Tags
Breaking news, of a sort: I just now came across a Twitter thread from our friends at They May Be Parted about an interview with John Lennon that was published in the New Musical Express during this week in 1969 (pub date May 3).
I don’t want to steal their scoop, so here’s a link. But the article says a lot about where J.L.’s head was at at the time, and about the state of The Beatles.
Executive summary: Lennon sounds surprisingly enthusiastic about being a Beatle and about what they’re doing musically. He talks about hanging out and writing with Paul, about just having written “Because,” and about the next Beatles album, which will be out “in about 8 weeks” (wrong). He hints that there is still a possibility of their doing some live shows, although Ringo is against it. Of the Let It Be film footage, he says
Somebody’s editing that at the moment. It’s sixty-eight hours and they’re trying to get it down to five for several TV specials.
A lot of this is pure pie in the sky, of course. What is surprising is that John, of all people, is so Up with Beatles. Had it been Paul, you might say that he was just shilling out of habit; but John was in the no-more-bullshit phase of his career, and it’s hard to believe he didn’t mean what he was saying.
It may have been partly seasonal; come the first week of May, springtime is in full swing, and all God’s creatures feel more hopeful. At this point it may have seemed entirely possible that The Beatles would iron out their differences and embark on a new series of creative adventures. And even though we know better, let’s allow ourselves to think that too, if only for a minute.
He was literally still in his honeymoon phase. Give Yoko a little credit.