#john lennnon

[anywherelove]

Beatle sandwich :)

[basilettes]

あああああああ

[eppysboys]

‘Snore Wife and Some Several Dwarts’ by John Lennon (A Spaniard in the Works, 1965)

‘Once upon upon in a dizney far away - say three hundred year agoal if you like - there lived a sneaky forest some several dwarts or cretins; all named - Sleezy, Grumpty, Sneezy, Dog, Smirkey, Alice? Derick - and Wimpey. Anyway they all dug about in a diamond mind, which was rich beyond compere.’

[thedissenters]

Hello! Do you have a favourite set of photos/photographer when it comes to John? Thanks for all your work in the fandom :-)

Oh, thank you @agarlandoffreshlycuttears ! And thanks for giving me the chance to talk about my favourite subjects, John and Bob Whitaker photography.

Robert Whitaker: He's my absolute favourite photographer because of the surrealism in his photos and his various techniques of double exposure, overlays, play with light and shadow and interesting perspectives (yes, I'm talking about the crotch shots 😅). He's also a photographer who had a really good rapport with John and it clearly shows in the photos and also the fact that he's the only one as far as I know who did several photo shootings with John and Cynthia (and Julian) and I love them all [•][•][•][•][•][•]

It's really hard to pick a favourite photo, so here're two I especially fancy:

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Henry Grossman:

Now I have to mention him because he, too, took photos of John & Cyn (and Julian) [•][•] but they were more of a home story so they're not as cool as the Bob photos... But there's one unintentionally sexy photo I really like:

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And this one, because I'm a sucker for photos which portray John as an artist/writer other than just a musician:

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Astrid Kirchherr:

Of course! Because her photos are just iconic and for me, as someone who really digs Hamburg era Beatles and Rock'N'Roll, they're the epitome of cool.

My favourite photos are from the photo shooting after Stuart's death. They're so intense (both John & George) that I could choke up just by looking at them. (I like them so much that I had them framed). Also, they're great because they show John for who he was, someone who acted tough on the outside but really was a sensitive and loving man.

Here's just one:

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Another favourite of mine is this one. Like, it captures perfectly everything that's so sexy about John. 😅

Robert Freeman: He's not exactly a favourite although he (and his wife, maybe 🫢) was actually close to John as well (literally neighbours, y'know). But he captured the essence of cool quite perfectly during the recording of "Revolver".

Speaking of writer John, that's one photo I've on my pinboard:

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Dezo Hoffmann:

This might come as a surprise because he really was an old school photographer and it shows especially in '62 and '63. But I really have a soft spot for John in '63 so here you go:

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One might say this doesn't show how John was at all - other than the macho Northern Man™️ - but I really get a kick out of those slightly stuffy photos knowing that they all were quite the opposite.

Also, I think all of Dezo's photos are just what early Beatlemania was. I haven't come across a photo shooting from '63 where they don't look like they were having fun however daft it might've been. It's very endearing.

Terence Spencer: I can't really pinpoint why I like him but I do. I also highly recommend his photo book for everyone who also likes '63 Beatles. Anyway he took the most gorgeous candid (!) shot of John:

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Shimpei Asai:

Just because he shot the best photo of '66 (okay, not really because Bob Whitaker's Japan photos are still superior). But I just like the softness in all of his photos. It's all very dreamy with a twinge of sadness:

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David Magnus:

I just love his colour photos. There's just something quite unusual about them:

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And of course he took the most p*rn photo ever.

David Bailey:

The funny thing about David Bailey is that I adore his approach in photography but the John & Paul photos are the only ones I really like. The John one especially! Maybe he's too much of a fashion photographer to me to like him.

Harry Benson:

I just have to mention him because his book is my absolute favourite and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes Beatlemania. From all the books I have it's the most affordable and really good quality.

Leslie Bryce:

The photographer for Beatles Book Monthly. The photos he took of John during the Robert Whitaker "Butcher" session and the recording session of "Rubber Soul" are just great (!!!) but he isn't really a photographer like the others. His strength is probably that he was almost always there and captured the Beatles while at work and never really posed them. That's also what makes his book really great. If you can get the limited edition it also makes for a very stylish coffee table book.

Edit: I just went through the Leslie Bryce tag and there're several gorgeous photos. Maybe he's the true hidden champion.

Whoever did the Lybro Jeans ad:

John looks hot!

[bambi-kinos]

Part forty of the McLennon discord server’s soft/femme John photoset [40/?] series.

[harrisonstories]

The Beatles and Martha during the Mad Day Out photoshoot (1968)

Q: Give a brief thumbnail sketch of each Beatle as you perceived him.

Ken Mansfield: Paul was the energetic one, the one that seemed like the popular kid in high school. He was the one whom you would cruise main street with your arms hanging over the car door edge, pressing tight to make your muscles look bigger. He would be the guy who would wave at the girls and slow down so they could jump in the back. I never felt a strong personal agenda coming from Paul, and by that I mean that it didn’t feel like you had to figure out who he was or where he was coming from. He was always presenting the next project or place to go. It was the sheer impetus of purpose that put things in motion so what you saw was an idea and a goal, and none of it needed complicated examination. “Here’s what we are about to do and that was exactly what we were about to do.”

To me, Paul was the unabashed leader of the group, the hard-charging one with the ideas and the one that on the surface seemed to be less troubled about things in general. I’ve said it before that he was like a hyper-kinetic kid that never slowed down – the difference being that he was able to harness this energy into his God-given musical talent and just let ‘er rip. In all honesty, he wore me out. It was fun, the times I got to hang with him or work with him, but his tempo was maddening and his energy pool bottomless. I did have an underlying pressure as the US manager of their company so that I couldn’t just totally go with the flow and hang out and party. My responsibilities were always looming in the back of my mind. If we had been high school buddies and there had been no fame, I think Paul would be the kind of person who would be great to hook up with again at class reunions. It would always be good to see him again. He, like the other Beatles, had an admirable sense of loyalty to their old mates. I was with Paul when he brought Ivan Vaughn, an old friend from his Liverpool school days to LA with him to just hang out. Ivan was certainly no one famous or even in the business – just an old friend hanging out with a mate who just happened to be the “cute Beatle.”

George was the one you would have seen in the cafeteria keeping to himself. But he would also be the one to move things aside in order to make room for you when you sat down in the seat next to him. He would welcome the company and share in the moment in an easy manner. He was the kind of guy that a slow, easy friendship would develop with over time and without the fame an everyday George would have probably been the perfect neighbor. He was so gentle and easy to be with. There was thoughtfulness in his responses to things as they were happening whether it was the conversation or the next move. He was the model of a man at peace with what was going on inside and his serenity spilled out into his surroundings. I could talk with him about simple things and was able to forget the Apple stuff because I could tell that the world didn’t begin and end with that for him. He would be more concerned about how I was doing rather than what I was doing. We shared some very personal times together because we were young, happening dudes with new wives who liked each other. I got to be the LA guy with him during his frequent and extended stays. Just because we were in Hollywood didn’t mean we had to be crazy. It was simple and easy being with George – we would go buy jeans together or sit around the house late at night and not say much.

John was the different one. He was the kid who also might be eating his lunch alone but would probably be standing up, leaning against the soda machine looking out across the lunchroom like it was another planet. There was always this sense that he was a bit unapproachable and he would be the one to do the approaching if anything was going to come down on a personal level. I spent less time with him than the others with the main difference being that I never had that alone time away from the band or Yoko – except for the day over at Ringo’s LA home in 1976. That particular event was an accidental encounter and definitely not a bonding moment.

I have written a lot about John over the years and it surprised me how many pages I spent on him after having had so little contact. I believe it was because of the complexity of his nature that it took more words to describe him. He was a brooder. There seemed a distance in place that made me always wonder how our exchanges were being digested and assimilated. I found in time this had more to do with my insecurities than his inaccessibility. He was very focused and intent at times and didn’t have time for niceties. When I finally understood him better I found this to be because he was very straight ahead and honest when it was one on one time. John cared about issues of importance and would get very frustrated when he couldn’t make matters better. He was like many of the great artists I worked with who had the odd ability to be in the extreme corners of life, jumping back and forth from altruism to self-centered madness without ever spending much time in the middle. Gee, I wonder why he was the one everyone was so fascinated with?

Ringo was the long-term guy. He’s the one you would meet the first day at school and just because you ended up in the cloak room at the same time going for the same coat hook, you became friends for the rest of your school years and never really thought much about why. He was  the most natural, most accessible and the most down to earth. I remember when I was in London it was his house that I was invited out to for a holiday feast. When we were in LA it was gatherings at our homes that were of the norm. We shared a lot of our lives over the years and it was usually the simple things that stand out when I think back. He was the one I got to know best and the easiest to describe. I never liked the fact that he was relegated to the fourth man down on their totem pole when it came to the band’s pecking order. Besides being the best absolute drummer they could have chosen, he is an exceptional actor in my opinion. It is hard to find someone sharper or funnier in head-to-head dialogue. He brought “Starr” power to the band.

- Daytrippin’ Beatles Magazine (2 Feb. 2013)

[archived-themagicalmysticalboy]

Be my friend, you fucking dumb ass

-Paul McCartney upon meeting John Lennon

[theawkwardqueerturtle]

Paul: John never seemed queer to me.

John, Brian, and Stu: BITCH IS YOU BLIND?????