The Groom Stripped Bare by His Suitor 
Jeremy Harding
- Lennon Remembers by Jann Wenner
John Lennon gave his famous interview to Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone magazine at the end of 1970, a few days before the release of the most important solo-Beatle record, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Rolling Stone published the interview early the following year, with the album already in the shops. Between them, the record and the interview seemed to round off the 1960s nicely – or nastily, come to that. Many things seemed to do the same, of course, but in this case the dating was pretty precise. It was ten years since John, Paul, George and Ringo had recorded their first session together at the Akustik, a small studio in Hamburg (apparently a single 78 rpm copy of ‘Summertime’ still survives); and Lennon’s declaration that ‘the dream is over’ in ‘God’, track ten on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, felt like a speech from the heart at the last-ever anniversary party.
Subscribers to the print edition can log in to view the entire article. For information about subscribing to the London Review of Books click here. This article is available for purchase online. Buy this article.
Jeremy Harding is a contributing editor at the LRB. His versions of Rimbaud’s poetry are published by Penguin along with John Sturrock’s translation of the letters.
Other articles by this contributor:
At Quai Branly · Jacques Chirac’s museum
It Migrates to Them · The Coming Megaslums
At the British Museum · The African Galleries
Disaffiliate, Reaffiliate, Kill Again · Régis Debray
At the Royal Academy · Botticelli
A Man or a Girl’s Blouse? · Serbia after Karadzic
Sarko, Ségo & Co. · The Banlieues Go to the Polls
The Habit of War · Eritrea
print layout
tell a friend