Five legends about John Lennon

December 8 marks the 40th anniversary of the murder of singer-composer, poet and activist John Lennon. From the moment he gained his first popularity to this day, Lennon’s life story has been covered in legends. We checked some of them.

1. Is it true that Lennon, when asked if he thought Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world, replied: “He’s not even the best drummer in The Beatles”?

This Lennon quote is widely known throughout the world and reflects a general ironic attitude towards the technical prowess of the famous drummer. The most famous website about the Beatles in the post-Soviet space gives a slightly different version history, according to which Lennon’s reaction was not to a journalist’s question, but to an article in a magazine where Starr was called “the best in the world.” Of course, I agree with Lennon’s opinion and Yuri Loza.

John Lennon had reasons to talk about the drummers of The Beatles in the plural. Before the group became famous, the owners of the position behind the drums constantly changed. If we count the groups that became the prototype of The Beatles, we can talk about at least six drummers, the most famous of whom was Pete Best. The latter drummed for two whole years (1960–1962) under the guise of The Beatles and is even called by many the fifth Beatle. Moreover, when recording the hit Back in the U.S.S.R. In Ringo's absence, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison played drums.

However, during John Lennon's lifetime, his professional opinion of Starr became public only once. In September 1980, a few months before his death, in an interview with Playboy magazine, Lennon said: responded about ex-partner:

“Ringo is a damn good drummer. He's not very good from a technical standpoint, but I think Ringo's drumming is underrated in the same way that Paul's bass playing is underrated. <…> I think that Paul and Ringo are as good as any other rock musician.”

As for the real authorship of the phrase about “not the best drummer,” Mark Lewisohn, the world’s leading expert on The Beatles, has long believed that it was popularized in 1983 by the English comedian Jasper Carrott. However, in 2018 Lewisohn found out, that even earlier, on October 6, 1981, the joke was performed as part of the sketch show Radio Active, and its authors were Geoffrey Perkins and Angus Deaton.

Thus, John Lennon's statement about Ringo Starr is actually a joke that appeared after the singer's death.

Incorrect quote attribution

2. Is it true that John Lennon once spoke of the music of “Pesnyary” as “the best thing he had ever heard”?

This legend became widespread in the Soviet and post-Soviet space. The reference point for it is the very real trip of “Pesnyary” to the traditional music fair MIDEM in Cannes in 1976. Later, ex-songwriter Vladimir Nikolaev wrote: “At that time, John Lennon lived in his villa in Monte Carlo, but we did not see him.” And his colleague Vladimir Mulyavin remarked in an interview in 2000: “John Lennon... said: “Pesnyary is the best thing I’ve ever heard.” The third member of the group, Leonid Bortkevich, in 2003 seemed to confirm the words of his bandmates: “When we first came to the USA, there was a big article about our tour in Billboard and there were some statements by The Beatles about us, in particular Lennon and McCartney. In particular, it was said that we are a great folk-rock band with great voices and that they didn’t think that this could happen in Belarus.”

Firstly, it is worth noting that John Lennon was not in Monte Carlo in 1976 or ever before. A year earlier, Ringo Starr had moved there, but over the following years he too was torn between the Cote d'Azur and Los Angeles. Lennon had been living in the United States continuously since the fall of 1971, and after the birth of his son in October 1975, his communication with the press practically ceased. On the other hand, George Harrison performed at the same Cannes concert, but such phrases are not attributed to him. And in general, almost every word spoken by any of the Beatles in public ended up in dozens of books and could not go unnoticed. Secondly, in those years, none of the Pesnyars, according to a number of sources, practically read English and therefore could hardly have read the articles in the original.

And finally, here are the same articles from Billboard magazine dedicated to the Soviet group’s tour in the USA in 1976:

There are no statements from Lennon and McCartney about “Pesnyary”. So the participants of the legendary Soviet VIA most likely believed the stories of their friends.

Fake

3. Is it true that John Lennon named one of his cats Jesus to justify his line “We are more famous than Jesus”?

John Lennon's famous statement in March 1966 that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ caused a huge scandal at the time and motivated Mark David Chapman to kill the musician many years later. Interestingly, Lennon, who had a peculiar sense of humor, according to a number of sources, gave one of his many cats the name Jesus in order to somehow justify this phrase.

It should be noted that Lennon definitely had a cat with that name. True, none of the authoritative sources provides 100% confirmation that the owner named his cat Jesus precisely for the above reason. However, there are several facts that support this. In particular, it is known that the colony of cats in Lennon’s house appeared during the years of his life with his first wife Cynthia, that is, in 1962–1968. Let us remember that Lennon’s phrase was heard precisely during this period. Secondly, this is precisely John’s motivation that is called the most likely by such authoritative sources as the magazine Rolling Stone and website Mental Floss. And finally, in those same years, Paul McCartney also had a cat named Jesus, which resembles a kind of flash mob. Of course, The Beatles were more popular than their members' cats. The “cat version” correlates especially well with that variation of Lennon’s statement, where instead of the words “more popular,” the word “bigger” is used, that is, in the literal reading of “bigger than Jesus.” Therefore, this interpretation seems plausible.

Mostly true

4. Is it true that John Lennon liked to sleep in a coffin?

On July 24, 1960, the influential British newspaper Sunday People published an article entitled “The horror of the beatniks, although they do not know, their road leads to hell.” Accompanying the article was a photograph showing the apartment of John Lennon and then-Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe in Gambier Terrace., 3, in Liverpool. How wrote musician and journalist Alan Clason:

“The whole of Britain saw John Lennon for the first time. John, with sideburns hanging down to his earlobes and wearing dark glasses, took center stage, lounging lazily on the trash-strewn floor with Bill Harry, Rod Murray and other somewhat embarrassed beatniks. He looked as if he was sleeping with his clothes on. This article gives rise to the enduring legend that John Lennon slept in a coffin on Gambier Terrace, although in reality he only appeared there briefly."

Thus, Clayson indirectly confirms that Lennon could sleep in this coffin, even if only occasionally. Here's what the band's manager at the time, Alan Williams, says:

“John Lennon was already considered a leader and was one of the central figures in the crowd of slackers and dreamers - the vanguard of local hippies who occupied the apartments in Percy Street and Gambier Terrace. There was no furniture there at all - they burned tables and chairs on fires in the middle of the rooms when it became too cold. This was one of Modigliani's quirks, and I suppose the guys thought they were behaving in the tradition of bohemians. The apartments were filled with various rubbish: pedestrian crossing lamps, tea boxes, road signs and heaps of tattered rags. From somewhere they brought the coffin in which John slept. Silk upholstery created a semblance of comfort. John was a big fan of dark humor in those days."

According to others sources, this “from somewhere” was the Jacaranda bar, owned by the same Williams, where The Beatles periodically appeared. An unwanted coffin was found in one of the bar rooms. So there is every reason to believe that John Lennon really, albeit as a joke, slept in a real coffin.

Is it true

5. Is it true that John Lennon named his band The Beatles after the Volkswagen Beetle?

A similar version is found in a number of sources on the Internet, although it’s difficult to call it dominant. However, considering that the first half of the 60s saw the peak of sales of this iconic model, one can believe in such a version. Moreover, the Beetle is closely associated with the Beatles thanks to its iconic Abbey Road album cover.

However, the reality looks somewhat different. The name The Beatles first appears in the form The Beatals in a letter from Stu Sutcliffe dated March 27, 1960. He is also mentioned by Paul McCartney in one of his slightly later messages.

Paul McCartney said in his interview: “One day John, Stu, George and I <...> were walking down the street, suddenly John and Stu said: “Hey, we have an idea to name the group - The Beatles, with the letter a (if you follow the rules of grammar, you were supposed to write the beetles - “beetles.” - Ed.). George and I were surprised, and John said: “Well, yes, Stu and I thought of that.” That’s how this story comes to mind for me and But over the years, some began to think that John himself came up with the idea for the name of the group, and as evidence they cite the article “A Brief Digression on the Questionable Origin of The Beatles,” which John wrote in the early 60s for the Mersey Beat newspaper. It came from a vision. A man appeared on a flaming pie and told them, “From now on, you are the Beatles with an a.” Of course, there was no vision. John joked in the goofy manner typical of the time. But some people didn’t get the humor.”

George Harrison in his interviews mentioned the then popular group The Crickets as the basis for the parody name "Beetles" with one letter changed. There are a number of other versions, and only one of them (by the poet Royston Ellis) mentions a Volkswagen car in reference to Lennon. One thing is obvious: the musical concept “beat” played an important role in the name of the group.

As for the car, the word beetle was first used in relation to the model in 1958 in Autosport magazine as an epithet. The nickname became popular in the 1960s, and cars began receiving the official Beetle name only in 1967.

Thus, the version about the influence of the Volkswagen Beetle on the name The Beatles contradicts most of the facts.

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on topic:

1. https://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/The-Beatles-Many-Drummers-3776938.php
2. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/documenting-john-lennons-love-for-cats-235231/
3. http://www.secret-r.net/arkhiv-publikatsij/34-2015/bitlz-i-pesnyary-mify-i-legendy.html
4. http://beatles-chronology.ru/1960/01/29/poyavlenie-nazvaniya-gruppy-bitlz/