拍品专文
This fascinating interview demonstrates the extent to which John Lennon was prepared to subjugate his own personality and career to help publicise Yoko Ono's work. Inspired by an enthusiastic and perceptive interviewer, the couple provided some of their most revealing comments on the nature of creativity, and the unique nature of Yoko's work. Yoko reveals that she has three major exhibitions in the offing, as well as film work both with and without John. ...He's become too good a film-maker for my liking...! she jokes. Asked if she ever got tired of working, she replies: ..I love working. The only thing that distresses me sometimes is when I have to repeat things. John adds: We love work. Work is life. The couple are also keen to stress that there was nothing unusual about being a working artist: Artist is only a frame of mind, Yoko explains - Anyone can be an artist.
John comments that all children are naturally born as artists, and that this quality is gradually lost under the pressure of the outside world: You get told 'You're not an artist', and that's when the problems start. But without artists, there is no society.
Much of the interview revolves around Yoko's newly republished book, Grapefruit, which John describes as ...one of the most important books of the 20th Century. It will be proved that, but it will take time. Yoko contrasts her "constructive" approach to art and life with the "despairing" nature of artists in the Dada group. But she also reveals that she creates art to enact madness in order to procure myself from going insane. She adds that - I became an optimist because I'm a total pessimist....I don't think there's any reality unless we create it...most people are trying to find reality, but I'm trying to create it.
On the subject of art as a release from pain, John reveals: ... many of the songs I wrote were personalised, about me, pain songs... He singles out Help!, I'm A Loser and In My Life as examples, and also refers to the self-revealing quality of Strawberry Fields Forever and I Am The Walrus -- ..We're all in pain he says. Most artists express themselves through pain.
Asked if he could imagine life without being famous, John replies: I was famous at school, at most schools around Liverpool, whether it was for apple-pinching or mischief-making or whatever.
The interview ends with the couple discussing the then-current Oz trial in London, for which they had recorded a benefit single, God Save Us. Finally, they state their intention to travel to Japan and then to Australia, which John remembers as the scene of the Beatles' most enthusiastic reception ever.
John Thompson recalls that the purpose of the interview had been to discuss Yoko's book Grapefruit and that he had been invited to Tittenhurst at short notice...The interview was recorded in the Lennon's drawing room containing the white grand piano...once we had squatted on the floor...to prepare for our discussion, John asked if he could join in.
John comments that all children are naturally born as artists, and that this quality is gradually lost under the pressure of the outside world: You get told 'You're not an artist', and that's when the problems start. But without artists, there is no society.
Much of the interview revolves around Yoko's newly republished book, Grapefruit, which John describes as ...one of the most important books of the 20th Century. It will be proved that, but it will take time. Yoko contrasts her "constructive" approach to art and life with the "despairing" nature of artists in the Dada group. But she also reveals that she creates art to enact madness in order to procure myself from going insane. She adds that - I became an optimist because I'm a total pessimist....I don't think there's any reality unless we create it...most people are trying to find reality, but I'm trying to create it.
On the subject of art as a release from pain, John reveals: ... many of the songs I wrote were personalised, about me, pain songs... He singles out Help!, I'm A Loser and In My Life as examples, and also refers to the self-revealing quality of Strawberry Fields Forever and I Am The Walrus -- ..We're all in pain he says. Most artists express themselves through pain.
Asked if he could imagine life without being famous, John replies: I was famous at school, at most schools around Liverpool, whether it was for apple-pinching or mischief-making or whatever.
The interview ends with the couple discussing the then-current Oz trial in London, for which they had recorded a benefit single, God Save Us. Finally, they state their intention to travel to Japan and then to Australia, which John remembers as the scene of the Beatles' most enthusiastic reception ever.
John Thompson recalls that the purpose of the interview had been to discuss Yoko's book Grapefruit and that he had been invited to Tittenhurst at short notice...The interview was recorded in the Lennon's drawing room containing the white grand piano...once we had squatted on the floor...to prepare for our discussion, John asked if he could join in.