I guess I'm assuming some people were alive and conscious 32 years ago.
Don't get me wrong, I am a huge Lennon fan and it makes me sad to think of him going out the way he did but I wasn't aware of it at the time. I grew up idolizing the Beatles but in a very different way than people that grew up with them actually being together as a group. I've never consciously known a world with all of them alive. I was just reading about how Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live used to try and get them to play SNL by hilariously offering $3000. When they didn't respond, he upped the anti to $3200. Pretty funny stuff. Here's a great Lennon Interview about the prospect of a reunion. You ought to pose the "askhubski", I'd definitely share it and participate in the discussion, it's just not for me to post since I was 3 ;-)
Unfortunately not in english but maybe "google translate" can get you the gist of this article. John's personnality evolved a great deal from the Beatles's debut to his death ; depending on how you first discover him, you might know one side without knowing the other one.
There is no doubt that John changed significantly. But then, who among us doesn't? What's life if not a modality for change? Anyways, I've definitely been very familiar with Johns life and work.
My thought on John is that he was probably an extremely hard person to be friends with, to love, to live with etc. An extremely intelligent, witty and very insecure person. When challenged, the type of person that will lash out at you. But damn, he was talented.