Book Passage and a Song

[itsnotmymind]

A quote from May Pang's book Loving John, about why John was reluctant to sign the papers would dissolve the Beatles' partnership:

John seemed to be in a very strange state of mind about the dissolution. From the hints he had dropped since we had been together, I had learned that John's departure from the Beatles had essentially been Yoko's idea. Without Yoko to drive him forward, he felt strangely ambivalent about officially ending the Beatles at that moment. By nature, also, he felt inclined to take a position opposite from that of Paul McCartney. Paul desperately wanted that agreement signed. Whether or not it was the best thing for him to do, John, on principle, was inclined not to want to sign it.

I love how this passage starts off sounding like it's going to be all "Yoko broke up the Beatles, that evil bitch!" (especially since May Pang is quite anti-Yoko in general (not that I entirely blame her...) and ends up being all about John's compulsive need to be at odds with Paul. Which I'm sure had NOTHING to do with the Beatles' break-up. Nothing at all. Nope.

So what sort of hints had John been dropping the implied that leaving the Beatles was Yoko's idea? I wonder if John and Paul's compulsive opposition to each other had anything to do with Yoko's reasons for wanting John out of the group.

And, in order to test my Youtube embedding skills, here is an outtake of "Out the Blue", one of John's more underrated solo songs:

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

what sort of hints had John been dropping the implied that leaving the Beatles was Yoko's idea? I wonder if John and Paul's compulsive opposition to each other had anything to do with Yoko's reasons for wanting John out of the group.

You know, if I had witnessed these two in the White Album era, and witnessed the group climate in general, according to everyone's and their ghostwriter's description, I don't see how I'd have avoided coming to exactly that conclusion. (Yes, Yoko already knew John in 1967 when everyone was far more in tune with each other, literally and metaphorically, but her contact with him was far less extensive then, and with the others non existant.)

Then again: here's optimistic Yoko making a stream of consciousness tape on June 4th, 1968 (which I love existing because it's a Yoko statement on the situation made at the time and without the benefit/hindrance of hindsight): After the initial embarrassment, that how Paul is being very nice to me, he’s nice and a very, str- on the level, straight, sense, like wherever there’s something like happening at the Apple, he explains to me, as if I should know. And also whenever there’s something like they need a light man, or something like that he asks me if I know of anybody, things like that. And like I can see that he’s just now suddenly changing his attitude, like his being, he’s treating me with respect, not because it’s me, but because I belong to John. I hope that’s what it is because that would be nice. And I feel like he’s my younger brother or something like that. I’m sure that if he had been a woman or something, he would have been a great threat, because there’s something definitely very strong with me, John, and Paul.(...)And probably among those three people of George and Ringo and Paul. Paul is the one I feel the vibration, sort of sense it. You know, ‘cause Ringo and George, I just can’t communicate. I mean, I’m sure that George and Ringo, they’re very nice people. That’s not the point."


Mind you, if I were Yoko I'd have been subsequently appalled to discover that being an ex Beatle didn't stop John's (opposition to) Paul compulsion one bit, nor his annoying habit to play her and Paul out against each other, if Peter Doggett's report of him yelling "I wish I was back with Paul" during a marital argument at a party just pre Lost Weekend is anything to go by. That's another thing: show me the spouse in the world who is happy being constantly compared to the ex by her partner - doesn't matter whether positively, as in "you're like Dylan and Paul rolled in one" or "I was riding the boat called Paul and now I'm riding the boat called Yoko", or negatively as during that Doggett-reported spat.

Incidentally: May's entire report about John's dithering re: partnership dissolution in 1974 is so incredibly telling on so many levels. Though I still want to know what inner need for punishment drove John to seek out Lee "Most dissapproving patriarch on the planet" Eastman the next morning.

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

And like I can see that he’s just now suddenly changing his attitude, like his being, he’s treating me with respect, not because it’s me, but because I belong to John. I hope that’s what it is because that would be nice.

That's sweet, but with the benefit of hindsight it seems obvious that Paul being respectful to her simply because she's John's girlfriend also means Paul is not going to have a lot of patience for her getting in between him and John (which, if she and John won't even part ways to use the bathroom, is inevitable).

I do wish they could have all made it work. John and Yoko and Paul and Linda are my Tragically Impossible OT4.

Though I still want to know what inner need for punishment drove John to seek out Lee "Most dissapproving patriarch on the planet" Eastman the next morning.

I have no idea what was going on with that choice.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I do wish they could have all made it work. John and Yoko and Paul and Linda are my Tragically Impossible OT4.

Mine, too, these posts and this story being evidence of same. :)

That stream of consciousness monologue of Yoko's, which you can read in its entirety here, is fascinating for other without hindsight reasons as well, for example revealing the fact she was not at all sure John would stay with her as opposed to going back to Cynthia. I mean, for every biographer on the planet, no matter their attitude or agenda, the fact that the John/Cyn marriage was doomed (and would have been even if Yoko had dropped dead from a stroke in 1967 before ever getting together with John) seems glaringly obvious, but Yoko's extreme insecurity about this is a good reminder of how different something may look to the people involved. (It also defies the idea of Yoko in 1968 as some calculating mastermind getting into the relationship for publicity as opposed to love.)She wonders whether the longevity of the John/Cynthia relationship says something about John:

And the passiveness, paranoia, I hate to say, but I really think that that had a lot to do with, with her, your marriage. Or maybe you were like that, and that’s how your marriage became that. I don’t know, that seems like a long relationship like that, would really screw somebody up. (...)John is not here, he went out into the hall. I don’t know for what. He’s out for a long time. I think probably he’s calling home, I don’t know. He’s been with her for over a decade and their other child, I don’t know what to make of it. I don’t want to think about it. It’s either that he had a terribly weak character or he was in love to her. I just don’t want to think about it. I’ve never been with anyone for so long so I wouldn’t know. If I think very hard, then I know, I mean I don’t even think I have to think hard, I just get so jealous about it I almost think I’m going to go insane.

I have no idea what was going on with that choice.

Me neither. Or rather, the only explanation I can come up with that John had a not so subconscious need to punish himself for having been an ass re: partnership dissolution (I mean, the others were in New York at his convenience and then he doesn't show up - even John had to realise this was not stellar behaviour). Or maybe he wanted to remind himself again why he had objected to Paul's choice of manager so much back in 1969, after his choice of manager had turned against him. The weird thing is that by May's account he just sat there for an hour and took Lee's put downs (before Julian came in with the "George sends his regards" news), which is the exact reverse of what was going on in 1969 according to Peter Brown, when John had been ranting non-stop complete with "Mr. Epstein" taunt ("how Lee kept his cool, I don't know", quoth Brown). Anyway, whatever the reason, John can't have expected anything good out of that meeting, so as an example of Lennonian perversity and masochism it's among the top five or so.

[itsnotmymind.livejournal.com]

Oh, the opening line of that story:

She has never cared for sudden noises, which is why she has made an art out of them.

Did you get that from an interview with Yoko, or did you make that up?

I can't quite tell from that part of the stream-of-conscious whether Yoko thinks long relationships in and of themselves will screw you up, or if it's something specific about John and Cynthia's relationship that she thinks was screwed up.

Or rather, the only explanation I can come up with that John had a not so subconscious need to punish himself for having been an ass re: partnership dissolution

That seems like the most likely explanation.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

No, alas. I worked in a lot of actual Yoko quotes (including "The opposite of love is not hate: it is fear"), but the opening line wasn't one of them. An educated guess on my part.

I can't quite tell from that part of the stream-of-conscious whether Yoko thinks long relationships in and of themselves will screw you up, or if it's something specific about John and Cynthia's relationship that she thinks was screwed up.

Me neither. Either interpretation seems plausible for Yoko in 1968 to make. I mean, John and Cynthia were basically text book screwed up from a feminist pov (I always thought it an irony of fate that the lyrics of John's and Yoko's song "Woman is..." fit Cynthia and the way John treated her so very well). But it's equally possible that Yoko, whose parents according to herself were miserable for the marriage & children & status for giving up artistic aspiration, and whose own two marriages hadn't been long term, would be very sceptical about long term relationships in general at that point.

Sidenote: of course, there's the irony of fate that she did manage at least two long term relationships afterwards - her decade (well, twelve years minus Lost Weekend 18 months?) with John and her twenty plus years with Sam Havadtoy, as detailed here.