Did John Lennon reconcile with his father?
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| John bore a striking resemblance to his father |
Alfred Lennon was unmistakably present in his son's physical appearance But he only had a walk-on - or rather walk-off - role in his upbringing. John would later tell Beatles biographer Hunter Davies "It was like he was dead."
The absentee father only re-entered John's life in 1964. They immediately clashed over what John saw an attempt to cash in on his fame. Alfred did not help his car by doing newspaper interviews and even recording a single.
A primal scream
Filial relations sunk further in 1970, when John and Yoko underwent the then voguish primal scream therapy in Los Angeles. This 'recovered' the hurt of John's childhood abandonment.
The resulting rage was unleashed when John invited Alfred, his fiancee Pauline and their eighteen-month-old child, David Henry Lennon to lunch on the eve of his 30th birthday. According to a legal affidavit, Alfred received both barrels in a "loathsome tirade … uttered with malignant glee".
This would be the last ever meeting between father and son and the his only one John had with his half brother. John reaffirmed his resentment in the Lennon Remembers interview (1971).
Deathbed reconciliation
Time, though, would sooth the open wound. With the birth of his second child, John notably mellowed in his appraisal of his father. Primal screaming, he conceded might have led to undue harshness.
In 1976 Pauline passed on news that Alfred was terminally ill with stomach cancer. John sent flowers and then phoned his father on his deathbed. Apologies were made and accepted from both parties.
Alfred Lennon: Demonised Dad? - full story: free 5 minute read on Medium
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