Six musicians John Lennon hated with a passion: “I think all that is bullshit”
John Lennon made a few enemies in his lifetime, which isn’t all that surprising when you consider his enormous influence on popular culture. With The Beatles, he was one-half of perhaps the greatest songwriting partnership of the 20th century. As a solo artist and activist, he served as an ambassador for peace in an era of turmoil and conflict. It is a professional career streaked with monumental moments of cultural significance, a whole heap of incredible songs and an indelible mark, not just on the world of culture but on society at large.
As an individual, however, he was never far from controversy. The singer was not just famed for his vocal abilities behind the mic but was often cited as the most loudmouthed member of The Beatles. Lennon spent his life under the spotlight, the knock-on effect of which was that even passing comments were assigned great significance, as was the case with his “bigger than Jesus” interview, which made him the enemy of every Christ-loving individual from England to America’s Bible Belt.
One of the benefits of Lennon’s comments being so meticulously documented, however, is that we are able to see how his views changed over the course of his career, such as his opinion of his peers. We’ve scoured the archives to bring you a list of the individuals Lennon, at one point or another, took a disliking to.
As you’ll discover, Lennon didn’t hate these artists in an absolute sense; he simply took a dislike to what they appeared to represent, and even that was subject to change. Lennon was, after all, an ever-evolving, ever-changing animal of creativity, so what might have pushed him to the brink one minute would pull him back from the edge the next. It was the same with the people in his life. With that said, let’s begin.
Artists John Lennon didn’t like:
Paul McCartney
John Lennon’s complicated relationship with Paul McCartney is well-documented. From their early days in Liverpool to The Beatles’ split in 1970, John and Paul were joined at the hip, writing songs “eyeball-to-eyeball” in cramped tour buses and hotel beds.
Their relationship became increasingly fractious from 1968 onwards, though the seeds of their resentment were likely planted long before. Things came to a head in 1971, when they started writing songs to attack one another following the acrimonious disbandment of The Beatles, for which McCartney was being blamed at the time.
It began when McCartney released a vengeful number called ‘Too Many People’ on his 1971 album Ram, in which he flings multiple tentative insults at Lennon. On learning of these, the bespectacled rocker retaliated with ‘How Do You Sleep?’ featuring an equally miffed George Harrison on guitar.
The song was not just an attack on McCartney’s family: (“Jump when your momma tell you anything”) but a swipe at his greatest contributions to The Beatles’ output. Take the line: “The only thing you done was yesterday,” a reference to McCartney’s celebrated song for Help!, “And since you’ve gone you’re just another day.”
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Despite spending years at close quarters with the UK and US chart systems, John Lennon rarely listened to the top ten. “Only when I’m recording or about to bring something out will I listen [to the Top Ten],” he told Rolling Stone in 1971. “Just before I record, I go buy a few albums to see what people are doing. Whether they have improved any, or whether anything happened. And nothing’s really happened. “
When asked by Rolling Stone’s Jann S. Wenner if he liked anything at the top of the charts, Lennon held nothing back, lashing out at one of the year’s most prominent rock outfits.
“I don’t like the Blood, Sweat & Tears shit. I think all that is bullshit,” he began. “Rock ‘n’ roll is going like jazz, as far as I can see, and the bullshitters are going off into that excellentness which I never believed in and others going off.”
It’s possible Lennon was disgruntled by the fact that Blood, Sweat & Tears’ self-titled album won the Grammy Award The Beatles’ Abbey Road was up for, though it’s hard to say for sure. Either way, Lennon seems to have regarded the group as the very antithesis of the “avant-garde of rock ‘n’ roll”.
Joan Baez
In that same 1971 interview with Jann Wenner, Lennon named two folk musicians he simply refused to listen to. His comments came after Wenner made the mistake of comparing Lennon’s ‘Working Class Hero’ to the work of Bob Dylan, a comparison that always drew a bad response.
“I never liked the fruity Judy Collins and [Joan] Baez and all of that stuff,” he went on to claim. “So the only folk music I know is about miners up in Newcastle or Dylan. In that way, I would be influenced, but it doesn’t sound like Dylan to me. Does it sound like Dylan to you?”
The interviewer subsequently backtracked, claiming that only the instrumentation seemed Dylanesque. “That’s the only way to play,” Wenner said. “I never listen that hard to him.”
Frank Zappa
On one level, John Lennon related to Frank Zappa. In Lennon Remembers, he expresses his hatred of critics while shunning those who fail to respect his genius. To illustrate this far-from-modest point, he compares himself to Frank Zappa, who at that time was practically synonymous with artistic integrity.
“Zappa’s there screaming ‘Look at me, I’m a genius, for fuck’s sake, what do I have to do to prove to you sons-of-bitches what I can do and who I am and don’t dare fuckin’ criticise my work like that! You don’t know anything about it!’ Fucking bullshit!” Lennon said, adding: “I know what Zappa is going through! And a half! I’m just coming out of it now, just fucking’ hell. I just have been in school again. I’ve had teachers ticking me off and marking my work. If nobody can recognize what I am then fuck ’em.”
However, Lennon was frequently distrustful of overt pomposity, perhaps regarding it as a tool by which an artist might demonstrate their supposed superiority, which is perhaps by Lennon also remained hesitant about Zappa’s work. “I admire Zappa a bit,” he said before criticising him for being “a fuckin’ intellectual”.
Bob Dylan
This one might come as something of a surprise. Bob Dylan was an important influence on Lennon, who started adopting elements of the singer-songwriter’s introspective songcraft in the early 1960s, giving birth to watershed albums like Rubber Soul.
The pair also crossed paths on numerous occasions. Indeed, it was Dylan who introduced Lennon to the wonders of grass, another powerful influence on John’s songwriting. In fact, given Lennon’s artistic evolution from this moment, it wouldn’t be remiss to call Dylan Lennon’s largest influence of all. But things would eventually sour.
Lennon was barmy about Dylan for many years, but his adoration eventually soured. In 1979, Lennon recorded a long rambling monologue about the state of pop music in which he lambasts Dylan and his new album Slow Train Coming, the first of his Born-Again albums.
“He wants to be a waiter for Christ,” Lennon, a strident atheist, says of ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’, chuckling to himself. “The backing is mediocre,” he adds, “the singing’s really pathetic, and the words were just embarrassing.”
The Rolling Stones
It might seem somewhat trivial to include The Rolling Stones on the list of the Beatle’s most despised artists. However, Lennon’s dislike of the group’s lead singer was well-documentend and certainly not simply crafted to gain a few extra column inches.
The two bands were continuously pitched towards one another as enemies. In truth, they shared so many life experiences that the members of the band would often cross paths with Lennon-McCartney even providing the Stones with their first major hit. But, Mick Jagger crossed the line for Lennon when he took aim at The Beatles. He said: “I was always very respectful about Mick and the Stones, but he said a lot of sort of tarty things about the Beatles, which I am hurt by, because you know, I can knock the Beatles, but don’t let Mick Jagger knock them.” But the real powerful retort came when Lennon suggested the Stones had been copying their Liverpudlian counterparts. “I would like to just list what we did and what the Stones did two months after on every fuckin’ album,” fired Lennon across the tape.
“Every fuckin’ thing we did, Mick does exactly the same – he imitates us. And I would like one of you fuckin’ underground people to point it out, you know Satanic Majesties is Pepper, ‘We Love You,’ it’s the most fuckin’ bullshit, that’s ‘All You Need Is Love’.”
As the 1970s appeared, the Stones were being lauded as rock heroes while The Beatles were falling apart. It would’ve been enough to put Lennon’s nose out of place: “I resent the implication that the Stones are like revolutionaries and that The Beatles weren’t. If the Stones were or are, The Beatles really were too. But they are not in the same class, music-wise or power-wise, never were.”
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