John Lennon remembered on his birthday

October 9th, 2006 marked what would have been John Lennon's 66th birthday. Hundreds of fans made the pilgrimage to Central Park's Strawberry Fields in New York City for a day of remembrance, sing-alongs, and celebrations dedicated to the memory of the late Beatle.

Strawberry Fields, a triangular patch of land dedicated to Lennon by the city of New York and named after the Beatles' 1967 hit, sits directly across the street from the Dakota, Lennon's Manhattan apartment building, where he was gunned down in 1980 at the age 40.

Last month a critically acclaimed new documentary, The U.S. vs. John Lennon, opened and shed new light on Lennon's four-year battle against the Nixon administration to remain in America. The film features a soundtrack of Lennon solo songs, including "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)," "Imagine," "Give Peace A Chance," "Power To The People," "Nobody Told Me," and others. The film was produced with the support of Lennon's widow Yoko Ono, who was interviewed extensively for the film.

Lennon's first wife Cynthia Lennon has recently released her second book on him, titled John, in which she portrays him as a tormented soul who never got over his childhood abandonment by his parents, when he was left at the age of four to be raised by an aunt. She told us that Lennon never overcame the circumstances of his childhood: "He was crippled inside. When you think about what he did as an art student -- all his drawings and cartoons, he would do cartoons of cripples, he would imitate disabled people because he was disabled inside himself."

We asked Cynthia how he was able to express his feelings of loss and self-doubt: "Well, usually with the music, with the lyrics. His expressions to the world. I mean he was saying to the world, 'Help! I need somebody.'"

George Harrison's first wife Pattie Boyd, who spent time with Lennon in the '60s, said how she remembers him: "Very funny. Very funny. Cruel as well. If anybody got on the wrong side of him, or (if) they were complete idiots, then he wouldn't fail to let them know."

At the time of Lennon's death, on December 8th 1980, he and Ono had just released Double Fantasy, his first new music in over five years.

Although Ono has made it her mission to keep Lennon's artwork and unreleased music available to fans, she has held off on releasing a box set of Lennon's acoustic home demos and work tapes made over the years.

Pete Best, the Beatles' original drummer, says that although he never spoke to Lennon after the group fired him in 1962, he cherishes his times in Liverpool and Hamburg with Lennon during their all-night drinking sessions: "(My) best friend in the band was always John. (I was) friends with all of them but I was closest to John. We had an affinity which started back at the opening of the Casbah Club in 1959, it grew when we went out to Germany, y'know we were the last two propping up the bars together (laughs). And of course I got to know another side of John, which was a very tender and a very loving side -- which the world realized many, many years afterwards."