Miscellaneous questions about John Lennon | Page 3 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

This question isn’t going to change lives, but here goes…I am reading “Imagine This” by Julia Baird and she tells the story of John’s harmonica. I seem to remember hearing from quite a few sources that he “stole” his harmonica from Frank Hessey’s Music Store in Liverpool. My friends & I often wondered if he ever paid for it once he got famous. Julia said he got his harmonica from the engineer on a train he took to Scotland. Has anyone heard the real story of where John got his harmonica? Also…why do you think John stopped playing it? He only plays it in the early Beatles songs. Thanks!

I have to say that from my point of view, the Unpleasant Facts are highly exaggerated. He did not beat up his wives. He was capable of fits of rage, but neither of his wives ended up in a hospital because of them. He was not a patholigical liar. He was an extremely intelligent man who read extensively. He knew about the politics of his time. As for Yoko. He met her at an art gallery (I believe it was the same night he met Brigette Bardot). She claims she didn’t know who he was, but after that original meeting, she wrote him notes and poems and solicitations trying to get him to invest in her artwork. It was nearly a full year later when Cynthia left for a trip to Spain that Lennon had Pete Shotten contact her and ask her to come to Kenwood. They were up all night and they did hook up. They were inseparable after that point. It was not love at first sight. I think Yoko was intriguing to John at a time when he was bored. And Yoko saw a sugar daddy for all her art projects and ideas.

meanmistermustard said
I might be misunderstanding you mccartneyalarm (and apologies if so) but the wife doesn’t have to end up in hospital for the man to be a wifebeater, a black-eye, punching of the arms and numerous other injuries can be inflicted that don’t mean a trip to the hospital. Generally the aim is not to do so much damage that the female (or male, lets not restrict it to men beating up the women, women do beat up their male partners) ends up in hospital as they are not wanting to be caught.

And John has admitted to hitting Cynthia.

Thanks, MMM. It’s worth noting that although Cynthia later said John had “only” hit her once, she and John both said differently to Hunter Davies, in whose original bio they paint a classic picture of an abusive relationship along the lines of the “hit-and-apologize, hit-and-apologize, troubled man tamed by the love of a good woman” narrative (which at the time was still considered an acceptable, even romantic, story).

IMO, John’s violence went far beyond being “a product of different times.” He hospitalized people, for starters. He also had an exceptionally keen radar for detecting and verbally attacking weaknesses in others (practically everyone who knew him says this) and he vented his violence almost exclusively on people with less power than himself. If there are stories of him getting violent with authority figures, like teachers or cops, where there would have been significant blowback upon himself, I haven’t heard them. Despite long years of high stress (and occasional open hostility), he never got violent with any of the other Beatles — presumably because he knew they wouldn’t tolerate it. And he flat-out told May Pang, after trashing their room, that it was the first time he had destroyed anything of his OWN during one of these rampages. IMO this pattern of selectivity precludes a “lost control/couldn’t help it” explanation (the “I couldn’t help it” excuse is usually bullshit). And he certainly had the abuser’s knack of inuring people to his smaller cruelties, and grooming them to make excuses for him (“Oh, that’s just John”).

Though he later said he had “learned to regret his violence,” as late as 1974 he was still throwing punches at a (female) reporter and throttling May Pang in a drunken rage (somebody had to pull him off her), and even later he yelled so loudly into Sean’s ear that he damaged his hearing. I also find his supposed “regret” hard to swallow in light of the fact that AFAIK he never once mentioned trying to quit drinking, even though it’s clear alcohol was fuel to the fire. IMO, if you really give a s**t about hurting people, you at least try to curb the things that make you more likely to hurt them, even if addiction issues ultimately make it difficult to do so. You at least mention the connection in one of your fifty billion interviews where you go on about what a “feminist” you’ve become. Frankly, I just don’t think he gave it that much thought.

So, I guess I’ve shown why I don’t comment much on John’s personality, lol. My opinion of him as a person is pretty grim. He was a brilliant artist, and a fascinating conversationalist, but I have no stomach for softsoaping the violence of a privileged, world-worshipped millionaire who, IMO, was so clearly an abuser. It’s kind of a downer to talk about, though, so anyone who wants it can have the last word.