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Jon Wiener on John Lennon’s Political Legacy

Thirty years after the singer's death, The Nation's Jon Wiener asks: how did John Lennon make the transition from pop icon to political figure?

Press Room

December 6, 2010

Nixon wanted him deported; the FBI spied on him. Why did The Beatles’s John Lennon set so many people off, and how did he make the transition from pop icon to political figure? Thirty years after the singer’s death, Nation contributor Jon Wiener talks with CNN’s Candy Crowley about John Lennon’s political legacy—how he became politicized, and why "Imagine" is still a controversial song, even today.

Jon Wiener is the author of Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files. You can read his Nation stories here, and see his blog posts regularly on The Notion blog.

Braden Goyette

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