Great book on the idol that was John Lennon. Highly recommend to every Beatles fan that there is!! Really recommend.

A great look into the mind of a musical genius through the tumultuous 1960s til his untimely death in 1980. Get a real look at his change in opinion and outlook as the years passed.

Lennon on Lennon is a good collection of interviews that John Lennon gave over the course of his career, from the mid-sixties to his final interview only hours before his death. Each interview has thoughts and insights on a variety of topics, from Lennon's music and his choice to back away from rock'n'roll in the seventies to his relationship with Yoko, the Beatles, and his children.

This book has quite a lot going for it, considering some of these interviews have never appeared in print or at least not in their entirety. However, for the interviews where audio and video versions are available, sometimes the essence of body language and vocal nuances get lost in translation. For instance, I've seen the Dick Cavett interviews numerous times and with print only, you don't really get how nervous John was through almost the first half of it, not seeing him and Yoko chain smoking throughout, trying to keep their hands busy. Other than what you may be missing without the total picture, it is a collection of interviews every Lennon fan needs to check out.

Often silly and irreverent early on, the interviews evolve into thoughtful and heartfelt pleas for peace and understanding. The substance evolves during his separation from wife Yoko and in his desperation to rediscover himself. John Lennon, himself a Beatles fan, provides an interesting insight only he could afford us. The last interview, conducted just hours before he was gunned down in front of his Dakota apartment, is in fact amazing. It makes our loss of him even more poignant than his very last songs.

Heartbreaking. Always been a Beatles and Lennon fan. A pure talent gone to soon

I am reviewing Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon
by Jeff Burger (Goodreads Author) (Editor). Here are my thoughts:

^^ This is Jeff Burger's third book for Chicago Review Press's "Musicians in Their Own Words" series, and the first I've had the pleasure to read. I love John Lennon and all he represents It's amazing to think such a talented man, who often pushed the limits at every turn, spent very little time in the limelight, yet young or old we a have all heard of him, and of course The Beetles.

^^ This is truly a book to keep, and although mine is a NetGalley copy, I'm serious thinking of buying it in print because I like it so much. The book is a varied mix of interviews garnered from all over the place, radio broadcasts, books, magazine, TV shows and Press Conferences.

^^ The Kindle version has handy links to all the interviews, so it's nice to be able to go straight to them with a quick click, in the same way you'd pick up a physical book and flick through.

^^ Each interview is in chronological order from the early days in 1964 through to his death.

^^ They cover intriguing topics like:
Lennon on...
Whether The Beatles Would Record with Elvis.
The Plastic Ono Band.
God.
Reuniting with Yoko Ono.
How Do You Sleep?

^^ It makes me wonder what Lennon would be like today if he was still alive, and what he'd think of the world now, especially when he had such strong views about the world as he saw it then. I suppose this goes without saying, but even from the interviews it's clear a lot has changed. Yes, it's quite a sentimental read. He was only famous for about thirteen years, but his life

^^ At the end of the book there is also a list of other participants and a short explanation about who they are. There's Robin Blackburn (British historian) , Shirley MacLaine (American actress) and Daniel Wiles (producer and director) to name but a few.

Overall: This is a beautiful collection of all things Lennon, and I mean that in a way that sends shivers down your spine, as Lennon shares his innermost secrets, thoughts and feelings to each reader. It's still hard to believe he's been gone for so long. If you're a fan you WILL love this.

I love anything John Lennon related and this book was brilliantly written and won't disappoint.

Reading these conversations with Lennon in chronological order was interesting. I was very conscious of how his opinions and viewpoints changed with time and age. As I get closer to forty - the age Lennon was when he was killed - it becomes more apparent to me that our idols and public figures are just like the rest of us - figuring things out as they go along.

I appreciated the editor's notes and introductions on each interview. I would definitely read his other compilations.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy!

Interesting book for John Lennon fans although once you've read one interview you tend to think I've heard this before because John Lennon did repeat himself again and again.

First off, I am a die hard Beatles fan since the sixties. Secondly, I am an avid reader and have a massive library of Beatles and solo Beatles books. So, it is with a jaundiced and keen eye that I read any new book on this well-trodden subject. With each new book that is released on the subject, a seasoned Beatles fan should be asking themselves what this one has to offer that they haven't read already. This book is comprised totally of interviews with primarily John Lennon, but also with his wife Yoko Ono Lennon. I already have a couple of books solely containing John Lennon Interviews, specifically by Rolling Stones' journalists Jann Wenner and Jonathan Cott. So, I hoped that this book would offer something I hadn't read before, some new kernels of information to glean on a person I have appreciated for so many years. To my surprise, I wasn't disappointed.

This collection of interviews offers some unexpected content. Of note is John and Yoko's early 70s appearance on the Dick Cavett Show, documented here in interview form (with commentary from the editor of this book, Jeff Burger, to clarify things as needed). I happen to own the DVD of this show, but very much enjoyed reading the appearance in interview form. Another TV appearance that was documented as an interview was John Lennon and Paul McCartney's appearance on The Tonight Show, where they spoke about their creation of Apple.

Back in 1974, John Lennon showed up at WNEW-FM's radio station in NYC with some personal records in hand to serve as DJ, weather and commercial reader, etc. I remember taping the whole thing on cassettes back then...but you have the light-hearted fun of it all here to enjoy in written form.

There are also interviews I never heard about or read before. One is with noted journalist Pete Hamill, another is a lengthy one with some college students on the grounds of Tittenhurst Park, their newly acquired stately mansion in Ascot, England.

Depending on your political leanings, it might be a sort of torture to read John and Yoko's more politically centered interviews, such as the one with the leftist magazine, Red Mole. Also, John and Yoko are very intellectual and some of the passages can often go over ones head. However, as a whole this book contains a great overview of John Lennon, the performer, composer, husband, father and journeyman through life...in his own words.

Most poignant might be the very last interview with Dave Sholin from the RKO Radio Network. Incredibly, this interview took place mere hours prior to Lennon's death. It was quite shocking to Mr. Sholin who left the Lennons on such a positive note, a bit of a high, to hear Beatles music playing on his San Francisco station, and finding out the horrific reason why.

In summation, it is definitely worth it to get this book whether you already know a lot about John Lennon, or are a novice. There is something for everyone here to learn and enjoy.

Who is your favourite Beatle? For those of you, like Liam Gallagher and myself, who answer ‘John’, a large part of his appeal in addition to his singer-songwriting qualities is the man’s general attitude, combining originality, humour and fearlessness, as epitomised by his “rattle your jewellery” remark at the 1963 Royal Command Performance.

‘Lennon on Lennon. Conversations with John Lennon’, edited by Jeff Burger, will thus need no recommendation to Lennon fans, although should they need persuading a very strong inducement would be the fact that this book contains material which has never previously before appeared in print.

According to Burger a third of the material has been difficult or impossible to access hitherto, whilst the remaining two-thirds has been scrupulously reviewed and, where necessary, corrected. Thus Burger boasts an “annotated, fact-checked, chronologically arranged anthology of some of Lennon’s most illuminating and representative interviews”, which is supplemented by key quotations from dozens of additional sources.

Such a statement is a hostage to fortune and unsurprisingly some errors have slipped through, such as a reference to a “power block” rather than a “power bloc” or a footnote which suggests that Burger does not realise that Flanagan and Allen were part of the Crazy Gang. Burger also mistakenly states that ‘God’ is the opening track on the ‘John Lennon/Plastic One Band’ album when it’s actually the tenth (‘Mother’ being the first).

Burger’s judgment is also sometimes open to question as, for example, when he states that The Beatles’ “hit albums” were “each better and more sophisticated than the one before”. Whilst generally true, this proposition is, I would maintain, impossible to defend if you think of ‘Beatles for Sale’ following ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, not least because, in Burger’s own words, the latter was “their first all-originals collection”, whilst ‘Beatles for Sale’ contains six cover tracks.

When John and Yoko were interviewed in Vienna from inside a bag (one of the pieces included in the book), one of the reporters rudely remarked that they were not saying much of interest. John accurately responded that, “If the questions are … banal, you’ll get banal answers”, and this exchange helps provide one explain why ‘Lennon on Lennon’ is somewhat patchy; some interviewers ask asinine questions. You will feel Lennon’s frustration about being constantly asked about his hair and understand that one of the attractions of being interviewed in a bag is that it should preclude such questions about his appearance.

Another reason why the book has its occasional longueurs is that sometimes those conversing with Lennon are more interested in expressing their own, less interesting, ideas than listening to his (I’m particularly thinking of Timothy and Rosemary Leary on the joys of living in a tepee). It also has to be said that sixties vernacular can become a little tiresome, with statements such as “Just dig what you like, dig what you dig, and let other people dig what they dig” or “art’s a bag you can get it out in.”

On the other hand, this book offers the joy of John’s honest appraisal of subjects such as the fans’ false sense of entitlement: “I’ve never owed anything to the public. I mean, I bring out a product and they buy it. It’s like that. I never expected Mr Rolls-Royce or Mr Mini to allow me to sleep in his garden … I’m not for sale. My products are.”

You also get to hear John’s pithy observations on a host of other subjects including capitalism (“Who needed soap before they sold it to us”); happiness; The Beatles as a counter-cultural Trojan horse; touring; the ‘Bigger than Jesus’ controversy; Apple; getting busted for drugs; the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; Primal Scream therapy; meditation; macrobiotic food; Maoism and much else besides.

John is sometimes contradictory, naive or downright wrong (he thought Jagger would never get an honour) but he is usually pithy, frequently funny and always brutally honest, making ‘Lennon on Lennon’ a great pleasure to read.