Q&A with Lesley-Ann Jones, author of 'The Search for John Lennon'
The Fab Four had nicknames: the cute one, the quiet one, the smart one, the funny one. The brainy Beatle was also dizzyingly complex, as demonstrated in “The Search for John Lennon: The Life, Loves, and Death of a Rock Star,” which arrives as fans mark the 40th anniversary of his murder in New York on Dec. 8, 1980. Monitor correspondent Randy Dotinga spoke with the book’s author, British rock historian Lesley-Ann Jones, about her deeply perceptive portrait of this brilliant, troubled, not-always-admirable musician.
Q: What surprised you about John Lennon’s life?
I didn’t realize quite how much his songwriting was a blatant cry for help. He’s always trying to claw his way back to his mother. I’ve interviewed many rock stars, and it’s struck me how much these guys tend to have in common. They almost always come to music as an escape. They’ve mostly had dysfunctional childhoods with abuse or abandonment, and there’s a massive void that they’re looking to fill in some way. For the book, I wanted to approach it from a woman’s and a mother’s point of view – bring the small boy John back, see [the world] through a child’s eyes, and try to bring him along with me and understand him at every stage.
Source: Randy Dotinga/csmonitor.com
