John Lennon - The complete Annie Leibovitz session

[JEH78]

I just read the Last Days Of John Lennon book wtitten by his personal assistant and it pretty much gives you an idea why John looked so unhealthy. He was on a strict diet he came up with himself but also under so much stress from Yoko. While the two loved each other it's pretty shocking to hear about the control she had over him. She couldn't do or pretty much say anything without her permission. It also amazes me that Sean has a great relationship with Yoko now but she avoided him as a kid.

[irishduck101]

Hours after 0:56 was taken he was shot.

[boobah1067]

Thank you so much for putting these up. You're just a great bootleg source! He looks more relaxed, as does Yoko, in the photo at 1:14. As to the health: it's really really obvious he's unwell in some way, & had been for some time. He aged physically so fast from 1975 to 1980. Plus, Sean said his physical memory of his Dad was his bony wrists and ankles. Heroin? Anorexia? Oppressive emotional life? Dunno. But he was not as physically fleshed out -- never mind also older in real years too.

[eggmangoogoogoojoob]

Shocking these photos may be, but surely the most shocking of all is that of Lennon dead on a mortuary slab just hours later. I rather wise I hadn't seen that now.

[NeilFraudstrong]

@eggmangoogoogoojoob

Did I include it in this video? If I did, I can't believe I didn't put up a warning.

[eggmangoogoogoojoob]

Apparently even the hospital staff who fought to save Lennon's life remarked on his wretched physical condition. Why that should have been is open to conjecture and conspiracy theories, but I find it hard to believe that John Lennon, no less, a man who could afford the best physical treatment money could buy, should have been in such poor shape. Did someone else have a hand in it, then ....? 

[maccalex]

He looks like the 50's past on the day he died.

[BolivianRhapsody]

Lennon looks like shit

[oneblueorange]

@BolivianRhapsody Balderdash!

[NeilFraudstrong]

There are many more photos from this session that I have had for a while now, but this is a good enough representation of the day.

[045781]

Yes, he is skinny but I do not think he had any health problems.

And by all accounts he was off of drugs at this time in his life.

[MckyMseNTarotCrds]

Very nice upload. I enjoyed it. I guess I'm not seeing what a lot of people seem to be. He doesn't look bad to me. He was never a particularly young looking person. The first two, yeah, he looks kind of wrinkled. But the rest he looks great. The one at :40, he looks really cool. The last pic isn't so great, I think that's just a shitty pic. Anyway, he looks better than Madonna did at 40, or Iggy Pop, or Keith Richards. Maybe not the best examples, haha.

[JEH78]

John might look unhealthy to some but to me in these photos he looks exhausted. Remember that the photo shoot was in the morning and i'm sure the night before he was recording so lack of sleep could have something to do with these photos. Lennon of course had lost alot of weight but by all accounts he was happier and healthier than ever before...mostly thanks to Sean. I often look at the John's photos in 68/69 and it's hard to believe he was in his late 20s. He looked 40 then.

[katucheegee]

he looks older than 40 here...i'm glad that annie leibovitz took these pictures coz it gave us a look at how he was right before he died....

[JonathanHawes94]

He looks awful in these pictures. I don't like his haircut and he looks quite old/unhealthy here, considering he's only 40.

[romans52345]

@JonathanHawes94 yeah he got a bit of a mullett going on btw were these pics taken the day he died?

[xdeathlyhallowx]

Nice, nice, but he's much too skinny :( the bloody heroin or macrobiotic diet or whatever the hell it was by this time had aged him considerably (not to mention a few other things). I can see a bit of Julian in his face in the solo pics, which is nice :)

[NeilFraudstrong]

@xdeathlyhallowx

This is a very taboo subject amongst Lennon/Beatle fans, but I challenge anyone to look at John's last photos and say he looks healthy.

[contrafib]

@NeilFraudstrong I agree and i've said this to many people. It's also taboo to say that a lot of the stuff in the Goldman book seems to be true though exaggerated. Would you agree with that or say that the Ray Coleman book is more accurate?

If he'd lived, i think John would have branched out of pop/rock music (film perhaps?) but i don't think he would have looked so hot by 50 or 60 years old. Indulgence in substances always catches up with you.

[100irissa]

@NeilFraudstrong Maybe it's a taboo for stupid fans. I've always been a Beatles/ Lennon fan and I don't like to see his last pictures because I know that he doesn't look good, he looks unhealthy and I wonder if it was because of the drugs, alcohol, diet or what. You have to be blind if you look at him and tell he looks great here. It's sad to know that he died unhealthy and looking bad. I don't know but when I watch those pictures I can't see him as a very happy man, maybe I'm wrong, I hope so.

[NeilFraudstrong]

@100irissa

Well, one of the reasons is that it is a taboo subject is because it is heavily implied by several people that John suffered from anorexia during his last years. I am not going to go so far as to say he had anorexia though. He said he was just on a macrobiotic diet, but even with that considered I find it hard to believe that he was that gaunt and perfectly healthy. Either way, John was still very much alive.. until someone changed that.

[100irissa]

@NeilFraudstrong I've heard that, but I don't know, I've seen some videos from 1969, the Get Back sessions and he looked very thin, as well as he was in the last years, but he looked healthy then. I know that he had problems with his weight because of a comment about the fat Beatle, even McCartney mentions something in the song Too Many People "too many hungry people losing weight", but I don't know if he was anorexic, sometimes i think so and sometimes I don't. I'd like to know if it's true.

[094340]

@xdeathlyhallowx

Too skinny??? Umm...OK. I think he looks great. Know why??? BECAUSE HE WAS FUCKING ALIVE!!!!!

[eggmangoogoogoojoob]

@xdeathlyhallowx Lennon was doing a lot of cocaine at the time, so much so that he was about to have reconstructive surgery to his septum (it's the tissue that divides the nostrils, folks). I think he kicked the heroin addiction not long after the release of 'Abbey Road' back in 1969. I agree with you about all that macrobiotic crap; can you really imagine him on a macrobiotic diet when he was plain chip butty Scouser John rather than ex-Beatle (and apparently saint) John?

[boobah1067]

@eggmangoogoogoojoob Agreed he looked beyond his years, but how do you know he was going to have surgery on his septum?

[1oo1oo1oo]

Is it me or does this video not play right?

I'd love to see it all but it freezes around 0:54

[Toddrums2]

My girlfriend from high schools' brother wrote to John in 1979 and a month later got a 3 page handwritten letter from him talking about travelling in east, also, telling him that teenage years are tough and you'll get through it etc.. It was cool because John really cared about people and it showed in this letter. I wish I could read it now. PS, LOVE your videos Neil, keep up the good work.

[AbbeyRoad1965]

Wow that's really interesting!

[magpieeye]

@Toddrums2 , Wow, that is so cool. I hope he still has it. I'm sure he does?

[mickindanny]

And I never even sent the man a card. It breaks my heart to learn that there were times when he was down & alone, & may have got a moment's happiness from that card. LESSON IN LIFE: Share your love, don't ever hold it back. Don't ever assume someone doesn't need you. Reach out! You show your love all the time, Neil, & it is appreciated. We all come together over him.

[mickindanny]

Wonderful vid, Neil. Thank goodness she got these photos. I miss John every day; he was a true leader. He made life easy for me; checking out the issues, doing all the homework, then reporting back to us! He kept telling us that we'd better start thinking for ourselves, but it was so CAREFREE to be able to just listen to him. The world is so lost without him.

[CommodoreRulz]

Just another reminder of what the world lost on December 8 1980! Almost on the 29th anniversary and I must say I still miss John and wish he was still here to help us all out a little more.

[NeilFraudstrong]

I was going to name this "The complete Annie Leibovitz shoot" at first, but I thought better of it. I was referring to the photo shoot itself, but a bunch of people would have thought I was trying to be humorous.

[jeremyscherle]

thanks for posting the pics love them

[dormanbenton]

Great STUFF! you've got all of the most most unique John Lennon videos. Thanks again. I love watching them.