Beatles Quote of the Week

May Pang, who lived with John Lennon for 18 months in the early 1970's (before he reconciled with Yoko Ono), has released a collection of her photographs of Lennon during that time, a period which included Lennon's signing of the agreement that legally "dissolved the Beatles' partnership." Pang's book includes her photo of Lennon signing the document, and Pang relates Lennon's surprising reaction:

“When John hung up the phone,” she writes, “he looked wistfully out the window. I could almost see him replaying the entire Beatles experience.”

Given that Lennon had been particularly militant about leaving the Beatles in 1969, it might seem odd to learn that he did so wistfully. Not to Ms. Pang.

“Everybody changes,” she said. “With John things changed on a daily basis. It’s a question of time. Five years earlier was not the same situation. In 1974 he had just seen everyone. The friendship was still there. They were brothers. There was no animosity. And even though they all felt they had to break up to get to the next level of their musical careers, John had started this band that changed the world. It changed pop culture. It changed how we live and how we dress. And he knew that. So when he sat down to sign, he knew that this was it. His was the last signature. As he had started the group, he was the one to end it.”

Full story from the New York Times here.