John Lennon interviewed by Jann Wenner, 1970

In December 1970, John Lennon sat down with Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner. This interview took place in New York City Shortly after Lennon and Yoko Ono finished recording the monumental "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band." The conversation is not to be missed, and you can hear them on the Rolling Stone podcast. Lennon is at his best -- provocative, brilliant, direct, and honest. The 1970 recordings are items two through six on the podcast page. "John Lennon: The Rolling Stone Interviews" (via John Curley)

• [babVU98i]

  How I miss you John Lennon!

  The story links to iTunes with a request to run the add-on ‘Apple’ from Apple, Inc. “If you trust the website and want to run the add-on click here.”  uhhh, no. I don’t trust Apple.  I think the same interviews are available here.  I took down the five BBC mp3s.
  http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/12/john_lennons_19.html

  Anyone know if these are the same files as are in itunes?

  • [Fred Talmadge]

     I trust them but it doesn’t run on Linux.   So I booted W7 downloaded itunes tried to get it but it said it wasn’t available in the US.  So yes I trust them, just don’t like them.  Thanks for the link.  Sorry I can’t confirm it’s the same.

• [Michael Gerber]

  Fascinating interview, and essential listening for any Beatles/Lennon fan–but all of it should be taken with massive grains of salt.

  • [BellBino]

    Exactly. Lennon lied repeatedly throughout that interview — as when he claims that he and Paul stopped writing songs together early on. It only took John 10 years to admit (in a 1980 interview) that he’d been lying when he said that to Wenner. This 1970 interview actually reveals a lot of the petty side of John, like when he trashes George Martin. Crappy thing to do.

• [Jorge Queiroz]

  Loved it! One of the best things I’ve seen in BoingBoing for quite a while.

• [Miles Finley]

  In 1972 Tony Hendra, Melissa Manchester, & Christopher Guest(!) made an amazing song out of this interview — “Magical Misery Tour,” on National Lampoon’s first record, “Radio Dinner.” Hendra sings & sounds eerily like Lennon. Many amazing lines from the interview are sung verbatim, or close. Youtube link here with caveat; close your eyes to distracting visuals. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clkX-x5UOK8 

• [Daniel Earwicker]

  Lennon at his worst – one of the most successful musicians of the 20th century, yet he’s all bitter and resentful, flipping between self-pity and mind-boggling arrogance, having just wasted a year of his life getting onto and then off of heroin.

  One of the few interviews that makes me despise him.

  And I say this as some who can’t decide whether Hard Day’s Night or Walrus is the greatest song ever.

  • [BellBino]

    Totally agree. But I try to keep in mind that he’d just finished that scream therapy and was feeling vulnerable. But nothing reveals his massive ego and massive self-absorption as well as this interview. It reminds me of that brilliant National Lampoon parody of this interview: “Genius is PAIN!!!”