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itsnotmymindOne of the many, many, many accusations that has been flung at Yoko Ono over the years is that she was responsible for getting John Lennon addicted to heroin.
This is not completely off base. Prior to getting together with Yoko, John was addicted to LSD, not heroin (that fact that he was already a drug addict is one that bashers prefer not to acknowledge). If my recollection is correct, Yoko had tried heroin before while John hadn't. Shortly after they became inseparable, they both became addicted.
I believe Yoko's story is that John asked her if she'd had heroin before, and she said yes, and he suggested they do it together. I take this version with a grain of salt - Yoko is not always honest, and in this case I can't even blame her.
But I find it unlikely that Yoko would have needed to do much more than make the suggestion herself. I doubt she would have needed to do any convincing or put much pressure on John. John Lennon was quite down with dangerous and illegal drug use.
Although, perhaps that doesn't matter when judging Yoko. After all, Eve doesn't seem have had to do much convincing to get Adam to eat that apple, and she still needed to suffer in childbirth and have Adam rule over her as punishment.
But regardless of the circumstances of the start of John and Yoko's heroin addiction, they started trying to get off it pretty quick. John and Yoko get together in spring of 1968. Cold Turkey was released in fall of 1969. It took a year and half at most for the two of them to decide they didn't want to do this anymore. A highly stressful year and a half, at that.
In contrast to all the speculation and blame of whose idea it was to get on heroin in the first place, I really can't remember reading or anything anything about which one of them first thought to stop. But based on what I know about their personalities and their relationship? I'd put my money on Yoko. John was not the type of person to decide a drug was ruining his life and just stop using it. And Yoko could be controlling of John in some ways, the bashers are right there. Of his diet, for example. I've also heard that Yoko was the one to suggest primal scream therapy. Yoko's ideas were frequently nuts (macrobiotic diets? primal scream therapy?), but she was trying to keep herself and John physically and emotionally healthy. She was undoubtedly aware that John was self-destructive, and she was trying to keep him alive.
Barring any contradicting evidence, I'm going to assume the going cold turkey on heroin - both the original idea and the implementation - was on her initiative.
I read an except from a book called Cornflakes With John Lennon, written by a reporter named Robert Hilburn. It's just some anecdotes about his experiences meeting celebrities. I'm having trouble finding a readable version of the excerpt online now, so this will have to be from memory. Hilburn met John Lennon in 1980, around the time Double Fantasy was released. One of the things he had wondered about, was whether John was still abusing drugs. John assured Hilburn that he wasn't. The reporter described a point when he saw John sneaking something from a cabinet to eat. Hilburn thought it might be drugs. It turned out to be chocolate. "Mother", John explained, didn't want him eating chocolate.
When he heard that John had been killed, Hilburn thought about how John's death undermined one of the very things John had worked hard to achieve: not being a rock and roll casualty. Hilburn is the only commentator on John Lennon who I have seen make that point. John's post-Beatles writing frequently alludes to a determination to survive, to stay alive, from Lennon Remembers, to Scared on Walls and Bridges, to a song-in-progress called Help Me To Help Myself that I first heard as a bonus track on Double Fantasy. But this is not what John Lennon is remembered for. Instead, he's the troubled genius and martyr - the very martyr status that he insisted he didn't want.
Yoko Ono is a troubled and often mean-spirited person, not really more emotionally mature than John Lennon. She was intensely insecure about her relationship with John, and felt deeply threatened by most of the people who loved her third husband before she knew him. But she also worked hard to keep him alive, to keep his self-destructive tendencies in check. And I think that is part of why John kept on coming back to her. John Lennon was many things: An abusive asshole, a cruel and neglectful father, a brilliant musician and songwriter, a selfish but frequently warm person. And he was also a survivor.
This is not completely off base. Prior to getting together with Yoko, John was addicted to LSD, not heroin (that fact that he was already a drug addict is one that bashers prefer not to acknowledge). If my recollection is correct, Yoko had tried heroin before while John hadn't. Shortly after they became inseparable, they both became addicted.
I believe Yoko's story is that John asked her if she'd had heroin before, and she said yes, and he suggested they do it together. I take this version with a grain of salt - Yoko is not always honest, and in this case I can't even blame her.
But I find it unlikely that Yoko would have needed to do much more than make the suggestion herself. I doubt she would have needed to do any convincing or put much pressure on John. John Lennon was quite down with dangerous and illegal drug use.
Although, perhaps that doesn't matter when judging Yoko. After all, Eve doesn't seem have had to do much convincing to get Adam to eat that apple, and she still needed to suffer in childbirth and have Adam rule over her as punishment.
But regardless of the circumstances of the start of John and Yoko's heroin addiction, they started trying to get off it pretty quick. John and Yoko get together in spring of 1968. Cold Turkey was released in fall of 1969. It took a year and half at most for the two of them to decide they didn't want to do this anymore. A highly stressful year and a half, at that.
In contrast to all the speculation and blame of whose idea it was to get on heroin in the first place, I really can't remember reading or anything anything about which one of them first thought to stop. But based on what I know about their personalities and their relationship? I'd put my money on Yoko. John was not the type of person to decide a drug was ruining his life and just stop using it. And Yoko could be controlling of John in some ways, the bashers are right there. Of his diet, for example. I've also heard that Yoko was the one to suggest primal scream therapy. Yoko's ideas were frequently nuts (macrobiotic diets? primal scream therapy?), but she was trying to keep herself and John physically and emotionally healthy. She was undoubtedly aware that John was self-destructive, and she was trying to keep him alive.
Barring any contradicting evidence, I'm going to assume the going cold turkey on heroin - both the original idea and the implementation - was on her initiative.
I read an except from a book called Cornflakes With John Lennon, written by a reporter named Robert Hilburn. It's just some anecdotes about his experiences meeting celebrities. I'm having trouble finding a readable version of the excerpt online now, so this will have to be from memory. Hilburn met John Lennon in 1980, around the time Double Fantasy was released. One of the things he had wondered about, was whether John was still abusing drugs. John assured Hilburn that he wasn't. The reporter described a point when he saw John sneaking something from a cabinet to eat. Hilburn thought it might be drugs. It turned out to be chocolate. "Mother", John explained, didn't want him eating chocolate.
When he heard that John had been killed, Hilburn thought about how John's death undermined one of the very things John had worked hard to achieve: not being a rock and roll casualty. Hilburn is the only commentator on John Lennon who I have seen make that point. John's post-Beatles writing frequently alludes to a determination to survive, to stay alive, from Lennon Remembers, to Scared on Walls and Bridges, to a song-in-progress called Help Me To Help Myself that I first heard as a bonus track on Double Fantasy. But this is not what John Lennon is remembered for. Instead, he's the troubled genius and martyr - the very martyr status that he insisted he didn't want.
Yoko Ono is a troubled and often mean-spirited person, not really more emotionally mature than John Lennon. She was intensely insecure about her relationship with John, and felt deeply threatened by most of the people who loved her third husband before she knew him. But she also worked hard to keep him alive, to keep his self-destructive tendencies in check. And I think that is part of why John kept on coming back to her. John Lennon was many things: An abusive asshole, a cruel and neglectful father, a brilliant musician and songwriter, a selfish but frequently warm person. And he was also a survivor.
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Date: 2016-10-10 03:48 pm (UTC)Re: trying to keep John alive - part of the reason for the May Pang arrangement, I think, though both women quickly realised that while John didn't do heavy drugs while with May, there was no stopping him from drinking far too much, and that scene where May is reduced to calling Yoko after John trashed the hotel room and her necklace was as good an illustration as any. Which makes me guess your estimation is right - John knew he needed a gatekeeper to survive (by the mid 70s, the bodies of the rock scene were piling up), and that Yoko could be it while May could not.
Of course, there IS the Albert Goldmann allegation they both were on heroin again in 1980, and that this was why John had lost so much weight etc.
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Date: 2016-10-10 07:47 pm (UTC)I know Yoko said that she had a heroin relapse sometime during the househusband years - I'm not even sure John knew about it. I am really unsure about a lot of what went on those years. They were so disconnected from everyone, and it seems like the people they did have close contact with were pretty messed-up and untrustworthy themselves. What was Albert Goldman's source for that claim?
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Date: 2016-10-12 02:16 pm (UTC)Anyway, given John was pretty active in 1980 and heroin makes one lethargic, I'd sooner guess coke than heroine IF he was on drugs again.
Re: Yoko, I think in the Brigitte interview which to me was one of the more enlightening ones she gave she mentioned that Sean asked post Goldman biography and she said there was a relapse at some point during the house husband years, but a short one. I don't remember whether she said it was hers (as in, just hers) or theirs.
On a mellow note, this backstage video of Paul, Yoko and Sean went online, and it's lovely.
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Date: 2016-10-13 12:38 pm (UTC)Oh, here's a quote from Yoko on her relapse: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/imaginary-lennon-19881020
"Okay, the end of '79, I made a mistake," Ono says. "And it was not a good thing to do, for myself. But at the same time, I'm proud that I conquered it"
Article says that Goldman claimed John didn't know, but Yoko said he did.
And of course, judging from the quotes from the Goldman book, Goldman relied heavily on stereotypes of the inscrutable Oriental (Zen arrow?) to describe the situation. How pleasant.
That is a very sweet video. They look very comfortable with each other. Also Paul bopping along to Imagine cracks me up :)
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Date: 2016-10-13 02:20 pm (UTC)Bopping along to Imagine: leave it to Paul. (Am reminded of Tony Bramwell describing him bopping along to "Jumping Jack Flash" and then asking the radio station to play it again, whereupon the baffled radio person: "You want me to play the STONES again?) He and Yoko come across as way more physically comfortable with each other in this off stage bit than in publicity photos (say, for "Love" at Las Vegas), interestingly enough. And Sean looks so young that I suspect he grew the beard to put an end to this.
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Date: 2016-10-10 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-10 07:39 pm (UTC)