As to the report that John Lennon's politics evolved to the point that he favored Ronald Reagan, it's hearsay, and I am not a fan of posthumous claims about people's political transformations.  However, I always liked Lennon's irreverent but mostly harmless humor.  He seemed to be someone who was searching.

I can't imagine (no pun intended) being a kid from Liverpool rising to such fame at an early age -- that's too heady for most people to handle even later in life.  In his youthful 20s, he was a bit of a prisoner to his fame.  I thought his comment that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus was more a young man's inartful critique of the culture and misplaced values than an affront to Christianity. 

I've read reports that he was taken in by radical leftists, inculcated and used.  An intelligent man, he lacked a network of values supporters, and was susceptible.  If his views did later evolve, I can understand why -- he learned what so many people deceived by the left learned.  Their utopian vision is a mirage built on lies compounded with the corruption of power. 

Lennon was against abuse of power in his most raggedy radical days.  Government is power, and it is the biggest abuser of power.  Lennon was against war.  What good person isn't?  How we deal with these things is what separates the ideologies.

Lennon apparently didn't like the way his own voice sounded, indicating a bit of insecurity, and used recording mechanisms to alter it.  That's too bad.  He had a unique, powerful voice, and The Beatles' harmonies were superb.  I still consider their early music among my favorites, and keep several CDs from the 1964 - 65 Beatles by my side.  It was innocent boy-loves-girl, girl-dumps-boy, boy-sulks stuff.  Mr. Moonlight has the best opening of any song I've heard, a raspy, powerful, wishful 'wail' of romance.

I'm skeptical, but I also don't discount that Lennon became dissatisfied with the left.  We are imperfect, but are born with the potential to grow.  That's one of the great things about freedom.  John Lennon was a freer man just before he was tragically killed.  As he wrote, he had gotten off the "merry-go-round."  We'll never know for sure where he stood.

Some of the clearest-thinking, most astute conservatives I know have evolved from well-meaning liberals.  God-given freedom allowed it.  God-given intelligence enabled it.  Hard work achieved it.