Sadplampgun - Идиотина Пьёт Сбитень

John Lennon is my mother, my lesbian aunt, my sworn enemy, my personal punching bag, my gender identity, the ghost that haunts me, and the gayboy I keep in a cage and feed with dog food

cynthia's take on john & paul: fact or fiction?

"John never looked at anyone the way he looked at Paul."

-cynthia lennon

this quote gets passed around a lot. a Lot a lot. it's in compilations, it's on twitter, it's in youtube comments...

did cynthia really say john never looked at anyone like he looked at paul?

from everything i can find?

this one comes in from an anon! and a few people talking about this quote when i brought up the idea of making this blog/brought up the amount of unsourced things in this fandom

well, anon, i found the origin of the quote- at least this iteration of it. i came to a bit of a dead end that i'm not sure is a dead end, but i'll share what i found!

disclaimer: these all come from tumblr posts around 2014. this is old enough that i'm willing to link & name the users involved but if you know them or are them & would like any urls/names taken down, let me know! for now, it's staying up for the sake of answering the question "where it originated from"

so the original post that this all seems to circulate from comes from a tumblr post on january of 2014 (source)

the rest of the post is mostly speculation from the op about john being bisexual with some other quotes in there (some real, some i'm unsure on as i've never deep dived on them)

a few months later, they were asked about the source of the quote bc people were evidently already coming up blank

buffysommers-blog: That quote you site from Cynthia Lennon, "John never looked at anyone the way he looked at Paul." Where is that quote from? I've seen that quote repeated often but I've never once seen a source for the quote (was it from one of Cyn's books? an interview? with which publication) so I'm not yet convinced she actually said that. theforgottenmadcap: Hi, if I remember rightly I read it on here, I think it may be from an interview with her, as I've got both John and A Twist of Lennon and don't remember it from either of those.

(source)

however, this is where i ran into a road block. given that the op thinks it might be from an interview, i spent a good few hours listening to rare cynthia lennon interviews that haven't been transcribed on double speed. nothing there (although there were some pretty interesting quotes in them- including her calling them twins lol). and this exact wording isn't found in any of her interviews that Have been transcribed, as far as i can tell.

so there's a few options here. 1) this is completely made up & this answer was just a handwavey copout (not the answer i'd like to believe & not one i think is most likely honestly bc generally i don't think people have bad intentions) 2) they did indeed see it somewhere else on tumblr & that blog is the true origin of this quote for whatever reasons. i just can't find anything older or 3) it is in fact from a cynthia interview, just not worded exactly like this since it seems theforgottenmadcap wasn't directly copy-pasting and was just quoting a quote they saw around from memory.

if anyone winds up finding anything older or a cynthia interview with some similar statement, do let me know! or something older with similar wording.

but for now, putting this on the "fake" shelf

OMG I STAND BEHIND EVERY SINGLE WORD. JOHNNY IS THE UNDESERVED MARTYR OF TIKTOK AND OTHER PLATFORMS EXPLOITING MINORS (AND NOT JUST THEM)

Unpopular opinions

1) there's no such thing as an "unproblematic musician" . The only reason why they are seen as unproblematic is because they are able to mask their wrongdoings better than other artists.

2) I do not buy Paul's story of spending everyday with Linda with the only time being separated was when Paul was imprisoned. That's bollocks mate.

3) You lot make John Lennon worse than he actually is. Compared to what other rockstars did, e.g. Brian Jones being a sexual sadist and loved beating women with objects whilst forcing them into sex, John is lowkey mild (fuck him for abandoning Julian tho)

4) I'm convinced the majority of you only like George Harrison for his looks. He is more than just his looks

5) Last unpopular opinion, all the Beatles were equally shit (personality wise). There was no worse Beatle. I could go on about this, especially about how a Beatle is singled out for a wrongdoing whilst another Beatle, who also did the same thing, is let off the hook (both John and Paul saying the n word, but only John is singled out for this like tf??)

Deborah Dixon & The Beatles during the filming of Help! in the Bahamas | 27 February 1965 © Enrico Caruso

WHAT THE BEATLES JOHN GAVE US

I have so many special memories of Beatle John. His strikingly strong charisma and magnetic allure, which intimidated me and most other girls, driving us to choose Paul (or George, or Ringo) as our favorite instead. His charming smile, capable of transforming your own gloomy face into a joyful one. His delightful wit and unique eccentricity, which he revealed when you least expected it. His grace, his charm, and, of course, his exceptional appearance.

Paul doodling Beatles logos

The Paris trip, 1961

CBS News' London correspondent Alexander Kendrick witnesses one of the most awkward moments between John Lennon and Paul McCartney ever captured on film. The Beatles appearing on CBS News, 22nd November 1963 (x)

John and George visiting Stuart Sutcliffes room. Photographed by Astrid Kirchherr.

“After Stuart’s death, John and George really cared about me. They used to come and see me in my home. It was actually John’s suggestion. John said, ‘Can I see where he used to paint?’ So I said, ‘Of course, you can.’

“In that moment, I had to take a picture of them. I just grabbed this old chair and put it there. And John was so full of emotion, being in the same room where his friend was just painting, that he nearly burst out in tears. And George was all a bit worried. So I just said to George, ‘Well, stand behind him.’ You could see how quickly George understood what it was all about, death and being alive.

"jamiroquai" is the name of the hat. you're thinking of "jamiroquai's monster"