This radio interview with John Lennon was
recorded on June 16th, and was later broadcast
on July 3rd as part of the BBC radio program
'The World Of Books.' Lennon was promoting his
second book 'A Spaniard In The Works,' which
would be released in the UK on June 24th, 1965.
Q: "Let me ask you first of all - How do
you write? Do you write in a disciplined way, or
do you write when it comes into your head?"
John: "It's more disciplined. The second
book was more disciplined because it was
starting from scratch. They sort of say, 'You've
got so many months to write a book in.' The
first book, alot of it I'd written at odd times
during my life."
Q: "Do you set aside certain hours in the
day to write?"
John: "No, none of that. I haven't
written enough. It's not a job, you see."
Q: "Would you like to discipline
yourself? Do you feel a need to discipline
yourself as a writer?"
John:" "No. I'm not very keen on being
disciplined. It seems odd being a Beatle,
because we're disciplined - but we don't feel as
though we're disciplined. I don't mind being
disciplined and not realizing it."
Q: "You know, these little pieces in the
book - they give an appearance of great finish -
of perfection. Do you revise them?"
John: "Do they?"
Q: "Yes. Now I mean, they're not... they
don't look all that spontaneous. They look as
though they've been worked over. Do you work
them over?"
John: "They're not at all. I never -
nobody's ever said that to me. Wonderful. There
are spontaneous, and I hardly ever alter
anything because I'm selfish about what I write
or bigheaded about it. Once I've written it, I
like it. and the publisher sometimes says, you
know, 'Should we leave this out, or change
that?' and I fight like mad 'cuz once I've done
it I like to keep it. I might add things when I
go over it before it's published, but I seldom
take anything out. So it is spontaneous."
Q: "Now the puns, and all the other
technical things. The puns. The onomatopoeia.
The changing..."
John: "The what? What?"
Q: "That's a long word. I'll tell you -
Onomatopoeia is, you know, when... like 'buzz.'"
John: "That's three words I've learned
today."
Q: "You know, when I say a word like
buzz. Buzz is an onomatopoeia, because in the
word is captured the noise of the bee. That's
onomatopoeia, and you, probably without
realizing it, your book is full of them. Do you
know what I mean?"
John: "Is it? Well, I'm glad to know
that. Lot of onomatopoeias."
Q: "Well, you've rather answered my
question because I was going to ask you whether
these were contrived, whether they came
natural."
John: "No. I just haven't got a clue what
you're talking about really. Automatic peer -
sounds like to me. That's probably why I change
words. 'Cuz I haven't a clue what words mean
half the time."
Q: "I know you hate this question, but
what are the influences? All the names that
people toss out when they read your things..."
John: "Well..."
Q: "Nursery rhymes, Lewis Carroll, Edward
Lear. You'd deny all this, would you?"
John: "I deny it because I'm ignorant. I
was ignorant of Lear. I'd heard the name
obviously, you know, somewhere. But we didn't do
him at school, and the only sort of classic kind
or very highbrow kind of things I'd read were at
school. and... what is it? Joyce and Chaucer - I
might have read a bit of Chaucer at school, 'cuz
I think they do that. So I bought all the books
that they said it was like. I bought one book on
Edward Lear, I bought 'Finnegan's Wake,' A big
book on Chaucer. and I couldn't see any
resemblance to any of them. A little bit of
'Finnegan's Wake,' but 'Finnegan's Wake' was so
way out and so different. Just a few word
changes, but anybody who changes words is gonna
be... has got to be compared. His stuff is just
something else."
Q: "Can I ask you about Lewis Carroll?"
John: "Oh, Lewis Carroll. I always admit
to that because I love 'Alice In Wonderland' and
'Alice Through The Looking Glass.' But I didn't
even know he'd written anything else. I was that
ignorant. I just happened to get those for
birthday presents as a child and liked them. and
I usually read those two about once a year,
because I still like them."
Q: "Alot of people say your pieces are
sick. What do you say to them?"
John: "If it makes people sick - they're
sick. But I can read it without... It doesn't
appear sick to me."
Q: "That marvelous cartoon - you know -
'I am blind.' This is my favorite thing in the
whole book."
John: "Oh."
Q: "The other one - the street musician.
'I am blind' and the other one - 'I can see
perfectly well.' Is this typical of your kind of
humor? Is this the way your mind works?"
John: "In certain moods. We used to do a
lot of gags like that at school. I was just
drawing and I just happened to make him blind -
the fella - and gave him a dog. and then I just
drew another one next to him who wasn't. and
then I didn't think of the joke, and then put it
down. Because at school we used to draw alot and
pass it 'round. I remember we'd had blind dogs
with sunglasses on - leading ordinary people, or
you know, just all variations on the theme. and
I just found me-self drawing something that I'd
done at school, but without the tagline."
Q: "Let me ask you - The difference I
noticed between the first book and the second -
the thing that struck me most possibly was
there's an awful pompous expression. There's
more social conscience somehow in this second
book, more awareness of what's going on. What
about this preoccupation 'We must not forget, we
must not forget, we must not forget?' There's
almost a kind of message here, a kind of
purpose. You know, in spite of yourself, this
almost - I'd call it - social conscience
emerges."
John: "Ah, well. I'm not a 'do gooder'
about things. I won't go around marching or...
I'm not that type. It just so happens that my
feelings about colored people, or religion, or
anything like that, do happen to work with the
way I write. I make fun of colored people in the
book, and christians and jews, but really, I'm
not against them."
Q: "I think you keep..."
John: "But I use them to get laughs."
Q: "I think you keep very abreast of
what's going on, actually. You must do. It comes
in all the time."
John: "Well, obviously I read most
newspapers all the time, you know. 'Cuz we're
often in newspapers, and it's still nice to read
about yourself. and then after I've looked and
seen we're not in it, then I go through the rest
of it. and then I finally end up reading the
political bit, when I've read everything else.
So I'm... you know. I can't help being up with
the times, because I am part of the times
through what we've been up with, really."
Q: "John, read something for us, will
you?"
John: "Right. I'll read a bit of 'The Fat
Budgie.'"
(reads) I have a little budgie. He is my very
pal. I take him walks in Britain. I hope I
always shall. I call my budgie Jeffrey. My
Granddad's name's the same. I call him after
Granddad. Who had a feathered brain.
John: "Is that enough?"
Q: "What about the drawings? Let me ask
you about those. Did you draw like that from
when you were tiny, or have you developed?"
John: "For a long time, yes. But not with
so fine a line. I used to draw with almost
anything - usually black pen, or just an
ordinary fountain pen with black ink in it. and
then when it came to doing the book, I said,
'Well, I draw as well,' you know. 'cuz they've
mainly got all the writing. and the drawings are
very scrappy 'cuz I'm heavy handed."
Q: "Does the drawing spring out of the
story or does the story come from the drawing?"
John: "Sometimes, but hardly ever.
Because I draw like I write - I just start and
draw, and if it looks like something vaguely to
do with a story, I do it."
Source: Audio copy of original broadcast |
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