John Lennon put his foot in his mouth several times, but that’s an inevitable consequence of not being afraid to speak your mind. Lennon was a boisterous musician and person throughout his time with the Beatles. His solo work continued to prove that he had something to say. All that to say, Lennon was free-flowing with his words–even if they were negative.
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Check out three times Lennon voiced his opinion on his fellow musicians, below.
[RELATED: The Top 10 Solo Songs Performed by a Beatle]
1. Joan Baez/Judy Collins
In an interview with Jann Wenner, Lennon expressed that he wasn’t a fan of any and all folk music. Really, it was just Bob Dylan that he fancied in that space. He went further by naming two specific musicians that he found too gushy.
“Anybody that sings with a guitar and sings about something heavy would tend to sound like [Dylan],” Lennon said. “I’m bound to be influenced by [early Dylan songs], because that is the only kind of real folk music I really listen to. I never liked the fruity Judy Collins and [Joan] Baez and all of that stuff. So the only folk music I know is about miners up in Newcastle, or Dylan.”
2. Bob Dylan
Lennon and Dylan were known to be chummy. The Bard’s influence on the Beatles is more than apparent. Their folk turn in the mid-’60s is certainly Dylan-inspired. Because of how seminal Lennon considered Dylan’s contribution to folk music, he found his hard turn into Christianity in the ’70s a little jarring.
“The backing was mediocre by Jerry Wexler, the singing was really pathetic, and the words were just embarrassing,” Lennon said of Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody,” which has a distinctive religious undertone.
Lennon’s dislike of that song, and by extension Dylan at this time, spanned so far that he made his own version of it, “Serve Yourself.”
3. Paul McCartney
This one is a given–and deeply complicated. Lennon and Paul McCartney‘s relationship soured in the late ’60s when the Beatles as a whole were coming to an end. Despite being the model of a modern writing partnership, they eventually fractured–bending from the stress of working so closely for so long.
After the Beatles’ break-up, Lennon took to writing a seething song about his former bandmate, “How Do You Sleep?” The lyrics are quite telling. Jump when your momma tell you anything / The only thing you done was yesterday / And since you’ve gone you’re just another day, Lennon sings in this song, referencing McCartney penned Beatles hits.
(Photo by David Redfern/Redferns)
