John Lennon: what would he be like at 75?

It is impossible to know what Lennon, born on this day in 1940, might be doing had he lived because he was such a singular character, who always went his own unpredictable way. One of his greatest achievements was surely to break the mould of pop stardom and leave something in its place that was more malleable and individualised, encouraging those in his wake to create their own templates for showbusiness careers. His supreme talent, extreme fame and tragic end have led to him being lionised, deified and mythologised but his music and personality still resonate so strongly because of his art of honesty, his instinct for cutting through the veil and revealing the real complexities and contradictions of the human condition. Lennon was the first truly modern pop star, where there was no distinction between his art and his life. By Neil McCormick