With The Beatles

Being in the Beatles was a tremendous experience. John was a Beatle from age 17 to about 30, and during that period an individual grows a lot, to say the least. Such is the case with all of the Beatles. Just by looking at the two pictures above one can see how much they changed and John in particular. Much of it is due to the pressures of fame as well. Being a Beatle was very difficult, being famous at all is hard to handle especially at a young age, but to be at the top as the Beatles were, was of utmost difficulty. It amazes me that any of them were sane afterwards. When they first became famous they were touring and appearing on television and radio shows almost every day. John and Paul did the bulk of the writing and this put the most pressure on them. They would be writing on the road due to the extreme demands of songs. Add to this the fact that John just got married (he had to keep this a secret) and he had a son, Julian, who was born right at the beginning of their being famous. All of these factors no doubt lead to some stress and anxiety on an individual. His childhood and the loss of his mother frequently came up and it isn't surprising John had a tough time accepting fame, was insecure and was the Beatle that experimented the most with drugs.

In the early days, John wrote and sang the bulk of the songs. This is especially apparent for the Hard Day's Night album, when John wrote 10 of the 13 songs on there. By no means however, was he the sole reason for the Beatles success. Each Beatles played an integral role in making the Beatles a successful group. Also, each one felt the pressures of fame equally. How each handled that fame is different however. John handled problems by escaping. When he was a teenager and tragedy struck, he turned to alcohol and music. In the mid-sixties things changed, and the generation was turned on to a new drug, marijuana. All the Beatles enjoyed smoking, and their music was directly affected. But John, and George enjoyed it the most. This made them prey to the new drug of choice, acid. John would admit later that he was smoking pot every day, and when he began taking acid he was dropping that all the time (he was tripping during the shooting for the Sgt. Pepper album). Throughout John's life he would enter periods and enthusiastically embrace things, drugs, avant garde music, or women.

John was the most out spoken Beatle. He would often just state things how he feels, regardless of its effect, whereas Paul, would chose his words carefully. This made John an icon because he would point out the absurdities of the times, however this would put him in contact with the most confrontation. Even in the early days John would say things that some might take as offensive, then however, what he said was taken lightly and no repercussions were felt. For example, before performing "Twist and Shout" for the Queen Mother, John made his infamous comment, "Would those in the cheaper seats clap your hands. And the rest of you just rattle your jewlery". Many of the rich could take this as an offense, which it was really, but it was said with some humor so it was brushed off. This did not happen when he made his so called "Christ statement". During an interview with a friend John stated his personal views on Christianity which were "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink....we're more popular than Jesus now." This statement is edited and it appears worse than it is, and in the US there was great retaliation to this. Beatles records, books, memorbilia were burned and protests were held against them. They were also threatened to be killed by the KKK. Despite his apology, John was never forgiven. These actions did not stop John from speaking out on other hot button issues of the time like the Vietnam war. All the Beatles opposed the war, but John spoke out the most, especially in the later sixties when he staged bed ins and participated in rallys against it. His political views became part of the songs and in the seventies after moving to the US he was followed and almost deported for his political role.

As stated John went through many stages when he was a Beatle. When the Beatles first began, John was a rebel rocker, and then he had to tidy the image a bit and then there was the mop top role. This role John resented the most. At that time, he would attend all the parties for the wealthy and would just give everyone what they wanted, the cheery, cheeky moptop that never stirs up any trouble. After the mop top role, John had what he called his "fat elvis period". He was drinking a lot, coping with success, and gained what he felt to be a lot of weight. He sites his singing "Help" as an indication of what he was going through. After this John was a pot head, then an acid freak. During this time John was beating down his ego and his harsh edges were softening out. He eventually got sick of the drugs, and turned to meditation, but again he became disillusioned, and left the Maharashi. Then John fell in love with Yoko Ono and his life changed completely. He gained back his ego, and became very avant garde. He then became dissatisfied with the Beatles and the break up occured. Many blamed the break up on Yoko, but she did not break them up, she influenced John, but did not force him to leave the group. All during these periods the other Beatles were changing. For the most part, they agreed with each other, but in the later years, their opinions disagreed and there was nothing to do but break up. The most different are John and Paul. They both changed dramatically, both got married at the same time, and their musical direction was changing as well. John became interested in what was happening and was speaking out against it, Paul however, would be more diplomatic and keep a good image. This is not to stereotype each of them however, Paul spoke out as well, and John also tried to keep a decent image. Both of them getting married was a key change as now each had a different partner. Not that Yoko replaced Paul and Linda replaced John, just that both of them had a different partner to go through life with. Musically, John and Paul were almost complete opposites. During the time of Revolver one can see the musical directions changed. John would write songs that reflected himself or the times, and Paul would often write ballads and more commerical songs. In the end, Paul liked complex music, symphonic almost, and John wanted to play straight rock. With all these differences combined it is not surprising the Beatle broke up. It is just sad that John and Paul had to have such a bad relationship throughout the seventies. Tensions were very very apparent and insults were thrown all the time. It is good that the relationship was at least civil at the time of John's unfortunate death.

John with first wife Cynthia, they divorced in 1968.

John around the White Album time.

The greatest songwriting team ever! Here is a beautiful picture of John and Paul when they were beginning to separate.