John Lennon Said He Chose to Work With Only 2 People Who ‘Interested’ Him
John Lennon spent nearly a decade with The Beatles, working with a shifting group of people before he settled in with the Fab Four. After the band broke up, he went on to collaborate with a number of other artists. Lennon worked with many people in his career, but he said he only chose two of these people. They made up the most impactful working relationships of his life.
John Lennon said he only chose two people to work with
While in The Beatles, Lennon worked closely with Paul McCartney. Their collaboration made the band what it was. After The Beatles disbanded, Lennon began working with his wife, Yoko Ono. He said Ono and McCartney were the only meaningful partnerships he chose to have in his career.
“Throughout my career, I’ve selected to work with – for more than a one-night stand, say, with David Bowie or Elton John – only two people: Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono,” he told Rolling Stone three days before his death. “I brought Paul into the original group, the Quarrymen, he brought George in, and George brought Ringo in. And the second person who interested me as an artist and somebody I could work with was Yoko Ono. That ain’t bad picking.
He shared what they worked toward
Lennon said that when he worked, he hoped to use his art to communicate the scope of his thoughts with the public.
“I’m interested in communicating whatever it is I want to say or produce in the maximum possible way, and rock & roll is it, as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “It’s like that image of watching a giraffe going by the window. People are always just seeing little bits of it, but I try and see the whole, not just in my own life, but the whole universe, the whole game. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”
While the fruits of his collaborations with Ono and McCartney were quite different, Lennon said he had similar goals with both of them.
“So whether I’m working with Paul or Yoko, it’s all toward the same end, whatever that is – self-expression, communication or just being like a tree, flowering and withering and flowering and withering.”
John Lennon once said he didn’t feel a loss at the end of his creative partnership with Paul McCartney
While Lennon acknowledged that his songwriting partnership with McCartney had been important, he also said he didn’t feel a loss when they went their separate ways. He claimed that he had taught McCartney more than McCartney taught him.
“I never actually felt a loss,” he said in the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview WIth John Lennon and Yoko Ono by David Sheff. “I don’t want it to sound negative, like I didn’t need Paul, because when he was there, obviously, it worked. But I can’t — it’s easier to say what my contribution was to him than what he gave to me. And he’d say the same.”
