I suspect that she’s being kind the combination of Ono’s machinations, and Lennon’s emotional and intellectual vulnerability were a frightening force, and changed John completely. We also see the Post-Yoko John, and the bizarre head changes that Ono put John through.Ĭynthia suggests that the changes in Lennon’s temperament were symptoms of drug abuse, and I’m certain that was a contributing factor, but she either doesn’t see or leaves us to read between the lines about the influence that Ono had over Lennon. The portrait of the “Cynthia Era” Lennon that emerges is the one we always suspected was the truth: that John was a funny, warm, intelligent person–usually.

It is interesting that she seems honestly bemused by so many of the events that occurred in her own life.

It is also solid from the standpoint that a lot of the action that occurred in and around the Beatles circle happened just off of Cynthia’s radar, and she tells us plainly when she was off stage. Her portrait of John is unflinching and to the point when she speaks of the events she witnesses. I suspect we’re getting about 75% of the truth, and 99% of the truth as Cynthia saw it (understanding the distinction in those two points is critical in reading autobiography). The feeling I get as I read this volume is that, for an autobiography, the book is unusually truthful. So what? Well, I think that for those of you who want to understand the Beatles story on a gut level, this is one of the must-have volumes.Ĭynthia Lennon is honest in this volume on the level that her famous ex-husband always claimed to be, and generally wasn’t. So we’ve got an excellent crop of fairly recent Beatles books out now. In fact, even “Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles” by the very odd Geoff Emerick (who, despite having been in on the most important of the Beatles recording sessions seems to have entirely missed the point) is pretty good.

The most recent histories of the World’s Greatest Band (this one and “The Beatles: The Biography” by Bob Spitz) are more reliable as general retellings than most of the previous dreck we’ve gotten, with the possible exception of Phillip Norman’s, excellent “Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation.” In fact, most of the previous general histories we’ve got on the Beatles have been garbage–being either authorized fan-club/teenie-bopper raves, or idiot kiss-and-tell scandal tomes (like “The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles” which paints the Beatles as victims and jerks simultaneously). The reason I say this is so that you’ll know whose “side” I’m on. I could not be more in the Beatles camp without needing medication.Īctually some people think I do need medication over my Beatles fixation, but never mind.

I’ve been a fan of the Beatles since the first night that they were on Ed Sullivan in 1964.

John by cynthia lennon