An extraordinary insight into Lennon the father
‘Onions! Marks and Spencer! Scotch Corner! Shetland ponies!” John Lennon shouted out the list of things he missed about Britain – or whatever weird things came into his head – during a BBC interview while he was living in America in the 1970s, waiting for his Green Card, unable to go home to visit his family. Even on the spur of the moment, it was a classic Lennon concoction, turning the familiar into the surreal.
The interview was played on Radio 2 at the weekend, and the John Lennon that shone through Radio 2’s weekend of celebrations for what would have been his 80th birthday, on October 9, was inspired, troubled, quick-witted, idealistic, occasionally cruel, and irresistibly charismatic. And though there have also been TV programmes scheduled this week to commemorate a lost star, shot dead in New York in December, 1980, radio is perhaps the best way to experience the essence of John Lennon’s genius, because he was such a master of sound.
On Saturday and Sunday, Liza Tarbuck presented a selection of archive BBC interview clips interspersed with essential John Lennon tracks, which together gave
an insight into the course of his career from the early Beatles days, through their immense fame, live performances and radio appearances (including on the Light Programme’s dedicated strand Pop Go the Beatles), all the way through Lennon’s solo work to his final interview for Radio 1, two days before he died. It was a map of his creative development, his relationships, and his advocacy for peace, truth and anything “far out”.
The intimacy of Radio 2’s tribute wasn’t just to be found in Lennon’s own words and his own music. The most illuminating moments of the weekend were new conversations between four of the men who really did know him best: Paul Mccartney, Lennon’s musical soulmate, best friend and occasional worst enemy; Elton John, godfather to Lennon’s younger child and the last person he ever performed on stage alongside; and, most movingly of all, Lennon’s two sons, Julian and Sean.
Sean Ono Lennon presented John Lennon at 80 (Radio 2, Saturday and Sunday), a two-part programme in which he interviewed his older brother, Julian, as well as Mccartney and Elton John. He did so with gentle sensitivity and respect for his father’s creative abilities, but always with the sadness of someone still grieving for his dad. “It’s a little overwhelming how tragic the whole thing is,” he said.
Julian and Sean compared their memories of their father, including being in the studio with him while he recorded some of his most famous tracks. They shared their favourite John Lennon songs, and talked about what they’d inherited from him (Julian owes “quite a twisted and dark sense of humour” to his father; Sean encapsulates Lennon’s emotional honesty; both have his musical passion).
“I’m just glad that we’re here,” Julian said to Sean. “And you and I love each other and are able to connect and talk so openly about any of this stuff.”
“We’ve never really spoken about our dad together in public,” said Sean, of his conversation with his brother, “but it seemed like the right time and place and I think it turned out to be really nice for both of us.” Their conversation was almost painfully honest; more open and genuine even than the famous naked picture of John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the cover of Two Virgins.
It was heartbreaking radio, really, but for any fan of Lennon and the Beatles, it was consoling and humane, too. There were moments that made your breath catch in your throat. Sean asked Mccartney what John Lennon’s mother was really like – because Sean himself never met his own grandmother – and Mccartney replied, “You would have just loved her. She was a doll.”
Sean asked his godfather, Elton John, what the relationship between his parents had been like when they were young and in love, and you could hear Sir Elton go back to those heady days in his mind, reliving them. No other interviewer would have done for this tribute. You just don’t normally hear musical icons like Elton John and Paul Mccartney talking so candidly about their personal relationships like this. It was extraordinary.
Best of all, though, woven throughout, was Lennon’s music. On the radio where it sounds best, there was plenty of it, with that great rasping, outrageous, spine-tingling voice turning everyone on from the beyond, sounding as new and far-out as it ever did.