|
Post by acebackwords on Nov 14, 2012 19:30:52 GMT -5
None of the Beatles approved of books being written by family, business associates or friends no matter how flattering the books. . I wonder about that. May Pang, Fred Seaman and Pete Shotton all claimed that Lennon encouraged them to write a book about him. Though, of course, that could be self-serving on their part. Pang even said Lennon quipped she should call it "Pang Remembers." Which sounds like too clever a quip to come out of Pang's brain. And Lennon hired Seaman -- a journalism major -- to be his P.A. and witness his most intimate, behind-the-scenes acts. He must have known what was coming, and sure didn't seem to act like he cared. Lennon told Seaman that he wanted all of his thoughts, observations and opinions preserved and passed on for the benefit of future generations. Which sounds like typical Lennon grandiosity. But who knows.
|
|
lowbasso
A Hard Day's Knight
Posts: 2,776
|
Post by lowbasso on Nov 14, 2012 19:32:31 GMT -5
And he was quite grateful and relieved at how "mild" the book turned out to be. According to the book "Nowhere Man" (the one based on his journals) John said a prayer and sent out a "bless you!" psychic message in Cynthia's direction after reading it. I have the book NM and I had forgotten John's ultimate relief. But man he put up a fight apparently before reading it. He was mad that she wrote any type of book. It could have been a poetry book and John would have been pissed. In Howard Sounes' book Fab about Paul, it is claimed Paul always got catty with his brother Mike if Paul thought in the least that Mike was exploiting the connection to Paul. Paul did not like Mike doing anything professionally under the McCartney name. None of the Beatles approved of books being written by family, business associates or friends no matter how flattering the books. The Beatles felt that was exploiting them. Now it was okay for them to spill dirt themselves or exploit themselves for money but how dare an ex-wife(Cynthia), brother(Mike "McGear" McCartney) or sister(Louise Harrison) do so! I say good to Cynthia for at least her first book(I withhold judgment on her second book) as I am sure that she needed the money and she was classy about it. In the Anthology series, how many interviews did we get from Cynthia, Patti, Jane, Linda, Olivia, Mike McCartney, Julian, or even Pete Best for that matter. Even Jimmy Nicol got a few words in on it.
|
|
lowbasso
A Hard Day's Knight
Posts: 2,776
|
Post by lowbasso on Nov 14, 2012 19:36:35 GMT -5
Lennon quote: "Your version of our first LSD trip is rather vague. And you seem to have forgotten subsequent trips all altogether." I'm curious about this one. Does anyone know anything about this? As far as I know Cynthia only took 2 acid trips -- the time they got dosed by their dentist, and a time at a party where she hallucinated that John turned into "a giant mule with razor sharp teeth leering and laughing at me." Bummer, man. My guess is it was the "Dr. Robert" episode.
|
|
|
Post by Panther on Nov 16, 2012 0:01:20 GMT -5
Cynthia's nuttiness seemed to grow in proportion to Lennon's legend. When he was just good ol' John Lennon, ex-Beatle with the weird wife, somewhere in New York, Cynthia wrote her 1st, somewhat affectionate book about him. But after he became St. John and was deified in death, Cynthia's subsequent books have been increasingly bitter and outspoken.
Maybe Cynthia should have done like Patti Boyd/Harrison/Clapton, and jumped from one superstar rocker to another.
|
|
|
Post by acebackwords on Nov 16, 2012 17:11:51 GMT -5
Cynthia's subsequent books have been increasingly bitter and outspoken.. I only read the first one. What kind of bitter and outspoken things has she been saying about John? And I can understand why she'd be bitter. One minute she's the completely loyal, faithful and supportive wife (who by the way supported him during his most productive years). The next moment she's permanently cut out of his life without even the decency of an explanation.
|
|
|
Post by acebackwords on Nov 19, 2012 18:07:58 GMT -5
I read the book recently and all it proved to me is that John was sh*t at at writing letters. Waste of £15 or whatever it cost me. Yeah I kinda' gotta' agree with you. Just came across a copy at the library and it seems like two-thirds of it was just hastily dashed off postcards dealing with mundane aspects of life that wouldn't be of much interest to even the most obsessive Beatles fans like me. There's even a glaring technical mistake. For the chapter dealing with 1967-68 there's a full-page photo of John by a pool with the caption "John by the pool at home, Kenwood" when its obvious the photo is from 1974, Los Angeles, during his Lost Weekend period. A surprising lapse from the usually dependable Hunter Davies.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 2, 2012 20:45:44 GMT -5
This book is sitting under the xmas tree, i can peruse it in a bit over 3 weeks time.....
|
|
|
Post by vectisfabber on Mar 19, 2013 5:07:57 GMT -5
Finished.
As Andy said, a couple of inaccuracies in it (and the occasional careless transcription), but nothing desperate. It's a shame, though, because the thing is presented very attractively.
It is both illuminating and frustrating - it says a lot and nothing, at the same time. You're not going to learn lots of information you didn't know. On the odd occasion when one of the documents tackles part of The Story head on then either 1) we already know the information, or 2) Lennon dresses it up in obfuscatory code words so that the recipient will understand but we don't. To that extent it is frustrating in that it adds virtually nothing to the substance of The Story.
Where it is interesting is that it gives us a distinct flavour of John Lennon the person, and how he changed (and how he didn't!) over his lifetime. We get to see what mattered to him - a feeling for how Julian appeared to be never far from his thoughts, and wasn't the forgotten child we have come to believe in, for instance. Howe he seemed to be genuinely besotted with Cynthia before and in the eaarly days of his marriage. How he genuinely wished that in later years he still had the close contact with his extended family which he had enjoyed in his childhood. And even the fairly tedious Dakota shopping lists give an idea of what was going through his head in those days.
It's not as important a book as it thinks it is, but it merits its place on a Beatle fan's bookshelves.
|
|
|
Post by vectisfabber on Mar 19, 2013 5:51:37 GMT -5
Finished.
There area a couple of inaccuracies in it (and the occasional careless transcription), but nothing desperate. It's a shame, though, because the thing is presented very attractively.
It is both illuminating and frustrating - it says a lot and nothing, at the same time. You're not going to learn lots of information you didn't know. On the odd occasion when one of the documents tackles part of The Story head on then either 1) we already know the information, or 2) Lennon dresses it up in obfuscatory code words so that the recipient will understand but we don't. To that extent it is frustrating in that it adds virtually nothing to the substance of The Story.
Where it is interesting is that it gives us a distinct flavour of John Lennon the person, and how he changed (and how he didn't!) over his lifetime. We get to see what mattered to him - a feeling for how Julian appeared to be never far from his thoughts, and wasn't the forgotten child we have come to believe in, for instance. Howe he seemed to be genuinely besotted with Cynthia before and in the eaarly days of his marriage. How he genuinely wished that in later years he still had the close contact with his extended family which he had enjoyed in his childhood. And even the fairly tedious Dakota shopping lists give an idea of what was going through his head in those days.
It's not as important a book as it thinks it is, but it merits its place on a Beatle fan's bookshelves.
|
|