Zappa on John and Yoko

An interview with Frank Zappa, telling the story of the Filmore incident involving John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• zappa
• beatles
• john
• lennon
• yoko
• filmore

[ZoeEC]

@fashioncorpse Jeez, no I don't think you NEED to have "heart" and "soul" to be a great musician, obviously, I simply just enjoy it more when they do. It's a completely different thing than musicianship. I'm sure Zappa was a great musician but that's besides the point. How someone enjoys music isn't a science and I prioritise making good sounds over how fancy you can be. But that's just me. I wouldn't say someone was crazy for appreciating things from a slightly different perspective than you.

[freebirdfire1]

Doesn't surprise me concerning John and Yoko. Zappa was the truest, most honest guy – a consummate human being. I'd have loved to have met him.

[scootosan]

No good deed...

[chapaev36]

@srunequester66 Yes, again it's very likely that someone just did the thinking for Lennon. Lennon was just not the kind of person to mastermind an evil plan. For all we know, Yoko pulled the strings while John was getting high.

[chapaev36]

I don't think John wanted to offend anyone. I think he just didn't think things through. He was not book-smart. So it's possible that the copyright stuff never even crossed his mind.

[LBrilliante]

@statskiller actually this DOESN'T happen every day. John & Yoko released music which Zappa had paid to have professionally recorded at his OWN show and without his permission released it on their own 2 record set a year later. Do you know how LONG the Beatles spent in lawsuits over this very sort of thing for more than 2 decades with their label? Also not only to release the recording but to claim authorship is a serious matter! Nothing petty or minor about it. Read about the ADAM VII LP

[LBrilliante]

@ashleyluvspat Allen Klein did quite a number on John Lennon and a LOT of people too. Lennon was in the wrong here. That has nothing to do with how he died and describing his actions is not an affront to his memory.

[LBrilliante]

@UndergroundRelapse actually the song is saying IMAGINE all the reasons that people give for going to war and then imagine they didn't exist... he's saying ANYONE could do that at any time and the reason to war with someone else could go away in just that moment.  It's cleverer than most people give it credit for. He's not saying that WE MUST ALL BE POOR.. WE MUST ALL RENOUNCE RELIGION.. he's saying.. if it's so important to kill or die for then imagine it away!

[LBrilliante]

@swc69 Zappa isn't whining. He is pointing out that a song that he wrote and which his band spent weeks learning to perform was released by someone who WATCHED the performance removed elements of the song and was retitled "Jam Rag". He isn't HATING on John Lennon.. just pointing out that agreements were made and then not honored and that his composition was appropriated in a bad way. It may not even have been Lennon's doing but the chaos surrounding Yoko and Lennon caught him up.

[excidedous]

@LBrilliante

Nope - deduct their debt and that's it.

[LBrilliante]

@beatlemaniac1966 In 1966 the Beatles made at most 30,000 a gig. They toured for only two weeks in the US in August of that year and were not able to leave the Phillipines until they handed over the tens of thousands they made from their performance there. Touring probably cost the Beatles more than it made them by that point. As for making better music .. Lennon contributed basically two songs each to the last two Beatles albums. They didn't revolutionize the world by paying out money.

[LBrilliante]

@excidedous HUH??? Lennon had 34,000 bucks? Maybe in cash.. but he was worth millions. It was all tied up in Apple Corps and in various business interests but that figure comes from the exaggerations that Lennon made in the Rolling Stone interview in 1971. Look at the cover of the Hey Jude album. that's Lennon's HOUSE!!! and when he moved from it in 1971 he sold it to Ringo!! You think the four beatles didn't have 100,000 dollars in January of 1970???