Part 1 of 7: John Lennon talks to Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone magazine about 'where he is at'...this is a summary

1. THE INTERVIEW:
In this first section, John discusses some issues around where he is at.
(Page 1 in the book.)
There’s an ice-breaker chat about John’s new LP ‘Plastic Ono Band’ which was
his first album after the official break up of the Beatles. They talk about
recording techniques and John says he likes to do just one take rather than
laying down a backing track which is how the Beatles used to start recording.
John has finished some tracks in California with some tracks appearing over
a time. John and Yoko began Primal Scream Therapy in April 1970 and Jann
suggests this is the first primal album. John doesn’t confirm that, saying
George (Harrison - Beatle) has an album out and is that Gita. (The Beatles
were with the Maharishi in India in 1967 and now John’s with Janov in 1970.
Yoko explains this.) John says Primal Therapy works well but it’s not going to
be a big thing like the Maharishi was. There will be multiple influences. He
states that therapy has not made him a better singer. John liked working
with Yoko and Phil Spector and has a studio at home. John states that Yoko
can produce rock and roll and she is a valid part of what he does now.
Including in the studio. Jann suggests the track on the album Imagine,
‘Working Class Hero,’ is like an early Bob Dylan acoustic track. John says
that is natural because they are both singing with an acoustic guitar. On his
new album, John says he is not embarrassed when he listens to it, only
sometimes. When an album is due for release, John can’t bear to hear it.
John’s made his decisions on which take of a song to use.
John talks about the musical side of the Beatles and his solo work (Page
7 in the book):
Jann quotes ‘God is a concept by which we measure our pain’ from the song
‘God’. John says we need lots of Gods. They talk about the producing styles
of George Martin and Phil Spector. John tells how much of a part the
Beatles played in producing some of their albums. George Martin is more
Paul’s (McCartney) style of music. Phil Spector made some special
contributions to John’s album. John thinks the album is the best thing he’s
done, and traces his progress through some songs. John says the only true
songs he wrote were ‘Help!’ and ‘Strawberry Fields.’ He says the lack of
imagery on Imagine is because there was no hallucination. Yoko and John say
there is no bullshit. John says he was influenced by psychedelia but really he
likes rock & roll. Currently he likes ‘I Hear You Knocking’ and ‘Spirit In The
Sky.’ (Current singles). John’s unclear what ‘litany’ means but talks about the

2. beginning of ‘God.’ John says he doesn’t believe in I Ching or the Bible, and
Jann mentions ‘don’t believe in Beatles.’ John says ‘The dream is over’. It’s
a generational thing. John says he refers to Bob Dylan as Zimmerman (his
born name) in ‘God’ because Dylan is bullshit compared to his born name. God
is the most played track on the radio (me: but not in 2015 or 1995 when you
never heard it at all.) Jann asks about the track ‘My Mummy’s Dead’ and
John says that’s what’s happened. (On a Beatles Tour you will see the
stretch of road where John’s formerly estranged mum, Julia, was killed by a
car. John doesn’t go into explanations of this during the interview.) John
talks about other tracks, which go into pain, ‘Yer Blues’ and ‘I’m So Tired’.
His old track ‘Cold Turkey’ was about when he wanted to die in the
Maharishi camp. ‘Yer Blues’ parodied the white middle classes playing black
blues, and Americans doing the same. On stage, the Beatles deliberately
avoided moving like Elvis, but Mick Jagger reinvented that type of
movement. In Hamburg in the early days, 1962 and 1963, the Beatles were
rebels, smashing up stuff like The Who did later. After six or seven hours
playing there was nothing else to do. Yoko states that if John falls in love, it
doesn’t have to be a person, it’s the artistic outcome from that love that’s
important, not the relationship. They talk about screaming on records - is it
all from Janov and Primal Scream? No - go back to old records like ‘Twist
and Shout’ or ‘Cold Turkey’: there was lots of screaming there. John says
don’t confuse the therapy with the music. John points to Yoko’s song on
the flip side of ‘Cold Turkey,’ to see what she’s doing. He says her singing is
20 years ahead of its time, fantastic. On ‘Cold Turkey’, John announced it at
a concert as a song about pain. Pain came before Janov. Is John now less
paranoid? - No, but he feels his own pain and fear. On heroin, John never
injected, but it was fun. They sniffed to cope with pain. People ignored Yoko,
so they took H because of the pain. (The average hippy or Mod didn’t know
this - it was all about peace, love, and legalise cannabis because it’s a soft
drug and not addictive.) Although John has produced his own stuff, Phil
Spector brought a lot of energy and taught John things. On Sgt Pepper, Paul
says ‘come and see the show’ while John says ‘I read the news today, oh boy.’
At that time John was very paranoid, could hardly move. John threw up
before his show in Toronto, he was ‘full of junk.’ He was ‘full of shit.’ He is
always nervous before appearing in public. (Perhaps social anxiety disorder
which has aspects of public performance?) John doesn’t want to hurt
George’s feelings about his album, but he thinks it’s better than Paul’s, which
he thinks is rubbish. John states his personal tastes as rock & roll. (Me: like

3. they were back at the Casbah Club in Liverpool, with the Rockers and Teds.)
That is what inspired John; no group has ever done better that Jerry Lee
Lewis and ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.’ John says right now (in 1970) there
are lots of great musicians and guitarists, but nothing’s going on.
Bullshitters are going for excellence, while John considers himself to be in
the avant garde of rock & roll. John says Dylan’s new album (New Morning) is
the same as McCartney’s, it’s no different, it’s a myth, and he hasn’t followed
Dylan since he stopped rocking. All Bob has done is sing lower not higher - it
doesn’t mean a f*cking thing- and John prefers Dave Edmunds’ single right
now. What does George now think of John? John doesn’t know, he may be
the opposite of George’s Gita, but John will not change from this. (Where
he’s at now.) John says the whole group believed the Beatles myth, but in
fact they were just a band that made it very big, and John also says their
best work was never recorded. (John states this and elsewhere in the
interview he states that he is more than a musician, he is a unique genius of a
leader.) John says there was no-one to touch the Beatles in Liverpool,
Hamburg and other places when they played rock. When Brian Epstein
became their manager, they sold out:- got the stylised Beatles suits, they
reduced two hours play to twenty minutes which they repeated every night.
Beatles music itself died then. After that they became efficient recording
artists. John rates himself as a guitarist, as a rhythm man with some feeling.
What of George? - he’s OK but John prefers ‘meself’. John mentions Richie
Havens at the Isle of Wight concert playing just one chord, a black guy who
sang ‘Strawberry Fields.’ Eric Clapton thinks John can play, and Paul gave
John a solo guitar spot on ‘Get Back.’ George is the invisible singer, John is
the invisible guitarist. Ringo is seldom mentioned, but is now when John says
Ringo’s record is good but John wouldn’t buy it. John again talks about selling
out, he doesn’t like many of the Beatles records but they made money, he
likes different stuff.