PARIS The much-reviled Albert Goldman biography "The Lives of John Lennon" at least got one thing right: the title. The plural "lives" suggests the many personas the former Beatle adopted over his 40 years, from Caustic Genius to Neurotic Addict to Feminist Househusband. Sometimes, though, it seems the only Lennon who gets press anymore is the Cuddly Peace Advocate.
So it's good to see the crowd-pleasing Paris exhibit "John Lennon: Unfinished Music" focus most of its attention on Lennon as Pop Star. Even if it lacks depth and bite, the exhibit emphasizes the most significant, or at least the most fun, aspect of the former Beatle: his music. "John Lennon: Unfinished Music," at the sprawling Cité de la Musique complex, has drawn more than 50,000 since its Oct.
20 opening, according to exhibit officials. Though conceived in recognition of the 25 years since Lennon's murder in 1980, the exhibit never feels maudlin. At its best, it invites visitors to play.
Its outstanding attraction is a large soundproof room where such Beatles studio classics as "A Day in the Life," "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "I Am the Walrus" run in a loop. The room, with semicircular sofas in Lennon's signature white, is anchored on one side with representative '60s studio equipment (its dinkiness emphasizing the music's achievement).
But the room's most pleasant visual, during a couple of weekend visits, was its grinning listeners.
Two 50-something men played air guitar with an "aah" of recognition at each song. A 50-something woman swayed to the music, arms around the shoulders of an alert teenager. And there were silent, satisfied smiles of lounging visitors whose ages seemed to range over six decades.
"Unfinished Music" divides Lennon's career onto two floors of exhibit space, roughly separating his youth and Beatles career (30 years) from his "adult," solo career (a scant 10 years). An introduction area features an L-shaped wall of Lennon portraits and a collage of his music, complemented by a career timeline and listening booths that play audio of Lennon's 1980 interviews; it's a device used throughout the exhibit. (The interviews are in English with crawls of French translation; most signage is in French, with earphone audio guides available in French and English.
)
From there, "Unfinished Music" aims to place Lennon in the context of his times, and the lower floor covers his youth with guides to the '40s, '50s and '60s; a wall-size annotated map of his hometown, Liverpool; and listening booths of early musical influences such as Gene Vincent and Chuck Berry. It's not exactly scholarship (and Lennon scholarship does exist), but it helps establish a general overview of his life.
Among the Lennon juvenilia are selections of his drawings ("Spaghetti, the great Wart Killer" is one title) and school reports (for art, "very good work indeed"; for religious instruction, "work fair - attitude in class is most unsatisfactory").
A movingly edited slide show of family photos is accompanied by his "scream therapy" song, "Mother."
The Beatle-era memorabilia includes dolls and trays, as well as concert programs and guitars. There are large portraits of Astrid Kirchherr's famous Hamburg photographs of the band.
There's advice to a fan on how to meditate. Handwritten lyrics are generously displayed throughout the exhibit; those for "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" have musical notations, such as an arrow pointing out "drums" or "guitar dropping bars." The most colorful display shows Lennon's "Sgt.
Pepper" costume, beside others circa "Hard Day's Night" and "Magical Mystery Tour."
A large cinema screen with nine seats (nine being Lennon's favorite number) features a loop from Lennon's film appearances, from his playful improv while taking a bubble bath ("A Hard Day's Night") to his somewhat impassive rendition of "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" ("Help!") to his work in a non-Beatle role ("How I Won the War").
Nearby screens offer a continuous play of the Beatles onstage, with "Twist and Shout" at New York's Shea Stadium and an especially fine 1965 performance of "I'm a Loser" from the Palais des Sports in Paris. Another screen features a 3:15 loop titled "Beatlemania"; it shows only screaming fans.
There is some sound bleed among the various displays (aside from the pristine soundproof room), but that adds a welcome energy to the mix.
All the sound - Lennon's own words, his own music, his own performances - lifts an experience that might otherwise drift into trivia, however exciting such trivia might be to fans (for us, a Cavern Club concert poster can raise goose pimples). Still, there are some disappointing omissions: There's no music or imagery from "Let It Be," for instance, no shared mementoes from the other Beatles, and little reference to Lennon's first wife, Cynthia.
His second wife is quite prominent, however, on the exhibit's crowded upper floor.
Yoko Ono is everywhere. This emphasis makes some sense; perhaps no pop couple had careers as integrated as Lennon and Ono in the 1970s. But a significant block of space is devoted to Ono's solo work, from photos of her association with the avant-garde group Fluxus to replicas of the well-known conceptual pieces that first attracted Lennon: "Ceiling Painting" (with stepladder and magnifying glass, so viewers can find the word "Yes" on the ceiling) and "Hammer a Nail" (which "Unfinished Music" visitors are invited to do).
There's a video of her original 1965 "Cut Piece," in which Ono sits stationary on a stage while audience members, one at a time, cut away pieces of her clothing; there's also video of her 2003 restaging of the piece at Théâtre le Ranelagh in Paris.
That's a lot of solo Ono. She helped the organizers of "Unfinished Music," providing such attractions as Andy Warhol's 1966 portrait of Lennon, so perhaps it's not surprising that so much space is devoted to her.
And while some still disagree, her music and art deserve their own shows. But this show is Lennon's, and the remaining space devoted to him is disappointingly thin.
The upper-floor Lennon displays touch on his work as activist and avant-garde artist, but without the potpourri of items found on the lower floor.
And the latter part of the '70s is thinly represented. Maybe that's to be expected; Lennon spent a good half of his last decade out of the public spotlight, traveling, raising his new son Sean and hovering in his Manhattan home and neighborhood. The rest of his '70s career was spent mostly in frenetic, scattered struggling, worrying about his U.
S. immigration status and making music on the fly. Lennon's personal evolution was a messy process, but that's part of what makes him so human and appealing.
Cultural heroes are borne out of crisis; Lennon had his share.
The displays on the upper floor, beyond Ono's work, have little sense of crisis, or excitement. They are dominated by video, such as scenes of the couple's Amsterdam "bed-in" and continuous play of Lennon and Ono's "Imagine" film.
A few listening stations offer samples of Lennon's solo music and more of his interviews. It's pleasant enough, but it lacks detail, edge, personality. Nor is there a deeper immersion into why Lennon matters so very much.
Lennon's impact is suggested simply in the final area, titled "8 decembre 1980." It is a dark, quiet corner where a video screen depicts silent crowds outside Lennon's New York apartment after his murder.
The quiet display is a reminder that Lennon's career was cut short.
Ono and others have helped maintain and advance his reputation in Broadway musicals and exhibits like this one, and the public's affection for him remains high. But Lennon himself was a rocker and cultural explorer just moving into a phase of adult productivity. It's sad there is no third floor of "Unfinished Music.
"
The exhibit, which was created for Cité de la Musique and is not expected to transfer, runs through June 25.
Tara Mulholland of the IHT contributed to this report.
PARIS The much-reviled Albert Goldman biography "The Lives of John Lennon" at least got one thing right: the title.
The plural "lives" suggests the many personas the former Beatle adopted over his 40 years, from Caustic Genius to Neurotic Addict to Feminist Househusband. Sometimes, though, it seems the only Lennon who gets press anymore is the Cuddly Peace Advocate.
So it's good to see the crowd-pleasing Paris exhibit "John Lennon: Unfinished Music" focus most of its attention on Lennon as Pop Star.
Even if it lacks depth and bite, the exhibit emphasizes the most significant, or at least the most fun, aspect of the former Beatle: his music.
"John Lennon: Unfinished Music," at the sprawling Cité de la Musique complex, has drawn more than 50,000 since its Oct. 20 opening, according to exhibit officials.
Though conceived in recognition of the 25 years since Lennon's murder in 1980, the exhibit never feels maudlin. At its best, it invites visitors to play. Its outstanding attraction is a large soundproof room where such Beatles studio classics as "A Day in the Life," "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "I Am the Walrus" run in a loop.
The room, with semicircular sofas in Lennon's signature white, is anchored on one side with representative '60s studio equipment (its dinkiness emphasizing the music's achievement).
But the room's most pleasant visual, during a couple of weekend visits, was its grinning listeners. Two 50-something men played air guitar with an "aah" of recognition at each song.
A 50-something woman swayed to the music, arms around the shoulders of an alert teenager. And there were silent, satisfied smiles of lounging visitors whose ages seemed to range over six decades.
"Unfinished Music" divides Lennon's career onto two floors of exhibit space, roughly separating his youth and Beatles career (30 years) from his "adult," solo career (a scant 10 years).
An introduction area features an L-shaped wall of Lennon portraits and a collage of his music, complemented by a career timeline and listening booths that play audio of Lennon's 1980 interviews; it's a device used throughout the exhibit. (The interviews are in English with crawls of French translation; most signage is in French, with earphone audio guides available in French and English.)
From there, "Unfinished Music" aims to place Lennon in the context of his times, and the lower floor covers his youth with guides to the '40s, '50s and '60s; a wall-size annotated map of his hometown, Liverpool; and listening booths of early musical influences such as Gene Vincent and Chuck Berry.
It's not exactly scholarship (and Lennon scholarship does exist), but it helps establish a general overview of his life.
Among the Lennon juvenilia are selections of his drawings ("Spaghetti, the great Wart Killer" is one title) and school reports (for art, "very good work indeed"; for religious instruction, "work fair - attitude in class is most unsatisfactory"). A movingly edited slide show of family photos is accompanied by his "scream therapy" song, "Mother.
"
The Beatle-era memorabilia includes dolls and trays, as well as concert programs and guitars. There are large portraits of Astrid Kirchherr's famous Hamburg photographs of the band. There's advice to a fan on how to meditate.
Handwritten lyrics are generously displayed throughout the exhibit; those for "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" have musical notations, such as an arrow pointing out "drums" or "guitar dropping bars." The most colorful display shows Lennon's "Sgt. Pepper" costume, beside others circa "Hard Day's Night" and "Magical Mystery Tour.
"
A large cinema screen with nine seats (nine being Lennon's favorite number) features a loop from Lennon's film appearances, from his playful improv while taking a bubble bath ("A Hard Day's Night") to his somewhat impassive rendition of "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" ("Help!") to his work in a non-Beatle role ("How I Won the War").
Nearby screens offer a continuous play of the Beatles onstage, with "Twist and Shout" at New York's Shea Stadium and an especially fine 1965 performance of "I'm a Loser" from the Palais des Sports in Paris.
Another screen features a 3:15 loop titled "Beatlemania"; it shows only screaming fans.
There is some sound bleed among the various displays (aside from the pristine soundproof room), but that adds a welcome energy to the mix. All the sound - Lennon's own words, his own music, his own performances - lifts an experience that might otherwise drift into trivia, however exciting such trivia might be to fans (for us, a Cavern Club concert poster can raise goose pimples).
Still, there are some disappointing omissions: There's no music or imagery from "Let It Be," for instance, no shared mementoes from the other Beatles, and little reference to Lennon's first wife, Cynthia.
His second wife is quite prominent, however, on the exhibit's crowded upper floor. Yoko Ono is everywhere.
This emphasis makes some sense; perhaps no pop couple had careers as integrated as Lennon and Ono in the 1970s. But a significant block of space is devoted to Ono's solo work, from photos of her association with the avant-garde group Fluxus to replicas of the well-known conceptual pieces that first attracted Lennon: "Ceiling Painting" (with stepladder and magnifying glass, so viewers can find the word "Yes" on the ceiling) and "Hammer a Nail" (which "Unfinished Music" visitors are invited to do). There's a video of her original 1965 "Cut Piece," in which Ono sits stationary on a stage while audience members, one at a time, cut away pieces of her clothing; there's also video of her 2003 restaging of the piece at Théâtre le Ranelagh in Paris.
That's a lot of solo Ono. She helped the organizers of "Unfinished Music," providing such attractions as Andy Warhol's 1966 portrait of Lennon, so perhaps it's not surprising that so much space is devoted to her. And while some still disagree, her music and art deserve their own shows.
But this show is Lennon's, and the remaining space devoted to him is disappointingly thin.
The upper-floor Lennon displays touch on his work as activist and avant-garde artist, but without the potpourri of items found on the lower floor. And the latter part of the '70s is thinly represented.
Maybe that's to be expected; Lennon spent a good half of his last decade out of the public spotlight, traveling, raising his new son Sean and hovering in his Manhattan home and neighborhood. The rest of his '70s career was spent mostly in frenetic, scattered struggling, worrying about his U.S.
immigration status and making music on the fly. Lennon's personal evolution was a messy process, but that's part of what makes him so human and appealing. Cultural heroes are borne out of crisis; Lennon had his share.
The displays on the upper floor, beyond Ono's work, have little sense of crisis, or excitement. They are dominated by video, such as scenes of the couple's Amsterdam "bed-in" and continuous play of Lennon and Ono's "Imagine" film. A few listening stations offer samples of Lennon's solo music and more of his interviews.
It's pleasant enough, but it lacks detail, edge, personality. Nor is there a deeper immersion into why Lennon matters so very much.
Lennon's impact is suggested simply in the final area, titled "8 decembre 1980.
" It is a dark, quiet corner where a video screen depicts silent crowds outside Lennon's New York apartment after his murder.
The quiet display is a reminder that Lennon's career was cut short. Ono and others have helped maintain and advance his reputation in Broadway musicals and exhibits like this one, and the public's affection for him remains high.
But Lennon himself was a rocker and cultural explorer just moving into a phase of adult productivity. It's sad there is no third floor of "Unfinished Music."
The exhibit, which was created for Cité de la Musique and is not expected to transfer, runs through June 25.
Tara Mulholland of the IHT contributed to this report.
PARIS The much-reviled Albert Goldman biography "The Lives of John Lennon" at least got one thing right: the title. The plural "lives" suggests the many personas the former Beatle adopted over his 40 years, from Caustic Genius to Neurotic Addict to Feminist Househusband.
Sometimes, though, it seems the only Lennon who gets press anymore is the Cuddly Peace Advocate.
So it's good to see the crowd-pleasing Paris exhibit "John Lennon: Unfinished Music" focus most of its attention on Lennon as Pop Star. Even if it lacks depth and bite, the exhibit emphasizes the most significant, or at least the most fun, aspect of the former Beatle: his music.
"John Lennon: Unfinished Music," at the sprawling Cité de la Musique complex, has drawn more than 50,000 since its Oct. 20 opening, according to exhibit officials. Though conceived in recognition of the 25 years since Lennon's murder in 1980, the exhibit never feels maudlin.
At its best, it invites visitors to play. Its outstanding attraction is a large soundproof room where such Beatles studio classics as "A Day in the Life," "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "I Am the Walrus" run in a loop. The room, with semicircular sofas in Lennon's signature white, is anchored on one side with representative '60s studio equipment (its dinkiness emphasizing the music's achievement).
But the room's most pleasant visual, during a couple of weekend visits, was its grinning listeners. Two 50-something men played air guitar with an "aah" of recognition at each song. A 50-something woman swayed to the music, arms around the shoulders of an alert teenager.
And there were silent, satisfied smiles of lounging visitors whose ages seemed to range over six decades.
"Unfinished Music" divides Lennon's career onto two floors of exhibit space, roughly separating his youth and Beatles career (30 years) from his "adult," solo career (a scant 10 years). An introduction area features an L-shaped wall of Lennon portraits and a collage of his music, complemented by a career timeline and listening booths that play audio of Lennon's 1980 interviews; it's a device used throughout the exhibit.
(The interviews are in English with crawls of French translation; most signage is in French, with earphone audio guides available in French and English.)
From there, "Unfinished Music" aims to place Lennon in the context of his times, and the lower floor covers his youth with guides to the '40s, '50s and '60s; a wall-size annotated map of his hometown, Liverpool; and listening booths of early musical influences such as Gene Vincent and Chuck Berry. It's not exactly scholarship (and Lennon scholarship does exist), but it helps establish a general overview of his life.
Among the Lennon juvenilia are selections of his drawings ("Spaghetti, the great Wart Killer" is one title) and school reports (for art, "very good work indeed"; for religious instruction, "work fair - attitude in class is most unsatisfactory"). A movingly edited slide show of family photos is accompanied by his "scream therapy" song, "Mother."
The Beatle-era memorabilia includes dolls and trays, as well as concert programs and guitars.
There are large portraits of Astrid Kirchherr's famous Hamburg photographs of the band. There's advice to a fan on how to meditate. Handwritten lyrics are generously displayed throughout the exhibit; those for "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" have musical notations, such as an arrow pointing out "drums" or "guitar dropping bars.
" The most colorful display shows Lennon's "Sgt. Pepper" costume, beside others circa "Hard Day's Night" and "Magical Mystery Tour."
A large cinema screen with nine seats (nine being Lennon's favorite number) features a loop from Lennon's film appearances, from his playful improv while taking a bubble bath ("A Hard Day's Night") to his somewhat impassive rendition of "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" ("Help!
") to his work in a non-Beatle role ("How I Won the War").
Nearby screens offer a continuous play of the Beatles onstage, with "Twist and Shout" at New York's Shea Stadium and an especially fine 1965 performance of "I'm a Loser" from the Palais des Sports in Paris. Another screen features a 3:15 loop titled "Beatlemania"; it shows only screaming fans.
There is some sound bleed among the various displays (aside from the pristine soundproof room), but that adds a welcome energy to the mix. All the sound - Lennon's own words, his own music, his own performances - lifts an experience that might otherwise drift into trivia, however exciting such trivia might be to fans (for us, a Cavern Club concert poster can raise goose pimples). Still, there are some disappointing omissions: There's no music or imagery from "Let It Be," for instance, no shared mementoes from the other Beatles, and little reference to Lennon's first wife, Cynthia.
His second wife is quite prominent, however, on the exhibit's crowded upper floor. Yoko Ono is everywhere. This emphasis makes some sense; perhaps no pop couple had careers as integrated as Lennon and Ono in the 1970s.
But a significant block of space is devoted to Ono's solo work, from photos of her association with the avant-garde group Fluxus to replicas of the well-known conceptual pieces that first attracted Lennon: "Ceiling Painting" (with stepladder and magnifying glass, so viewers can find the word "Yes" on the ceiling) and "Hammer a Nail" (which "Unfinished Music" visitors are invited to do). There's a video of her original 1965 "Cut Piece," in which Ono sits stationary on a stage while audience members, one at a time, cut away pieces of her clothing; there's also video of her 2003 restaging of the piece at Théâtre le Ranelagh in Paris.
That's a lot of solo Ono.
She helped the organizers of "Unfinished Music," providing such attractions as Andy Warhol's 1966 portrait of Lennon, so perhaps it's not surprising that so much space is devoted to her. And while some still disagree, her music and art deserve their own shows. But this show is Lennon's, and the remaining space devoted to him is disappointingly thin.
The upper-floor Lennon displays touch on his work as activist and avant-garde artist, but without the potpourri of items found on the lower floor. And the latter part of the '70s is thinly represented. Maybe that's to be expected; Lennon spent a good half of his last decade out of the public spotlight, traveling, raising his new son Sean and hovering in his Manhattan home and neighborhood.
The rest of his '70s career was spent mostly in frenetic, scattered struggling, worrying about his U.S. immigration status and making music on the fly.
Lennon's personal evolution was a messy process, but that's part of what makes him so human and appealing. Cultural heroes are borne out of crisis; Lennon had his share.
The displays on the upper floor, beyond Ono's work, have little sense of crisis, or excitement.
They are dominated by video, such as scenes of the couple's Amsterdam "bed-in" and continuous play of Lennon and Ono's "Imagine" film. A few listening stations offer samples of Lennon's solo music and more of his interviews. It's pleasant enough, but it lacks detail, edge, personality.
Nor is there a deeper immersion into why Lennon matters so very much.
Lennon's impact is suggested simply in the final area, titled "8 decembre 1980." It is a dark, quiet corner where a video screen depicts silent crowds outside Lennon's New York apartment after his murder.
The quiet display is a reminder that Lennon's career was cut short. Ono and others have helped maintain and advance his reputation in Broadway musicals and exhibits like this one, and the public's affection for him remains high. But Lennon himself was a rocker and cultural explorer just moving into a phase of adult productivity.
It's sad there is no third floor of "Unfinished Music."
The exhibit, which was created for Cité de la Musique and is not expected to transfer, runs through June 25.
Tara Mulholland of the IHT contributed to this report.
PARIS The much-reviled Albert Goldman biography "The Lives of John Lennon" at least got one thing right: the title. The plural "lives" suggests the many personas the former Beatle adopted over his 40 years, from Caustic Genius to Neurotic Addict to Feminist Househusband. Sometimes, though, it seems the only Lennon who gets press anymore is the Cuddly Peace Advocate.
So it's good to see the crowd-pleasing Paris exhibit "John Lennon: Unfinished Music" focus most of its attention on Lennon as Pop Star. Even if it lacks depth and bite, the exhibit emphasizes the most significant, or at least the most fun, aspect of the former Beatle: his music.
"John Lennon: Unfinished Music," at the sprawling Cité de la Musique complex, has drawn more than 50,000 since its Oct.
20 opening, according to exhibit officials. Though conceived in recognition of the 25 years since Lennon's murder in 1980, the exhibit never feels maudlin. At its best, it invites visitors to play.
Its outstanding attraction is a large soundproof room where such Beatles studio classics as "A Day in the Life," "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "I Am the Walrus" run in a loop. The room, with semicircular sofas in Lennon's signature white, is anchored on one side with representative '60s studio equipment (its dinkiness emphasizing the music's achievement).
But the room's most pleasant visual, during a couple of weekend visits, was its grinning listeners.
Two 50-something men played air guitar with an "aah" of recognition at each song. A 50-something woman swayed to the music, arms around the shoulders of an alert teenager. And there were silent, satisfied smiles of lounging visitors whose ages seemed to range over six decades.
"Unfinished Music" divides Lennon's career onto two floors of exhibit space, roughly separating his youth and Beatles career (30 years) from his "adult," solo career (a scant 10 years). An introduction area features an L-shaped wall of Lennon portraits and a collage of his music, complemented by a career timeline and listening booths that play audio of Lennon's 1980 interviews; it's a device used throughout the exhibit. (The interviews are in English with crawls of French translation; most signage is in French, with earphone audio guides available in French and English.
)
From there, "Unfinished Music" aims to place Lennon in the context of his times, and the lower floor covers his youth with guides to the '40s, '50s and '60s; a wall-size annotated map of his hometown, Liverpool; and listening booths of early musical influences such as Gene Vincent and Chuck Berry. It's not exactly scholarship (and Lennon scholarship does exist), but it helps establish a general overview of his life.
Among the Lennon juvenilia are selections of his drawings ("Spaghetti, the great Wart Killer" is one title) and school reports (for art, "very good work indeed"; for religious instruction, "work fair - attitude in class is most unsatisfactory").
A movingly edited slide show of family photos is accompanied by his "scream therapy" song, "Mother."
The Beatle-era memorabilia includes dolls and trays, as well as concert programs and guitars. There are large portraits of Astrid Kirchherr's famous Hamburg photographs of the band.
There's advice to a fan on how to meditate. Handwritten lyrics are generously displayed throughout the exhibit; those for "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" have musical notations, such as an arrow pointing out "drums" or "guitar dropping bars." The most colorful display shows Lennon's "Sgt.
Pepper" costume, beside others circa "Hard Day's Night" and "Magical Mystery Tour."
A large cinema screen with nine seats (nine being Lennon's favorite number) features a loop from Lennon's film appearances, from his playful improv while taking a bubble bath ("A Hard Day's Night") to his somewhat impassive rendition of "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" ("Help!") to his work in a non-Beatle role ("How I Won the War").
Nearby screens offer a continuous play of the Beatles onstage, with "Twist and Shout" at New York's Shea Stadium and an especially fine 1965 performance of "I'm a Loser" from the Palais des Sports in Paris. Another screen features a 3:15 loop titled "Beatlemania"; it shows only screaming fans.
There is some sound bleed among the various displays (aside from the pristine soundproof room), but that adds a welcome energy to the mix.
All the sound - Lennon's own words, his own music, his own performances - lifts an experience that might otherwise drift into trivia, however exciting such trivia might be to fans (for us, a Cavern Club concert poster can raise goose pimples). Still, there are some disappointing omissions: There's no music or imagery from "Let It Be," for instance, no shared mementoes from the other Beatles, and little reference to Lennon's first wife, Cynthia.
His second wife is quite prominent, however, on the exhibit's crowded upper floor.
Yoko Ono is everywhere. This emphasis makes some sense; perhaps no pop couple had careers as integrated as Lennon and Ono in the 1970s. But a significant block of space is devoted to Ono's solo work, from photos of her association with the avant-garde group Fluxus to replicas of the well-known conceptual pieces that first attracted Lennon: "Ceiling Painting" (with stepladder and magnifying glass, so viewers can find the word "Yes" on the ceiling) and "Hammer a Nail" (which "Unfinished Music" visitors are invited to do).
There's a video of her original 1965 "Cut Piece," in which Ono sits stationary on a stage while audience members, one at a time, cut away pieces of her clothing; there's also video of her 2003 restaging of the piece at Théâtre le Ranelagh in Paris.
That's a lot of solo Ono. She helped the organizers of "Unfinished Music," providing such attractions as Andy Warhol's 1966 portrait of Lennon, so perhaps it's not surprising that so much space is devoted to her.
And while some still disagree, her music and art deserve their own shows. But this show is Lennon's, and the remaining space devoted to him is disappointingly thin.
The upper-floor Lennon displays touch on his work as activist and avant-garde artist, but without the potpourri of items found on the lower floor.
And the latter part of the '70s is thinly represented. Maybe that's to be expected; Lennon spent a good half of his last decade out of the public spotlight, traveling, raising his new son Sean and hovering in his Manhattan home and neighborhood. The rest of his '70s career was spent mostly in frenetic, scattered struggling, worrying about his U.
S. immigration status and making music on the fly. Lennon's personal evolution was a messy process, but that's part of what makes him so human and appealing.
Cultural heroes are borne out of crisis; Lennon had his share.
The displays on the upper floor, beyond Ono's work, have little sense of crisis, or excitement. They are dominated by video, such as scenes of the couple's Amsterdam "bed-in" and continuous play of Lennon and Ono's "Imagine" film.
A few listening stations offer samples of Lennon's solo music and more of his interviews. It's pleasant enough, but it lacks detail, edge, personality. Nor is there a deeper immersion into why Lennon matters so very much.
Lennon's impact is suggested simply in the final area, titled "8 decembre 1980." It is a dark, quiet corner where a video screen depicts silent crowds outside Lennon's New York apartment after his murder.
The quiet display is a reminder that Lennon's career was cut short.
Ono and others have helped maintain and advance his reputation in Broadway musicals and exhibits like this one, and the public's affection for him remains high. But Lennon himself was a rocker and cultural explorer just moving into a phase of adult productivity. It's sad there is no third floor of "Unfinished Music.
"
The exhibit, which was created for Cité de la Musique and is not expected to transfer, runs through June 25.
Tara Mulholland of the IHT contributed to this report.
PARIS The much-reviled Albert Goldman biography "The Lives of John Lennon" at least got one thing right: the title.
The plural "lives" suggests the many personas the former Beatle adopted over his 40 years, from Caustic Genius to Neurotic Addict to Feminist Househusband. Sometimes, though, it seems the only Lennon who gets press anymore is the Cuddly Peace Advocate.
So it's good to see the crowd-pleasing Paris exhibit "John Lennon: Unfinished Music" focus most of its attention on Lennon as Pop Star.
Even if it lacks depth and bite, the exhibit emphasizes the most significant, or at least the most fun, aspect of the former Beatle: his music.
"John Lennon: Unfinished Music," at the sprawling Cité de la Musique complex, has drawn more than 50,000 since its Oct. 20 opening, according to exhibit officials.
Though conceived in recognition of the 25 years since Lennon's murder in 1980, the exhibit never feels maudlin. At its best, it invites visitors to play. Its outstanding attraction is a large soundproof room where such Beatles studio classics as "A Day in the Life," "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "I Am the Walrus" run in a loop.
The room, with semicircular sofas in Lennon's signature white, is anchored on one side with representative '60s studio equipment (its dinkiness emphasizing the music's achievement).
But the room's most pleasant visual, during a couple of weekend visits, was its grinning listeners. Two 50-something men played air guitar with an "aah" of recognition at each song.
A 50-something woman swayed to the music, arms around the shoulders of an alert teenager. And there were silent, satisfied smiles of lounging visitors whose ages seemed to range over six decades.
"Unfinished Music" divides Lennon's career onto two floors of exhibit space, roughly separating his youth and Beatles career (30 years) from his "adult," solo career (a scant 10 years).
An introduction area features an L-shaped wall of Lennon portraits and a collage of his music, complemented by a career timeline and listening booths that play audio of Lennon's 1980 interviews; it's a device used throughout the exhibit. (The interviews are in English with crawls of French translation; most signage is in French, with earphone audio guides available in French and English.)
From there, "Unfinished Music" aims to place Lennon in the context of his times, and the lower floor covers his youth with guides to the '40s, '50s and '60s; a wall-size annotated map of his hometown, Liverpool; and listening booths of early musical influences such as Gene Vincent and Chuck Berry.
It's not exactly scholarship (and Lennon scholarship does exist), but it helps establish a general overview of his life.
Among the Lennon juvenilia are selections of his drawings ("Spaghetti, the great Wart Killer" is one title) and school reports (for art, "very good work indeed"; for religious instruction, "work fair - attitude in class is most unsatisfactory"). A movingly edited slide show of family photos is accompanied by his "scream therapy" song, "Mother.
"
The Beatle-era memorabilia includes dolls and trays, as well as concert programs and guitars. There are large portraits of Astrid Kirchherr's famous Hamburg photographs of the band. There's advice to a fan on how to meditate.
Handwritten lyrics are generously displayed throughout the exhibit; those for "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" have musical notations, such as an arrow pointing out "drums" or "guitar dropping bars." The most colorful display shows Lennon's "Sgt. Pepper" costume, beside others circa "Hard Day's Night" and "Magical Mystery Tour.
"
A large cinema screen with nine seats (nine being Lennon's favorite number) features a loop from Lennon's film appearances, from his playful improv while taking a bubble bath ("A Hard Day's Night") to his somewhat impassive rendition of "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" ("Help!") to his work in a non-Beatle role ("How I Won the War").
Nearby screens offer a continuous play of the Beatles onstage, with "Twist and Shout" at New York's Shea Stadium and an especially fine 1965 performance of "I'm a Loser" from the Palais des Sports in Paris.
Another screen features a 3:15 loop titled "Beatlemania"; it shows only screaming fans.
There is some sound bleed among the various displays (aside from the pristine soundproof room), but that adds a welcome energy to the mix. All the sound - Lennon's own words, his own music, his own performances - lifts an experience that might otherwise drift into trivia, however exciting such trivia might be to fans (for us, a Cavern Club concert poster can raise goose pimples).
Still, there are some disappointing omissions: There's no music or imagery from "Let It Be," for instance, no shared mementoes from the other Beatles, and little reference to Lennon's first wife, Cynthia.
His second wife is quite prominent, however, on the exhibit's crowded upper floor. Yoko Ono is everywhere.
This emphasis makes some sense; perhaps no pop couple had careers as integrated as Lennon and Ono in the 1970s. But a significant block of space is devoted to Ono's solo work, from photos of her association with the avant-garde group Fluxus to replicas of the well-known conceptual pieces that first attracted Lennon: "Ceiling Painting" (with stepladder and magnifying glass, so viewers can find the word "Yes" on the ceiling) and "Hammer a Nail" (which "Unfinished Music" visitors are invited to do). There's a video of her original 1965 "Cut Piece," in which Ono sits stationary on a stage while audience members, one at a time, cut away pieces of her clothing; there's also video of her 2003 restaging of the piece at Théâtre le Ranelagh in Paris.
That's a lot of solo Ono. She helped the organizers of "Unfinished Music," providing such attractions as Andy Warhol's 1966 portrait of Lennon, so perhaps it's not surprising that so much space is devoted to her. And while some still disagree, her music and art deserve their own shows.
But this show is Lennon's, and the remaining space devoted to him is disappointingly thin.
The upper-floor Lennon displays touch on his work as activist and avant-garde artist, but without the potpourri of items found on the lower floor. And the latter part of the '70s is thinly represented.
Maybe that's to be expected; Lennon spent a good half of his last decade out of the public spotlight, traveling, raising his new son Sean and hovering in his Manhattan home and neighborhood. The rest of his '70s career was spent mostly in frenetic, scattered struggling, worrying about his U.S.
immigration status and making music on the fly. Lennon's personal evolution was a messy process, but that's part of what makes him so human and appealing. Cultural heroes are borne out of crisis; Lennon had his share.
The displays on the upper floor, beyond Ono's work, have little sense of crisis, or excitement. They are dominated by video, such as scenes of the couple's Amsterdam "bed-in" and continuous play of Lennon and Ono's "Imagine" film. A few listening stations offer samples of Lennon's solo music and more of his interviews.
It's pleasant enough, but it lacks detail, edge, personality. Nor is there a deeper immersion into why Lennon matters so very much.
Lennon's impact is suggested simply in the final area, titled "8 decembre 1980.
" It is a dark, quiet corner where a video screen depicts silent crowds outside Lennon's New York apartment after his murder.
The quiet display is a reminder that Lennon's career was cut short. Ono and others have helped maintain and advance his reputation in Broadway musicals and exhibits like this one, and the public's affection for him remains high.
But Lennon himself was a rocker and cultural explorer just moving into a phase of adult productivity. It's sad there is no third floor of "Unfinished Music."
The exhibit, which was created for Cité de la Musique and is not expected to transfer, runs through June 25.
Tara Mulholland of the IHT contributed to this report.
PARIS The much-reviled Albert Goldman biography "The Lives of John Lennon" at least got one thing right: the title. The plural "lives" suggests the many personas the former Beatle adopted over his 40 years, from Caustic Genius to Neurotic Addict to Feminist Househusband.
Sometimes, though, it seems the only Lennon who gets press anymore is the Cuddly Peace Advocate.
So it's good to see the crowd-pleasing Paris exhibit "John Lennon: Unfinished Music" focus most of its attention on Lennon as Pop Star. Even if it lacks depth and bite, the exhibit emphasizes the most significant, or at least the most fun, aspect of the former Beatle: his music.
"John Lennon: Unfinished Music," at the sprawling Cité de la Musique complex, has drawn more than 50,000 since its Oct. 20 opening, according to exhibit officials. Though conceived in recognition of the 25 years since Lennon's murder in 1980, the exhibit never feels maudlin.
At its best, it invites visitors to play. Its outstanding attraction is a large soundproof room where such Beatles studio classics as "A Day in the Life," "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "I Am the Walrus" run in a loop. The room, with semicircular sofas in Lennon's signature white, is anchored on one side with representative '60s studio equipment (its dinkiness emphasizing the music's achievement).
But the room's most pleasant visual, during a couple of weekend visits, was its grinning listeners. Two 50-something men played air guitar with an "aah" of recognition at each song. A 50-something woman swayed to the music, arms around the shoulders of an alert teenager.
And there were silent, satisfied smiles of lounging visitors whose ages seemed to range over six decades.
"Unfinished Music" divides Lennon's career onto two floors of exhibit space, roughly separating his youth and Beatles career (30 years) from his "adult," solo career (a scant 10 years). An introduction area features an L-shaped wall of Lennon portraits and a collage of his music, complemented by a career timeline and listening booths that play audio of Lennon's 1980 interviews; it's a device used throughout the exhibit.
(The interviews are in English with crawls of French translation; most signage is in French, with earphone audio guides available in French and English.)
From there, "Unfinished Music" aims to place Lennon in the context of his times, and the lower floor covers his youth with guides to the '40s, '50s and '60s; a wall-size annotated map of his hometown, Liverpool; and listening booths of early musical influences such as Gene Vincent and Chuck Berry. It's not exactly scholarship (and Lennon scholarship does exist), but it helps establish a general overview of his life.
Among the Lennon juvenilia are selections of his drawings ("Spaghetti, the great Wart Killer" is one title) and school reports (for art, "very good work indeed"; for religious instruction, "work fair - attitude in class is most unsatisfactory"). A movingly edited slide show of family photos is accompanied by his "scream therapy" song, "Mother."
The Beatle-era memorabilia includes dolls and trays, as well as concert programs and guitars.
There are large portraits of Astrid Kirchherr's famous Hamburg photographs of the band. There's advice to a fan on how to meditate. Handwritten lyrics are generously displayed throughout the exhibit; those for "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" have musical notations, such as an arrow pointing out "drums" or "guitar dropping bars.
" The most colorful display shows Lennon's "Sgt. Pepper" costume, beside others circa "Hard Day's Night" and "Magical Mystery Tour."
A large cinema screen with nine seats (nine being Lennon's favorite number) features a loop from Lennon's film appearances, from his playful improv while taking a bubble bath ("A Hard Day's Night") to his somewhat impassive rendition of "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" ("Help!
") to his work in a non-Beatle role ("How I Won the War").
Nearby screens offer a continuous play of the Beatles onstage, with "Twist and Shout" at New York's Shea Stadium and an especially fine 1965 performance of "I'm a Loser" from the Palais des Sports in Paris. Another screen features a 3:15 loop titled "Beatlemania"; it shows only screaming fans.
There is some sound bleed among the various displays (aside from the pristine soundproof room), but that adds a welcome energy to the mix. All the sound - Lennon's own words, his own music, his own performances - lifts an experience that might otherwise drift into trivia, however exciting such trivia might be to fans (for us, a Cavern Club concert poster can raise goose pimples). Still, there are some disappointing omissions: There's no music or imagery from "Let It Be," for instance, no shared mementoes from the other Beatles, and little reference to Lennon's first wife, Cynthia.
His second wife is quite prominent, however, on the exhibit's crowded upper floor. Yoko Ono is everywhere. This emphasis makes some sense; perhaps no pop couple had careers as integrated as Lennon and Ono in the 1970s.
But a significant block of space is devoted to Ono's solo work, from photos of her association with the avant-garde group Fluxus to replicas of the well-known conceptual pieces that first attracted Lennon: "Ceiling Painting" (with stepladder and magnifying glass, so viewers can find the word "Yes" on the ceiling) and "Hammer a Nail" (which "Unfinished Music" visitors are invited to do). There's a video of her original 1965 "Cut Piece," in which Ono sits stationary on a stage while audience members, one at a time, cut away pieces of her clothing; there's also video of her 2003 restaging of the piece at Théâtre le Ranelagh in Paris.
That's a lot of solo Ono.
She helped the organizers of "Unfinished Music," providing such attractions as Andy Warhol's 1966 portrait of Lennon, so perhaps it's not surprising that so much space is devoted to her. And while some still disagree, her music and art deserve their own shows. But this show is Lennon's, and the remaining space devoted to him is disappointingly thin.
The upper-floor Lennon displays touch on his work as activist and avant-garde artist, but without the potpourri of items found on the lower floor. And the latter part of the '70s is thinly represented. Maybe that's to be expected; Lennon spent a good half of his last decade out of the public spotlight, traveling, raising his new son Sean and hovering in his Manhattan home and neighborhood.
The rest of his '70s career was spent mostly in frenetic, scattered struggling, worrying about his U.S. immigration status and making music on the fly.
Lennon's personal evolution was a messy process, but that's part of what makes him so human and appealing. Cultural heroes are borne out of crisis; Lennon had his share.
The displays on the upper floor, beyond Ono's work, have little sense of crisis, or excitement.
They are dominated by video, such as scenes of the couple's Amsterdam "bed-in" and continuous play of Lennon and Ono's "Imagine" film. A few listening stations offer samples of Lennon's solo music and more of his interviews. It's pleasant enough, but it lacks detail, edge, personality.
Nor is there a deeper immersion into why Lennon matters so very much.
Lennon's impact is suggested simply in the final area, titled "8 decembre 1980." It is a dark, quiet corner where a video screen depicts silent crowds outside Lennon's New York apartment after his murder.
The quiet display is a reminder that Lennon's career was cut short. Ono and others have helped maintain and advance his reputation in Broadway musicals and exhibits like this one, and the public's affection for him remains high. But Lennon himself was a rocker and cultural explorer just moving into a phase of adult productivity.
It's sad there is no third floor of "Unfinished Music."
The exhibit, which was created for Cité de la Musique and is not expected to transfer, runs through June 25.
Tara Mulholland of the IHT contributed to this report.
PARIS The much-reviled Albert Goldman biography "The Lives of John Lennon" at least got one thing right: the title. The plural "lives" suggests the many personas the former Beatle adopted over his 40 years, from Caustic Genius to Neurotic Addict to Feminist Househusband. Sometimes, though, it seems the only Lennon who gets press anymore is the Cuddly Peace Advocate.
So it's good to see the crowd-pleasing Paris exhibit "John Lennon: Unfinished Music" focus most of its attention on Lennon as Pop Star. Even if it lacks depth and bite, the exhibit emphasizes the most significant, or at least the most fun, aspect of the former Beatle: his music.
"John Lennon: Unfinished Music," at the sprawling Cité de la Musique complex, has drawn more than 50,000 since its Oct.
20 opening, according to exhibit officials. Though conceived in recognition of the 25 years since Lennon's murder in 1980, the exhibit never feels maudlin. At its best, it invites visitors to play.
Its outstanding attraction is a large soundproof room where such Beatles studio classics as "A Day in the Life," "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "I Am the Walrus" run in a loop. The room, with semicircular sofas in Lennon's signature white, is anchored on one side with representative '60s studio equipment (its dinkiness emphasizing the music's achievement).
But the room's most pleasant visual, during a couple of weekend visits, was its grinning listeners.
Two 50-something men played air guitar with an "aah" of recognition at each song. A 50-something woman swayed to the music, arms around the shoulders of an alert teenager. And there were silent, satisfied smiles of lounging visitors whose ages seemed to range over six decades.
"Unfinished Music" divides Lennon's career onto two floors of exhibit space, roughly separating his youth and Beatles career (30 years) from his "adult," solo career (a scant 10 years). An introduction area features an L-shaped wall of Lennon portraits and a collage of his music, complemented by a career timeline and listening booths that play audio of Lennon's 1980 interviews; it's a device used throughout the exhibit. (The interviews are in English with crawls of French translation; most signage is in French, with earphone audio guides available in French and English.
)
From there, "Unfinished Music" aims to place Lennon in the context of his times, and the lower floor covers his youth with guides to the '40s, '50s and '60s; a wall-size annotated map of his hometown, Liverpool; and listening booths of early musical influences such as Gene Vincent and Chuck Berry. It's not exactly scholarship (and Lennon scholarship does exist), but it helps establish a general overview of his life.
Among the Lennon juvenilia are selections of his drawings ("Spaghetti, the great Wart Killer" is one title) and school reports (for art, "very good work indeed"; for religious instruction, "work fair - attitude in class is most unsatisfactory").
A movingly edited slide show of family photos is accompanied by his "scream therapy" song, "Mother."
The Beatle-era memorabilia includes dolls and trays, as well as concert programs and guitars. There are large portraits of Astrid Kirchherr's famous Hamburg photographs of the band.
There's advice to a fan on how to meditate. Handwritten lyrics are generously displayed throughout the exhibit; those for "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" have musical notations, such as an arrow pointing out "drums" or "guitar dropping bars." The most colorful display shows Lennon's "Sgt.
Pepper" costume, beside others circa "Hard Day's Night" and "Magical Mystery Tour."
A large cinema screen with nine seats (nine being Lennon's favorite number) features a loop from Lennon's film appearances, from his playful improv while taking a bubble bath ("A Hard Day's Night") to his somewhat impassive rendition of "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" ("Help!") to his work in a non-Beatle role ("How I Won the War").
Nearby screens offer a continuous play of the Beatles onstage, with "Twist and Shout" at New York's Shea Stadium and an especially fine 1965 performance of "I'm a Loser" from the Palais des Sports in Paris. Another screen features a 3:15 loop titled "Beatlemania"; it shows only screaming fans.
There is some sound bleed among the various displays (aside from the pristine soundproof room), but that adds a welcome energy to the mix.
All the sound - Lennon's own words, his own music, his own performances - lifts an experience that might otherwise drift into trivia, however exciting such trivia might be to fans (for us, a Cavern Club concert poster can raise goose pimples). Still, there are some disappointing omissions: There's no music or imagery from "Let It Be," for instance, no shared mementoes from the other Beatles, and little reference to Lennon's first wife, Cynthia.
His second wife is quite prominent, however, on the exhibit's crowded upper floor.
Yoko Ono is everywhere. This emphasis makes some sense; perhaps no pop couple had careers as integrated as Lennon and Ono in the 1970s. But a significant block of space is devoted to Ono's solo work, from photos of her association with the avant-garde group Fluxus to replicas of the well-known conceptual pieces that first attracted Lennon: "Ceiling Painting" (with stepladder and magnifying glass, so viewers can find the word "Yes" on the ceiling) and "Hammer a Nail" (which "Unfinished Music" visitors are invited to do).
There's a video of her original 1965 "Cut Piece," in which Ono sits stationary on a stage while audience members, one at a time, cut away pieces of her clothing; there's also video of her 2003 restaging of the piece at Théâtre le Ranelagh in Paris.
That's a lot of solo Ono. She helped the organizers of "Unfinished Music," providing such attractions as Andy Warhol's 1966 portrait of Lennon, so perhaps it's not surprising that so much space is devoted to her.
And while some still disagree, her music and art deserve their own shows. But this show is Lennon's, and the remaining space devoted to him is disappointingly thin.
The upper-floor Lennon displays touch on his work as activist and avant-garde artist, but without the potpourri of items found on the lower floor.
And the latter part of the '70s is thinly represented. Maybe that's to be expected; Lennon spent a good half of his last decade out of the public spotlight, traveling, raising his new son Sean and hovering in his Manhattan home and neighborhood. The rest of his '70s career was spent mostly in frenetic, scattered struggling, worrying about his U.
S. immigration status and making music on the fly. Lennon's personal evolution was a messy process, but that's part of what makes him so human and appealing.
Cultural heroes are borne out of crisis; Lennon had his share.
The displays on the upper floor, beyond Ono's work, have little sense of crisis, or excitement. They are dominated by video, such as scenes of the couple's Amsterdam "bed-in" and continuous play of Lennon and Ono's "Imagine" film.
A few listening stations offer samples of Lennon's solo music and more of his interviews. It's pleasant enough, but it lacks detail, edge, personality. Nor is there a deeper immersion into why Lennon matters so very much.
Lennon's impact is suggested simply in the final area, titled "8 decembre 1980." It is a dark, quiet corner where a video screen depicts silent crowds outside Lennon's New York apartment after his murder.
The quiet display is a reminder that Lennon's career was cut short.
Ono and others have helped maintain and advance his reputation in Broadway musicals and exhibits like this one, and the public's affection for him remains high. But Lennon himself was a rocker and cultural explorer just moving into a phase of adult productivity. It's sad there is no third floor of "Unfinished Music.
"
The exhibit, which was created for Cité de la Musique and is not expected to transfer, runs through June 25.
Tara Mulholland of the IHT contributed to this report.
PARIS The much-reviled Albert Goldman biography "The Lives of John Lennon" at least got one thing right: the title.
The plural "lives" suggests the many personas the former Beatle adopted over his 40 years, from Caustic Genius to Neurotic Addict to Feminist Househusband. Sometimes, though, it seems the only Lennon who gets press anymore is the Cuddly Peace Advocate.
So it's good to see the crowd-pleasing Paris exhibit "John Lennon: Unfinished Music" focus most of its attention on Lennon as Pop Star.
Even if it lacks depth and bite, the exhibit emphasizes the most significant, or at least the most fun, aspect of the former Beatle: his music.
"John Lennon: Unfinished Music," at the sprawling Cité de la Musique complex, has drawn more than 50,000 since its Oct. 20 opening, according to exhibit officials.
Though conceived in recognition of the 25 years since Lennon's murder in 1980, the exhibit never feels maudlin. At its best, it invites visitors to play. Its outstanding attraction is a large soundproof room where such Beatles studio classics as "A Day in the Life," "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "I Am the Walrus" run in a loop.
The room, with semicircular sofas in Lennon's signature white, is anchored on one side with representative '60s studio equipment (its dinkiness emphasizing the music's achievement).
But the room's most pleasant visual, during a couple of weekend visits, was its grinning listeners. Two 50-something men played air guitar with an "aah" of recognition at each song.
A 50-something woman swayed to the music, arms around the shoulders of an alert teenager. And there were silent, satisfied smiles of lounging visitors whose ages seemed to range over six decades.
"Unfinished Music" divides Lennon's career onto two floors of exhibit space, roughly separating his youth and Beatles career (30 years) from his "adult," solo career (a scant 10 years).
An introduction area features an L-shaped wall of Lennon portraits and a collage of his music, complemented by a career timeline and listening booths that play audio of Lennon's 1980 interviews; it's a device used throughout the exhibit. (The interviews are in English with crawls of French translation; most signage is in French, with earphone audio guides available in French and English.)
From there, "Unfinished Music" aims to place Lennon in the context of his times, and the lower floor covers his youth with guides to the '40s, '50s and '60s; a wall-size annotated map of his hometown, Liverpool; and listening booths of early musical influences such as Gene Vincent and Chuck Berry.
It's not exactly scholarship (and Lennon scholarship does exist), but it helps establish a general overview of his life.
Among the Lennon juvenilia are selections of his drawings ("Spaghetti, the great Wart Killer" is one title) and school reports (for art, "very good work indeed"; for religious instruction, "work fair - attitude in class is most unsatisfactory"). A movingly edited slide show of family photos is accompanied by his "scream therapy" song, "Mother.
"
The Beatle-era memorabilia includes dolls and trays, as well as concert programs and guitars. There are large portraits of Astrid Kirchherr's famous Hamburg photographs of the band. There's advice to a fan on how to meditate.
Handwritten lyrics are generously displayed throughout the exhibit; those for "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" have musical notations, such as an arrow pointing out "drums" or "guitar dropping bars." The most colorful display shows Lennon's "Sgt. Pepper" costume, beside others circa "Hard Day's Night" and "Magical Mystery Tour.
"
A large cinema screen with nine seats (nine being Lennon's favorite number) features a loop from Lennon's film appearances, from his playful improv while taking a bubble bath ("A Hard Day's Night") to his somewhat impassive rendition of "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" ("Help!") to his work in a non-Beatle role ("How I Won the War").
Nearby screens offer a continuous play of the Beatles onstage, with "Twist and Shout" at New York's Shea Stadium and an especially fine 1965 performance of "I'm a Loser" from the Palais des Sports in Paris.
Another screen features a 3:15 loop titled "Beatlemania"; it shows only screaming fans.
There is some sound bleed among the various displays (aside from the pristine soundproof room), but that adds a welcome energy to the mix. All the sound - Lennon's own words, his own music, his own performances - lifts an experience that might otherwise drift into trivia, however exciting such trivia might be to fans (for us, a Cavern Club concert poster can raise goose pimples).
Still, there are some disappointing omissions: There's no music or imagery from "Let It Be," for instance, no shared mementoes from the other Beatles, and little reference to Lennon's first wife, Cynthia.
His second wife is quite prominent, however, on the exhibit's crowded upper floor. Yoko Ono is everywhere.
This emphasis makes some sense; perhaps no pop couple had careers as integrated as Lennon and Ono in the 1970s. But a significant block of space is devoted to Ono's solo work, from photos of her association with the avant-garde group Fluxus to replicas of the well-known conceptual pieces that first attracted Lennon: "Ceiling Painting" (with stepladder and magnifying glass, so viewers can find the word "Yes" on the ceiling) and "Hammer a Nail" (which "Unfinished Music" visitors are invited to do). There's a video of her original 1965 "Cut Piece," in which Ono sits stationary on a stage while audience members, one at a time, cut away pieces of her clothing; there's also video of her 2003 restaging of the piece at Théâtre le Ranelagh in Paris.
That's a lot of solo Ono. She helped the organizers of "Unfinished Music," providing such attractions as Andy Warhol's 1966 portrait of Lennon, so perhaps it's not surprising that so much space is devoted to her. And while some still disagree, her music and art deserve their own shows.
But this show is Lennon's, and the remaining space devoted to him is disappointingly thin.
The upper-floor Lennon displays touch on his work as activist and avant-garde artist, but without the potpourri of items found on the lower floor. And the latter part of the '70s is thinly represented.
Maybe that's to be expected; Lennon spent a good half of his last decade out of the public spotlight, traveling, raising his new son Sean and hovering in his Manhattan home and neighborhood. The rest of his '70s career was spent mostly in frenetic, scattered struggling, worrying about his U.S.
immigration status and making music on the fly. Lennon's personal evolution was a messy process, but that's part of what makes him so human and appealing. Cultural heroes are borne out of crisis; Lennon had his share.
The displays on the upper floor, beyond Ono's work, have little sense of crisis, or excitement. They are dominated by video, such as scenes of the couple's Amsterdam "bed-in" and continuous play of Lennon and Ono's "Imagine" film. A few listening stations offer samples of Lennon's solo music and more of his interviews.
It's pleasant enough, but it lacks detail, edge, personality. Nor is there a deeper immersion into why Lennon matters so very much.
Lennon's impact is suggested simply in the final area, titled "8 decembre 1980.
" It is a dark, quiet corner where a video screen depicts silent crowds outside Lennon's New York apartment after his murder.
The quiet display is a reminder that Lennon's career was cut short.
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