John Quotes--I'm having a hard time.....
..understanding/reconciling/embracing some of John's words. I was wondering if you guys could help me understand or whatever it is. We all know John was a very complex, often contradictory boy, yet some of these quotes..they "bother" me. I don't know if I'm seeing them as the by-product of a certain person's influence, or if the contradiction in them is what's tripping me up. All this to say, I love John..it's just that he isn't one who's particularly easy to figure out..part of his charm, yet..part of what can be so exasperating about him, too.
Take a look:
"You are what you are. Get out there and get peace, think peace, and live peace and breathe peace, and you'll get it as soon as you like."
The thing is, John, as we know, didn't always "live peace". He was horribly violent when he got drunk, for example.
"You can't cheat kids. If you cheat them when they're children they'll make you pay when they're sixteen or seventeen by revolting against you or hating you or all those so-called teenage problems. I think that's finally when they're old enough to stand up to you and say, 'What a hypocrite you've been all this time. You've never given me what I really wanted, which is you."
I just can't help but think of Julian when I read this. I mean..if John had this kind of awareness at the time, why wasn't he as close to Julian as he was to Sean, barring distance and his own fear, doubts and insecurities?
"I still don't know how to express the really delicate personal stuff. People think that Plastic Ono is very personal, but there are some subtleties of emotions which I cannot seem to express in pop music, and it frustrates me. Maybe that's why I still search for other ways of expressing myself. Song writing is a limiting experience in some ways - writing down words that have to rhyme."
I always thought that John did a wonderful job of conveying his inner emotions in song, so I'm a bit perplexed by his statement. Maybe all he's saying is that he could only tap into so much of himself, but there are other elements he found elusive.
"Nobody controls me. I'm uncontrollable. The only one who can control me is me, and that's just barely possible. And that's the lesson I'm learning. If someone's going to impress me, whether it be a Maharishi or Yoko, then there comes a point where the emperor has no clothes 'cause I'm naive, but I'm not stupid. For all you folks out there who think I'm having the wool pulled over my eyes, well, that's an insult to me. But if you think you know me, or you have some part of me because of the music, and then you think I'm being controlled like a dog on a leash because I do things with her, then screw you, brother or sister, you don't know what's happening. I'm not here for you, I'm here for me and her, and now the baby"
Ouch. Well..I get it. I mean..he's got his back up..but I've always felt that John had taken us on a personal journey through his music. It made him very "accessible" to the masses. But in this one statement, he seems to be closing himself off to us all.
"The only time we took drugs was when we were without hope and the only way we got out of it was with hope and if we can sustain the hope then we don't need drugs, liquor or anything. But if we lose hope, what can you do? What is there to do?"
Didn't he also take LSD for spiritual enlightenment? His statement speaks of hopelessness as a reason for drugs, yet, for someone who was supposed to be his "other half" (Yucka), why would John feel the need for drugs if she was all he seemed to need?
"I'd never met a woman I considered as intelligent as me. That sounds bigheaded, but every woman I met was either a dolly-chick, or a sort of screwed-up intellectual chick. And of course, in the field I was in, I didn't meet many intellectual people anyway. I always had this dream of meeting an artist, an artist girl who would be like me. And I thought it was a myth, but then I met Yoko and that was it."
I don't know. How many of you really believe that John imagined one day meeting someone like Yoyo..even when he was with Cyn? I just find that hard to believe.
"I was too scared to break away from the Beatles, which I'd been looking to do since we stopped touring. And so I was sort of vaguely looking for somewhere to go but didn't have the nerve to really step out into the boat myself, so I sort of hung around, and when I met Yoko and fell in love, my God, this is different than anything before. This is more than a hit record. It's more than gold. It's more than everything...When I met Yoko is when you meet your first woman, and you leave the guys at the bar, and you don't go play football anymore. Once I found the woman, the boys became of no interest whatsoever, other than they were like old school friends."
That doesn't sound like love so much as an obsession. So, John completely lost interest in anything else once he met that dip-stick?..and he didn't see a problem with that? Life has many layers, yet he reduced it to just one--HER.
"Yoko looks upon men as assistants. . . . Of varying degrees of intimacy, but basically assistants. And this one's going to take a pee." (Exits to the restrooms)
I have a hard time believing that Beatlemania John would have taken a backseat to Cyn. They say someone always wears the pants in a relationship, but this doesn't even speak of that as much as it speaks of Yucka's inequality towards John.
"People want peace. And you've got to sell it and sell it and sell it. So we do the bed-ins and they say, 'What? They're in bed? What's this?' And all we're doing really is donating our holiday. We get tired and it's ... more convenient for us to stay in one spot than go around doing press conferences."
You mean it's better to make a spectacle of oneself and have that "activity" overshadow the message than to sit down and discuss ones views? I don't get it.
"We haven't been apart for more than one hour in two years. Everything we do is together, and that's what gives us our strength."
I don't know, baby. I think that's what stripped you of your identity, really. :(
"When I was cleaning the cat shit and feeding Sean, she [Yoko] was sitting in rooms full of smoke with men in three-piece suits that they couldn't button."
Why does something feel so "wrong" about this? Perhaps it's the obvious role-reversal..or maybe it's the idea of seeming subservience..or saying Yoyo is smarter than those she did business with, and that includes John.
"With us it's a teacher - pupil relationship. That's what people don't understand. She's the teacher and I'm the pupil. I'm the famous one. I'm supposed to know everything. But she taught me everything I fucking know."
Yikes. Which is why, baby boy, she had such power and control over you. You yielded to just about everything she said. After all, you didn't know anything before she came into your life, right? I can see learning from people, but this takes it too far.
"I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically -- any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn't express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women. That is why I am always on about peace, you see. It is the most violent people who go for love and peace."
No, baby. I think it's the most violent people who go for violence. To say this is to say Ghandi was just as passionate about violence as he was about peace. Yes, passionate about NOT wanting violence; not about BEING violent.
"Everything's the opposite. But I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence. I will have to be a lot older before I can face in public how I treated women as a youngster."
Of course, he's saying he learned and grew from his mistakes, yet, like all of us, he was a work in progress. I had a former friend call him a hypocrite because he used to hit women, etc, and now he's preaching peace. Your thoughts?
Thanks for reading/commenting, guys. I know this wasn't a short post.
Take a look:
"You are what you are. Get out there and get peace, think peace, and live peace and breathe peace, and you'll get it as soon as you like."
The thing is, John, as we know, didn't always "live peace". He was horribly violent when he got drunk, for example.
"You can't cheat kids. If you cheat them when they're children they'll make you pay when they're sixteen or seventeen by revolting against you or hating you or all those so-called teenage problems. I think that's finally when they're old enough to stand up to you and say, 'What a hypocrite you've been all this time. You've never given me what I really wanted, which is you."
I just can't help but think of Julian when I read this. I mean..if John had this kind of awareness at the time, why wasn't he as close to Julian as he was to Sean, barring distance and his own fear, doubts and insecurities?
"I still don't know how to express the really delicate personal stuff. People think that Plastic Ono is very personal, but there are some subtleties of emotions which I cannot seem to express in pop music, and it frustrates me. Maybe that's why I still search for other ways of expressing myself. Song writing is a limiting experience in some ways - writing down words that have to rhyme."
I always thought that John did a wonderful job of conveying his inner emotions in song, so I'm a bit perplexed by his statement. Maybe all he's saying is that he could only tap into so much of himself, but there are other elements he found elusive.
"Nobody controls me. I'm uncontrollable. The only one who can control me is me, and that's just barely possible. And that's the lesson I'm learning. If someone's going to impress me, whether it be a Maharishi or Yoko, then there comes a point where the emperor has no clothes 'cause I'm naive, but I'm not stupid. For all you folks out there who think I'm having the wool pulled over my eyes, well, that's an insult to me. But if you think you know me, or you have some part of me because of the music, and then you think I'm being controlled like a dog on a leash because I do things with her, then screw you, brother or sister, you don't know what's happening. I'm not here for you, I'm here for me and her, and now the baby"
Ouch. Well..I get it. I mean..he's got his back up..but I've always felt that John had taken us on a personal journey through his music. It made him very "accessible" to the masses. But in this one statement, he seems to be closing himself off to us all.
"The only time we took drugs was when we were without hope and the only way we got out of it was with hope and if we can sustain the hope then we don't need drugs, liquor or anything. But if we lose hope, what can you do? What is there to do?"
Didn't he also take LSD for spiritual enlightenment? His statement speaks of hopelessness as a reason for drugs, yet, for someone who was supposed to be his "other half" (Yucka), why would John feel the need for drugs if she was all he seemed to need?
"I'd never met a woman I considered as intelligent as me. That sounds bigheaded, but every woman I met was either a dolly-chick, or a sort of screwed-up intellectual chick. And of course, in the field I was in, I didn't meet many intellectual people anyway. I always had this dream of meeting an artist, an artist girl who would be like me. And I thought it was a myth, but then I met Yoko and that was it."
I don't know. How many of you really believe that John imagined one day meeting someone like Yoyo..even when he was with Cyn? I just find that hard to believe.
"I was too scared to break away from the Beatles, which I'd been looking to do since we stopped touring. And so I was sort of vaguely looking for somewhere to go but didn't have the nerve to really step out into the boat myself, so I sort of hung around, and when I met Yoko and fell in love, my God, this is different than anything before. This is more than a hit record. It's more than gold. It's more than everything...When I met Yoko is when you meet your first woman, and you leave the guys at the bar, and you don't go play football anymore. Once I found the woman, the boys became of no interest whatsoever, other than they were like old school friends."
That doesn't sound like love so much as an obsession. So, John completely lost interest in anything else once he met that dip-stick?..and he didn't see a problem with that? Life has many layers, yet he reduced it to just one--HER.
"Yoko looks upon men as assistants. . . . Of varying degrees of intimacy, but basically assistants. And this one's going to take a pee." (Exits to the restrooms)
I have a hard time believing that Beatlemania John would have taken a backseat to Cyn. They say someone always wears the pants in a relationship, but this doesn't even speak of that as much as it speaks of Yucka's inequality towards John.
"People want peace. And you've got to sell it and sell it and sell it. So we do the bed-ins and they say, 'What? They're in bed? What's this?' And all we're doing really is donating our holiday. We get tired and it's ... more convenient for us to stay in one spot than go around doing press conferences."
You mean it's better to make a spectacle of oneself and have that "activity" overshadow the message than to sit down and discuss ones views? I don't get it.
"We haven't been apart for more than one hour in two years. Everything we do is together, and that's what gives us our strength."
I don't know, baby. I think that's what stripped you of your identity, really. :(
"When I was cleaning the cat shit and feeding Sean, she [Yoko] was sitting in rooms full of smoke with men in three-piece suits that they couldn't button."
Why does something feel so "wrong" about this? Perhaps it's the obvious role-reversal..or maybe it's the idea of seeming subservience..or saying Yoyo is smarter than those she did business with, and that includes John.
"With us it's a teacher - pupil relationship. That's what people don't understand. She's the teacher and I'm the pupil. I'm the famous one. I'm supposed to know everything. But she taught me everything I fucking know."
Yikes. Which is why, baby boy, she had such power and control over you. You yielded to just about everything she said. After all, you didn't know anything before she came into your life, right? I can see learning from people, but this takes it too far.
"I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically -- any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn't express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women. That is why I am always on about peace, you see. It is the most violent people who go for love and peace."
No, baby. I think it's the most violent people who go for violence. To say this is to say Ghandi was just as passionate about violence as he was about peace. Yes, passionate about NOT wanting violence; not about BEING violent.
"Everything's the opposite. But I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence. I will have to be a lot older before I can face in public how I treated women as a youngster."
Of course, he's saying he learned and grew from his mistakes, yet, like all of us, he was a work in progress. I had a former friend call him a hypocrite because he used to hit women, etc, and now he's preaching peace. Your thoughts?
Thanks for reading/commenting, guys. I know this wasn't a short post.