still miss him.

Informative!!

Well researched for sure with first hand accounts by those within The Lennon’s circle near and abroad.

Wonderful Stories and Intimate Details

So glad this book was focusing on the life of John, Yoko, and their friends. The details of interactions with bandmates, producers, and even people they met on vacation. This book gave a great sense of what may have been happening in the last few months of John Lennon‘s life. Relieved that this was not about the tragic day, but rather what was making John tick as he approached his 40s. As a Beatle fan, I appreciated so many never heard before stories about this complex man.

John Lennon , still missed

I didn’t really know much about his life and enjoyed the effort to let people know what a kind and sweet man he was.
I didn’t realize what immense energy and time it took to produce a record. It made me appreciate the music even more.

well written well researched

The final year in the life of a disturbed, loving, complicated, creative genius. whom we all knew well-- navigating his final year. The story of his sailing across the Atlantic was awesome. I still miss Johns creative work to this day 42 years post mortum. This book fills in a lot of blanks.

Revelatory

I found this book to be revelatory. If you are interested in knowing more about life at the Dakota, what kinds of artists John was listening to, what the recording process of Double Fantasy was like, or his personal and working relationship with Yoko was like, you are going to want to add this book to your library. Focused on Lennon's life, rather than the murder, this book veers away from the true crime genre and is the definitive look at the day-to-day operations at "Studio One". As one learns of the plans John had for touring in 1981 and his rejuvenated zest to return to the scene, one can only wonder how different to the world of music would be now had he lived. John Lennon was a complex person and was coming to terms with past issues but he was ready to address them and move into a new chapter of his life with wife Yoko and son Sean, which sadly never came.

Beatles fans will not be disappointed!!

I’m a Beatlemaniac like so many, and in between Audible credits, I decided to look for something interesting that was included with my subscription. I stumbled across this book and absolutely loved it! Much of this info is common knowledge for Beatles fans… no doubt… but it’s told in an engaging way that keeps your interest w/ fantastic narration! And even better, there were numerous little nuggets throughout that I’d never heard before! Some truly great John Lennon trivia that I’ll be sharing with friends for years to come!

Some of the details of John’s recording sessions might be tedious to the casual reader/listener, but it actually gave me an even deeper appreciation of the music. A couple nights ago, my wife and I took a walk while listening to Double Fantasy on my phone… and I enjoyed sharing some of the fun anecdotes from the book with her as we went from track-to-track!

Great book… I highly recommend to any Beatles or John Lennon superfans that, like myself, have to know everything about them!

amazing retelling

this was an amazing retelling of the life if John.
learned of things I did not know

Rivetting

The heart of The Beatles, John Lennon was the icon of the Twentieth Century. It is imponderable that he was murdered,.