Chief Lennon

[Jung Roe]

Hi Roger, an interesting article indeed.

For John Lennon, although Elvis was his big idol and a role model growing up, I think Bob Dylan was the American artist he admired the most and related to artistically the most too. I think Bob Dylan saw in John an artistic/lyrical kindred spirit he admired. There was cross pollination inspiration going on too, though with Bob it was all of the Beatles. I think it was the Beatles who the biggest influencer for Bob to foray into using the electric guitar too in his music. His praise of Paul is quite the complement for Paul coming from another titan of a legend. I think Brian Wilson expressed similar of Paul, remarking about the effortless genius melody and melody Paul creates.

It’s too bad Ringo had to put up with being treated like that from John, but it looks like by a few years later Ringo held his own in the band and even left for a short stint until the band begged him to come back. Good for Ringo. I remember in an interview post Beatle break up, John expressed his concern Ringo would be Ok on his own, that goes to show despite all the fun and prodding that goes on in young men friends, their existed a higher level of fondness and care between all the Beatles.

[Daryl Jones]

I had a whole reply typed and by virtue of a wrong keystroke I lost the darn thing…argh.

Bob influenced John, and John then influenced the rest of the fab four. There is always one “instigator” in a group, and that would be John. Ringo, being the “new guy” after Pete’s departure would be the standard/obvious candidate for the experimental use of Bob’s gift of marijuana. The rest as they say, is history. Paul and John developed their own creative struggles and differences along the way, George and Ringo just went with the flow for the most part, until the final fallout and they all went their separate ways. Tragic, but still an unavoidable eventuality.

I find it interesting the George and Bob made the push in forming the Traveling Wilburys, where Bob sort of slid into the background and let Tom, Jeff, George and Roy take a lot of the limelight in what is (was?) likely the last Supergroup of our era. Bob’s brilliance as a writer may or may not have been overrun by the other members’ vocal abilities, and given their vocal strengths, why not? But sadly, we lost them all but Bob and Jeff tragically, as we do so many of our music idols and heroes.
<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”>While they gave us so much more, this is </font>undoubtedly<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”> their trademark (as well as my favorite) and I play it often. So poignant with the rocking chair and Roy’s photograph in </font>the<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”> video. Perhaps John joins George, Tom and Roy in a loftier place and adds another dimension to the song. Share a puff of an aromatic substance, or maybe they just sip a Heavenly cup of tea, chat about the good times and listen:
</font>The Traveling Wilburys – End Of The Line (Official Video) on Vimeo<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”>
</font>

• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by  Daryl Jones.

[Tobias Kaiser]

“Lennon told him he had to be the band’s “royal taste tester.””

Hilarious!

[Roger Penn]

Yes, I can only imagine what other things he had to test. lol