Tim Riley's biography "Lennon" is one of the best I have ever read but I have two big problems with it.
1. In Peter Asher's one man show at "Feinstein's" last year he contradicts some of Tim Riley's assertion. For instance, Asher claims it was he who invited Lennon to Yoko Ono's London exhibition. Sure, big deal, right? But it is the only fact I have heard first hand by somebody who lived it and it clearly contradicts Riley. Asher does so two other times as well. All very minor. A black swan, if ever there was one, where is the second?
2.According to Riley, Lennon's "Rosebud" -the one moment that explains his psychological life, is when his parents asked him to choose between living with his father in Australia or his mother in Liverpool. Riley sees this terrifying moment as the reason for his bipolar, extreme, character. I dunno. As bad as it was, it was something of a Dobson's choice, he didn't know his father that well, and the only real decision was to stay with his Mom. Which he did, till she farmed him off on Auntie Mimi.So I don't see it as the Rosetta Stone for the real man behind the man.
These are flaws, the latter is a deep but irrelevant one, still it allows Riley to center his superb biography of Lennon, retelling the tale of the working class/middle class boy from Liverpool who lead the greatest music group of all down until he was pointlessly murdered at the age of 40 and cemented his position of the greatest of them all.
These is a warts and all story and Lennon, who had a violent nature and was extremely callous with his first wife and son, that spares nobody. But it is a sympathetic look at the great man and especially is near perfection when it comes to the music. Tim Riley, who authored "Tell Me Why" -a dissection of every song the Beatles ever released, is an excellent writer, and his writing on how "Strawberry Fields Forever" was recorded stands as the final word on the masterpiece. Less good is his assertion that Lennon wrote his best work the more deeply damaged he worked. If that was the case, his Lost Weekend in Los Angeles would have been the highlight of his career.
Tim is excellent on the peripheral people in Lennon. Epstein, McCartney, Ono: his portrayal of these legendary people is unblinking and fair. Also, as an act of scholarship, Riley sets the record for how important Lennon's contribution to "Yesterday" and how McCartney attempted to write Lennon out of it after Lennon's death.
The end is as abrupt and terrible as you might imagine it to be. Riley always doesn't enjoy writing about it, and those of us who lived through it in nyc, might find Riley's take a bit perfunctory. But the very end, where the author ties Lennon's life of mourning with his audience mourning over Lennon's loss through his songs is so insightful it justifies the biographies sorrowful, inconclusive ending.
Riley is owed a debt of gratitude from all Beatles fans (ergo: everybody). He allows Lennon to be a deeply flawed man and a god at the same time. In other words: he got Lennon exactly right.
Grade: A