John Lennon Newsweek Interview 1980.pdf

7/27/2019 John Lennon Newsweek Interview 1980.pdf

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John Lennon Interview: Newsweek, 9/29/1980

In the nine years since the Beatles broke up, John Lennon, their

most brilliant and controversial member, has had a turbulent coming

of age. After a flurry of post-Beatle albums of wildly uneven

quality, a four-year fight with the Immigration Service to stay inthe United States, a fifteen-month separation from his wife Yoko

Ono, and the birth of their son Sean, Lennon disappeared from public

view in 1975. Now on the eve of his 40th birthday, he is reemerging

with the most eagerly awaited album of the year. Called 'Double

Fantasy,' it is a 'Scenes From A Marriage' in fourteen songs - seven

by Lennon, seven by Ono. Wide-ranging in style - from the rockin'

boogie of Lennon's '(Just Like) Starting Over,' to Ono's

gospel-tinged 'Hard Times Are Over,' from his starry-eyed 'Beautiful

Boy' to her acid-tongued rock-disco 'Kiss, Kiss, Kiss' - the

forthcoming album is full of unaffected gusto and is likely to

appeal to the broadest tastes.

A few years ago, the couple switched roles: Lennon became a

househusband - babysitting and baking bread, while Ono became the

family's business manager. Their real-estate holdings are extensive

- five cooperatives in Manhattan's legendary Dakota apartment house,

half a dozen residences scattered from Palm Beach, Fla., to a

mountain retreat in upstate New York, and four dairy farms.

Recently Lennon and Ono sat down with Newsweek's Barbara Graustark

for his first major interview in five years. Whippet-thin in Levisand work shirt, smoking French cigarettes and nibbling sushi, the

ex-Beatle talked expansively about himself, showing no sign of the

inner demons that once haunted his songs.

Q: "Why did you go underground in 1975? Were you tired of making

music, or of the business itself?"

JOHN: "It was a bit of both. I'd been under contract since I was 22

and I was always 'supposed to.' I was supposed to write a hundred

songs by Friday, supposed to have a single out by Saturday, supposed

to do this or that. I became an artist because I cherished freedom -I couldn't fit into a classroom or office. Freedom was the plus for

all the minuses of being an oddball! But suddenly I was obliged to

the media, obliged to the public. It wasn't free at all!

I've withdrawn many times. Part of me is a monk, and part a

performing flea! The fear in the music business is that you don't

exist if you're not at Xenon with Andy Warhol. As I found out, life


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doesn't end when you stop subscribing to Billboard."

Q: "Why five years?"

JOHN: "If you know your history, it took us a long time to have a

live baby. And I wanted to give five solid years to Sean. I hadn't

seen Julian, my first son (by ex-wife Cynthia), grow up at all. Andnow there's a 17-year-old man on the phone talkin' about motorbikes.

I'm an avid reader, mainly history, archeology and anthropology. In

other cultures, children don't leave the mother's back until 2. I

think most schools are prisons - A child's thing is wide open and to

narrow it down and make him compete in the classroom is a joke. I

sent Sean to kindergarten. When I realized I was sending him there

to get rid of him, I let him come home... If I don't give him

attention at 5, then I'm gonna have to give him double doses of it

in his teenage years. It's owed."

Q: "Paul McCartney's theory is that you became a recluse because

you'd done everything - but be yourself."

JOHN: "What the hell does that mean? Paul didn't know what I was

doing - he was as curious as everyone else. It's ten years since I

really communicated with him. I know as much about him as he does

about me, which is zilch. About two years ago, he turned up at the

door. I said, 'Look, do you mind ringin' first? I've just had a hard

day with the baby. I'm worn out and you're walkin' in with a damn

guitar!"

Q: "Give me a typical day in the life of John and Yoko."JOHN: "Yoko became the breadwinner, taking care of the bankers and

deals. And I became the housewife. It was like one of those reversal

comedies! I'd say (mincingly), 'Well, how was it at the office

today, dear? Do you want a cocktail? I didn't get your slippers and

your shirts aren't back from the laundry.' To all housewives, I say

I now understand what you're screaming about. My life was built

around Sean's meals. 'Am I limiting his diet too much?' (The Lennons

maintain a macrobiotic lifestyle, eschewing dairy products, liquor

and meat.) 'Is SHE gonna talk business when she comes home fromwork?' I'm a rich housewife - but it still involves caring."

Q: "Yoko, why did you decide to take over as business manager?"

YOKO: "There's a song by John on the album called 'Clean-up Time' -

and it really was that for us. Being connected to Apple (the

Beatles' corporation) and all the lawyers and managers who had a

piece of us, we weren't financially independent - we didn't even


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know how much money we had. We still don't! Now we are selling our

shares (25 percent) of Apple stock to free our energy for other

things. People advised us to invest in stocks and oil but we didn't

believe in it. You have to invest in things you love. Like cows,

which are sacred animals in India. Buying houses was a practicaldecision - John was starting to feel stuck in the Dakota and we get

bothered in hotels. Each house that we've bought was chosen because

it was a landmark that needed restoring."

Q: "John, how hard was it not to be doing something musical?"

JOHN: "At first, it was very hard. But musically my mind was just a

clutter. It was apparent in 'Walls And Bridges' (his 1974 solo

album), which was the work of a semi-sick craftsman. There was no

inspiration, and it gave off an aura of misery. I couldn't hear the

music for the noise in my own head. By turning away, I began to hear

it again. It's like Newton, who never would have conceived of what

the apple falling meant had he not been daydreaming under a tree.

That's what I'm living for... the joy of having the apple fall on my

head once every five years."

Q: "Did you just stop listening to music?"

JOHN: "I listened mostly to classical or Muzak. I'm not interested

in other people's work - only so much as it affects me. I have the

great honor of never having been to Studio 54 and I've never been to

any rock clubs. It's like asking Picasso, has he been to the museum

lately."Q: "Why did you decide to record again?"

JOHN: "Because this housewife would like to have a career for a bit!

On Oct. 9, I'll be 40 and Sean will be 5 and I can afford to say

'Daddy does something else as well.' He's not accustomed to it - in

five years I hardly picked up a guitar. Last Christmas our neighbors

showed him 'Yellow Submarine' and he came running in, saying,

'Daddy, you were singing... were you a Beatle?' I said, 'Well, yes.

Right.'"

Q: "Why did you collaborate with Yoko on this LP?"JOHN: "It's like a play and we're acting in it. It's John and Yoko -

you can take it or leave it. Otherwise (laughing) it's cows and

cheese, my dear! Being with Yoko makes me whole. I don't want to

sing if she's not there. We're like spiritual advisors. When I first

got out of the Beatles, I thought, 'Oh great. I don't have to listen

to Paul and Ringo and George.' But it's boring yodeling by yourself


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in a studio. I don't need all that space anymore."

Q: "You've come a long way from the man who wrote, at 23, 'Women

should be obscene rather than heard.' How did this happen?"

JOHN: "I was a working-class macho guy who was used to being served

and Yoko didn't buy that. From the day I met her, she demanded equaltime, equal space, equal rights. I said, 'Don't expect me to change

in any way. Don't impinge on my space.' She answered, 'Then I can't

be here. Because there is no space where you are. Everything

revolves around you and I can't breathe in that atmosphere.' I'm

thankful to her for the education."

Q: "People have blamed Yoko for wrenching you away from the band

and

destroying the Beatles. How did it really end?"

JOHN: "I was always waiting for a reason to get out of the Beatles

from the day I filmed 'How I Won The War' (in 1966). I just didn't

have the guts to do it. The seed was planted when the Beatles

stopped touring and I couldn't deal with not being onstage. But I

was too frightened to step out of the palace. That's what killed

(Elvis) Presley. The king is always killed by his courtiers. He is

overfed, overindulged, overdrunk to keep him tied to his throne.

Most people in the position never wake up. Yoko showed me what it

was to be Elvis Beatle, and to be surrounded by sycophant slaves

only interested in keeping the situation as it was - a kind of

death. And that's how the Beatles ended - not because she 'split'the Beatles, but because she said to me, 'You've got no clothes on.'

Q: "How do you look back on your political radicalism in the early

'70's?"

JOHN: "That radicalism was phony, really, because it was out of

guilt. I'd always felt guilty that I made money, so I had to give it

away or lose it. I don't mean I was a hypocrite. When I believe, I

believe right down to the roots. But being a chameleon, I became

whoever I was with. When you stop and think, what the hell was I

doing fighting the American Government just because Jerry Rubincouldn't get what he always wanted - a nice cushy job."

Q: "Do you ever yearn for the good old days?"

JOHN: "Nah! Whatever made the Beatles the Beatles also made the 60's

the 60's. And anybody who thinks that if John and Paul got together

with George and Ringo, the Beatles would exist, is out of their

skulls. The Beatles gave everything they had to give, and more. The


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four guys who used to be that group can never ever be that group

again even if they wanted to be. What if Paul and I got together? It

would be boring. Whether George or Ringo joined in is irrelevant

because Paul and I created the music. OK? There are many Beatle

tracks that I would redo - they were never the way I wanted them tobe. But going back to the Beatles would be like going back to

school... I was never one for reunions. It's all over."

Q: "Of all the new songs, only 'I'm Losing You' seems to harbor the

famous Lennon demons. How did you come to write it?"

JOHN: "It came out of an overwhelming feeling of loss that went

right back to the womb. One night, I couldn't get through to Yoko on

the telephone and I felt completely disconnected... I think that's

what the last five years were all about - to reestablish me for

meself. The actual moment of awareness when I remembered who I

was came in a room in Hong Kong because Yoko had sent me around the

world to be by meself. I hadn't done anything by meself since I was

20. I didn't know how to check into a hotel... if someone reads this

they'll think, 'These bloody popstars!' They don't understand the

pain of being a freak. Whenever I got nervous about it I took a

bath, and in Hong Kong I'd had about 40 baths. I was looking out

over the bay when something rang a bell. It was the recognition -

'My God! This relaxed person is me from way back. HE knew how to do

things. It doesn't rely on any adulation or hit record. Wow!' So I

called Yoko and said, 'Guess who. It's me!'I wandered around Hong Kong at dawn, alone, and it was a thrill. It

was rediscovering a feeling that I once had as a youngster walking

the mountains of Scotland with an Auntie. The heather, the mist... I

thought - aha! THIS is the feeling that makes you write or paint...

It was with me all my life! And that's why I'm free of the Beatles,

because I took time to discover that I was John Lennon before the

Beatles, and will be after the Beatles. And so be it."

(End of interview)

John Lennon Newsweek Interview 1980.pdf

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