Nicola Bardola - John Lennon - My Love Is Like A Bird With A Broken Wing

Part of me suspects that I’m a loser and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.

Interview mit David Sheff für den Playboy im September 1980.

All kids draw and write poetry and everything, and some of us last until we’re about eighteen, but most drop off at about twelve when some guy comes up and says, „You’re no good“. That’s all we get told all our lives. „You haven’t got the ability. You’re a cobbler“. It happened to all of us, but if somebody had told me all my life, „Yeah, you’re a great artist“, I would have been a more secure person. John Lennon in The Beatles Anthology

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There’s nothing for me here, so I will disappear.

I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party, auf dem Album Beatles For Sale, Dezember 1964

We’d been playing around in Liverpool for a bit without getting anywhere, trying to get work, and the other groups kept telling us, ‘You’ll do alright, you’ll get work someday’. And then we went back to Hamburg, and when we came back, suddenly we were a ‘Wow’. Mind you, 70 percent of the audience thought we were a ‘German Wow’, but we didn’t care about that.

The thing is, in America it just seemed ridiculous, I mean, the idea of having a hit record over there. It was just, you know, something you could never do. That’s what I thought anyhow. But then I realized that it’s just the same as here, that kids everywhere all go for the same stuff. And seeing we’d done it in England and all, there’s no reason why we couldn’t do it in America, too. But the American disc jockeys didn’t know about British records. They didn’t play them; nobody promoted them, and so you didn’t have hits.

It wasn’t until ‚Time’ and ‚Life’ and ‚Newsweek’ came over and wrote articles and created an interest in us that American disc jockeys started playing our records. And Capitol said, ‘Well, can we have their records?’ You know, they had been offered our records years ago, and they didn’t want them. But when they heard we were big over here they said, ‘Can we have them now?’ So we said, ‘As long as you promote them’. So Capitol promoted, and with them and all these articles on us, the records just took off.

If you say you don’t believe in God, everybody assumes you’re antireligious, and you probably think that’s what we mean by that. We’re not quite sure what we are, but I know that we’re more agnostic than atheistic.

The only thing we’ve got against religion is the hypocritical side of it, which I can’t stand. Like the clergy is always moaning about people being poor, while they themselves are all going around with millions of quid worth of robes on. That’s the stuff I can’t stand.

John Lennon im Gespräch mit Sam Shepard für den Palyboy, Februar 1965.

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They do so many cuts, it looks as though we’re nearly acting. But we’re not.

The dealers have ordered that many records. But it doesn’t mean to say people are gonna buy them. It’s when they’ve ordered them, and people come and buy them from them.

It’s worse for us than other people, because we’ve got to keep up doing what we’ve done before. If we don’t do it as well, people will knock you. Even though you’re doing better than anybody else and you’re doing it not as well as you did before, you’re in trouble.

I think you can be conceited but you can still worry. I’ve met lots of conceited people who are worried before they go on. I don’t think the two things connect at all, you know. You can be conceited and worry yourself sick.

John Lennon im Gespräch mit Eamonn Andrews für den TV-Sender ABC am 11. April 1965.

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Deutschland, Deutschland, Obertown, Obertown, that’s where we were.

John Lennon im Gespräch mit Sandy Lesberg am 9. Mai 1965. Er meint die Dreharbeiten für den Film „Help!“ in Obertauern in Österreich.

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People notice us being cynical because we’re public figures, but we’ve always had the same attitude. We always disliked the same kind of people as we did years ago.

John Lennon in einem PR-Gespräch für den Film „Help!“, das im Mai 1965 an mehrere Radiosender verschickt wurde.

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It’s easier to write with cushions than on pieces of hard bench. … Remember, we were on hard benches before we made it, in an unknown cellar in Liverpool. And it’s much easier... on a nice cushion.

John Lennon im Gespräch für British Calandar News am 12. Juni 1965.

***

Das fünfte Beatles Studioalbum der Beatles „Help!“erscheint im August 1965.

I don’t know why she’s riding so high. She ought to think twice.

Ticket To Ride, 1965

Here I stand hand in hand, turn my face to the wall.

You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, 1965

If you don’t treat her right, my friend, you’re going to find her gone.

You’re Going To Lose That Girl, 1965

I never needed anybody’s help in any way, but now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured.

Help! 1965 ***

Red is the color that will make me blue.

Yes It Is, 1965

Diese vergleichsweise selten gespielte, sehr melancholische Ballade erscheint als B-Seite der Single „Ticket To Ride“ im April 1965.

When ‘Help’ came out in ‘65, I was actually crying out for help. Most people think it’s just a fast rock ‘n‘ roll song. I didn’t realize it at the time: I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie. But later, I knew I really was crying out for help. It was my fat Elvis period. You see the movie: He - I - is very fat, very insecure, and he’s completely lost himself. And I am singing about when I was so much younger and all the rest, looking back at how easy it was. Now I may be very positive, yes, yes, but I also go through deep depressions where I would like to jump out the window, you know. It becomes easier to deal with as I get older. I don’t know whether you learn control or, when you grow up, you calm down a little. Anyway, I was fat and depressed and I was crying out for help. In those days, when the Beatles were depressed, we had this little chant. I would yell out, ‘Where are we going, fellows?’ They would say, ‘To the top, Johnny’, in pseudo-American voices. And I would say, ‘Where is that, fellows?’ And they would say, ‘To the toppermost of the poppermost’. It was some dumb expression from a cheap movie, a la ‘Blackboard Jungle’ about Liverpool. Johnny was the leader of the gang.

Interview mit David Sheff für den Playboy im September 1980.

Im Mai 2020 setzt sich Beatles-Forscher Mark Lewisohn im Youtube-Kanal „Word In Your Ear“ von Mark Ellen und David Hepworth (Autor von A Fabulous Creation – How LP’s Saved Our Lives ) intensiv mit der Herkunft des Poppermost-Spruchs auseinander. Nach interessanten News im Zusammenhang mit einem neu aufgetauchten Foto von John, Paul und George 1959 in Liverpool, nach Infos zur Familie Best sowie zur unveröffentlichten Beatles-Aufnahme „Carnival of Light“ (Lewisohn kennt sie und schraubt die Erwartungen daran hinab) beginnt Lewisohn bei Minute 8:40 mit der Poppermost-Analyse.

Lewisohn berichtet von seiner Arbeit an dem Buch Tune In und der damaligen Lektüre jeder einzelnen Musikzeitschrift in den jeweiligen Zeiträumen. Im Juli 1960 fand Lewisohn im New Musical Express den Ausdruck Poppermost im Zusammenhang mit einer neuen LP-Reihe der Firma Top Rank Records. Der dazugehörige Werbeslogan lautete „Toppermost of the Poppermost“. Daraus folgert Lewisohn: „Sie müssen das ja irgendwo herhaben. Sie müssen das im NME gesehen haben“. Die entsprechenden Dokumente werden eingeblendet. Mit einer Mischung aus Begeisterung und Entschlossenheit sagt Lewisohn: „They must have seen that“.