Playboy Interview 1980
Page 4
John: As I said, I had already begun to want to leave, but when I met Yoko is like when you meet your first woman. You leave the guys at the bar. You don't go play football anymore. You don't go play snooker or billiards. Maybe some guys do it on Friday night or something, but once I found the woman, the boys became of no interest whatsoever other than being old school friends. "Those wedding bells are breaking up that old gang of mine." We got married three years later, in 1969. That was the end of the boys. And it just so happened that the boys were well known and weren't just local guys at the bar. Everybody got so upset over it. There was a lot of shit thrown at us. A lot of hateful stuff.Yoko: Even now, I just read that Paul said, "I understand that he wants to be with her, but why does he have to be with her all the time?"
John: Yoko, do you still have to carry that cross? That was years ago.
Yoko: No, no, no. He said it recently. I mean, what happened with John is like, I sort of went to bed with this guy that I liked and suddenly the next morning, I see these three in-laws, standing there.
John: I've always thought there was this underlying thing in Paul's "Get Back." When we were in the studio recording it, every time he sang the line "Get back to where you once belonged," he'd look at Yoko.
Playboy: Are you kidding?
John: No. But maybe he'll say I'm paranoid.
The next portion of the interview took place with John alone.
Playboy: This may be the time to talk about those
"in-laws," as Yoko put it. John, you've been asked this a thousand
times, but why is it so unthinkable that the Beatles might get back together to
make some music?
John: Do you want to go back to high school? Why should I go back ten years to
provide an illusion for you that I know does not exist? It cannot exist.
Playboy: Then forget the illusion. What about just to make some great music
again? Do you acknowledge that the Beatles made great music?
John: Why should the Beatles give more? Didn't they give everything on God's
earth for ten years? Didn't they give themselves? You're like the typical sort
of love-hate fan who says, "Thank you for everything you did for us in the
Sixties - would you just give me another shot? Just one more miracle?"
Playboy: We're not talking about miracles - just good music.
John: When Rodgers worked with Hart and then worked with Hammerstein, do you
think he should have stayed with one instead of working with the other? Should
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis have stayed together because I used to like them
together? What is this game of doing things because other people want it? The
whole Beatle idea was to do what you want, right? To take your own
responsibility.
Playboy: All right, but get back to the music itself: You don't agree that the
Beatles created the best rock 'n' roll that's been produced?
John: I don't. The Beatles, you see - I'm too involved in them artistically. I
cannot see them objectively. I cannot listen to them objectively. I'm
dissatisfied with every record the Beatles ever fucking made. There ain't one of
them I wouldn't remake - including all the Beatles records and all my individual
ones. So I cannot possibly give you an assessment of what the Beatles are. When
I was a Beatle, I thought we were the best fucking group in the god-damned
world. And believing that is what made us what we were - whether we call it the
best rock-'n'-roll group or the best pop group or whatever. But you play me
those tracks today and I want to remake every damn one of them. There's not a
single one. . . . I heard "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" on the radio
last night. It's abysmal, you know. The track is just terrible. I mean, it's
great, but it wasn't made right, know what I mean? But that's the artistic trip,
isn't it? That's why you keep going. But to get back to your original question
about the Beatles and their music, the answer is that we did some good stuff and
we did some bad stuff.
Playboy: Many people feel that none of the songs Paul has done alone match the
songs he did as a Beatle. Do you honestly feel that any of your songs - on the
Plastic Ono Band records - will have the lasting imprint of "Eleanor
Rigby" or "Strawberry Fields"?
John: "Imagine," "Love" and those Plastic Ono Band songs
stand up to any song that was written when I was a Beatle. Now, it may take you
20 or 30 years to appreciate that, but the fact is, if you check those songs
out, you will see that it is as good as any fucking stuff that was ever done.
Playboy: It seems as if you're trying to say to the world, "We were just a
good band making some good music," while a lot of the rest of the world is
saying, "It wasn't just some good music, it was the best."
John: Well, if it was the best, so what?
Playboy: So...