Sean Ono Lennon reveals why John Lennon resented being a Beatle
Sean Ono Lennon has opened up about the complicated feelings his father, John Lennon, harboured in light of his time in the Beatles.
On September 25th, BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast an interview between Chris Hawkins and Sean Ono Lennon. During the intimate interview, Hawkins referenced The One to One concert, which was a charity event held at Madison Square Garden in 1972, featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It is known as the only full-length concert Lennon performed after leaving The Beatles.
In light of the iconic performance, Hawkins referenced a comment Lennon had of the event, whereby he believed, as shared in the interview, “the Madison Square Garden gig was the best music I enjoyed playing since The Cavern or even Hamburg.”
When Sean was asked whether, as a result, his father had “fallen out of love with music,” he responded honestly, “I think there’s a bit of a myth about that. I don’t feel that he’d fallen out of love with music. I think he’d fallen out of love with a certain kind of fame.”
He continued, “I think he’d fallen out of love with having to be a part of a machinery, of a pop machine, you know. I think that was – even though he was always rebellious within that framework, I think that he still resented, you know, having to be a Beatle in a way. I think he really wanted to move on from that, you know.”
Sean then mentioned John’s relationship with his mother, Yoko Ono, which became “the catalyst for it and the symbol of it in his mind. And he wanted to move on and be a radical artist and activist with, you know, this girl, Yoko, who he had fallen in love with. So, I think he was trying to find a new way to do things and looking for a new way to do things.”
However, this didn’t come without growing pains, which Sean elaborated to include the fact that “he made a record with my mom that people didn’t necessarily like, Some Time in New York City, you know. I think the songs are really great. I just think they’re less manicured than what people were used to. You know, they were clearly recorded impulsively and quickly. And I think that was the rock and roll spirit. It was almost like a punk, a proto-punk kind of spirit.”
As always, John seemed to be one step ahead of the crowd. Sean finished: “But I don’t think people were ready for that, paired with how heavily political the messaging was. But it still – I think when it didn’t sell, I think that was hard for them.”
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