John Lennon Talks About Bob Dylan

John Lennon mentions Bob Dylan in questions asked

September 13, 1969

Question: Did you hope to take the group to the Isle of Wight, to the Dylan show?

John: We went to the Dylan show, and if there had been a jam, we’d have got up. It was killed before it happened. It was so late by the time he got on. We would have jammed, if it had been earlier. The crowd was dying on their feet, by the time he got on.

September 18, 1968

Question: Do you feel free to put anything in a song?

John: Yes. In the early days I’d… well, we all did… we’d take things out for being banal cliches, even chords we wouldn’t use because we thought they were cliches. And even just this year there’s been a great release for all of us, going right back to the basics. On ‘Revolution’ I’m playing the guitar and I haven’t improved since I was last playing, but I dug it. It sounds the way I wanted it to sound. It’s a pity I can’t do it better… the fingering, you know… but I couldn’t have done that last year. I’d have been too paranoiac. I couldn’t play: (‘Revolution’ guitar intro) ‘dddddddddddddd.’ George must play, or somebody better. My playing has probably improved a little bit on this session because I’ve been playing a little. I was always the rhythm guitar anyway, but I always just fiddled about in the background. I didn’t actually want to play rhythm. We all sort of wanted to be lead – as in most groups – but it’s a groove now, and so are the cliches. We’ve gone past those days when we wouldn’t have used words because they didn’t make sense, or what we thought was sense. But of course Dylan taught us a lot in this respect.

Another thing is, I used to write a book or stories on one hand and write songs on the other. And I’d be writing completely free form in a book or just on a bit of paper, but when I’d start to write a song I’d be thinking: dee duh dee duh do doo do de do de doo. And it took Dylan and all that was going on then to say, ‘oh, come on now, that’s the same bit, I’m just singing the words.’ With ‘I Am the Walrus,’ I had ‘I am he as you are he as we are all together.’ I had just these two lines on the typewriter, and then about two weeks later I ran through and wrote another two lines and then, when I saw something, after about four lines, I just knocked the rest of it off. Then I had the whole verse or verse and a half and then sang it. I had this idea of doing a song that was a police siren, but it didn’t work in the end (sings like a siren) ‘I-am-he-as-you-are-he-as…’ You couldn’t really sing the police siren.

Question: What did you think of Dylan’s version of ‘Norwegian Wood’?

John: I was very paranoid about that. I remember he played it to me when he was in London. He said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘I don’t like it.’ I didn’t like it. I was very paranoid. I just didn’t like what I felt I was feeling – I thought it was an out-and-out skit, you know, but it wasn’t. It was great. I mean, he wasn’t playing any tricks on me. I was just going through the bit.

Question: Is there anybody besides Dylan you’ve gotten something from musically?

John: Oh, millions. All those I mentioned before – Little Richard, Presley.

Question: Anyone contemporary?

John: Are they dead? Well, nobody sustains it. I’ve been buzzed by the Stones and other groups, but none of them can sustain the buzz for me continually through a whole album or through three singles even.

Question: You and Dylan are often thought of together in some way.

John: Yeah? Yeah, well we were for a bit, but I couldn’t make it. Too paranoiac. I always saw him when he was in London. He first turned us on in New York actually. He thought “I Want to Hold Your Hand”- when it goes “I can’t hide”- he thought we were singing “I get high.” So he turns up with Al Aronowitz and turns us on, and we had the biggest laugh all night – forever. Fantastic. We’ve got a lot to thank him for.

Question: Do you ever see him anymore?

John: No, ‘cause he’s living his cozy little life, doing that bit. If I was in New York, he’d be the person I’d most like to see. I’ve grown up enough to communicate with him. Both of us were always uptight, you know, and of course I wouldn’t know whether he was uptight, because I was so uptight. And then, when he wasn’t uptight, I was – all that bit. But we just sat it out because we just liked being together.

Question: What about the new desire to return to a more natural environment? Dylan’s return to country music?

John: Dylan broke his neck and we went to India. Everybody did their bit. And now we’re all just coming out, coming out of a shell, in a new way, kind of saying, remember what it was like to play.

June 6, 1968

Question: Does it feel the same to you when you’re writing something on paper and when you’re writing a song lyric?

John: Er, it does now. In the old days I used to think song writing was this and you know, “I love you” and “You love me” and my writing was something else you know. Even if I didn’t think of it quite like that. But then I just realized through Dylan and other people, Bob Dylan – not Thomas, that it is the same thing. That’s what I didn’t realize being so naive you know, that you don’t write Pop songs and then you do that and then you do that. Everything you do is the same thing, so do it the same way. But sometimes I’ll write lyrics to a song first and then I get the same feeling as Kakky Hargreaves or a poem and then write the music to it after. So then it’s a poem sung, sometimes the tune comes and then you just put suitable words to fit the tune, if the tune’s doo der loo der loo der la and then you have shagga boo choo cha – you know, you have sound words then, just the sound of it, ‘cus it is all sound, everything’s vibrations I believe, you know, everything is sound really or vision. And just the difference between sound and vision I’m not quite sure about.

August 17, 1965

Q: John, is it true that you and Bob Dylan are really the same person?

John: I didn’t read that article, but I think it’s quite funny. No, we’re not. Mind you, we could be.

August 15, 1965

Q: Do you like New York? Have you ever had a chance to go ’round anywhere?

John: I’ve seen – I saw a bit of it one time. Went off with Bob Dylan and some people, and we – but it was very late at night, so I saw – saw quite a bit, you know.

September 13, 1964

Q: John, when you were in New York, what did you like best about it?

John: I just like cities, you see, and preferably big ones. That’s why I liked it. And we met some good people like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, you know, and I enjoy meeting people I admire.