8. John Lennon’s Mad Libs, Part 1
John Lennon is as famous as he is controversial. He is much beloved for being, in some fans’eyes, the most talented of The Beatles. Lennon is also renowned and revered by many for being an anti-war activist who preached giving peace a chance. Despite his promotion of peace regarding war, he is equally well known for his domestic and parental abuse, being publicly criticized by his son Julian for showing no love to him or his mother as a child. Lennon even wrote about his own abusive past, penning “I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved” as part of the hit song “Getting Better.”
Lennon was also known for a contentious relationship with the media. He was widely quoted and torn apart by the media for saying that The Beatles were more famous than Jesus. His involvement and activism with Yoko Ono were also widely criticized. He wrote of the press in “The Ballad of John and Yoko” saying “the way things are going they’re gonna crucify me.” With his relative antagonism with the media, it is all the more surprising that, in 1976, he returned a young fan’s mail in which he had sent a mad-libs like form with word association for Lennon to complete.