(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Thu 4 September 2025 17:45, UK
After The Beatles, each of the Fab Four needed to endure their own separation periods.
It was never going to be easy leaving a band of brothers, but whereas George Harrison may have visibly changed the most, John Lennon was about to go through the wringer for the next decade.
Lennon may have been the first one to motion for the band to go their separate ways, but once he had to unpack all of his emotions, he was far more emotionally frail than before. No one had had the courage to put something as raw as Plastic Ono Band, but after he made such a brave statement right out of the gate, he knew that the key to his artistic self was going to be working with Yoko Ono. She was his soulmate, but artistic soulmates are often completely different entities, and Some Time in New York City proved that they could be as destructive as they could be constructive to each other.
It was a revelation for both of them, but after going through the press tour, Lennon and Ono did the unthinkable: they broke up. Despite never officially splitting, Ono decided to take a break from Lennon, eventually sending him out to Los Angeles for his “lost weekend” with May Pang serving as his girlfriend for that time. But once he landed in California, fans got a look at a new version of Lennon.
Mind Games already sounded like he was feeling the effects of his other half leaving him, but the recording of albums like Rock ‘n’ Roll were only going to be difficult for him to manage. He was drinking the entire time, but underneath all of that was a man who was unsure of himself and not vaguely aware of the effect he had on people.
After all, Lennon never considered himself to be the most versatile musician in the world, and when talking about his contemporaries, he felt that reaching the level of someone like Eric Clapton was near impossible, with Pang revealing later, “I remember we were sitting there, we were watching television, and an advert came on, and it said the legendary Eric Clapton. And he says, ‘Boy, that’s tough, because I couldn’t live up to that.’ I said, ‘Live up to what?’ And he said, ‘Legendary.’ And I’m looking at John going, ‘You don’t think you’re a legend?’ He goes, ‘Oh no, not me. I’m not that.’”
It’s easy to see where Lennon is coming from, but it’s not like he’s any less of an icon than Clapton is today. What he played may have been rudimentary from a technical perspective, but the whole point behind his playing was getting strange sounds out of his guitar that no one had heard. And when he did play lead, it was easy to tell when he was pumping out a riff that no one else had thought of.
George Harrison may have had the majority of the guitar breaks covered, but the strumming style of ‘All My Loving’ and the lead in ‘Get Back’ is the reason why Lennon should be revered as a guitarist. That’s not even counting the stellar rhythm work that he did half the time, like the fingerpicking guitar line that unfolds throughout ‘Dear Prudence’ or the way he keeps the band steady on ‘And I Love Her’.
While Lennon didn’t consider himself a legend in the traditional sense, it’s always important to see the impact he made, even without doing anything too technical. Having chops is only half the battle, and Lennon understood better than anyone how to use his limited knowledge to hear the sounds in his head.
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