Saturday, July 16, 2011

MULTICOLORED MIRRORS

Since I'm rereading Philip Norman's wonderful book, John Lennon:  The Life, I thought I'd dust off a review I wrote for the Lost Amazon Archives back in 2008.  Enjoy.

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Some people, attached to the cuddly mop-top Beatles image, are shocked that Lennon—who was, by most accounts, profoundly idealistic, generous to a fault, fiercely intelligent and a brilliant wit—could also be a perfect idiot:  rude, angry, cynical, cruel, and, on occasion, violent.  That’s precisely why I’ve always felt a profound connection to the man:  He was wonderfully, horribly, fully human—trapped in a yin-yang spiral, constantly seeking transcendence through mind-altering substances, God, politics, family.  Throughout his career, his songs painted the portrait of a man always reaching for Heaven—and often tumbling straight into Hell along the way:  forever questing—desperately, defiantly, and always with a sense of humor—to understand himself.

I wrote those words in a post a few years ago, discussing my lifelong fascination with, and admiration for, my one true rock and roll hero:  John Lennon.  That fascination was reignited—not that it ever really dimmed—with the arrival of Philip Norman’s wonderful new Lennon biography, John Lennon:  The Life.  Norman’s book on the Beatles, Shout, is a classic and his admiration for Lennon shone through on every page.  The same can be said for The Life.  As Norman noted in a recent interview, “(Lennon) behaved badly, but we all behave badly... The overwhelming number of people who met him really adored him."  And that’s the overwhelming feeling this incredibly detailed, and incredibly compassionate, book leaves you with:  admiration for a flawed man, and towering artist, who lived the full spectrum of his humanity.    

Strange, then, that a number of reviewers have written about The Life as if it’s a scathing portrait of a violent, drug-addled, womanizing monster, whose idealistic and political stances were hypocritical poses.  It’s as if they simply can’t fathom that a man can contain opposites or comprehend the vast difference between hypocrisy and contradiction.  (Or perhaps it’s just that they can’t bear to look at the contradictions in their own souls.)  “Good and evil,” as another hero of mine, Dostoyesvsky, wrote, “are monstrously mixed up in man.”  John Lennon lived that.  More important:  he knew it.

The joke here—and one that, I think, Lennon would appreciate—is that most of the “shocking revelations” in The Life aren’t new:  any fan with more than a cursory knowledge of the Beatles has heard them before—and from Lennon’s own lips.  “I used to be cruel to my woman I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved.”  That unsettling line came smack in the middle of “Getting Better,” an optimistic piece of McCartneyism turned on its head by Lennon’s naked admission of his violent past.  How about this, from the brilliant Walls and Bridges track, “Scared”:  “Hatred and jealousy, gonna be the death of me, I guess I knew it right from the start. Sing out about love and peace, don't wanna see the red raw meat, the green eyed goddamn straight from your heart.”  No biographer could capture the contradictions of John Lennon’s soul more forcefully than the man did himself, both in song and in his always honest and revealing interviews.  “I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically,” Lennon told interviewer David Sheff, a few months before his assassination, “any woman. I was a hitter.  I couldn't express myself and I hit.  I fought men and I hit women.  That is why I am always on about peace, you see.  It is the most violent people who go for love and peace.  Everything's the opposite.  But I sincerely believe in love and peace.  I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence.  I will have to be a lot older before I can face in public how I treated women as a youngster.”

John Lennon:  The Life isn’t perfect:  no single biography could be.  A man’s life—especially a man like Lennon, who was the focus of an entire generation’s dreams and aspirations—is a mirror.  A biographer often sees more of himself in that mirror than he does of his subject.  (The same can be said of the people who review those biographies—myself included.)  Despite its great length—more than 800 pages—I would have liked a little more psychological insight, a little more spiritual depth (Lennon was as much a fervent spiritual seeker as his bandmate, George Harrison).  Although it’s refreshing to see a book that presents Yoko Ono as a vulnerable human being and an artist of worth—as opposed to the Dragon Lady caricature that’s marred one too many Beatle-related books—Norman seems to accept Yoko’s version of events too easily and without question.  That said, when you’re chronicling the life and times of a man with kaleidoscope eyes and multi-colored mirrors on his hobnail boots, the definitive account will always be elusive.

© copyright 2011 J.M. DeMatteis

12 comments:

  1. Yoko was one of the people who branded this book a "slam job" on John, after initially cooperating with Norman and giving the book her blessing. No one who's read it can figure out why.

    Most surprising thing to me is that Paul McCartney actually cooperated on it, to some extent. I know Paul was particularly hurt by Norman's portrayal of him in SHOUT, a fact that Norman himself acknowledges in this book.

    I'm sure Yoko is not as bad as some have portrayed her, but I definitely see her as more of a Dragon Lady than a vulnerable human being and artist of worth. I know too many stories about her, stories I tend to believe.

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  2. I was a little confused by Yoko's reaction to the book, too, Glenn. It really is a fair, and compassionate, look at Lennon's life.

    I think Yoko is a fascinating person and a genuine artist (I don't think one has to love all her work in order to admire the talent that goes into it); and, being a flawed human like the rest of us, she's made her share of dumb mistakes in her life. And she's done it on the world stage, being watched by people who couldn't wait to condemn her.

    What the truth of anyone's life is -- including mine and yours -- is hard to ascertain from the outside looking in, no matter how many books are written and stories told. It says something about the Beatles -- and the entire mythology that's grown up around them and the people close to them -- that we still discuss it all so passionately.

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  3. Have you seen Captain America yet? He seems to be very much the Cap that you wrote, although the vast majority takes place during "The Big One". The Skull is another animal entirely, but at least he isn't Italian!

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  4. Haven't seen it yet, Jeff. At first I wasn't all that interested -- heresy, I know, but the World War II setting doesn't interest me that much -- then I started hearing good things about it. I suspect I'll see it some time in the next week.

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  5. I think you'll really enjoy it. It is very much a movie about Steve Rogers, just like your run was.

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  6. Hello.



    Wishing you nothing, but goodwill and hipness from here to the stars,
    Jack

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  7. Did you mean to post a messageless message, Jack?

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  8. No, this is news to me. Most of my message must have been accidentally erased. I'll deal with it later. sorry.


    Wishing you nothing, but goodwill and hipness from here to the stars,
    Jack

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  9. I thought perhaps it was some kind of Zen message!

    Well, looking forward to hearing what you had to say whenever you get around to saying it.

    Best -- JMD

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  10. Hi, I'm glad to find your blog, Marc... and that you've reviewed a book I enjoyed reading, thanks to the university library next door. It's been two or three years since I rad the book, and I especially admire the fact that you're rereading it. reading again, I get more insight, more perspective, and I don't always take that opportunity. Especially the big works of biography or history with notes and (some) Scholarship, though I will finish reading such a tome - and never finish reading a novel, in many cases.
    I really enjoyed Norman's book, the more so since I'd pointedly ignored Goldman's and never gotten to Weiner's. One of my frustrations was lack - as I recall - of footnotes or endnotes, though journalism was pretty easily sourced from the text. Is my memory correct: does your edition source the narrative with end notes, or anything?
    Next question: was Shout as good a book? I noticed Norman published a revised edition at some point. One of my favorite parts of this or any Lennon bio is the Hamburg & Cavern Club era. Unsuspectingly, my favorite of Norman's book was the light shone on Lennon's childhood - and the banjo playing in the family! was it a grandfather who did a little minstrelsy? The lives of his mum, Dad, and Aunt Mimi were given appropriate weight, but I loved this family musical connection.
    Your own comments about light and shadow, inner and outer lives, are spot on and remind me of themes in your writing for comics. Please mix (or remix) more of your reviewing and thoughts from the world of music, here, sir!

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  11. It's been many years since I read SHOUT!, Brent, but I remember loving it at the time. I know that, in retrospect, Norman felt he wasn't fair to McCartney in the book, and maybe he wasn't, but it was certainly a well-written, well-researched, thoroughly enjoyable work.

    There's a new Lennon bio coming out in the fall by Tim Riley -- Lennon: the Man, the Myth, the Music -- that's getting good buzz. I'm looking forward to reading...well, devouring...it. When I do, I'll write about it here at Creation Point.

    If you love Lennon, you have to read Ken Sharp's STARTING OVER: THE MAKING OF DOUBLE FANTASY. It's a warm, wonderful, detailed look at Lennon's last months of music making, incorporating interviews with just about everyone involved with the album. The book paints a picture of a creatively recharged, very happy John Lennon, ready to surf back into the world on a wave of great music. Which makes the inevitable end all the more heartbreaking.

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