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Sample of "Imagine", Lennon's "most famous post-Beatles track."^[70][70]Like "Give Peace a Chance", the song became an anti-war anthem, but itslyrics offended religious groups. Lennon's explanation was, "If you canimagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion—not withoutreligion, but without this 'my God is bigger than your God' thing—thenit can be true."

Imagine followed in 1971. Its title track would become an anthem for anti-war movements, while another, "How Do You Sleep?", was a musical attack on McCartney in response to lyrics from Ramthat Lennon felt, and McCartney later confirmed, were directed at himand Ono. Although Lennon softened his stance in the mid-70s and said hehad written "How Do You Sleep?" about himself,^[71]he revealed in 1980, "I used my resentment against Paul... to create asong... not a terrible vicious horrible vendetta... I used myresentment and withdrawing from Paul and The Beatles, and therelationship with Paul, to write 'How Do You Sleep'. I don't really go'round with those thoughts in my head all the time".^[10] Lennon reflected on his jealous nature in the track "Jealous Guy", later immortalized by Roxy Music's chart-topping 1981 cover following Lennon's murder.^[14]

Lennon and Ono moved to New York in August 1971, and in December released "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)".^[72][73]The new year saw the Nixon Administration take what it called a"strategic counter-measure" against Lennon's anti-war propaganda,embarking on what would be a four-year attempt to deport him: embroiled in a continuing legal battle, he was denied a green card until 1976.^[74]To advertise the single, they paid for billboards in 12 cities aroundthe world which declared, in the national language, "WAR IS OVER—IF YOUWANT IT".

Some Time in New York City was released in 1972. Recorded with the New York band Elephant's Memory,it contained songs about women's rights, race relations, Britain's rolein Northern Ireland, and Lennon's problems obtaining a green card.^[75] "Woman Is the Nigger of the World",released as a US single from the album the same year, was described byLennon as "the first women's liberation song that went out", anddebuted on 11 May when it was televised on The Dick Cavett Show. Many radio stations refused to broadcast the song because of the word "nigger".^[76] Lennon gave two benefit concerts with Elephant's Memory in New York in aid of patients at the Willowbrook State School mental facility.^[77] Staged at Madison Square Garden on 30 August 1972, they were his last full-length concert appearances.^[78]

[edit] 1973–80: Lost and found

While Lennon was recording Mind Games(1973), he and Ono decided to separate. The ensuing eighteen-monthperiod apart, which he later called his "lost weekend", was spent inLos Angeles and New York in the company of May Pang. Mind Games, credited to "the Plastic U.F.Ono Band", was released in November 1973. Its title track, "Mind Games", was a top 20 hit in the US and reached number 26 in the UK. Lennon contributed a revamped version of "I'm the Greatest", a song he wrote two years earlier, to Starr's album Ringo (1973), released the same month. (Lennon's 1971 demo appears on John Lennon Anthology.) During 1974 he produced Harry Nilsson's Pussy Cats and the Mick Jaggersong "Too Many Cooks (Spoil The Soup)". The latter was destined, forcontractual reasons, to remain unreleased for more than thirty years.Pang supplied the recording for its eventual inclusion on The Very Best of Mick Jagger (2007).^[79]

Walls and Bridges (1974) yielded Lennon's only number one single in his lifetime, "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night", featuring Elton John on backing vocals and piano. A second single from the album, "#9 Dream", followed before the end of the year. Starr's Goodnight Vienna (1974) again saw assistance from Lennon, who wrote the title track and played piano.^[80] On 28 November, Lennon made a surprise guest appearance at Elton John's Thanksgiving concert at Madison Square Garden,in fulfilment of his promise to join the singer in a live show if"Whatever Gets You Thru the Night", a song whose commercial potentialLennon had doubted, reached number one. Lennon performed the song alongwith "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "I Saw Her Standing There".^[81]

Lennon co-wrote "Fame", David Bowie's first US number one, and provided guitar and backing vocals for the January 1975 recording.^[82] He and Ono were reunited shortly afterwards.^[83]The same month, Elton John topped the charts with his own cover of"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", featuring Lennon on guitar and back-upvocals. Lennon released Rock 'n' Roll (1975), an album of cover songs, in February. Soon afterwards, "Stand By Me",taken from the album and a US and UK hit, became his last single forfive years. He made what would be his final stage appearance in the ATV special A Salute to Lew Grade, recorded on 18 April and televised in June.^[84]Rock 'n' Roll("Slippin' and Slidin'" and "Stand By Me", the latter of which wasexcluded from the television broadcast) followed by "Imagine".^[84]The band wore masks on the backs of their heads, making them appeartwo-faced, a dig at Grade, with whom Lennon and McCartney had been inconflict because of his control of The Beatles' publishing company. (Dick Jameshad sold his majority share to Grade in 1969.) During "Imagine", Lennoninterjected the line "and no immigration too", a reference to hisbattle to remain in the United States.^[75] Playing acoustic guitar, and backed by his eight-piece band BOMF (introduced as "Etcetera"), Lennon performed two songs from

Lennon's second son, Sean,was born in October 1975. Lennon now took on the role of househusband,beginning what would be a five-year break from the music industryduring which he gave all his attention to his family.^[10]Shaved Fish,a greatest hits compilation. He devoted himself to Sean, rising at 6 amdaily to plan and prepare his meals and to spend time with him.^[85] He wrote "Cookin' (In The Kitchen of Love)" for Starr's Ringo's Rotogravure (1976), performing on the track in June in what would be his last recording session until 1980.^[86]He formally announced his break from music in Tokyo in 1977, saying,"we have basically decided, without any great decision, to be with ourbaby as much as we can until we feel we can take time off to indulgeourselves in creating things outside of the family."^[87]During his career break he created several series of drawings, anddrafted a book containing a mix of autobiographical material and whathe termed "mad stuff",^[88] all of which would be published posthumously. Within the month, he fulfilled his contractual obligation to EMI/Capitol for one more album by releasing

He emerged from retirement in October 1980 with the single "(Just Like) Starting Over", followed the next month by the album that spawned it. Released jointly with Ono, Double Fantasy contained songs written during Lennon's journey to Bermuda on a 43-foot sloop the previous June,^[89] and took its title from a species of freesia, seen in the Bermuda Botanical Gardens, whose name he regarded as a perfect description of his marriage to Ono.^[90]The new material, according to Schinder and Schwartz, found Lennon"passionate and reenergized, having found fulfillment in the stablefamily life that he'd been deprived of in his own youth."^[91] During the Double FantasyMilk and Honey^[92] sessions, Lennon and Ono recorded sufficient additional material for a planned follow-up album. was released posthumously in 1984.

[edit] December 1980: Murder

At around 10:50 pm on 8 December 1980, soon after Lennon and Ono returned to the Dakota, the New York apartment building where they lived, Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back four times at the entrance to the building. Earlier that evening, Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman.^[93] Lennon was taken to the emergency room of nearby Roosevelt Hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:07 pm.^[94]

Ono issued a statement the next day, saying "There is no funeral forJohn," ending it with the words, "John loved and prayed for the humanrace. Please pray the same for him." His body was cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Ono scattered his ashes in New York's Central Park, where the Strawberry Fields memorial was later created.^[95]Chapman pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 20years to life; he remains in prison, having been repeatedly deniedparole.^[96]

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