[3 articles]
Searching Lennon's Psyche
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704104104575622703876033526.html
NOVEMBER 19, 2010
By NANCY DEWOLF SMITH
Where were you when John Lennon died? For millions of baby boomers
and some others, the Dec. 8, 1980 sidewalk shooting of the Beatles'
most visible peacenik is an indelible memory. Far away in a New Delhi
taxi when the Lennon news came over the radio from New York, I
listened to it in a forlorn daze.
Also sad, but for a different reason, are two films on television
this week as the 30th anniversary of Lennon's murder approaches. Each
in its way is a reminder that essential, unspun truths about Lennon
are either out there and picked over already or will never be known.
The weirdest of the two offerings, "Lennon Naked," is a PBS drama
originally made by the BBC. Starring Christopher Eccleston as Lennon
(superficially convincing if you don't look or listen too closely),
it features vignettes from the U.K. years between 1964 to 1971, when
he and Yoko Ono moved to Manhattan. For true fans of the
loyal-forever sort, it may not matter that this static drama about
Lennon's inner demons is about as compelling as icing licked off a
spoon. Viewers too young to remember the real days may walk away
misled and confused.
Take the opening scenes, where Lennon teases and torments the
Beatles' homosexual manager Brian Epstein (Rory Kinnear). For those
who know the old subtextdid Lennon lead on or even sleep with a
smitten Epstein?the cruel gay taunts make a kind of sense,
theatrically. But that's all there is, a couple of minutes apparently
signifying nothing and never referenced again.
Other random snippets from Lennon's life fly by: the little son he
hardly knows; the fame that drives him crazy, and then Yoko Ono
(Naoko Mori, looking a little like Diana Ross), who functions, along
with heroin, as salve for his wounded soul. Been there, heard
that...how many times? What's newer is the emphasis on Lennon's
relationship with his father, Freddie (Christopher Fairbank), who
left home when John was 6 years old and reappeared 17 years later.
Through primal therapy and a lame song (e.g. screaming "Momma don't
go...Daddy come home"), John gets in touch with his feelings as the
child of divorce.
If you have 90 minutes of your life to give to the imagined brain
fogs of someone whose music is a million times more interesting, go ahead.
* * *
Or you could spend the time instead on another PBS offering,
"LENNONYC," which is flawed but at least spasmodically entertaining.
I began this documentary with the lowest of expectations, warned by
the gushing thanks from the producers to Ms. Ono, which inevitably
means that we are going to be spinning faster than a top. But Mr.
Lennon's widow controls many of the archivesvisual, musical and
etc.that have been raided to make this film, so what are you going to do?
The first half of the film is about Lennon the charismatic
peacemaker, and it implies that if Nixon hadn't hounded him so much,
his yippie friends Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman could have taken
over the country. Things pick up when the film drops the peace
subject like a stone and moves on to Lennon's drunken exile in
Hollywood, followed by his famous reunion in New York with Yoko as a
loving and musically invigorated house husband.
Not a whole lot is fresh here. But beggars can't be choosers when it
comes to any little morsel of information about how various songs
were written or recorded. The musicians and recording engineers who
worked with Lennon (judging by this film, he seems to have had few,
if any, friends outside these and other employees) also get starry
eyed remembering the whole Greenwich Village vibe when Lennon first
arrived. Like the way there were "people on the street begging for
money and if you don't give it to them they would shoot you," someone
says, laughing fondly. Or the way "the Village sucked you in…. There
was so much poetical energy…. People would be standing on the corner
[and] a big Nixon discussion would break out."
Wasn't it grand? Truthfully, we more frivolous types might prefer
different trips down memory lanes, including studio recordings from
Los Angeles of a wasted Lennon and a ranting Phil Spector trying (and
failing) to make a hit record in a room with 40 or so musicians in
chaos. Or an account by a witness of Lennon screaming something like
"Take me!" as a mob outside L.A.'s Roxy swarmed and pulled at him in
a true "Day of the Locust" moment.
And of course all of it is accompanied by nostalgia-inducing bits of
the tunes themselves. Who wouldn't sit through almost anything for that?
--
Details
Lennon Naked
Sunday, 9-10:30 p.m. EST, PBS
LENNONYC
Monday, 9-11 p.m. EST, PBS
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Imagine John Lennon's life; PBS programs to try
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2010/11/20/imagine-john-lennons-life-pbs-programs-to-try.html?sid=101
November 20, 2010
By Hank Stuever
It has been a John Lennon sort of year. He would have turned 70 in
October and, as of next month, has been dead for 30 years.
Not wishing to lose a seat on the magical mystery bus, PBS stations
are airing two Lennon projects.
Lennon Naked, on Sunday night, is a made-for-British-TV movie about
his falling out with the Beatles and other personal crises. It's the
perfect example of a bad script based in reality (press clippings,
collected lore).
On Monday night will come Michael Epstein's LennoNYC, a
personality-packed documentary that lures viewers with the promise of
a strong thesis - that Lennon's sense of self was inextricably linked
to living in Manhattan for the last nine years of his life - only to
revert to the same old recollections.
Everything in LennoNYC is respectful and guarded, as if he died last
week. It's odd how the 30-year distance seems to provide no further
honesty or analysis from those who knew him best.
LennoNYC devotes much meaningful energy to its subject, and yet, at
two hours in length, only one story, as told by record producer Jack
Douglas, seems to deliver on the title.
It's a simple vignette: Lennon was showing off his new coat (a silver
parka with fur trim, which can be seen in several photographs during
his Central Park strolls in 1980), and he was amazed at the simple
act of acquiring it. He walked into a boutique and tried some things
on - by himself, without an autograph hound or an assistant or Yoko
Ono in sight.
He liked the coat. He took out his credit card, paid for it and
walked home. The anonymity and ease of the transaction sent him into
the consumer bliss that many of us take for granted.
"Freedom," Douglas says. "Finally, he had freedom."
Lennon and Ono arrived in New York in September 1971, exhausted by
the media glare and the legal morass of the Beatles' contested
fortunes. They sought nothing short of celebrity asylum.
Crashed out at first in a shabby, two-room Greenwich Village
apartment, which delighted them after so many bed-ins in four-star
hotels, they immediately sensed a more simpatico energy that soon
felt like the only home they had ever known. (Lennon, most
biographers concur, never returned to England.)
In a Manhattan of high crime, gritty streets and art-scene apogee,
they could mingle with the anti-war movement (Jerry Rubin and Abbie
Hoffman were early members of the welcome committee) and share their
observations and pet causes on The Dick Cavett Show. They apparently
became connoisseurs of the city's 24-hour takeout options.
What LennoNYC is missing is a deeper inquiry into how Lennon loved
the city and how it loved him. What about the real New York details,
such as how John and Yoko bought and built their love aerie in the
Dakota, which became a modern landmark thanks to them, and where Ono
still owns several apartments?
The time for Ono bashing, or cringing at her intriguing and
provocative musical contributions, is long past. The fact remains
that the more you let Ono into a Lennon biography, the more
antiseptic the result.
Still, if all you need is love, then LennoNYC can hold your attention
with yards of footage and songs. Even the drecky Lennon Naked will at
least give Beatle-ologists something to chew on.
--------
New documentary celebrates the legacy of John Lennon
http://www.modbee.com/2010/11/22/1439964/new-documentary-celebrates-the.html
By BRUCE DANCIS
Nov. 22, 2010
For all of us who love John Lennon and his music, 2010 has been a
year of special anniversaries. Earlier this year, we celebrated the
70th anniversary of his birth in Liverpool, and with it the memory of
how the Beatles changed the world - and us - and how John continued
to make honest, brave and provocative music after the great band
split apart. But we also must return to that terrible evening 30
years ago, on Dec. 8, 1980, when Lennon was murdered outside his
apartment building in New York City.
"LENNONYC," a documentary about John's solo career, his love of New
York City and his life in the United States after the break-up of the
Beatles, brings back a rush of these memories. This fine work,
written and directed by Michael Epstein, is airing on PBS stations
and will be released on DVD this week (A&E Home Entertainment,
$24.95, not rated).
Much of this story is familiar, of course, to the legions of John
Lennon fans. It's a story that has been told well in previous
documentaries. "Imagine: John Lennon," from 1988, placed the emphasis
on the personal side of John's life, especially his sometimes
tumultuous relationship with his wife, Yoko Ono, and his adoration
for his young son Sean. "The U.S. vs. John Lennon," from 2006,
focused more on John's activism against the War in Vietnam and the
difficult and long struggle he fought to avoid the deportation sought
by the administration of Richard Nixon.
"LENNONYC" attempts to synthesize the key elements of these two
earlier films. It provides information about John's family life, his
solo recordings, his politics and the deportation case, while adding
previously unseen home movies and unheard interviews and recording
studio banter, as well as concert footage, photographs and new
interviews with many of those who knew him.
As its title indicates, the new film emphasizes John and Yoko's love
of New York City, a place where they found artistic freedom and a
semblance of a private life following their harassment by the British
tabloid press before, during and after the Beatles' demise. In a
radio interview, John explained why he was contesting the
deportation: "I love it here. That's why I'm fighting so much to stay
here in New York. Maybe they could just ban me from Ohio, or
something." He added, "I'd like to live here. I don't harm anybody.
I've got a bit of a loud mouth, that's about all. I certainly think
there's room for an odd Lennon or two here."
"LENNONYC" takes viewers along on a lively journey concerning John's
friendship with anti-war activists/Yippies Abbie Hoffman and Jerry
Rubin, his plan to join them in 1972 on a nationwide concert
tour/voter registration campaign (the 1972 elections were the first
in which 18-year-olds were allowed to vote) and his recording his
radical "Some Time in New York City" album with the New York band
Elephant's Memory. Ultimately, the tour was disrupted by the Nixon
administration's effort to deport John.
The film leaves New York to recount John's "lost weekend," a time in
the early '70s when he and Yoko separated and he went on a prolonged
drugs-and-alcohol binge in Los Angeles. Despite his depression and
steady drunkenness, Lennon managed to record his "Rock 'n Roll" album
of personal favorites by other writers.
Lennon returned to New York in 1974, where he wrote and recorded
"Walls and Bridges" and soon got back together with Ono. One of the
most enjoyable parts of "LENNONYC" is the account of John's
good-natured appearance on a rock radio show to promote his new
album. Bantering with DJ Dennis Elsas, John even gave a jocular
reading of the weather forecast. "We're mucking about on a rainy
Saturday afternoon," John joked. "We've got you all trapped in your
rooms cause it's too wet to go anywhere."
The documentary moves along to some of the happiest years of Lennon's
life. New interviews and never-seen footage and photographs chronicle
the birth of John and Yoko's son Sean - on the same day John won his
deportation case and John's own birthday. But as the film explores
Lennon's decision to become what he called a "househusband" and leave
the music business to raise his son, as well as his eventual return
to the recording studio, in 1980, to make the "Double Fantasy" album,
a sense of dread arises. We know what's coming next.
Ultimately, we're left with grief. I know many still share a profound
sadness that not only was Lennon murdered, he was murdered in
America, his adopted country, and in New York, his adopted city. He
chose to live with us, and that got him killed.
But we still have his music. And in "Lennon NYC," we have a
documentary showing why he still means so much.
.
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