The Beatles: John Lennon details truth behind The Ballad of John and Yoko’s recording | Music | Entertainment | Express.co.uk
THE BEATLES encouraged creativity and deep levels of songwriting over the course of their expansive career. And while many of them wrote about things they were interested in or cared about, John Lennon wrote about one of the dearest things to him – his relationship with his wife, Yoko Ono.
The Beatles engaged in a tumultuous relationship with their guitarist and singer John Lennon. The supposed “feud” between Lennon and his pal Paul McCartney has been well publicised, especially when it came to discussing Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono.
When Ono came onto the scene a lot of speculation began that she was somehow hindering the band.
Despite this, Lennon went on to write a heartfelt song, The Ballad of John and Yoko in a B-side record alongside Old Brown Shoe.
Although Ono was criticised by both McCartney and Lennon’s fans, the song is certainly one of the band’s more emotionally charged songs.
In 1980 and 1969 Lennon spoke out about the song, and what it really meant to him to write it.
“I wrote that in Paris on our honeymoon,” Lennon said of the song in 1980.
“It’s a piece of journalism. It’s a folk song. That’s why I called it, ‘The Ballad Of…'”
The Beatles: John Lennon wrote a song for his wife Yoko Ono with Paul McCartney (Image: GETTY)
The Beatles: John’s song was about his relationship and honeymoon with Yoko Ono (Image: GETTY)
Years prior, the song was brought into question as the only people recorded on the track were Lennon and McCartney.
In 1969 Lennon explained: “The story came out that only Paul and I were on the record, but I wouldn’t have bothered publicising that.
“It doesn’t mean anything. It just so happened that there were only two of us there – George was abroad and Ringo was on the film and he couldn’t come that night.”
McCartney later corroborated this story, as he explained that Lennon approached him and asked him to record it then and there.
In 1988 McCartney explained: “John came to me and said: ‘I’ve got this song about our wedding and it’s called ‘The Ballad Of John And Yoko, Christ They’re Gonna Crucify Me”
The Beatles: John and Paul recorded the song without the other half of the band (Image: GETTY)
“And I said: ‘Jesus Christ, you’re kidding aren’t you? Someone really is going to get upset about [the title].’
“He said: ‘Yeah, but let’s do it.’ I was a little worried for him because of the lyric but he was going through a lot of terrible things.”
Despite the lyric referring to people crucifying Lennon, Lennon was eager to get it recorded as soon as possible.
And, considering McCartney and Lennon were extremely close friends, McCartney couldn’t refuse.
“He came around to my house,” McCartney continued. “Wanting to do it really quick. He said: ‘Let’s just you and me run over to the studio.’ I said ‘Oh alright, I’ll play drums, I’ll play bass.’
“John played guitar. So we did it and stood back to see if the other guys would hate us for it – which I’m not sure about. They probably never forgave us.
“John was on heat, so to speak. He needed to record it so we just ran in and did it.”
Although half of the band weren’t involved in the song, fans eventually came to enjoy how it sounded.
Recently, it was revealed just how Ringo Starr was inducted back into the band after he quit for two weeks.
Speaking about his exit from the band in The Beatles Anthology, Starr explained he “couldn’t take anymore”.
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