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John Lennon: Ringo’s Right, We Can’t Tour Again
Originally published in NME, 7 June 1969
John Lennon, over here in Canada with his wife Yoko, revealed for the first time that there had been considerable disagreement between him and Paul McCartney over the couple’s nude Two Virgins album cover and that up until recently John had wanted to do concert tours again but had failed to talk round the other Beatles.
These disclosures were made to me when I went with John and Yoko from their Toronto hotel to the airport where they were to fly to Montreal for a seven day bed-in.
Beatlemania is still just as big here and on more than one occasion we’d been engulfed by swarms of half-crazy teenagers who descended on John like starving Asians at a Rome banquet.
Sitting in the back of the taxi John looked tired. Yoko was nonchalant.
Don’t Agree
Lennon, all in white, sighed again and said: “I think Ringo was right about not touring.” And later…”The Beatles are just a democratic group of middle-aged teenagers. We just don’t happen to agree on doing concert tours. I’ve wanted to do some for a while, but I’m not sure anymore.”
It was an uneventful trip to the airport, a welcome respite from the maddening crowds that had besieged the hotel earlier.
We had arrived unannounced, but in less than 60 seconds a crowd had gathered and we were rushed into a small, vacant room.
We sat there for over an hour; John, Yoko, daughter Kyoko who’s five, a Beatles’ cameraman, and myself.
Controversy
The Lennons are now accustomed to the fanatical behaviour of teenagers, but John wasn’t quite prepared for the storm of controversy over the recent Two Virgins album, which had John and Yoko pictured naked on the front cover.
“I expected some noise about it,” John said, “but not as much as we got. I’d planned to produce an album with Yoko before we became lovers. Paul had had Mary Hopkin. George had Jackie Lomax, so I wanted to do something with Yoko.
“I was in India meditating about the album, when it suddenly hit me. I wrote Yoko telling her that I planned to have her in the nude on the cover. She was quite surprised, but nowhere near as much as George and Paul.
“Paul gave me long lectures about it, and said ‘Is there really any need for this?’ It took me five months to persuade them.
“It was a natural turn of events that I got in the picture, too. When we got the pictures back, I admit I was a bit shocked. I thought ‘Hello, we’re on.’ I figured that if I was mildly shocked, what would others think?
“But it was worth it for the howl that went up. It really blew their minds. It cleared the air a bit. People always try to kill anything that’s honest. The album wasn’t ugly; it was just a point of view.”
The Two Virgins cover, despite police confiscations here, did not create as big a stir as Jim Morrison (of the Doors) with his alleged indecent exposure in Florida. Lennon wasn’t particularly impressed by what happened.
“I suppose the show wasn’t going too well, so Jim decided to liven things up a bit. If he likes doing that sort of thing that’s okay. If he did do it, I would have liked to see him do it properly and have intercourse on stage.”
Lennon still thinks that the Beatles have more influence on young people than Jesus Christ, an opinion which brought a heavy load of wrath upon him when first he mentioned it two years ago.
“Some ministers even stood up in their churches and agreed with it then,” said Lennon. “Kids are still more influenced by us than by Jesus Christ. As it happens, I’m very big on Jesus Christ.
“I’ve always fancied him because he was honest. He said in his book that anyone who followed his ways would be knocked. He was so right about that.”
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19 Comments
I always thought John was right when he said The Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ.
Wasn’t it Paul who wanted to tour?
I always thought John was right about anti-nationalism and no borders
Paul wanted to tour doing small club shows and so forth. John was interested in doing big shows. But George and Ringo weren’t interested. And as we all know, by 1969 John wasn’t that interested in the Beatles either.
I Think ALL the above is fairly right,but I not sure paul wanted do big tour,Fact is they all got tired of the loud screaming birds,no one could hear the music not even them.Jp.
Ladies and Gents: Paul McCartney wanted to keep the band going…was the PURE musician of the group…was it’s real leader after ‘66…I love ALL the guys…Paul issued “McCartney” out of FRUSTRATION…Fab 4-ever..readitnowwarisover…Mr Flaming Pie
Imagine what it would have been like if they had done a tour of small venues in 69?? Amazing!
The Beatles are better than Jesus; The Beatles were real.
Watch the documentary about the Beatles tour of America and you will see why they didn’t want to tour. They were treated like cattle. Paul almost got electocuted playing his guitar in the rain, because the promoters wouldn;t put up a canopy. It was AWFUL for them. They didn’t get the pampered treatment rock stars get today.
I THINK THEY’RE ENGLISH FAGGOTS!
Thinking the Beatles are more popular than Jesus is very Anglo-American centric. They’ve heard of Jesus in parts of the globe where beetles are just bugs. Go J.C!!! By-the-way, why the hype on Lennon and Yoko when the Doors blew’em off the stage. Instead of focusing on Christ the King, you better first outperform the Lizard King.
the lizard king was a drunken bafoon, lennons presence is enough to outperform him.
I agree with anonymous,Lennon was nothing without McCartney. Perhaps he would have been a second rate Neil Young, or third rate Dylan w/out Paul’s direction and musical genius. I agree with Brian, Morrison was a much better performer than Lennon. Either drunk or sober. We know Morrison had a drinking problem, we tend to overlook Lennon’s, not to mention the cocaine. We don’t get to see Lennon deteriorate on stage like Morrison because they, the Beatles, stopped touring, and when they did tour, there were too many teeny boppers screaming for us to hear Lennon’s drunken sub par performance. Authors and historians have noted Lennon’s physically bloated state and weak performances in late ‘64 and early’65. Thank God for Paul and George holding up their end.
John would not have been anything without Paul and George, however obviously togethor they fit perfectly. Paul was more of an entertainer while John was expressing more truth. Morrison and Lennon are completely different types of performers. Morrison expressed a dark side through physical chaos and poetic lyrics, while Lennon expressed more of his heart and ideals through more than music. and the beatles were more popular than Jesus
sorry i meant to say john would have been something even without paul and george
The Beatles WERE more popular than Jesus in arguable. However, ask any teenager to name all four Beatle now and you’d get Fred, Tom, Bill and Flippy as an answer. Ask any teenager who the son of God is and you’ll get Jesus. By-the-way, Led Zeppelin is more popular than the Beatles.
I think your comment – starving Asians at a Rome banquet – was racist in nature and degrading to the Asian community.
This is a reprint of a 1969 article from the magazine NME. While we agree that it is a particularly offensive comment, it is also be a reflection of the times.
Same Shat Different Flies Each Generation.