The song Yoko Ono couldn’t live without
In 1975, John Lennon decided to put his music career on ice for a few years to focus on raising Sean Ono Lennon, his second son and first with Yoko Ono. Over the next four years, Lennon became a stranger to recording studios and only laid down a few demos from his apartment in New York City.
In the summer of 1980, Lennon set off on a sailing trip from Newport, Rhode Island, to Bermuda. While out at sea, the yacht encountered a fierce storm. As the crew succumbed to fatigue and seasickness, Lennon was forced to take the helm alone for several hours as he steered the group back to safety. This experience helped the former Beatle rediscover his self-confidence and remanded him of the fragile transience of life.
In response, he returned to the studio to write several new songs while returning to some older demos. Reflecting on this period, Lennon later explained, “I was so centred after the experience at sea that I was tuned in to the cosmos – and all these songs came,” he said. While in Bermuda, Lennon began working on the music that would later be released on Double Fantasy. The album was released on October 19th, 1980, just three weeks before Lennon’s tragic murder in New York City.
In a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone, Sean Ono Lennon explained that he had been in the studio while his father was recording material for Double Fantasy. As a result, it became more than just music to him, and he played it on repeat in the months following his father’s untimely death. “Double Fantasy is a very loaded record for me because my earliest memories are hanging around the Hit Factory as a kid when they [John and Yoko Ono] were making it,” he said. “I have so many personal memories revolving around that record. After my dad died, one of the ways in which I mourned or processed his death was just listening to that record over and over again.”
Sean continued, explaining how the record transcends mere music for him. “I don’t even have any objective relationship to that music, for the most part, because it’s not even music,” he explained. “It’s this fundamental part of my childhood.”
“A lot of people don’t remember when they were five,” Sean added. “I’ve never asked a psychologist, but I’ve assumed that because my dad dying was so traumatic for me that a lot of those early memories just stayed. I have more memories of being five and four than I do being 16.”
The most poignant of the Double Fantasy tracklist was undoubtedly ‘Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)’, a song Lennon wrote as an ode to his beloved son. Lennon sang of an imagined future with Sean that Mark Chapman cruelly forbade.
When appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Yoko Ono picked John Lennon’s ‘Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)’ as her Castaway’s Favourite. Introducing the song, Yoko said, “Well, I like most of John’s songs… I like them all, actually…But I really appreciate the fact that John made this song for Sean.”
Yoko Ono wasn’t alone in her selection; when Paul McCartney appeared on the popular BBC Radio 4 feature in 1982, he chose the same song. “I haven’t chosen any Beatles records, but if we had more than eight, I probably would have,” McCartney said. “I haven’t chosen any of my records so, to sum up the whole thing, I have chosen one of John Lennon’s from Double Fantasy which I think is a beautiful song, very moving to me. So, I’d like to sum up the whole thing by playing ‘Beautiful Boy’.”
Listen to John Lennon’s ‘Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)’ below.
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