I've always been an admirer of John Lennon (and the Beatles, as a group).
The Beatles I admired because of their music. It is extremely difficult to explain or describe why The Beatles were so awesome; it's a sort of IYKYK* thing; if you got them, they were awesome. Some people find their music very ordinary, just like I find Elvis's music. (I think Elvis was amazing; don't get me wrong.) I got on the Rolling Stones's wavelength late in life, so the Beatles were higher in my hierarchy than either of Elvis, or the Stones.
At first, when Yoko Ono and John got together, I was a little resentful; I thought John was being a drama queen, etc, etc.
After John was killed, I got to hear the John Lennon interviews for the first time. Only then did I understand the ideological transformation of him that Yoko had achieved.
First, she had to teach him to look past the rhetoric that people were laying on him. It's not that people were lying to him all the time; people were telling him exactly what they felt would make him think in a way useful to them. John was doing the same thing, so he had to learn to stop being manipulative, too. This was huge information; it gave him a platform on which he could build all his interactions.
Second, she described the gender model that John had taken on from his social environment. Like other guys around him, John felt he had to dominate the women in his life; if he didn't, he expected to be controlled by his womenfolk by their constant criticism and nagging. Yoko got him to really listen, to Yoko, and to Cindy, and to Julia, and Mimi; to understand the information, and discard the rhetoric. (Like most guys, he assumed that it was all rhetoric.)
Thirdly, she described the rhetoric coming out of the US government about the Vietnam War, and placed it in the context of all wars, and especially US resistance to 'Communism.'
These were all difficult subjects, and honestly, most Americans did not have a clear view of the political issues, not to mention the sociological ones. It is amazing how Yoko persuaded John to take a rational (i.e., logical) view about all these issues. John resisted many of her ideas, actually because of his intelligence. The bigger they come, the harder they fall!
I recently recalled John's song Cold Turkey. (It's in the Shaved Fish album, which is a sort of Greatest Hits, but not exactly.) The song ostensibly describes the agony of Heroin withdrawal. But it's also a parody, and utterly funny, IMO.
Only a very intelligent person could deliver a song of that kind. The story of how hard it was for Lennon to strip himself of all (well, many of) the illusions in his life is very, very long. He was a man of many fractured parts, and finally Ono was able to forge him into an integral person. Chapman's murder of him is all the more tragic.
Over years, Lennon tried to convey to the world (in songs, in writing, in interviews) all his revised thinking, and his political epiphanies, but not everyone was prepared to accept it. In his last few years of life, he focused on being a family with Yoko, and their baby Sean. That was a much easier task! [Edited for clarity: 4-June-2025.]
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* 'If You Know, You Know.