WI: No Julian Lennon

Julian Lennon, son of John Lennon and Cynthia Lennon, is one of the unspoken lynchpins of the Beatles as they were.

When Cynthia became pregnant with him, that led John Lennon to marry her. That pregnancy, marriage and later Julian when he was born was kept secret by the group at Epstein's behest, until the press uncovered it during Beatlemania. Hence, Lennon was (to the public) the married Beatle. Epstein had worried that fact would hurt him with the females in the audience, but it didn't seem to hurt the Beatles nor Lennon all too much if at all (you could make the argument, though). And regardless, Lennon was with many women all the time anyway. The song "Norwegian Wood" was inspired by one such affair.
Julian also inspired and affected John Lennon's work. "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" was inspired by a painting he did of a friend, and "Goodnight" was adapted from a lullaby Lennon did for Julian, and there's probably others I am forgetting. "Hey Jude" was written for by McCartney for Julian in response to the divorce of his parents. And the case could be made that Julian and the marriage affected Lennon's work by affecting Lennon on the whole. That's much harder to measure since it goes into psychology.

Of course, there were down sides. John Lennon was not a good father, and was frequently absent. And the Lennon marriage eventually crumbled; as Cynthia Lennon says, it began when John Lennon began taking drugs, which made him more mellow and all that, but also made him more distant. And Yoko Ono came into the picture and Lennon ran off with her, and also cut off contact with Julian for a very long time after the divorce. In fact, Paul McCartney was there more for Julian and Cynthia Lennon than John was, as Julian Lennon will attest to. Julian Lennon has always had a resentment of that and an anger towards that, though he has forgiven John Lennon in recent years. Yoko Ono was also one of the reasons the Beatles collapsed.

Julian Lennon has subsequently gone onto a music career of his own.

What if Lennon had not gotten Cynthia pregnant with Julian Lennon?
 
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I think you made a Freudian slip towards the end there. Anyway, as you said, this will have a strong impact on Lennon's output. Not just because of the songs Julian inspired, but because this may mean he never slips into his 1965-1967 depression because he isn't cloistered away in suburbia. If he never slips into that period pf depression, everything from Nowhere Man to A Day in the Life, or songs like them, are gone. However, this will mean the Beatles last longer if they are as successful as they were historically, as Lennon will probably continue to remain in McCartney's social circle in a way he did not historically. At the very least they will both be inhabiting the same London scene even if they do drift apart. Without Julian there is no way John Lennon is going to be buying a house secluded from the center of the British pop world. So you have less drift between the two and less resentment on Lennon's part. Since Lennon and McCartney are the driving forces in the band, that is a recipe for a band that lasts longer, perhaps by a considerable margin.
 
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