The Cynical Idealist A Spiritual Biography of John Lennon [Paperback]

A radio playlist could easily follow John Lennon’s Mind Games with Do Ya Think I’m Sexy. But comparing the two, it becomes obvious that Lennon had more in common with the great thinkers of any age than with the songwriters who were his contemporaries.Cynical Idealistreveals, for the first time, the spiritual odyssey of this extraordinary man. Out of a turbulent life, from his troubled, working-class childhood throughout his many roles — Beatle, peace advocate, social activist, househusband — Lennon managed to fashion a philosophy that elevates the human spirit and encourages people to work, individually and collectively, toward a better world. Like Socrates, Lennon wanted to stimulate people to think for themselves. There ain’t no guru who can see through your eyes, he sings in I Found Out. Cynical Idealistbeautifully articulates this and the other lessons John Lennon passed along through his songs and through the example of his life.

The closest thing to a post-mortem sofa session. Lennon is sympathetically sliced and projected in the context of his time, leading to a sharp image of a spiritual man who became larger than life while feeling very small. Oh, and readable too.
-Corjan de Raaf, singer/songwriter

Like most creative people, John Lennon was a complex character, part well-meaning, often starry-eyed idealist, part leather-jacketed teddy boy, with much else thrown in to boot. Whatever your take on him, the thinking-man's Beatle was the first in a cadre of rock stars who used their celebrity as a force for good, anticipating later figures like Bono and Bob Geldof by decades. Lennon's ambivalent relationship with a number of self help/spiritual fads mirrored the shifting moods of more than one generation, and for teenagers like myself coming of age in the 70’s, he was the conduit for a number of worthy causes: peace, women's rights, and the painful exploration of the selfl-