Sean Ono Lennon has opened up about the reasons he believes his father John came to “resent” being a Beatle.
The musician and producer was born in 1975 to the late music legend and the avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, and earlier this year, he oversaw the audio mastering for the concert footage in the new documentary film One To One: John & Yoko.
That film follows the years that the couple lived in a Greenwich Village apartment in New York City in the early ‘70s, during which they became engaged in protest politics and played a benefit concert in Madison Square Garden.
Sean has given an interview to Chris Hawkins on BBC Radio 6 Music in which he spoke about his parents’ point of view during that period, and offered his thoughts on why John Lennon came to reflect negatively on his enormous earlier success.
Answering a question about whether he felt John had become disillusioned with music, Sean said: “I don’t feel that he’d fallen out of love with music. I think he’d fallen out of love with a certain kind of fame. I think he’d fallen out of love with having to be a part of a machinery, of a pop machine, you know.”
“I think that was – even though he was always rebellious within that framework, I think that he still resented, you know, having to be a Beatle in a way. I think he really wanted to move on from that, you know. I think his relationship with my mom was the catalyst for it and the symbol of it in his mind. And he wanted to move on and be a radical artist and activist with, you know, this girl, Yoko, who he had fallen in love with.”
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Sean continued: “So, I think he was trying to find a new way to do things and looking for a new way to do things. I think there were some growing pains, you know. And by growing pains, I just simply mean he made a record with my mom that people didn’t necessarily like, ‘Some Time in New York City’, you know. I think the songs are really great. I just think they’re less manicured than what people were used to. You know, they were clearly recorded impulsively and quickly. And I think that was the rock and roll spirit.”
“It was almost like a punk, a proto-punk kind of spirit. But I don’t think people were ready for that, paired with how heavily political the messaging was. But it still – I think when it didn’t sell, I think that was hard for them.”
NME awarded One To One: John & Yoko a full five stars, noting: “In short, this is a terrific documentary from start to finish, beautifully structured and by turns bracingly political, informative and inspiring. It’s also profoundly bittersweet, because it’s impossible to watch the film and wonder what kind of figure Lennon would have become in the 21st century. Just imagine.”
Last year, Sean spoke about overseeing the production on the ‘Mind Games’ reissue boxset, an album originally released during what he described as a “really terrifying” period for his parents.
He saw the album as representing a step away from radical activism, saying: “I think they felt like they didn’t want to be in that world anymore. They realized that it was not a fun road for them and so they wanted to make music that was less directly attacking the establishment and focusing more on peace and love again.”
Sean also revealed last year that his mother “never has moved on” from John’s death, and that he started making his own music in order to “fill the void” left by the death of his father.
“I never played music because I was good at it,” he explained. “I lost my father and I didn’t know how to fill that void. Learning how to play his songs on guitar was a way to process the loss with an activity that made me feel connected to him.”
Sean has now overseen a new boxset named ‘Power To The People’, due out on October 10. It explores John and Yoko’s NYC era and includes unreleased demos, home recordings, jam sessions, live cuts, unique mixes and more. It is out on October 10 and includes a newly restored version of ‘Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)’.
The younger Lennon recently collaborated with Zak Starkey’s band Mantra Of The Cosmos on ‘Rip Off’, which also features Paul McCartney’s son James.
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