She is buying an egg and it turns into Humpty Dumpty. LENNON: 'The images were from 'Alice in Wonderland.' It was Alice in the boat. PLAYBOY: 'The other images in the song weren't drug-inspired?' He had sketched in some stars in the sky and called it 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,' Simple.' LENNON: 'My son Julian came in one day with a picture he painted about a school friend of his named Lucy. PLAYBOY: 'Where did 'Lucy in the Sky' come from?' Manson was just an extreme version of the people who came up with the 'Paul is dead' thing or who figured out that the initials to 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' were LSD and concluded I was writing about acid.' It's like that guy, Son of Sam, who was having these talks with the dog. PLAYBOY: 'Did it trouble you when the interpretations of your songs were destructive, such as when Charles Manson claimed that your lyrics were messages to him?' One penis, one vagina, one asshole- you name it.' I had this whole choir saying, 'Everybody's got one, everybody's got one.' But when you get 30 people, male and female, on top of 30 cellos and on top of the Beatles' rock 'n roll rhythm section, you can't hear what they're saying.' PLAYBOY: 'What about the chant at the end of the song: Smoke pot, smoke pot, everybody smoke pot'?' Some people will do anything rather than be here now.' Some people like ping-pong, other people like digging over graves. LENNON: 'I said 'Cranberry sauce.' That's all I said. You already explained the line in 'Glass Onion.' What about the line in 'I am the Walrus'. PLAYBOY: 'The most obvious is the 'Paul is dead' fiasco. PLAYBOY: 'How did you react to the misinterpretations of your songs?' LENNON: 'To this day, I don't have any idea what they are. PLAYBOY: 'Did you put Aeolian cadences in 'It Won't Be Long?''

It was only after some guy in the 'London Times' said there were Aeolian cadences in 'It Won't Be Long' that the middle classes started listening to it. But the basic appeal of the Beatles was not their intelligence. LENNON: 'The Beatles were more intellectual, so they appealed on that level, too. PLAYBOY: 'Wasn't alot of the Beatles' music at least more intelligent?' There is nothing wrong with the Bee Gees. Try to tell the kids in the Seventies who were screaming to the Bee Gees that their music was just the Beatles redone. PLAYBOY: 'What do you say to those who insist that all rock since the Beatles has been the Beatles redone?' Interviewed by David Sheff, September 1980 Playboy Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono: John Lennon Interview: Playboy 1980 () - Beatles Interviews Databaseīeatles Interviews Database: John Lennon Interview: Playboy 1980 ()

John lennon between the lines