Why Wasn’t John Lennon Born in the Village?

John Lennon was born in Liverpool on October 9, 1940 and, with Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, recorded the Beatles’ greatest and most beloved songs in London. In New York years later, he was best known as an Upper West Sider, with the landmark Dakota Apartments as his home. In between, however, he lived in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood that would help shape not only his post–Fab Four life but his legendary solo career as well.

In August 1971, about a year after the Beatles broke up, Lennon and wife Yoko Ono arrived in New York for a new beginning away from the expectations he faced in the United Kingdom. After a brief stay at the St. Regis Hotel, the couple moved into the West Village that fall, at 105 Bank Street, between Washington and Greenwich Streets. The 1846 Greek Revival–style rowhouse, rented from Lovin’ Spoonful drummer Joe Butler, became their home at a moment when Lennon was redefining himself as a solo artist, political activist, and New Yorker. 

The Village offered Lennon quite a different environment from the world of Beatlemania. He could move through neighborhood streets and meet other artists, writers, musicians, and activists. He attended gatherings, for example, at the West Village home of Grove Press founder Barney Rosset in 196 West Houston Street, where he crossed paths with writer Norman Mailer. 

In Washington Square Park, Lennon met street musician David Peel and soon formed a creative relationship with him. Lennon produced Peel’s The Pope Smokes Dope, a lyrically controversial album that was banned from radio airplay in 1972. On January 13, 1972, Peel and his band performed live on the David Frost Show with Lennon, Ono, and activist Jerry Rubin — Lennon’s first live solo appearance on American television. 

Another Village institution also became part of Lennon’s creative life. Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios had opened in 1970 at 52 West 8th Street as a recording environment far more innovative than the conventional commercial studios of the day. Lennon recorded there during his New York years, and in January 1975 joined David Bowie at the studio while the latter was creating the album Young Americans. The pair’s work on a cover of the Beatles’ “Across the Universe” developed into “Fame,” written and recorded with guitarist Carlos Alomar. The song became Bowie’s first U.S. No. 1 single. 

By the time “Fame” was released, Lennon and Ono had been ensconced in the Dakota on West 72nd Street for about two years. Regardless of residence, Lennon continued to spend time downtown. Perhaps the most famous portrait of Lennon came about after he got lost in a maze of corridors within Westbeth Artists Housing and started ringing the doorbells of many confused neighbors before his first meeting there with photographer Bob Gruen. Gruen shot some of the photographs that helped define Lennon’s image as a New Yorker, most notably one in which Lennon was wearing the now-iconic black-type-on-white “New York City” T-shirt.

“I should have been born in New York, man,” Lennon told Rolling Stone in 1971. “I should have been born in the Village! That’s where I belong! Why wasn’t I born there?“

Explore more about Lennon’s life in our community here.