Ok I’m asking this question in the most polite way I can. I’m very very new to the fandom and just the Beatles in general and I just have to know the pure truth on John and Cynthia. Any time John is ever posted on anywhere, like TikTok, insta, ect, people are always flooding the comments saying John beat his wife and kid. Why is that such a popular belief when that didn’t happen? I know he slapped her once or something but people are alway saying it and I just want to know why if it’s not true. Again I’m asking this in the most respectful manner I can. Thank you !
Hello nonny!
I can tell this is an important and emotive question for you, and I hope I can respond in a way that is helpful to you without avoiding the truth.
I don't like the way that John's violence is often discussed---people do like to make complicated things out to be simple---but we can't avoid the fact that John was a violent man. He said it himself [1], Cynthia said it [2], May said it [3], Yoko sat next to him while he said it and she didn't deny it [4].
In her 2005 book, Cynthia claimed he only ever hit her once [5], but four decades earlier she told Hunter Davies a different story [6]. The way I interpret this inconsistency is some combination of personal revisionism (as we all do when we look back on our lives) and choosing a particular version of John to publicly remember after his death.
So what are we to do with this knowledge? This may be controversial of me, but I don't believe in dividing the world into Abusers [irredeemable] and Non-abusers [decent].
If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
-- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
John was violent, yes, but he also recognised that about himself and worked on changing. None of the Beatles were (or are) pure, and as fans we each need to decide for ourselves how much we engage with that reality, and how it affects our relationships with them and their work.
It's also worth noting that John was a notorious revisionist himself, and that whatever he said later, he really did love Cyn.
[1] "I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically — any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn’t express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women."
--- John discussing the song Getting Better in an interview with Playboy 1980
[2] "Molly, the cleaning woman, once caught John hitting me, really clouting me. She said I was a silly girl, to get mixed up with someone like that."
--- Cynthia to Hunter Davies in the official biography (chapter 7)
[3] "He was drunk and looked very confused. Slowly he reached out, put his hands to my throat, and began to strangle me. As his hands closed tighter I screamed out and I tried to pull away, but he was incredibly strong."
--- May Pang in her book Loving John (chapter 14)
[4] https://amoralto.tumblr.com/post/46083471661/september-5th-1971-st-regis-hotel-new-york-in#notes
[5] "The next day at college he followed me to the girls' loos (toilets) in the basement. When I came out he was waiting with a dark look on his face. Before I could speak he raised his arm and hit me across the face, knocking my head into the pipes that ran down the wall behind me,". She goes on to claim that John promised never to hit her again and he kept that promise.
[6] See note 2 above. These don't sound to me like they could be the same incident.
15 notes
·
View notes
Yoko Ono Music of the Mind exhibition (Add Colour room), Tate Modern, London. Saturday 24 February 2024.
13 notes
·
View notes
Originally from the website http://thebeatlesinthenews.blogspot.com/2016/09/john-lennon-camera-press-newswire-press.html . And this photo was take on July, 1968 by Stefan Tyszko.
29 notes
·
View notes