Lennon_Article
Lennon Article
Excerpts from “Lennon Lives Forever,” written by Mikal Gilmore in Rolling Stone magazine, 12/15/2005, Issue 989
“[In 1970] He had been active in Los Angeles in an experimental form of treatment, primal therapy, authored by psychologist Arthur Janov
…
John…in 1970, when he severed his relationship with Alfred [his father]
…
Lennon had also forsaken his first son, Julian, during his years with the Beatles, and only spoke with him sporadically since his divorce from Cynthia.
…
Spector produced … Lennon’s lyrics still chased troubling themes — his hatred of deceitful political leaders, jealous insecurities in his marriage, a bitter disdain for his former song-writing partner (he loved beating up on McCartney)
…
In October 1973, he and Ono separated, after four years of marriage… his and Ono’s secretary, May Pang, who became his lover.
…
Lennon fell apart. He behaved horribly in public, and he smashed up a friend’s house where he was staying. Nilsson later recalled Lennon crying while drunk at night, wondering what he had done wrong.
…
Lennon’s depression and bravado ran alongside each other in his 1974 Walls and Bridges
…
Lennon and Ono also became adherents of destiny systems like astrology and numerology, basing major decisions — including business, travel and relationships — on how the stars or the numbers looked.”
from “Lennon Lives Forever.” Gilmore, Mikal, Rolling Stone, 12/15/2005, Issue 989
There is an early to mid-1970s interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the Dick Cavett Show where Lennon says something like “It didn’t work, Art” looking right at the camera (I have been informed this from two independent sources). He’s also chain smoking throughout the entire interview.
If anybody finds it, please let me know more details.
I think the interview may be on this DVD:
More On John Lennon and Primal Therapy
by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines.
http://www.amazon.com/Love-You-Make-Insiders-Beatles/dp/007008159X
Liverpool, before Brian Epstein discovered The Beatles. Later, he
became
part of the Beatles’ management team and served as Executive Director
of
Apple Corp., the Beatles’ financial organization. He was best man (and
the only guest) at John & Yoko’s marriage ceremony in Gibraltar. After
the group broke up, Peter Brown accepted a job with an music-biz
management agency in New York. He took an apartment overlooking Central
Park. When John & Yoko visited him there they liked the view so much
they wanted one like it, and they found an apartment nearby in Dakota
Mansions, where Lennon was later shot.
Co-author Steven Gaines is a music industry biographer and journalist.
There’s a section about primal therapy spanning pages 326-330, whereas the following qupte spans pages 328-329 (in my paperback edition). Peter Brown writes: “For nearly three months they
spent two half days a week in therapy with Janov.” Unlike other
patients, many of whom had to stay in seedy lodgings, John and Yoko
rented a house with a swimming pool in Beverley Hills.
Quote ———————————–
Yoko didn’t buy Janov’s therapy at all. John later claimed that she
only
went along with it from the start to satisfy him, that in her heart she
felt John was only searching for another “Daddy”. But she also thought
the therapy was useful for men who needed to be able to cry and release
themselves. This form of expression was quite familiar to Yoko, who
would not only scream and cry in her private life, but perform it on
records and the stage.
There came a moment of disillusionment with Janov. According to John,
one day Janov appeared at a therapy session with two 16mm cameras. John
wouldn’t even consider having his session recorded. “I’m not going to
be
filmed,” John said, “especially not rolling around on the floor
screaming.”
According to John, Janov started to berate them. “Some people are so
big
they won’t be filmed,” Janov said. Janov said that it was coincidental
that he was filming the session, and it had nothing to do with John and
Yoko’s fame. “Who are you kidding, Mr Janov?” John said. “[You] just
happen to be filming the session with John and Yoko in it.”
End of Quote ———————————–
The author has lots of praise for the so-called “primal” album, Plastic
Ono Band, but it’s clear from the events which happened later that the
beneficial effects of primal therapy didn’t last. According to Peter
Brown, by 1972 John Lennon had become addicted to heroin or methadone
[He couldn't confirm which it was. Page 327]. In 1973 John Lennon
separated from Yoko for more than a year and lived in Los Angeles, a
period that the mass media portrayed as an alcoholic haze marked by
bizarre antics in public places. On page 375 Peter Brown writes:
Quote ———————————–
John used to refer to this nightmarish period in LA as his “Lost
Weekend”. “My goal was to obliterate the mind so that I wouldn’t be
conscious,” John said later. “I think I was maybe suicidal on some kind
of subconscious level.” Indeed, it was probably the closest John ever
came to suicide in a real sense. The prodigious quantities of alcohol
alone - there are stories of John’s polishing off fifths of Rémy
Martin
in one sitting - were enough to kill the average man, to say nothing of
the increased danger of mixing the booze with his usual assortment of
drugs, plus an LA speciality, coke [cocaine].
End of Quote ———————————–
Julian Lennon wrote a Foreword for his mother’s book, “John” by Cynthia
Lennon. First published by Hodder & Stoughton, London, in 2005.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Cynthia-Lennon/dp/0340895128
“Growing up as John Lennon’s son has been a rocky path. All my life
I’ve
had people coming up to me saying, ‘I loved your Dad.’ I always have
very mixed feelings when I hear this. I know that Dad was an idol to
millions who grew up loving his music and his ideals. But to me he
wasn’t a musician or a peace icon, he was the father I loved and who
let
me down in so many ways. After the age of five, when my parents
separated, I saw him only a handful of times, and when I did he was
often remote and intimidating. I grew up longing for more contact with
him but felt rejected and unimportant in his life.
Dad was a great talent, a remarkable man who stood for peace and love
in
the world. But at the same time he found it very hard to show any peace
and love to his first family - my mother and me. In many accounts of
Dad’s life Mum and I are either dismissed, or at best treated as
insignificant bit players in his life, which sadly is something that
continues to this day. Yet Mum was his first real love and she was with
him for half his adult life, from art college, to the genesis of the
Beatles, to their overwhelming worldwide success. That’s why I’m so
happy that she’s decided to write her side of the story. For far too
long now Mum has put up with being relegated to a puff of smoke in
Dad’s
life and that simply is not the truth. Now it’s time to set the record
straight. There’s so much that has never been said, so many tales that
have never been told. If there is to be a balanced picture of Dad’s
life, then Mum’s side of the story is long overdue.
I’m immensely proud of her. She’s always been there for me; she was the
one who kept it all together, taught me what matters in life and stayed
strong when our world was crumbling. While Dad was fast becoming one of
the wealthiest men in his field, Mum and I had very little and she was
going out to work to support us. Mum has always acted with dignity and
I
have her to thank for who I am. I love her honesty and her courage, and
I know it’s taken a great deal of both for her to write her story.
That’s why I offer her my full support and I recommend this book to
anyone who wants to know the truth, the real truth about Dad’s life.”
- 2005
End of Quote ———————————–
A version of the Foreword has been published online by the respected
British newspaper, The Sunday Times. They left out a few phrases and
added extra paragraph breaks:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article565023.ece
invited Julian to the United States for his sixteenth birthday, in the
Easter holidays. This is what Cynthia Lennon wrote in her book about
what happened [page 356 in my paperback edition].
“John’s erratic behaviour around Julian continued - fun one moment and
violent anger the next. And he could be like this with Sean too,
reducing the little boy to tears of terror. Fred Seaman, or sometimes
Yoko, would act as a buffer when John lost his temper. Julian was
constantly on tenterhooks, sensing that an eruption was coming and
retreating to his room in the hope of avoiding it.
One incident in particular did him lasting damage. The whole family had
been having fun, making Mickey Mouse pancakes and fooling around, when
Julian giggled. John turned on him and screamed, ‘I can’t stand the way
you fucking laugh! Never let me hear your fucking horrible laugh
again.’
He continued with a tirade of abuse until Julian fled once again to his
room in tears. It was monstrously cruel and has affected him ever
since.
To this day he seldom laughs.”
End of Quote ———————————–
[This subsection, namely "More on John Lennon and Primal Therapy" was generously written and contributed by "D."
See also by "D" - posted on the following site in August 2008:
http://pillsworld.blogspot.com/2008/05/julian-john-lennon.html
and
http://pillsworld.blogspot.com/2008/05/john-lennon-primal-therapy.html ]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6eV7ZsghCs
[As much of a fan I am of John Lennon, it is interesting to ask a few questions. When you add the time in England and LA did he get the equivalent of more than the recommended 8 months of therapy that was promised in the Primal Scream to be average? He got a lot of exclusive therapy time with Janov himself when both Janovs travelled to John's home in England. Shouldn't that mean he would be a model case, since he got Janov rather than an assistant? Did he get better? Did his music or words after primal therapy include any personal attacks towards others?]
