Q&A with Lesley-Ann Jones, author of 鈥楾he Search for John Lennon鈥�
The Fab Four had nicknames: the cute one, the quiet one, the smart one, the funny one. The brainy Beatle was also dizzyingly complex, as demonstrated in 鈥淭he Search for John Lennon: The Life, Loves, and Death of a Rock Star,鈥� which arrives as fans mark the 40th anniversary of his murder in New York on Dec. 8, 1980. Monitor correspondent Randy Dotinga spoke with the book鈥檚 author, British rock historian Lesley-Ann Jones, about her deeply perceptive portrait of this brilliant, troubled, not-always-admirable musician.聽
Q:聽What surprised you about John Lennon鈥檚 life?
I didn鈥檛 realize quite how much his songwriting was a blatant cry for help. He鈥檚 always trying to claw his way back to his mother. I鈥檝e interviewed many rock stars, and it鈥檚 struck me how much these guys tend to have in common. They almost always come to music as an escape. They鈥檝e mostly had dysfunctional childhoods with abuse or abandonment, and there鈥檚 a massive void that they鈥檙e looking to fill in some way. For the book, I wanted to approach it from a woman鈥檚 and a mother鈥檚 point of view 鈥� bring the small boy John back, see [the world] through a child鈥檚 eyes, and try to bring him along with me and understand him at every stage.
Q:聽How does the hit Beatles song 鈥淗elp!鈥� fit into this narrative?
He wrote it when he was 24. It was a very upbeat, jolly song that we鈥檇 dance around to. If you really listen to the words 鈥� 鈥淗elp! I need somebody / Help! Not just anybody鈥� 鈥� he鈥檚 crying out to his mum. When I was a child listening to these very catchy songs, I had no idea that they were so personal, and so multilayered and so full of his own angst, trying to work things out, get a handle on himself, and find out who he was.聽
Q:聽Lennon often comes across as a mean, cruel, and violent person. How should we consider those parts of his personality?
He hadn鈥檛 the best start in life, and fear was the thing that drove John the most. It is very important to reveal him in all his facets, warts and all, how he compromised himself horribly to become things he didn鈥檛 believe in for the sake of fame and fortune.聽
Q:聽Yoko Ono, Lennon鈥檚 second wife, is often painted as a villain who broke up the Beatles. How do you view her?聽
She was his salvation in so many ways. For one, she was the ultimate mother-replacement therapy. She also was a much more enlightened, better-educated person than John and a trained musician herself. She introduced these more global ideas and brought him into the 20th century.聽
Q:聽How did Lennon redeem himself late in life?
He found genuine happiness as a partner and a father. All of his failings with his first wife [the late Cynthia Lennon] and his son Julian are redeemed with [his second son] Sean, although that obviously didn鈥檛 do Julian much good. But I think Julian also has forgiven his father by now and has come to terms with the reasons why he was neglected. John did come full circle and was happy.
Q:聽What鈥檚 your assessment of Lennon?
I ended up really loving him. And I鈥檓 somebody who鈥檚 adored Paul McCartney ever since I was a child. John found the thing that I鈥檝e never found, which is the one true love. He solved his problems from the outside inwards by accepting that Yoko was the woman for him.聽
He did treat his first wife, Cynthia, terribly badly. But I feel now that he probably didn鈥檛 know how else to tell her that the marriage wasn鈥檛 working and that he鈥檇 found someone else. A lot of the time, a man might seem to do something mean and spiteful because he doesn鈥檛 know how to do it any other way. So I have a lot of sympathy for John. He did learn from women. And we can understand him most by examining the women in his life.
