Playboy Interview 1980
Page 8
John: Well, I was hurt by George's
book, "I, Me, Mine" - so this message will go to him. He put a book
out privately on his life that, by glaring omission, says that my influence on
his life is absolutely zilch and nil. In his book, which is purportedly this
clarity of vision of his influence on each song he wrote, he remembers every
two-bit sax player or guitarist he met in subsequent years. I'm not in the book.
Playboy: Why?
John: Because George's relationship with me was one of young follower and older
guy. He's three or four years younger than me. It's a love- hate relationship
and I think George still bears resentment toward me for being a daddy who left
home. He would not agree with this, but that's my feeling about it. I was just
hurt. I was just left out, as if I didn't exist. I don't want to be that
egomaniacal, but he was like a disciple of mine when we started. I was already
an art student when Paul and George were still in grammar school [equivalent to
high school in the U.S.]. There is a vast difference between being in high
school and being in college and I was already in college and already had sexual
relationships, already drank and did a lot of things like that. When George was
a kid, he used to follow me and my first girlfriend, Cynthia - who became my
wife - around. We'd come out of art school and he'd be hovering around like
those kids at the gate of the Dakota now. I remember the day he called to ask
for help on "Taxman," one of his bigger songs. I threw in a few
one-liners to help the song along, because that's what he asked for. He came to
me because he couldn't go to Paul, because Paul wouldn't have helped him at that
period. I didn't want to do it. I thought, Oh, no, don't tell me I have to work
on George's stuff. It's enough doing my own and Paul's. But because I loved him
and I didn't want to hurt him when he called me that afternoon and said,
"Will you help me with this song?" I just sort of bit my tongue and
said OK. It had been John and Paul so long, he'd been left out because he hadn't
been a songwriter up until then. As a singer, we allowed him only one track on
each album. If you listen to the Beatles' first albums, the English versions, he
gets a single track. The songs he and Ringo sang at first were the songs that
used to be part of my repertoire in the dance halls. I used to pick songs for
them from my repertoire - the easier ones to sing. So I am slightly resentful of
George's book. But don't get me wrong. I still love those guys. The Beatles are
over, but John, Paul, George and Ringo go on.
Playboy: Didn't all four Beatles work on a song you wrote for Ringo in 1973?
John: "I'm the Greatest." It was the Muhammad Ali line, of course. It
was perfect for Ringo to sing. If I said, "I'm the greatest," they'd
all take it so seriously. No one would get upset with Ringo singing it.
Playboy: Did you enjoy playing with George and Ringo again?
John: Yeah, except when George and Billy Preston started saying, "Let's
form a group. Let's form a group." I was embarrassed when George kept
asking me. He was just enjoying the session and the spirit was very good, but I
was with Yoko, you know. We took time out from what we were doing. The very fact
that they would imagine I would form a male group without Yoko! It was still in
their minds. . . .
Playboy: Just to finish your favorite subject, what about the suggestion that
the four of you put aside your personal feelings and regroup to give a mammoth
concert for charity, some sort of giant benefit?
John: I don't want to have anything to do with benefits. I have been benefited
to death.
Playboy: Why?
John: Because they're always rip-offs. I haven't performed for personal gain
since 1966, when the Beatles last performed. Every concert since then, Yoko and
I did for specific charities, except for a Toronto thing that was a rock-
'n'-roll revival. Every one of them was a mess or a rip-off. So now we give
money to who we want. You've heard of tithing?
Playboy: That's when you give away a fixed percentage of your income.
John: Right. I am just going to do it privately. I am not going to get locked
into that business of saving the world on stage. The show is always a mess and
the artist always comes off badly.
Playboy: What about the Bangladesh concert, in which George and other people
such as Dylan performed?
John: Bangladesh was caca.
Playboy: You mean because of all the questions that were raised about where the
money went?
John: Yeah, right. I can't even talk about it, because it's still a problem.
You'll have to check with Mother [Yoko], because she knows the ins and outs of
it, I don't. But it's all a rip-off. So forget about it. All of you who are
reading this, don't bother sending me all that garbage about, "Just come
and save the Indians, come and save the blacks, come and save the war
veterans," Anybody I want to save will be helped through our tithing, which
is ten percent of whatever we earn.