John Lennon Said There Was ‘No Point’ Recording New Beatles Songs in 1970
John Lennon had plenty of time to reunite The Beatles between the Fab Four’s breakup in 1970 and his untimely death in 1980. However, this never happened. During an interview from 1970, John explained why he thought recording with The Beatles again would be pointless — even if it made sense at one time.
John Lennon discussed The Beatles and recording with ‘another egomaniac’
In the book Lennon Remembers, which includes the transcript of a 1970 interview, Rolling Stone co-founder Jann S. Wenner and John discussed The Beatles at length. At one point, John revealed he was going to meet the other members of The Beatles soon to discuss financial matters. Subsequently, Wenner asked if John would record with them again.
“Not a chance,” John replied. “I wouldn’t record with anyone again. I record with Yoko, but I’m not going to record with another egomaniac. There’s only room for one on an album nowadays, and so there’s no point.”
John Lennon on the rise and fall of The Beatles
John added he didn’t feel this way about The Beatles’ early career. “At one time there was a reason to do it, but there’s no reason to do it anymore,” he said. “I had a group, I was the singer and the leader. I met Paul, and I made a decision whether to-and he made a decision to-whether to have him in the group or not.
“Was it better to have a guy who was better than the people I had-obviously-or not?” he added. “To make the group stronger or to let me be stronger? That decision was to let Paul in to make the group stronger. Then from that, Paul introduced me to George, and Paul and I had to make the decision-or I had to make the decision-whether to let George in.” John said members of the band each had roles to play, however, he no longer believed in the myths surrounding The Beatles.
Did John Lennon work with the other former Beatles after making this comment?
Despite his comments, John recorded with other members of The Beatles after the release of Lennon Remembers. For example, he wrote one of Ringo Starr’s solo tracks, “(It’s All Down to) Goodnight Vienna.” “(It’s All Down to) Goodnight Vienna” reached No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining on the chart for seven weeks. Compared to many of The Beatles’ hits, the song wasn’t very successful.
However, considering Ringo only released 12 solo songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100, it was a career milestone for him. In addition, the song’s parent album, Goodnight Vienna, reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200, remaining on the chart for 25 weeks. While John once said there was no point working with The Beatles after the breakup, he still wrote a hit for Ringo afterward.
