Star
rating 8/10
This is a fascinating collection of radio and TV
interviews with John Lennon spanning the period from 1965 to December 1980.
He comes across as an extremely articulate and intelligent man,
although amusingly rejecting establishment notions of what that means. He is amazed at his interviewer's use of the word onomatopoeia to discuss his prose,
never having heard the term before. On
discussing his books, the second of which was published in 1965, he describes
himself as not a disciplined writer but spontaneous - seldom editing anything
out after the writing process itself. Although his writing is evidence of his social conscience,
he is plain about his role in protest movements in 1965 'I'm not a do-gooder. I won't go on marches.' As a young man of 25
in the first of the interviews, there is a stark reminder of his relative youth
as he considers himself to be 'too near
to school to read Dickens and Shakespeare.'
In a later piece from 1969 he is talking about his
honeymoon with Yoko Ono, which at the time he is spending at the Amsterdam
Hilton with their famous Bed-In for Peace. And by 1970, when speculation about
the future of the Beatles is reaching fever pitch, he refuses to be pinned down
on the subject, and merely says he is concentrating on John Lennon, not Yoko
Ono, or the Beatles.
The last interviews from 1980 are the most poignant,
recorded just days before his tragic death at the hands of lone gunman Mark
Chapman. He is talking about their recently released Double Fantasy LP, and their plans for two more albums. We learn
of his love for Fawlty Towers - 'a masterpiece'
- and for the original sound of Madness. Like David Bowie, he had settled in
New York as he appreciated the private life and sense of security it gave him
when compared to England. We sadly know the rest.
This is a really interesting and captivating reminder of
the greatness and originality of the man.
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