John Lennon’s last major interview was three days before his death on December 5, 1980 with Rolling Stones Magazine.
What Does Reverse Speech Analysis Reveal?
It would seem from his reverse speech in this interview that being true to his self was very important.
John Lennon may have stayed away from music for so many years, because he may have felt pressured to live up to other people’s standards. Standards he didn’t feel he was worthy of, nor wanted. Perhaps he was concerned that by making music he couldn’t be true to his self, and as he said in a reversal “It might not make you the more talented one”. If this were true, I could see how there may have been conflict within himself.
Hanging up the guitar on the wall for years, as indicated in the interview, may have been symbolic of hanging up his career. At some point he decided that the time had come to take a chance and restart his career, perhaps in order to not be consumed by a disease “This disease, is regret”.
Brackets [ ] indicate where the reversal occurs. Click on the reversal to hear the audio.
All you need is love. I believe it. It’s damn hard, you know. But I absolutely believe it! But I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answer to the light. I’ve never made any claims. I only put out [songs, and answer] questions. This man is in loss.
But I cannot live up to other people’s expectations of me, because they are illusionary. And the people that are wanting more than I am, or than Bob Dillon is, or that Mick Jagger is, [or that the new punks] will become, because they have to grow up too. Scoffing at them all.
I cannot be a punk in Hamburg and Liverpool, because I’m older now. I cannot be 18 and be a punk. And [pretend to be socially] concerned with pimples… It was seen as nasty.
...[and the wealth state of the welfare]. OK. Which I was at 24. I see the world’s in different eyes now. I still believe in love, peace, and understanding as Elvis Costello said “What’s so fucking funny about love, peace, and understanding?”
If I were the kids, I would not.
It’s more painful to try and not be yourself. You know? In a way. It’s harder to try – you know people do spend a lot of time trying to be somebody else all the time. You know? And I think it leads to [terrible diseases, and] things like that. This disease is regret.
I come from the natural school of pretence. You know I was never really a street kid, or a tough guy. Used to dress like a Teddy boy, and identify with Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley. But I never really was in real street fights or real down home gangs, or nothing. I was a suburban kid imitating the rockers. And uh, [but it was a big] part of one’s life to look tough. It was all bitter.
Got the one assistant to get me the guitar and I played it a little, and I just hung it up behind the bed. And I’d look at it every now and then, ’cause it had never done a professional thing yet, you know. To have never been used, it was used on this album, so that’s where I broke it in. You see I took it down finally. And I used to look at it now and then and think, cause I didn’t want to hide it. It wasn’t the fact that, a problem with the art in that respect that one would hide the piano, hide the guitar “too painful”, you know, I believe that Arty Shore also went through a big thing and never played again, and a few things like that. You know? [So I had it there to sort of face it]. You know? You see at first, it sat in our house.
The number 9, a black guitar that looked like a spaceship, more like a toboggan actually, and a Civil War American knife. And of course it’s behind the bed you know and I see it every day, I mean it became part of the wall, you know. [And I used to think, well will I then it] – I’d forget about it. It became a picture that you never saw, and you know you never notice it’s on the wall. And then I realized, oh goody, when I decided I can finally find out what this guitar is all about. And took it down, and that was it. Then another one in the ceiling.
It’s not like a normal, it doesn’t have a body. It’s just an arm, and there’s two like, a toboggan thing and you can lengthen the top for the balance of it if you’re sitting down, or standing up. And has beautiful tone on it, and it just had a hook on it. So I just hooked it up there. And there it was standing there. (Jonathan Cott: This is in your bedroom, huh?) Yeah, just behind the bed, you know. I don’t think I took it down ever. I might have took it down once for Sean to look at it, and [put it back up. I used to look at it] and think that. I didn’t see I could have this.
And I thought oh wow, is this it? Do I start where I came in, with Be-Bop-A-Lula?, ‘Cause the day I met Paul I was singing Be-Bop-A-Lula for the first time live onstage. And the picture is in all the famous Beatles books. It’s a picture of me with a checked shirt on, with a little acoustic guitar. And there’s guys playing tea chest basses on it. And Paul was in the audience. On the day I met him I’m singing Be-Bop-A-Lula for the first time. And then I’m singing Be-Bop-A-Lula on that album, and there’s the picture in Hamburg and I’m saying goodbye from Record Plant. And I think [that was the last album although it came out after] Walls and Bridges. I mix up, it’s all fuzzy that day. It might not make you the more talented one.