John Ono Lennon II
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John Ono Lennon II was the unborn baby of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, conceived during the spring of 1968 and miscarried by Ono on November 21 of that year.
Conceived not long after the recording of Lennon and Ono's Two Virgins album, the unborn child played a role in the early stages of their relationship, and also the dissolution of Lennon's marriage to Cynthia Powell. Lennon had denied committing adultery with Ono, and threatened to divorce Cynthia on the same grounds (alleging a tryst between her and friend "Magic Alex", which she also denied), before publicly admitting on October 25 that Ono was carrying his baby, and due the following February (1969). This and the news that Ono had been admitted to a maternity hospital on November 4, with pregnancy complications, clinched Cynthia's case.
The main reason for Ono's hospital admission was stress, brought on by a number of factors: Lennon's impending divorce, her own separation from husband Anthony Cox, Lennon and Ono's arrest for hashish possession on October 18, and the British public's (and Beatles' inner circle's) intolerance of Ono. Ono had also had a number of abortions when younger, and prior miscarriages with Cox. Both Ono and Lennon were further struggling with heroin addiction. (Biographer Albert Goldman asserted in The Lives of John Lennon that the pregnancy failed because Lennon had kicked Ono in the belly during an argument, but there appears to be no evidence to support this claim.) After being admitted into the hospital, Ono remained there for about a month, with Lennon either taking the bed next to hers or sleeping in a bedroll on the floor beside her, before miscarrying on November 21, 1968.
At more than five months along, the unborn child (a male) required a death certificate under British law. The couple gave their lost child the name "John Ono Lennon II", and ordered a tiny coffin, which was buried at a secret location.
Lennon and Ono would endure two more miscarriages before 1975, when they finally succeeded in having a child together—whom they named Sean Taro Ono Lennon. Sean was born on Lennon's 35th birthday, October 9, 1975.
[edit] Album Inspiration
The second side of Ono and Lennon's experimental music album Unfinished Music No.2: Life With The Lions is taken from cassette recordings made by Lennon in the hospital suite, chronicling their stay. The track "Baby's Heartbeat" released on the album contains a clip of the actual heartbeat from the unborn baby, recorded with a Nagra microphone after the couple were informed that their child wouldn't carry to term. On it, the few seconds captured are repeated out to five minutes. Following this on the album is "Two Minutes Silence", in memoriam of the baby, and "for all violence and death", as Lennon told the press.
[edit] References
- John Lennon: One Day at a Time, by Anthony Fawcett (Grove Press, 1976)
- Come Together: John Lennon in His Time, by Jon Weiner (Random House, 1984)
- The Ballad of John and Yoko, by the Editors of Rolling Stone (Rolling Stone Press, 1982)
