John Lennon's little sister: A conversation with Julia Baird about her famous brother and their unusual upbringing
It's something you have to imagine. And while visiting the beach area, he drives his car into a library parking lot just as the radio starts playing a Beatles song, Please Mr. Postman.All of this happened as I went to interview Julia Baird, the sister of former Beatles leader John Lennon, whose music, as she told me, will never disappear.
She's so right. She has examples from all over the world. She was once doing research in India at the Dali Lama's. She was looking for his assistant and found the Buddhist monk listening to a Beatles tune, Yellow Submarine. She has been living with the Beatles and its mania most of her life.
In Panama City for a Beatles tribute concert and signing her book, Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon, Julia, named after her and John's mother Julia, travels with the tribute band the Mersey Beatles, whose members grew up in Liverpool and still live where Julia and John called home.
"The band, I think, is the best of the tribute bands. They grew up in Liverpool, live in Liverpool and do the best tribute of the Beatles." Julia, a half-sister to John, born to the same mother, has written a book to set the record straight about her brother's upbringing, lacing it with stories never told about the dysfunctional and tragic family. Intimate, shocking revelations of the strange behaviour of adults toward children. Not one of physical violence but definitely mental abuse. The adults should have known better.
Her book journey started a few years after John was shot to death in New York City in 1980. BBC did a documentary that she found so inaccurate about John's life she had to do something. It didn't mention John's two sisters nor even his first son Julian. She and John's first wife, Cynthia, were planning on doing a book together, but both of them were too busy. After seeing that BBC documentary she knew she had to complete it. She still remembers calling the show's producer to tell him how upset she was with the documentary.
By: Ed Arnold
Source: Peterborough Examiner
