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Music Extra: John Lennon: Verbatim

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John Lennon - Musician

19/12/2015 GMT

John Lennon: Verbatim

BBC World Service - Music Extra, John Lennon: Verbatim

John Lennon's extraordinary life and career told in his own words

John Lennon's extraordinary life and career told in his own words.

We mark what would have been the iconic Beatle’s 75th year with a special programme incorporating rarely heard archive interviews, poetry readings, studio out-takes and alternative recordings of some of his most acclaimed compositions. It is a personal insight into the creative genius of one of the 20th Century's most diverse artistes.
 
Long before public figures mastered the art of the sanitised sound bite to protect their privacy, Lennon always spoke openly and honestly about his art and his personal life, whether talking about his earliest childhood memories, the highs and lows of The Beatles or his solo career. Lennon loved radio because he found it more relaxing than coping with the confrontation of a television film crew, so his radio sessions were often very revealing and entertaining.
 
Collated from conversations recorded between 1962 and 1980, it is an opportunity to hear, in John’s own words, the honesty and passion that fuelled his genius.

(Photo: John Lennon of the Beatles plays the guitar in a hotel room in Paris, 1964. Credit: Harry Benson/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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