Sean Lennon Q & A in Rolling Stone

[Daniel S.]

I've always been under the impression that John Lennon didn't care about the Beach Boys.

Brian said in an interview that after Pet Sounds was released Paul McCartney AND John Lennon called him up to congratulate him, so maybe he did dig the Beach Boys.

[Chris Brown]

I thought the same thing Melville, since I don't think I've ever seen any quote from John about the Beach Boys or Brian, while Paul has obviously been pretty emphatic about his love for Brian's music.  So I guess that would lead some to think that John didn't really care about the BB, but who knows.  Maybe John just wasn't the type to throw out praise for other artists.  I do think that John would have liked the Smile music, if he got a chance to hear it. 

[Dave in KC]

I don't know why I feel this, I just do. But in the song God Lyrics, I think he wanted to add "I don't believe in Beach Boys." Just had to edit the list somewhere!

[Rocker]

Well, there's still the story about a party for, I think, Ricci Martin, where Lennon was very happy to meet the Beach Boys and especially thrilled to meet BW.
BTW isn't there a phone-conversation between BW and Lennon on Brian's official site?

[the captain]

Awww, c'mon, that first album was fun! 

Fun, maybe. Good, no. Not nearly as good as what came after.

What Paul's Boutique?  I bought that and thought it dreadful.  I lost interest thereafter.

Paul's Boutique wasn't their first album -- Licensed to Ill was -- but it (P.B.) is their best. Easily. It's fucking brilliant, one of the best hip hop albums ever. (Sorry, that little rant has nothing to do with Sean Lennon, whose music sucks. There. Now it does.)

[PongHit]

Well, there's still the story about a party for, I think, Ricci Martin, where Lennon was very happy to meet the Beach Boys and especially thrilled to meet BW.
BTW isn't there a phone-conversation between BW and Lennon on Brian's official site?

Yeah, but the interview wasn't by phone -- they were in the same room together...

[Endless Flight]

In one of the thousands of Beatles books, it mentions that John Lennon loved 'The Little Girl I Once Knew' and said it was the best thing he had heard on the radio in six weeks. I'm not sure if it's true, but I figured I'd throw it out there.

Not only that, but didn't he lift 'Don't Worry Baby' for his 1980 hit, '(Just Like) Starting Over', or was that subconscious, sort of like Harrison lifting material for his 'Sweet Lord'?

[Ebb and Flow]

It always seemed to me as Paul thought of the BB as friendly competition, whereas Lennon treated them more like rivals or "the competition".  In that August 1966 Beatles press conference someone posted a while back, Paul mentions The Beach Boys as his favorite group, while Lennon seems to go out of his way not to acknowledge them, even though he and Paul had listened to Pet Sounds months earlier and loved it.

[briancarldennisal]

i read somewhere that john loved 'lonely sea'. anyone know where this was printed? (or caught on film?)

thanks for all your thoughts people. i would have to agree that it seems like john wouldn't have really enjoyed the smile material, had he heard it.

[XY]

I thought the same thing Melville, since I don't think I've ever seen any quote from John about the Beach Boys or Brian

Here's a JL quote for you:
"Wilson is a bloody genius who uses voices like instruments" (John Lennon, 1967)

Well, there's still the story about a party for, I think, Ricci Martin, where Lennon was very happy to meet the Beach Boys and especially thrilled to meet BW.

Yeah, that's one of May Pang's stories.

[Sir Rob]

Awww, c'mon, that first album was fun! 

Fun, maybe. Good, no. Not nearly as good as what came after.

What Paul's Boutique?  I bought that and thought it dreadful.  I lost interest thereafter.

Paul's Boutique wasn't their first album -- Licensed to Ill was -- but it (P.B.) is their best. Easily. It's fodaing brilliant, one of the best hip hop albums ever. (Sorry, that little rant has nothing to do with Sean Lennon, whose music sucks. There. Now it does.)

Oh no, I knew PB was the second album - that's what I meant referring to Shelter's 'what came after' (after License to Ill).

[Chris Brown]

I thought the same thing Melville, since I don't think I've ever seen any quote from John about the Beach Boys or Brian

Here's a JL quote for you:
"Wilson is a bloody genius who uses voices like instruments" (John Lennon, 1967)

Wow cool thanks Jasper, I'd never heard that one!

[CosmicDancer]

Right on Luther.  I really think Paul's Boutique is the best hip-hop album there is.  IMO, this album truly shows how sampling can be tastefuly used to make great records.  This is the album that made me a Beastie Boys fan.

As for the first album and it's "sexist" attitude, I wonder just how serious it really was.  Seems kinda toungue in cheek to me.  but I could be wrong.

[shelter]

As for the first album and it's "sexist" attitude, I wonder just how serious it really was.  Seems kinda toungue in cheek to me. 

It was. But unfortionately most people didn't seem to understand that. After the Beastie Boys saw the monster they created they distanced themselves from it.

[PongHit]

The BIG question is: what did JOHN Lennon think of the Beastie Boys!? 

[shelter]

The BIG question is: what did JOHN Lennon think of the Beastie Boys!? 

Probably not much, since he died about 8 months before their first show. 

[Sir Rob]

As for the first album and it's "sexist" attitude, I wonder just how serious it really was.  Seems kinda toungue in cheek to me. 

It was. But unfortionately most people didn't seem to understand that. After the Beastie Boys saw the monster they created they distanced themselves from it.

I think they saw the monster they'd created on the UK tour of 1987 and the Liverpool gig in particular.

[shelter]

I think they saw the monster they'd created on the UK tour of 1987 and the Liverpool gig in particular.

What happened there?

[Sir Rob]

I think they saw the monster they'd created on the UK tour of 1987 and the Liverpool gig in particular.

What happened there?

I did touch on this earlier.  It's funny to re-call the storm of controversy the Beastie Boys caused in UK during their tour of 1987 particularly as since then they've really retreated from mass public consciousness, despite the fact that their career has continued and they are still a popular group in hip music circles.  It wasn't quite up there with The Sex Pistols as a moral panic but it was that sort of thing.  There was a lot of sensationalistic tabloid and media coverage including, most notoriously, an accusation that the group had verbally abused a group of disabled people, an accusation which stuck despite the group's denials.  Anyway, by the time the Beasties reached Liverpool Royal Court (I have a feeling it was one of the last dates on the tour, maybe even the last but I'm not sure) they had become more a subject of public curiosity than a musical entertainment.  I'm pretty sure there was a lot of people there who had just turned up to see who these notorious Beastie Boys were and cause trouble (because that's what the group were all about, right?!)  I remember there was another 'white rap' support act on first who were roundly booed and abused by the hostile audience as bottles and other objects flew at the stage.  And this only increased when the headliners themselves made their appearance.  Things were being thrown at the group and I do remember them throwing things back.  Then after about ten minutes they just walked off stage.  I remember standing around waiting for them to come back on but it didn't happen.  Acts of vandalism were happening such as light fittings being ripped out and a chant of "You'll never take the Pool!" (referring to Liverpool).  Next thing there was a panicked stampede to the back of the auditorium which I was caught up in and I'm not entirely sure but my impression is that some kind of pepper spray or tear gas had been used by some security body, but whether it was the group's or the theatre's I'm not certain.  It seems a strange thing to happen, something that one would have thought would have been prosecuted, but I don't remember anything happening in that way.  Anyway, in the aftermath of all this Adam Horowitz (AdRock) was charged with criminal assault because he allegedly threw an object back into the audience which struck a young woman on the head and caused some kind of injury.  He was allowed out of the country but returned at a later date to stand trial, one in which he was found 'not guilty'.  The then owner of the theatre said he would never again book a rap act to appear at his venue, whether that is something that has been kept to down the years I'm not entirely sure.

[shelter]

That sounds like a completely different band than the Beastie Boys I saw. I saw them in '98 and they stopped the show two or three times to ask the crowd to take a few steps back because it was too crowded up front and they were affraid of people getting hurt. Afterwards I read in a concert review that the Beastie Boys had been overreacting because there was nothing really going on (which I didn't agree with).

[Sir Rob]

That sounds like a completely different band than the Beastie Boys I saw. I saw them in '98 and they stopped the show two or three times to ask the crowd to take a few steps back because it was too crowded up front and they were affraid of people getting hurt.

Well, there you go!  The change from License To Ill to the sort of 'art rap' begun on Paul's Boutique was quite sudden wasn't it?  They left Liverpool changed men! 

[Roger Ryan]

This thread's kind of all over the place (great reportage on that Beasties gig, Sir Rob), but I thought I'd throw this in here: if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I would assume John Lennon admired the Beach Boys since I'm convinced "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" was inspired by "She's Goin' Bald"!

[Sir Rob]

This thread's kind of all over the place (great reportage on that Beasties gig, Sir Rob),

Hmmm...I know I am a bit sorry about that. 

Glad you enjoyed my reminiscence though! 

[donald]

I distinctly remember reading in a John Lennon Interview ................"I like rock and roll , I don't like much else"


.....whereas, McCartney like the more lush arrangements.

[Roger Ryan]

At the same time, Lennon reportedly adored the Kinks' "Wonderboy" and requested it be played repeatedly at a club he attended one night in '67 or '68. For those unfamiliar with the song, it belongs to the chamber pop era of the band with a high, layered vocal sound not dissimilar to the Beach Boys vocals found on "Smiley Smile".