#kieron murphy

[ceofjohnlennon]

John Lennon and Yoko Ono photographed by Kieron Spud Murphy, July 21, 1971.

[bluebeatlesgirls]

"You may think l'm small, but I have a universe in my head." -Yoko Ono

"When you're in love, when somebody says something like, "How can you be with that woman?" you say, "What do you mean? I am with this goddess of love, the fulfillment of my whole life. Why are you saying this? Why do you want to throw a rock at her or punish me for being in love with her?" Our love helped us survive it, but some of it was pretty violent. There were a few times when we nearly went under, but we managed to survive and here we are. [Looks upward] Thank you, thank you, thank you." -John Lennon

"I love you and so does everyone else with half a clue in this world! You are my mentor and my best friend and the OG Good Witch of the East!" -Sean Lennon

"She's very inspiring, very excitable and enthusiastic about things." -Klaus Voormann

"People hate her, they really do. Did you know that to Yoko someone is a verb in America? It is something that boys say if they're hanging out with you too much and they're going to school or they have a band. It's almost a myth that's used to suppress women. Y'know, You're gonna Yoko me. You're gonna destroy me.' And this woman put up with racial inequality from Fleet Street, she put up with being accused of breaking up the best band in the world, she put up with people's idea that she castrated this man and then, worst of all, she had her best friend, her husband, the person she lived for, die in her arms in front of a fortress that she'd hidden herself in for 20 years. And I just feel that the world media should apologize to her because she handled it with so much dignity." -Courtney Love

"I thought she was a hard woman. I don't think she is now. I think she's just the opposite. I think she's a very loving, caring woman." -Paul McCartney

"There was something absolutely lovely about her which I'm not sure if I can quite put my finger on, but she was completely different to the propaganda we've all been led to believe that she was this devil woman, a foreigner led to boot, who broke up the beatles." -Kieron Murphy

"What has often been underestimated is the radical influence that Yoko Cno represented in both art and politics. She had a huge impact on [John's] ideas and, even in the late 70s, told him off in public for being too dismissive of his radicalism." -Tariq Ali

"I do think in a way that she does thrive off of energy-whether it's good or bad- and she manages to somehow refocus that impulse into something positive." -Sean Lennon

"Yoko is as important to me as Paul and Dylan rolled into one. I don't think she will get recognition until she's dead. There's me, and maybe I could count the people on one hand that have any conception of what she is or what her mind is like, or what her work means to this fuckin’ idiotic generation. She has the hope that she might be recognized. If I can't get recognized, and I'm doing it in a fuckin’ clown's costume, I'm doing it on the streets, you know, I don't know what - I admire Yoko's work." -John Lennon

Happy Birthday Yoko Ono

February 18, 1933. 88 years ago

[theunderestimator-2]

Legendary photo of Marc Bolan performing with T.Rex at the Albert Hall, Nottingham on 14 May 1971 by Kieron "Spud" Murphy.

An (almost) identical shot -taken just seconds before of after this one but actually lost (?)- was used as the cover artwork for the iconic Electric Warrior sleeve.

(via)

[soundsof71]

Marc Bolan, 1971, by Kieron “Spud” Murphy

[thedissenters]

George Harrison & John Lennon during the Imagine session | 1971 © Kieron Murphy

[thedissenters]

John Lennon | 1971 © Kieron Murphy

[thedissenters]

George Harrison & John Lennon | 1971 © Kieron Murphy

"I think that one of the things that I developed just by being in The Beatles was being bold and I think John had a lot to do with that. Because John Lennon, if he felt something strongly, he just did it. I picked up a lot of that by being a friend of John’s. Just that attitude of, 'Well, just go for it, just do it.'" ~ George Harrison

[thedissenters]

John Lennon | 1971 © Kieron Murphy

So I just literally – after the initial formalities of getting introduced and so on, I said, “Do you mind if I start taking pictures now?” John said, “Fine.” And he happened to be eating his breakfast. Looking back now, it looks very intrusive, actually. But the first ten pictures or so are him eating his breakfast, drinking coffee, drinking a glass of milk. But looking back at it I thought, Murphy, that’s a bit cheeky, photographing the man having his breakfast. But it didn’t bother him. He’d had cameras pointed up his nose for so long it didn’t bother him at all. The next thing – I look around and I’m sitting beside George Harrison, who had just materialized. And it was like, what the fuck? You know? I’m now sitting at a breakfast table with two ex-Beatles. Alright – I can die now. Lord, take me now. It doesn’t get any better than this. ~ Kieron Murphy on photographing the recording sessions for Imagine

To Know John Lennon - Aidan Prewett