Remembering Lennon - the Wenner tapes

[Maacc]

In commenoration of the 25th Anniversary of John Lennon's death, the BBC is carrying a really excellent season of Lennon related programmes on it's Radio 4 frequency. The programmes are available to listen to live, or can be downloaded after broadcast using the BBC's "Listen again" service.

Some of you will probably have heard of the Lennon/Wenner interviews which took place just after ol' JL just came out of Primal Scream Therapy in 1970. Jan Wenner was editor of Rolling Stone magazine at the time, and was a close friend. Probably because of this, lennon fairly bares his soul, and is in "loose cannon" mode. He criticises and praises Paul/Faul in equal measure, describing him as his equal, and totally writing him off in the next breath. He has a go at the other Beatles too.

It's a genuinely fascinating insight into Lennon's head in the immediate aftermath of the acrimonious break up of his band. He talks about Beatles music, their solo albums ("McCartney" and "Plastic Ono Band" had not long been released. Lennon's verdict on "McCartney": "it's rubbish"), the future, and just about everything you could think of. He slates Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones too.

I'd read them before - Wenner pissed Lennon right off by releasing a book of transcripts - but in listening to them, you get a far better reflection of where Lennon was coming from; all the agression and anger and the accompanying vulnerability and insecurity. Lennon comes across as an articulate, intelligent and quick witted character who is maddeningly contradictory at the same time, and you (I) can't help liking him.

The programme will be available for download from Monday 5th December, and I' really urge anyone with even a passing interest in John Lennon or the Beatles to give them a listen. Here's the link:

www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/lennon.shtml

Look at the Listen Again column on the right of the page and click on "The Wenner Tapes". Happy listening, groovers!

[Perplexed]

(I am so glad you have informed us of that. I will d'l and listen eargerly. I was thinking today while driving the same thought---Lennon, highly intelligent, quick witted, insecure,
sharp tongued, extremely contradictory, capable of sympathy,
analytical, and troubled at the core, but always working it out in his mind, somehow....

Imperfect man, but full of life and spirit. Even when he's off course, the way that he's trying to travel the course loks compelling. Yes, I can't help liking him. No, I love Lennon. I wish he was alive.

Ringo? I like Ringo. Who wouldn't? He radiates an unfussy, working man's sincerity, without pretesions. He has the enormous patience. He works well with all sort of people, maintains a dignified equalibrium, and plays the drums in a way that effectively
supports and propels. He plays consistently. He's an ensemble side-man, not a show-off. And he doesn't rush. He invented the art of playing a triplet fill on the last beat of the last measure of an 8 bar phrase where he makes everybody in the band wanna wait for the downbeat. "Waitferit, waitferit......Boooosch!"
Perfect. Everyone lined up on beat "One" and nobody tripped on their feet to get there.

George? I respect him. HE must have come from an orderly household, a sensible one, where members cared for each other in practical ways. I think that he spent al his post Beatle years trying to teach people, by example, to think and act in love.
All his music----teaching examples. Good music all the same, but a purpose and a drive in it.

James Paul? He enchanted me as a child; now his mysterious
fate intrigues me. I marvel at his natural, unimpeded songwriting,
his innate sense of the inner drama in text, and energetic zeal
for performing. But I can't really see exactly who he was or remember much about him; he is a foggy image from a dream
we all had 40 years ago. We all thought that he was swell, though! I have no idea what he was personally about. I only hear the music he created. I suspect he didn't have time for trivial things, or things that impeded his writing or playing. I think he loved to do what he did, which was write and perform, and I think he lived for it. I suspect that, after the initial glow, crowds, clout, and the glamour paled by comparison to the act of creating music.

billy? I am amazed with his carreer, and admire his creativity more with each recording I acquaint with, also his finesse, confidence, efficiency, commitment to preparation, and chamelion like ability to "transmutate" musical concepts and materials into a broader tapestry. "Wings" is the most lasting and crowning achievment, I think. The big commercial-corporate rock sound owes everything to Band on the Run, and maybe even the classic power anthem has for it's genesis, "My Love", "Baby I'm Amazed."
The output of the Wings period in forever interwoven into the cultural memetics of the West--no, the world.

Give my Regards to Broad Street is art at another level. In it, McCartney paints commentary on his career, and also on the big-time music industry. There are a lot of imspired bits and transitions within it, and though it wasn't a movie of epic scope, nonetheless, it's a film with charm and a classy likeability.

The Eleanor Rigby sequence has become a favorite moment for me. It's one of those instances when billy "transmogrifies". He
becomes a "type" of 'Charles Dickens', caught up in a dream that borrows from Victorian melodrama, opening with an idyllic picture of upperclass couples on leisurely holiday, and ending with a gruesome back-alley murder scene. "Eleanor Rigby" is musically developed in a style worthy of the best Hollywood score writers by Sir George Martin. But it is exposition itself; psychological, dramatic, revealing, and experimental on billy's part. Where rock and roll culture, and the deep worlds of Freudian archetypes intersect.

And then "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard" crystalizes the sum of the parts. It seems to say a lot indirectly. It reveals a lot without giving anything away whatsoever. But, it succeeds in putting a more personal face on billy than ever before. In the past, the attention was directed elsewhere. Now, here, the spotlight is on the man himself--not a harsh white beam without a gel, though. More like some artfully placed track lighting in the Louvre, allowing the masterpieces to speak for the master.

Were the Beatles musicians who wrote little ditties?

Oh, no. It may have startedout that way, with the two minute song and hook line. But it ended up something else.

They ended up as teachers. Teachers who themselves, never left off studying.

Though, think how great Professor Lennon would be today if only
there had not been Chaos in the Classroom. :'