An Artist Said They ‘Summoned’ John Lennon in a Ritual While Listening to The Beatles’ ‘Revolver’
On what would have been John Lennon‘s 53rd birthday, comic book artist Grant Morrison “summoned” the former Beatle during a ritual. Morrison played a song from The Beatles’ Revolver as part of the summoning. Subsequently, Morrison said John’s head gave him a Beatlesque new song.
Grant Morrison summoned John Lennon while listening to The Beatles’ ‘Revolver’ and dressing like members of the band
Morrison is a comic book artist known for the series The Invisibles. During a 2022 interview with Rolling Stone, they discussed summoning John. “I think it was October the 9th, 1993, which would have been Lennon’s 53rd birthday if he hadn’t been shot,” Morrison recalled. “And I was about to start on the Invisibles comic, and I wanted to launch with this kind of magical experiment.”
Morrison discussed the other steps to the ritual. “I got all my Beatles s*** on — a paisley shirt, and I had the Chelsea boots,” Morrison added. “I had this white 12-string Rickenbacker, and I put ‘Tomorrow Never Knows‘ on a loop on headphones, and laid down all the albums and images around a magic circle and basically just summoned Lennon the way that you would summon a god in a ritual. You are crowding everything from consciousness that doesn’t make you think of John Lennon.”
Grant Morrison made a song after seeing John Lennon’s head
Morrison saw John’s head and it gave them a song called “John Lennon Like.” “And this demo is an exact record of this bizarre moment where I did the ritual and summoned Lennon, and I got The Invisibles out of it, and I got this crazy little song,” the artist said. “It’s a bizarre artifact.”
Morrison compared “John Lennon Like” to the music of The Rutles. The Rutles were a band that parodied The Beatles. The artist also said “John Lennon Like” was similar to the music The Beatles released to their fan club for Christmas.
How The Beatles’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and ‘Revolver’ performed on the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom
“Tomorrow Never Knows” was part of Morrison’s ritual. “Tomorrow Never Knows” was never a single so it didn’t hit the Billboard Hot 100. The song appeared on The Beatles’ Revolver. The album topped the Billboard 200 for six weeks, staying on the chart for 85 weeks.
The Official Charts Company reports “Tomorrow Never Knows” did not chart in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Revolver became a massive hit there. The album was No. 1 in the U.K. for seven weeks, remaining on the chart for 34 weeks in total.
“Tomorrow Never Knows” wasn’t a hit — but it was an important part of an interesting ritual.
