Lennon, Julian

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Julian Lennon

Singer, songwriter, guitarist

When Julian Lennon released Valotte, his first album, he took “an important step toward establishing … musical credibility,” according to Barbara Graustark in People. The oldest son of ex-Beatle and late rock legend John Lennon, Julian has satisfied most critics that he has a legitimate talent and is not merely exploiting his father’s fame. Valotte sent two hit singles onto the charts, the title track and ’Too Late for Goodbyes,” and the album’s sales put it into the platinum category. Lennon has followed up his successful debut with two other albums, The Secret Value of Daydreaming and Mr. Jordan.

Born John Charles Julian Lennon on April 8, 1963, in Liverpool, England, Julian was named first for his famous father, second for his maternal grandfather, and third for his paternal grandmother, Julia. Of course, it was the third name, or its shortened version, Jules, that his family and friends used. Because Julian was born when his father’s group was beginning its successful rise to superstar status, he rarely saw the elder Lennon, who was often away on concert tours. Yet his father had a huge influence on him: “I learned a lot from him, looking at what he’s done and what I’ve got to go through,” the young singer told Brant Mewborn in Rolling Stone. In turn, Julian had some influence on John Lennon’s career as well, from an early age. Though critics and fans alike have often interpreted the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” as a paean to LSD, Julian, like his father before him, maintains that the song came from a childhood picture he had drawn of one of his schoolmates, Lucy. “You better believe it!” he told Mewborn. And the group’s “Hey, Jude” began as “Hey, Jules” —a song that Paul McCartney wrote to comfort Julian when his parents divorced in 1968.

Though Julian Lennon saw his father even more infrequently after the latter’s marriage to Yoko Ono and subsequent move to New York City, by the time he was ten he had begun to develop musical interests. He played the drums and the guitar, and when he was eleven served as the drummer on “Ya Ya,” a track on his father’s album Walls and Bridges. When the younger Lennon was in his early teens, he began to teach himself how to play the piano.

As Julian grew older, he visited his father in New York more frequently, and the two began to repair their somewhat neglected relationship. But before they reached the degree of closeness that both desired, John Lennon was killed by an assassin in December, 1980. Julian was affected deeply by his father’s death. He had been living with his mother, Cynthia, in Wales; afterwards he moved to London and aimlessly haunted the city’s nightclubs. Julian wanted to work on his own

For the Record…

Full name John Charles Julian Lennon; born April 8, 1963, in Liverpool, England; son of John (a singer, songwriter, and musician) and Cynthia (a textile designer and television host; maiden name, Powell) Lennon.

Recording artist and concert performer, 1984—.

Addresses: Other— 200 W. 57th St. #1403, New York, N.Y., 10019.

musical projects and write songs, but was daunted by grief and the shadow of his father’s immense talent. As Elizabeth Kaye summed it up in Rolling Stone, “when he was small, he worried that he could never write songs or sing them the way his father did. When he was older, he worried that anything he wrote or sang would sound too much like his father.”

Julian stumbled into a record deal designed to exploit John’s memory by having the son sing an unreleased song stolen from his father’s estate. He was rescued from the situation by his stepmother, Yoko Ono, who bought him out of the contract, and Julian finally signed with Atlantic Records. He and his associates traveled to a quiet French château called Valotte to work on his debut album in peaceful privacy—hence the title of the 1984 album, Valotte. As Julian recorded Valotte, he gained confidence, and his feelings about his musical resemblance to John Lennon began to resolve themselves. Valotte’s producer, Phil Ramone, helped him; Lennon confided to Graustark: “He just said, ’Sing naturally, wherever the feeling takes you.’” As for the notes on which his voice sounds like his father’s, Julian said, “I’m proud of them,” and answers criticisms thus: “If my dad had been a world-famous carpenter and I did what he did, I would have been praised. People would have said, ’You’re doing a good job.’”

Valotte, of course, met with favorable reception from reviewers and fans alike, and so did Julian Lennon’s first string of concert performances. Carolyn Kitch in McCall’s analyzed one of his U.S. shows: “His voice is polished and pure, and as he does songs from his debut album … he is self-confident, definitely his own performer. But when Julian launches into his encore—one of the Beatles’ classics, ’Day Tripper’—the memories come back. When he sings the same lyrics and notes, Julian can’t hide his inheritance. He is, after all, John Lennon’s son.” Lennon’s second album, The Secret Value of Daydreaming, was not as successful as Valotte. Secret Value “doesn’t carry [Julian] any nearer to self-discovery or self-revelation,” lamented reviewer Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone. DeCurtis did, however, praise some of the album’s songs, such as “Let Me Tell You” and “Coward till the End?” and cited Lennon’s “potential to do important work.” Mr. Jordan, Lennon’s 1989 release, has fared better with the critics.

Selected discography

Valotte (includes “Valotte,” “Too Late for Goodbyes,” “Well I Don’t Know,” “Jesse,” and “O.K. for You”), Atlantic, 1984.

The Secret Value of Daydreaming (includes “Let Me Tell You,” “Coward till the End?” “Stick Around,” “This Is My Day,” “You Don’t Have to Tell Me,” and “Want Your Body”), Atlantic, 1986.