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"The whole thing died in my mind long before the rumpus
started. We used to believe the Beatles myth just as much
as the public and we were in love with them just the same
way. But we were four individuals who eventually recovered
our individualities after being submerged in a myth."
Question: "Do you plan to record any anti-war songs?"
John Lennon: "All our songs are anti-war."
"A more interesting question is not 'Why did they break
up?' but 'Would they have gotten back together?' ... There's
always a chance we'd work together again, but I can't see
us touring. I just see us making records."
"I go to restaurants and the groups always play "Yesterday." I
even signed a guy's violin in Spain after he played us "Yesterday." He
couldn't understand that I didn't write the song. But I guess
he couldn't have gone from table to table playing "I
Am The Walrus.""
"We were all on this ship in the sixties, our generation,
a ship going to discover the New World. And the Beatles were
in the crow's nest of that ship."
"Lack of feeling in an emotional sense is responsible
for the way some singers do our songs. They don't understand
and are too old to grasp the feeling. Beatles are really
the only people who can play Beatle music."
"At the (record company) meeting Paul just kept mithering
on about what we were going to do, so in the end I just said,
'I think you're daft. I want a divorce.'"
"I felt that film (Let It Be) was set up by Paul for
Paul. That is one of the main reasons the Beatles ended.
I can't speak for George, but I pretty damn well know we
got fed up of being sidemen for Paul. After Brian died, that's
what happened, that's what began to happen to us. The camera
work was set up to show Paul and not anybody else. And that's
how I felt about it."
Question: "What was your feeling when Brian died?"
John Lennon: "The feeling that anybody has when somebody close to them
dies. There is a sort of little hysterical, sort of hee, hee, I'm glad it's
not me or something in it, the funny feeling when somebody close to you dies.
I don't know whether you've had it, but I've had a lot of people die around
me. And the other feeling is: ``What the f*ck? What can I do?'' I knew that
we were in trouble then. I didn't really have any misconceptions about our
ability to do anything other than play music, and I was scared. I thought,
``We've f*ckin' had it.'' "
"The whole Beatle thing was just beyond comprehension.
When 'Help' came out, I was actually crying out for help.
Most people think it's just a fast rock 'n roll song. I didn't
realize it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was
commissioned to write it for the movie. But later, I knew
I really was crying out for help."
"I don't know if I want to record together again. I go
off and on it... In the old days, when we needed an album,
Paul and I got together and produced enough songs for it.
Nowadays, there's three of us writing prolifically and trying
to fit it all into one album."
John Lennon, January 1970
"Where do people get off saying the Beatles should
give $200,000,000 to South America? You know, America has
poured billions into places like that. It doesn't mean a
damn thing. After they've eaten that meal, then what? It
lasts for only a day. After the $200,000,000 is gone, then
what? It goes round and round in circles. You can pour money
in forever. After Peru, then Harlem, then Britain. There
is no one concert. We would have to dedicate the rest of
our lives to one world concert tour, and I'm not ready for
it. Not in this lifetime, anyway."
John Lennon responding to suggestion that the Beatles
should reunite and perform benefit concerts
"It can never be again! Everyone always talks about
a good thing coming to an end, as if life was over. But I'll
be 40 when this interview comes out. Paul is 38. Elton John,
Bob Dylan — we're all relatively young people. The
game isn't over yet. Everyone talks in terms of the last
record or the last Beatle concert — but, God willing,
there are another 40 years of productivity to go. I'm not
judging whether "I Am The Walrus" is better or
worse than "Imagine." It is for others to judge.
I am doing it. I do. I don't stand back and judge — I
do."
John Lennon on talk of a Beatles reunion
"The Beatles is over, but John, Paul, George, and Ringo...God
knows what relationship they'll have in the future. I don't
know. I still love those guys! Because they'll always be
those people who were that part of my life."
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