The official Instagram page of late The Beatles icon John Lennon has just published a rare writing from Lennon that was first published on page two of issue one of Mersey Beat, where he reveals that he and Paul McCartney would ‘play mighty anything’ for money. A sad John Lennon quote about Elvis Presley also recently surfaced.
“Once upon a time there were three little boys called John, George and Paul, by name christened. They decided to get together because they were the getting together type. When they were together they wondered what for after all, what for? So all of a sudden they grew guitars and fashioned a noise. Funnily enough, no one was interested, least of all the three little men.
So-o-o-o on discovering a fourth little even littler man called Stuart Sutcliffe running about them they said, quite ‘Sonny get a bass guitar and you will be alright’ and he did – but he wasn’t alright because he couldn’t play it. So they sat on him with comfort ’til he could play. Still there was no beat, and a kindly old man said, quote ‘Thou hast not drums!’ We had no drums! they coffed. So a series of drums came and went and came.
Suddenly, in Scotland, touring with Johnny Gentle, the group (called the Beatles called) discovered they had not a very nice sound – because they had no amplifiers. They got some. Many people ask what are Beatles? Why Beatles? Ugh, Beatles, how did the name arrive? So we will tell you.
It came in a vision – a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them ‘From this day on you are Beatles with an ‘A’. Thank you, mister man, they said, thanking him. And then a man with a beard cut off said – will you go to Germany (Hamburg) and play mighty rock for the peasants for money? And we said we would play mighty anything for money.”
Marilyn Manson claimed that John Lennon embraced the ‘rock and roll’ attitude in a new Revolver interview, “Oh, Tarantino and Francis Bacon, if you want to go into things other than music. Iggy Pop, David Bowie, John Lennon, Jim Morrison… I guess maybe I’m listing heroes more than anything. While I was saying all that, you could have cued ‘Heroes’ by Bowie. That would have really sealed it together! [Laughs] And I should mention Johnny Depp, my good friend, and Hunter S. Thompson, who I was good friends with.
I was a huge fan of his writing growing up. He was the real deal, and Johnny’s the real deal – no matter what’s going on in his life, or how many movies he’s made, he never changes. He’s still the same kid that he was growing up, with the fuck-you attitude. Johnny Cash, also. And Waylon Jennings, Shooter’s dad. He was a real outlaw. So Shooter’s bringing some of that outlaw attitude to this record, as well, just in his style of guitar playing. And I play guitar on it, as well, but it’s more Scary Monsters sort of elements, more textures.”
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