John Lennon Always Regretted This About the Beatles (But Didn’t Do Anything About It)

Regrets that stem from inaction can be some of the most painful to reconcile, and that seemed to be the case for the one thing John Lennon always regretted about his time with the Beatles. Although he would admit in the same breath, he didn’t regret it enough to act on it.

So it often goes in life, after all. Hindsight is always 20/20, and when it comes to matters of creativity and ego, that type of clarity can reveal far more than we’re often comfortable seeing face-to-face.

John Lennon Regretted This About The Beatles

David Sheff’s All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono is as revealing as a conversation with that kind of pomp would suggest. In the massive interview spanning three weeks in August 1980, four months before Lennon’s death, the ex-Beatle talked about his life with his second wife, individual Beatles songs, and memories (and regrets) of his time in the Fab Four.

The last included one notable tinge of remorse Lennon always felt about George Harrison and Ringo Starr’s place in the Beatles’ songwriting compensation. As Lennon was discussing hurtful comments Harrison had made about him in his memoir, the “Imagine” singer said it was particularly painful because he had tried to ensure Harrison and Starr would get decent compensation from Beatles songs.

“It was because of me that Ringo and George got a piece of John and Paul’s songwriting,” Lennon argued to Sheff. “Under [manager] Allen Klein’s auspices, John and Paul own completely anything that [publishing company] Maclen published. I always felt bad that George and Ringo didn’t get a piece of the publishing. Not bad enough to do anything about it, but slightly guilty about it.”

“Under Klein’s maneuvering-and-management period,” Lennon continued, “when the opportunity came to give them only five percent each of Maclen—which is still a lot of money for songwriting—it was because of me that they got it. Not because of Klein and not because of Paul, because of me. Paul had to say ‘yes’ because he couldn’t say no. But it was under my instigation that they got it.”

The Musician Had Mixed Feelings About His Bandmates

The inner turmoil of the Beatles’ final years is certainly old news, but David Sheff’s intimate interview with John Lennon shed a glaring light on the musician’s paradoxical feelings toward his ex-colleagues. Lennon further justified his defense of George Harrison and Ringo Starr’s compensation by saying that he solidified their stake in Maclen despite not getting money for their works, like “Something” or “Taxman.”

“That’s why I might have sounded resentful about George and Ringo, because of the Apple business going on and the attitude they conveyed that somehow, ‘John has forsaken us and John is tricking us.’ It just wasn’t true,” Lennon insisted.

Nonetheless, it didn’t take long for the former Beatle to make a case for why he and Paul McCartney were the rightful heirs to the lion’s share of Maclen publishing royalties. “I think it’s possible for John and Paul to have created the same thing with two other guys,” Lennon mused. “It may not have been possible for George and Ringo to have created it without John and Paul.”

Photo by Max Scheler – K & K/Redferns