Why was a funeral not held for John Lennon?
The death of John Lennon sent a shockwave around the world. The former Beatle was shot five times by Mark Chapman, an unemployed security guard from Hawaii who had asked Lennon for an autograph earlier that day. When asked for his motivation, Chapman said: “I understood his words but I didn’t understand his meaning.”
For many years, it was believed that Chapman targeted Lennon because of his anti-religious lyrics, though that theory has since been put to rest. That being said, Lennon’s complex relationship with organised religion may have had something to do with his lack of burial.
Following his death, John Lennon’s body was taken in a body bag from the morgue to the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on Madison and 81st Street in New York. From there, it was sent to Ferncuff Mortuary in Hartsdale for cremation. Its believed that Lennon’s son, Sean, was not allowed to attend the cremation ceremony. It’s impossible to say for sure why Lennon didn’t receive a traditional funeral as the subject has rarely been discussed. John didn’t stipulate that he’d liked to be cremated in his will, though he did nominate Ono as the sole inheritor of his estate, which also left her in charge of his funeral, or lack thereof.
Many have assumed that Lennon’s opposition to organised religion influenced Ono’s decision. It’s also possible that Lennon wanted to avoid the celebrity circus that defined the funeral of Elvis Presley. John was, after all, always distrustful of fame. Moreover, he surely understood that a concrete gravestone would quickly become the subject of obsession, something he was probably keen to avoid in death. Still, it remains unclear why Ono didn’t allow John’s children or former bandmates the chance to attend his cremation, this being the closest thing he recieved to a formal burial. We can only assume that Ono was carrying out her husband’s wishes to the best of her ability.
Instead of a funeral, Yoko asked for ten minutes of silence around the world. A few months later, on March 30th, a semi-religious memorial service was held at Liverpool cathedral at the request of the Lod Mayor of Liverpool. Despite thousands of letters calling for the service to be cancelled, more than 2,000 people ended up attending the Festival of Peace. Blending religious and non-religious symbolism, the service was exactly the kind of thing Ono had hoped to avoid, featuring: “Traditional figures in red and green robes, a cross-bearer and canons, but also a girl who later led a meditation in boots, jeans and shoulder bag, and a local radio celebrity whose name was knitted into his pullover” in quotes taken from The Guardian.”
Perhaps John and Yoko recognised how easily a traditional funeral could be exploited and transformed into a vessel of religious and political didacticism. This, sadly, was exactly what happened at the Liverpool memorial, where the Dean of Liverpool, the Very Reverend Edward Patey, mourned the passing of the flower power era. “The era of flower power has given place to a greater aggressiveness; to the era of punk,” he said. “Young people ignorantly and stupidly dressed up like neo-Nazis, apparently ignorant that the Nazi period was responsible for untold misery, for as great a concentration of wickedness as the world has ever seen.”
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Beatles Newsletter
All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.