And we did. I still think that Janov’s therapy is great, you know, but I don’t want to make it into a big Maharishi thing. It was like this little thing, and there was no consciousness in it. . They make beautiful Clearwater music – they make good rock and roll music. That’s what Yoko has taught me. Did you hear Ike and Tina Turner doing “Come Together”? I just play it by the week. That was bullshit, the whole thing was made up. Do you have anything to add? B. I thought it was good to let it out and show people what had happened to us, we can’t get it together; we don’t play together any more; you know, leave us alone. That’s how life’s about, isn’t it, is it not? He liked the poetry side of it. You tend to get nationalistic, and we would really laugh at America, except for its music. . See, the ones I like are the ones that stand as words, without melody. So there they were, holding hands before the take, and they were singing “Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Lord,” and I was like, “Put the tape on! Next time he did it was in the Apple office. This seemed to go on all night. Like what? But they were obviously all insane people, and then these other two came with him…. . . That’s the only way to play. . “Look At Me” was written around the Beatles’ double album time, you know, I just never got it going, there are a few like that lying around. The two became close after an interview at Lennon’s London basement flat in 1968. Some of those big gigs were good, but not many of them. I’d been planning on it for over a year and a bit. We were going to let it out in really shitty condition. That’s where you have to make your artistic judgment to say well, this is the take and this isn’t. I am just as interested in poetry or whatever or art, and always have been, that’s been my hang-up, you know – continually trying to be Shakespeare or whatever it is. Who he fell in love with is not very important, the outcome of the song itself is important. They asked us to sing and we sang a few numbers. It’s interesting that no rock & roll star I can think of has made an album with his wife or whomever and given her 50 percent of the disc. I can’t see . That’s the only thing I sometimes miss is just being able to sort of blink or make a certain noise and I know they’ll all know where we are going on an ad lib thing. What did you think of Manson and that thing? A warm gun means that you just shot something. How did you put together that litany in “God”? . Artists like Marcel Duchamp had the right idea, he proclaims. He really does a job. I don’t know what it is. “Woman” is the grown-up version of “Girl.”. They had all heard about it, and they didn’t know it was different from pot or pills and they gave us it. A genius is a form of madness, and we’re all that way, you know, and I used to be a bit coy about it, like my guitar playing. Arriving at the Record Plant a half-hour later, we enter the main studio and are greeted by a sonic blast: Out of the speakers comes the shattering cascade of Yoko’s inimitable, primordial voice – intersected by John’s forward and backward guitar tracks – screaming out the words “Open your box/Open your trousers/Open your thighs/Open your legs. Scandinavia, somebody or other planted it. There was quite a few people that understood the idea. The “One After 909,” on the Let It Be LP, I wrote when I was 17 or 18. Eastman was abusing him with class snobbery. Oh, some time or other. You say you write songs because you can’t help it. “Das ist really you, John? But those days, we were too big to touch. There’s a bit of slap-back echo on your recording. I remember I was just going through this paranoia trying to write something and nothing would come out so I just lay down and tried to not write and then this came out, the whole thing came out in one gulp. There could be hundreds of paths where one could go this way or that way – there’s a choice, and it’s very strange sometimes. We had a lot of response from other than pop fans, which was interesting, from all walks of life and age. What do they want from the guy? Are you getting this?” And that’s what you hear, exactly as it happened – “Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Lord” – and then they go right into singing the song. It was another one like Magical Mystery Tour. We arranged to see Eastman and Klein together in a hotel where one of them was staying. Right now, here we are in the Record Plant, talking to Jonathan Cott again for Rolling Stone . I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. Yoko came out of that. Do I stop where I came in, with ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’?” The day I first met Paul, I was singing that song for the first time onstage. Why? No, we put out “Hey Jude,” which was worth it – I’m sorry – but we could have had both. Derek’s and Neil’s rooms were always full of junk and whores and who-the-fuck-knows-what, and policemen with it. I like all the different things that are happening in it. In what respect? It’s good poetry, or whatever you call it, without chewin’ it. . Ah, damn, shit, what a fool I was. But in general, she can’t be accepted, because she’s too far out. He was well advanced of his time lyric-wise. John: I was just trying to get him to record. They just put us here and there. I said “the Walrus is Paul” for that reason. We were so blase, we never even read the news clippings. . I don’t know how much it will affect him in later life, but I’ve been physically there. . all the way back to “Rock and Roll Music.” I love it. Listen to it. He always wanted to work with the Beatles, and he was given the shittiest load of badly recorded shit, with a lousy feeling toward it, ever. I did some drawings at the time, I’ve got them somewhere, of four faces saying “We all agree with you!” I gave them to Ringo, the originals. Yoko: I was thinking that Tom Jones is like medium without message, but John’s stuff is like the message is the medium; it’s the message. “Yeah,” John replied, “the Christians don’t let you have cock and balls. it’s a drag to do both. I’ll never forgive them, I don’t care what fuckin’ shit about Hare Krishna and God and Paul with his “Well, I’ve changed me mind.” I can’t forgive ’em for that, really. . And that’s what I’m saying in this album – I remember what it’s all about now you fuckers – fuck you! I should have been born in New York, I should have been born in the Village, that’s where I belong. They just sounded like that and I thought oh, that’s how to start “Mother.” I knew “Mother” was going to be the first track so . John Lennon in zee bag?” Yeah, it’s me. Most stars, as soon as they have a baby, put it on the front page: ‘I’ve just had a baby!’ I’m not interested in that. Can you tell me whether that white album with the drawing by Voorman on it, was that before Rubber Soul or after? They all took me upstairs on the roof and George Martin was looking at me funny, and then it dawned on me I must have taken acid. Because those albums were about ourselves, you see, and not about Ziggy Stardust or Tommy. Right now his fans are happy. I would do that just to get an impression of what it sounded like sung and to hear it back for judging it – you never know ’til you hear the song yourself. If I was black, I’d be all for it; if I were 17 I’d be all for it, too. That’s going on all the time. You can’t believe it, man, epileptic fits, and they expected to run the company. . Some artists will do it, but they usually have to be dead two hundred years to do it. It was just like it was in the movie; when I got to do “Across the Universe” (which I wanted to rerecord because the original wasn’t very good), Paul yawns and plays boogie. He’d read In His Own Write, my book, and things like that. “But we’d better get on with this. . Neil, who never had acid either, had taken it and he would have to play road manager, and we said go get rid of Don Short, and he didn’t know what to do. We sent acorns to practically everybody in the world. Maybe you get cancer or something. John Lennon | Ron Howard/Redferns A ‘Rolling Stone’ journalist on the ‘flaws’ of his John Lennon interview ‘Lennon Remembers’ In his original preface to Lennon Remembers, Wenner said there were some “flaws” in the interview.However, he didn’t go into depth about what they were. There was a fresh apple on a stand, this was before Apple – and it was 200 quid to watch the apple decompose. . They thought we’d sold out. I’d get into trouble just because of the way I looked. Yoko: It also turns out to be the highest number you know, one, two, etc., up to nine. What songs really stick in your mind as being Lennon-McCartney songs? I keep thinking “Mother” is a commercial record, because all the time I was writing it, it was the one I was singing the most, it’s the one that seemed to catch on in my head. We were learning the technique on Rubber Soul. There were very few things that happened to the Beatles that weren’t really well-thought out by us – whether to do it or not, and what the reaction would be and would it last forever. What is the difference between George Martin and Phil Spector? . Yes, yes. What are your personal tastes? It had just got out of hand, and Beatles was the final thing because I no longer believe in myth, and Beatles is another myth. “Double Fantasy” is the first recording you’ve made in five years, and, to quote from your song “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” “It’s good to have the both of you back.” Article ©1975 Rolling Stone. I dig Heinz Soup cans. There were 29 hours of tape, so much that it was like a movie. I’d love to be the guitarist – I’m playing backwards guitar on this song. The others, too, but I always had more, more pills, more of everything because I’m more crazy probably. That was Paul’s title, it was like “Yer Blues,” I suppose, meaning English Soul, I suppose, just a pun. . Right after Sergeant Pepper, George came to San Francisco. Paul made an attempt to carry on as if Brian hadn’t died by saying, “Now, now, boys, we’re going to make a record.” Being the kind of person I am, I thought well, we’re going to make a record all right, so I’ll go along, so we went and made a record. They refused to meet him. If you would put me with B. It might happen now, or it might happen in a hundred years, but. So we pooled our resources and came out with the Bed Peace – it was some way of doing something together that wouldn’t involve me standing in Trafalgar Square in a black bag because I was too nervous to do that. If it sounds good to you as a layman or a human, take it, don’t bother whether this is like that or the quality of this, just take it. Maybe Neil and a couple of the Byrds – what’s his name, the one in the Stills and Nash thing, Crosby and the other guy, who used to do the lead. It was a good projection of one facade of us, which was on tour, once in London and once in Dublin. . A thousand. Financially, its business, or whatever. but any truth is universal. Lots more than I ever had before. You think by holding on it will be all right? . I even threw up . They live in a dream of Beatle past, and everything they do is oriented to that. But I don’t know, really . I can’t really verify what we’re doing yet, because with Yoko, you never know until it’s done. “Working Class Hero” sounds like an early Dylan song. . I said I don’t talk to anybody unless I come along with Allen. Well, I was watching TV as usual, in California, and there was this old horror movie on, and the bells sounded like that to me. The layers of the onion. . In the film, I’m just blabbing off and commenting all the time, like you do when you’re very high or stoned. Oh, I like that one of my best, I had forgotten about that. Eastman blew it, and then he went on to do it again. and we were all thinking that if we are going to have to open a shop, let’s open something we’re interested in, and we went through all these different ideas about this, that and the other. I copped out and I wouldn’t write “Maharishi what have you done, you made a fool of everyone.” But, now it can be told, Fab Listeners. Twenty takes of everything, because we were rehearsing and taking everything. Watch John Lennon Groove to the Rolling Stones’ First-Ever Performance of ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ Rock Cellar Magazine Staff on November 2, 2020 Categories: Latest News SHARE. We met at the Dorchester, we went up to his room, and we just went in you know. . I know we developed our own style but we still in a way parodied American music . . 1980 Rolling Stone Interview With John Lennon. The camera work was set-up to show Paul and not anybody else. I wouldn’t buy any of it, you know. I might do “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “Help” again, because I like them and I can sing them. Did you feel that while you were making it? I walked out of that, swearing at all of them. We had just put him on piano for “Cold Turkey” to make a rough tape but his wife was pregnant or something and they left. I went to the office and sang it many times. On “Cold Turkey” I’m getting towards it. The real story will come out, because Allen knows every detail and he remembers everything we’ve said. We went to see him, after we stayed up all night discussing was it true or not true. . If it wasn’t a laugh, we’d go crazy, wouldn’t we?”, Yoko takes this opportunity to hand John a recent copy of Japanese Playboy that features an article about them. If I get down to the nitty gritty, it would drive me mad, but I do like it really. So I said “Hell, let’s do it,” and we booked the studio, and Phil came in, and said, “How do you want it?” I said, “You know, 1950’s.” He said, “right,” and boom, I did it in about three goes or something like that. We all are, that’s the problem. I knew there wasn’t when “Hare Krishna” never made it on the polls with their own record, that really got me suspicious. . “Don’t Worry, Kyoko” was one of the fuckin’ best rock and roll records ever made. . . Yoko didn’t want to do anything that wasn’t for peace. So this big guy comes in who seemed to be primaling all the time – he was always crying a lot, and talking – and then he tried it and it didn’t work. I get embarrassed. I didn’t know, I didn’t forsee. In an interview with Jon Cott a year or so ago, you said something about your favorite song being “Ticket to Ride.” Yeah, I liked it because it was a slightly new sound at the time. Allen says that you are all going to get together in a few months. In a way, no thing is real, if you break the word down. Is it true, John? John: But let’s not take away from what he did do, which expended a lot of energy and taught me a lot, and I would use him again. Doing the films was a nice way of meeting a lot of people. The waiters gave you them – the pills and drink. When did you realize he was making a fool of you? I just read that one about Dylan, too. . . But I never developed it further than cartoons. Who despises me, too, despises me because of what I am and what I look like. But then Eastman made the mistake of sending his son over and not coming over himself, to look after the Beatles, playing it a bit cool. It wore me out, New York. . The people that got in touch with us understood what a grand event it was apart from the message itself. Dylan showed it to me once on sort of a guided tour around the Village, but I never got any feel of it. It was like I was crucified, when I felt it. I spent the whole of my childhood with shoulders up around the top of me head and me glasses off because glasses were sissy, and walking in complete fear, but with the toughest-looking face you’ve ever seen. But you’re thinking about him in a song like “Beautiful Boy.” . We began talking again, alone with Yoko, about that.]. I just never have time for a whole album. Absolutely. I think some of his stuff actually has come true, but they just haven’t been manufactured – maybe one of them is a salable object. Yeah. In This Article: I’d sooner have “I Hear You Knocking” by Dave Edmonds, it’s the top of England now. I merely say, “Anyone want to do a fast one?” That’s how I am. Three nights later, Lennon would be murdered as he was returning home from a mixing session. . Here is the 1971 John Lennon interview for Rolling Stone magazine: download MP3 (19 megs) This is the famous interview in which Lennon utters the famous words "I can make a guitar speak," makes fun of Mick Jagger for "wiggling his ass," calls Paul's music "rubbish," and declares his dislike for Blood Sweat and Tears as well as "flutey Judy Collins music." George had just got the sitar and I said “Could you play this piece?” We went through many different sort of versions of the song, it was never right and I was getting very angry about it, it wasn’t coming out like I said. I didn’t know that. He’s about the best in the world, probably. and it was really a case of “brothers” and all that. It’s real, that’s all. I copped out in that Beatle thing. Everybody’s reacted exactly the same. I admire them, you know. I mean Janov showed me more of my own pain. We didn’t want to know about it anymore, so we just left it to Glyn Johns and said, “Here, mix it.” That was the first time since the first album that we didn’t want to have anything to do with it. Finally, when we got near the point when Allen came in, the Eastmans panicked; yet I was still open. That ended . You don’t want people to think that this is the single thing to do. There had been cowboys long before there was rock and roll. I didn’t write a damn thing. I don’t really want to talk about it, because it will hurt Yoko. They were the ones I really wrote from experience and not projecting myself into a situation and writing a nice story about it. It doesn’t just remain in me, it goes round and out. Ironic? It’s great. The best thing we did in a bag together was a press conference in Vienna. That was the disintegration. I’d sooner be Zappa and say, “Listen, you fuckers, this is what I did, and I don’t care whether you like my attitude saying it.” That’s what I am, you know, I’m a fucking artist, and I’m not a fucking P.R. I’m bound to be influenced by those, because that is the only kind of real folk music I really listen to. God, it was just terrifying, but it was fantastic. Do you like Ringo’s record, his country one? And when the musicians play with her, they’re inspired out of their skulls. If they had psychiatrists, we wouldn’t have had Gauguin’s great pictures. I mean, Eastman – something was going on . . I like Creedence Clearwater. What was it in your music that turned everyone on at first? He’s all, right, but he’s cracked, you know. How could they be? I hate the way Allen is attacked and Brian is made out to be an angel just because he’s dead. I was influenced by acid and got psychedelic, like the whole generation, but really, I like rock and roll and I express myself best in rock. I would never know until I went to China. What was the state of the Beatles’ business at that point? People like me are aware of their so-called genius at ten, eight, nine . He ended up the kind of guy that you dread when he would come on the phone, because you knew it was trouble. Did you send one to Queen Elizabeth? I try and invent things. We just took that position. . The thing about rock and roll, good rock and roll – whatever good means and all that shit – is that it’s real and realism gets through to you despite yourself. There are no “newspaper taxis.” Actually, that’s Paul’s line. I was cursing, because I hadn’t done it. Enjoy footage of John Lennon dancing his heart out to the Rolling Stones as they play 'Sympathy for the Devil' from 'Rock and Roll Circus.' I couldn’t have done it alone – it had to be a female to teach me. He was a bit shy about it because I think he thought it’s already a good song. We got an acetate in the mail and we called each other and said, “What do you think?”. It was a good happening. No, no. . There’s a nice little bit I played, they had it on the back of Abbey Road. But he was such a nice guy in a way. We thought, “Shit, what’s going on here?” We were cackling in the streets, and people were shouting “Let’s break a window,” you know, it was just insane. . On the evening of Friday, December 5th, 1980, John Lennon spoke to Rolling Stone editor Jonathan Cott for more than nine hours at his apartment on … We got stuff of her with Cage, Ornette Coleman . We sometimes wrote together. It would hurt me. They’re like primitive painters. He was in a different class from the other performers, he was in the tradition of the great blues artists but he really wrote his own stuff – I know Richard did, but Berry really wrote stuff, just the lyrics were fantastic, even though we didn’t know what he was saying half the time. There’s a Zen story that Yoko once told me – and I think I might have told it in “Lennon Remembers” or “Playboy Forgets”: A king sent his messenger to an artist to request a painting, he paid the artist the money, and the painter said, “OK, come back.” So a year goes by, and the messenger comes back and tells him, “The king’s waiting for his painting,” and the painter says, “Oh, hold on,” and whips it off right in front of him and says, “Here.” And the messenger says, “What’s this? Oh, fuckin’ God knows how long. But it is like he fell in love with some girl or something and he wrote this song. . Those are the ones. What was it like in the early days in London? But we did come in here to make this string of songs that might go to the rock and disco clubs. It did come out at the same time or something, didn’t it? As soon as we made it, we made it, but the edges were knocked off. 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