Lennon Remembers is the book version of a Rolling Stone interview with John Lennon. It was published in 1973, but I bought it and read it in 1976. At the time, it was a little like a Bible to me. I’d been into the Beatles for a couple of years, but as a 14-year-old, I somehow empathized with Lennon. He seemed a little miserable, which is what I felt like as a 14-year-old teen.
I had read books as a child, but I don’t remember them very vividly. I remember borrowing Just William and Jennings books from the library, which were comedy books about British schoolboy life. And of course, I bought plenty of comics, from Beano to Whizzer and Chips. If I thought long and hard, I might come up with early books. But I still remember Lennon Remembers quite vividly. It’s hard to believe that he was murdered just four years later.
I think I found the recording of the actual interview on the web a couple of years ago.
I think it’s this one. He said a lot of silly things, but I was just impressed that he seemed so open and honest about everything.
Lennon had a difficult background. I remember hearing in recent times that he became a born-again Christian at one stage, a few years before he died, but then pulled back. My theory is that, like many people, he thought that it might solve his earthly problems. Or maybe he became a little disillusioned with whatever movement attracted him to Christ. But we should follow Jesus, not movements. They might be helpful, but we certainly shouldn’t put all our confidence in them. Most of us probably take an interest in several Christian movements throughout our lives. The one constant is Jesus Himself, which is as it should be.
My hope is that he genuinely committed his life to Christ. We sometimes have high expectations of people who do this, and rightly so. But we need to take account of the fact that not everyone who is messed up immediately changes. It’s often two steps forward and one step back. I’d love to see all four of the Beatles with me in heaven. I find plenty of hints that they trusted in Jesus. They were always a big part of my life, though I only really got into them in 1974, when I was 12. Back in the 1960s, I remember watching the Monkees on TV, and my dad mentioned The Beatles. All I knew about beetles were the insects 😀. I do remember Yellow Submarine. And when I bought my first album, The Red Album in 1974, I recognized many of the songs. I probably heard them on the radio as a young child.
I was disappointed with the Blue Album, which I got in 1975. This was their later hits. Some of the songs seemed a little too weird. I was quite conservative when I was 13. But I did get to like all their albums over the next few years. One of the weird songs, Strawberry Fields Forever, became my favourite Beatles song. Back then, it seemed an attractive notion to be mad and to somehow escape from life – living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
But mental health challenges aren’t fun as Lennon himself surely discovered. Still, it’s a lovely song, as is the other song on the double-A sided single; Penny Lane. And it’s nice that in later years, Paul McCartney revived Lennon’s contributions on some new Beatles singles, released in 1995 and 2024.
I always like to close with a couple of Christian hymns or songs. I’ll resist the temptation to make an AI Christian Beatles song. But there were some 1960s Christian songs that were somewhat similar to the Beatles style – the sort of thing that I’d probably laugh at. But lately, I’m trying to like everything 😀
Hibernia Gospel 