McCartney Times

In the spring of 1970, the publishing company G.P. Putnam’s Sons was trying to drum up interest in a book that promoted a radical new form of therapy. Entitled The Primal Scream: Primal Therapy, The Cure for Neurosis, the tome proposed that the secret to unlocking repressed childhood pain required a physical release — maybe even screaming. The publisher supposedly sent The Primal Scream to several celebrities — including Mick Jagger and Peter Fonda — but the book, and the man who wrote it, might not have gained notoriety if John Lennon hadn’t decided to thumb through its pages.

“[They] mailed the book without any letter explaining why they were sent,” psychotherapist Arthur Janov, author of The Primal Scream, told Rolling Stone in 1971. “John got his copy about two weeks ahead of publication, he read it, and he came to me. Listen to his new album if you want to know what he got out of it.”

This week, that album returns in a fancy new 8 CD deluxe edition, featuring the usual extras like outtakes, demos, remixes and a 132-page commemorative book, all of which is meant to provide a “deep listening experience and in-depth exploration” of the 1970 landmark. Like many classic records, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band is so seeped in mythology that its backstory is almost as famous as its songs — specifically, the legend of how Lennon underwent primal therapy, leading to the album’s spare, nakedly candid tracks addressing his tumultuous upbringing and his desire to rid himself of the baggage of being a Beatle. Read any appreciation of Plastic Ono Band and you’ll learn that Lennon’s anguished, often screamed vocals were a direct result of Janov’s influence. But that simplistic description short-changes the psychic spelunking Lennon underwent to bring Plastic Ono Band to life — and glosses over primal therapy’s complicated history.

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Source: How a Weird Cult Therapy Inspired John Lennon to Make His Greatest Album | GQ