<\/p>\n As his work with Primus bass<\/a> guitarist Les Claypool has shown, Sean Lennon has inherited more than his father\u2019s surname. There\u2019s a psychedelic streak to his music, but it\u2019s the darkness that fascinates him most.<\/p>\n The Sean Ono Lennon Interview – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n Of his early musical influences, he says, \u201cAll of my classical tastes came from the [Disney] film, Fantasia. I was obsessed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt might sound a little gauche, but it\u2019s true,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt\u2019s actually an incredible selection of pieces. I mean, it\u2019s Stravinsky\u2019s The Rite of Spring and \u2018Night on Bald Mountain\u2019 by Modest Mussorgsky.\u201d<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n That soundtrack also introduced him to music\u2019s darker side.<\/p>\n \u201cAll those notes are so dark and cool, and I think I\u2019m really attracted to dark and dissonant notes,\u201d he continues. \u201cI\u2019ve always had a love of that, and I think it\u2019s actually because of the [Beatles] song \u2018I Want You (She\u2019s So Heavy)\u2019 as well. That really impacted me as a kid. My dad had written this very dark riff. I really wondered where it came from.\u201d<\/p>\n The John Lennon composition, which closes side one of 1969\u2019s Abbey Road, arrived at a time when rock music was growing noticeably heavier. The Who had become synonymous with sheer volume, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck<\/a> had laid much of the groundwork for heavy riffing, Blue Cheer had supercharged \u201cSummertime Blues,\u201d and Black Sabbath were about to codify heavy metal<\/a>. Against that backdrop, Sean Lennon believes his father deserves more credit in the genre\u2019s origin story.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was so unprecedented at that time,\u201d he says of the song. \u201cIn a way, I think of it as maybe the first really heavy guitar riff<\/a>. It\u2019s so sophisticated, and it\u2019s so unlike anything he wrote otherwise. It reminds me that \u2018The Rain Song<\/a>\u2019 is unlike any other Led Zeppelin song. There are certain songs that just kind of stick out, like, \u2018What was happening when that one was written?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n Lennon then turned to another Abbey Road standout, offering a glimpse into how one of the Beatles\u2019 most remarkable songs came together.<\/p>\n What to read next<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Because\u2019 is really shockingly complex,\u201d he says. \u201cThe famous story is that my mom was playing \u2018Moonlight Sonata\u2019 [on piano] and my dad said, \u2018Wait, stop. Can you play those chords backward, or maybe write them down for me?\u2019 She did, and that was sort of the basis of \u2018Because\u2019\u2014at least according to my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n Beethoven\u2019s sonata, composed in 1801, shares the same melancholy that attracted John Lennon\u2014and later captivated his son.<\/p>\n Speaking to Guitar Player about his songwriting partnership with Claypool, Sean Lennon previously said that a shared love of music\u2019s darker side<\/a> is a cornerstone of their work. The stark juxtaposition of bizarre comedy and dark surrealism underpins the music of both generations of Lennons.<\/p>\n
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