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5.26am
3 October 2012
Offline
Essential information…Available as an audiobook on YouTube.
The real deal.
The real story.
5.50am
30 September 2012
Offline funny, I was going to write about this as I had just bought an old copy off ebay. I actually think I understand why their marriage didn’t work after reading this. Cynthia is just – well. If you read it and know anything about Lennon you could see how things happen the way they did. I get the feeling she never really did know him. Not the real him anyway.
these 2 were really meant for each other
6.27am
16 August 2012
Offline I just listened to Cynthia’s reading of the audiobook last week while vacationing in Mexico.
My opinion (from more than just this book) is that Cynthia was a positive and extremely tolerant force in John’s life. Sadly, John was very self-destructive and insecure and gravitated towards Yoko during his first round of heavy drug use. She provided the strict Mothering that John craved from Julia and Mimi.
Decades later, we can only speculate the ‘what-ifs’. We have the music we have, and maybe after we die we can explore the alternate timelines and the music that would have been.
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OudisE is for 'Ergent'.
12.45pm
3 May 2012
Offline I started re-reading this book yesterday. It is the first Beatles-related book I read and I hadn´t known or liked them for very long, therefore, I knew next to nothing about them. Maybe this time, now I have background knowledge, I can read it and possibly enjoy it more. I think I will take some of what Cyn says with a pinch of salt though, we´ll see.
I read the first two chapters last night and I´ve realised that I like reading about John in the 50´s/early 60´s a lot. Before fame, money, drugs and whatever else. He was a young man with many demons as his mom had only just been snatched away from him so it makes me quite sad to think that he was putting on this front of being perfectly cool and ok about everything, as if it didn´t matter to him, but it´s still nice to read about him at art college with Stu and events of a similar time.
So far I have cried a lot, I started when I read the prologue but I´m going to try and take a different approach next time I read some and just enjoy the book.
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OudisMoving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire/Sanctuary from these feverish smiles, left with a mark on the door.
(Passover - I. Curtis)
11.27pm
3 October 2012
Offline John Lennon was always very big on destroying myths…He seemed to take special delight in bad mouthing anything positive the Beatles did especially toward the end.
So, in this case it is only justice that myths about him are laid to rest, especially for those that seem to think he was some kind of saint or ‘higher spiritual being’…It simply wasn’t true.
However, this doesn’t mean that he didn’t create great music, especially with Paul and the Beatles…It’s just that he was merely a human being with many flaws.
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Oudis9.42pm
14 December 2009
Offline
Never read either of Cynthia’s two autobios, myself; but I think I’d be more inclined to trust her earlier one more than this one, at leaste with regards to the earliest material – the memory does tend to play tricks as the years go by.
Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.
3.51pm
3 October 2012
Offline Well, Cynthia has no reason to lie: she was never a gold digger, she got a rather small divorce settlement from John, and Julian got pretty much ZILCH from Yoko and the estate after John was murdered.
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Oudis5.27pm
14 December 2009
Offline Oh, I’m not accusing Cynthia of lying – like I said, I’ve never even read either of her books. I’m just saying that 10-yaer old memories are bound to be more trustworthy than 40-year old ones.
Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.
8.54pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Never read any of Cynth’s books but i do remember reading that when her first book (A Twist of Lennon?) came out in the 70’s it was serialised in one of the papers. John got to read one or two of the papers and applied to a judge to get it pulled but was refused due to having lived his life for many years with Yoko in the papers so didnt think it right that John could now stop that because he didnt like what was coming out. I think that John also replied to the newpapers letters column responding to what had been printed (something John had a tendency to do in the [early] 70’s).
Didnt Cynthia write the first book because she had little money? I may have gotten that wrong but i remember that at one time she had a restaurant and that failed, possibly when married with her second husband or after their divorce. The timeline may be way out.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
9.58pm
3 October 2012
Offline meanmistermustard said
Didnt Cynthia write the first book because she had little money? I may have gotten that wrong but i remember that at one time she had a restaurant and that failed, possibly when married with her second husband or after their divorce. The timeline may be way out.
She married an Italian, and went into the hospitality business with him, but he ran the business like Apple was run in the early days…I believe most of the money used for the business was from her settlement…She did manage to buy a house, and possibly another property that she was able to save…It’s all in the online book…In any case, this Italian fellow apparently was very good with Julian, so she probably stayed with him longer because of that.
I’m sure she received at least an advance for ‘A Twist of Lennon’ and she deserved whatever she got… The Weybridge house was sold in conjunction with the divorce settlement in 1968 because Cynthia could not afford it.
7.20pm
3 May 2012
Offline She wrote ‘A twist of Lennon’ at a time when John wasn´t seeing much of Julian – if at all, as he had just left for the States – and she felt resentment towards him. And yes, she was desperate for the money.
Maybe her memory was better then, but I believe she feels a lot less bitterness now and therefore, can talk about her feelings in an honest way, without exagerrating or anything like that. She´s ready to talk about John and their relationship now, it was a long time ago, after all. Then, I don´t think she was, she still loved him and couldn´t understand why he was behaving the way he did with her, Julian, and almost everyone else he had been so close to before, well…..Yoko.
Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire/Sanctuary from these feverish smiles, left with a mark on the door.
(Passover - I. Curtis)
1.21pm
3 October 2012
Offline fabfouremily said
She wrote ‘A twist of Lennon’ at a time when John wasn´t seeing much of Julian – if at all, as he had just left for the States – and she felt resentment towards him. And yes, she was desperate for the money.
Maybe her memory was better then, but I believe she feels a lot less bitterness now and therefore, can talk about her feelings in an honest way, without exagerrating or anything like that. She´s ready to talk about John and their relationship now, it was a long time ago, after all. Then, I don´t think she was, she still loved him and couldn´t understand why he was behaving the way he did with her, Julian, and almost everyone else he had been so close to before, well…..Yoko.
You can understand her bitterness with all she went through…After Julian was born, John told a member of the media that “Julian was born out of a whiskey bottle on a Saturday night.”…Of course, this was just John being an a**hole as he was wont to do, but words like this and the conditions she and Julian had to live in, with the ice cold Aunt Mimi and later when they lived in a 6 floor walkup in London, will make one bitter.
But certainly, time is a healing factor.
One must understand that John & Cynthia certainly had many wonderful and tender moments, and that it must have warped John’s personality dealing with the pressure cooker of the Beatles, and also taking into account what happened with his own mom & dad.
Ringo once commented that to get the true story of the Beatles relationships, one would have to talk to Jane Asher, and I believe he mentioned Cynthia, too.
4.56pm
3 May 2012
Offline Oh yes definitely. I completely understand why she may have felt very bitter, although I think maybe her main sentiment after John left was one of deep sadness, and a bit of relief, little else. I don’t know if it was only after a bit of time and it sunk in that she started to feel angry.
frankdialogue, by ‘Beatles relationships’, do you mean John – Cyn, Paul – Jane etc or between the boys themselves?
Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire/Sanctuary from these feverish smiles, left with a mark on the door.
(Passover - I. Curtis)
5.32pm
3 October 2012
Offline frankdialogue, by ‘Beatles relationships’, do you mean John – Cyn, Paul – Jane etc or between the boys themselves?
I meant the individual Beatles relationships with women.
5.58pm
Reviewers
29 November 2012
Offline I’m about halfway through this now and am enjoying it. Although I’m a big fan of John Lennon the musician (and certain aspects of John Lennon the man), I’m not a devotee like so many are…I know he’s flawed and was far from a perfect person, but I’ve always found him interesting. So far it’s a very informative book, both for the new bits of info that shed him in a more positive light, as well as those that reveal his very ugly, dark side.
"I know you, you know me; one thing I can tell you is you got to be free!"
Please Visit My Website, The Rock and Roll Chemist
Twitter: @rocknrollchem
Facebook: rnrchemist
6.12pm
10 August 2011
Offline I agree. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would and ended up using it in my book.
"Into the Sky with Diamonds" (the Beatles and the Race to the Moon – a history)
6.21pm
8 November 2012
Offline DrBeatle said
I’m about halfway through this now and am enjoying it. Although I’m a big fan of John Lennon the musician (and certain aspects of John Lennon the man), I’m not a devotee like so many are…I know he’s flawed and was far from a perfect person, but I’ve always found him interesting. So far it’s a very informative book, both for the new bits of info that shed him in a more positive light, as well as those that reveal his very ugly, dark side.
I agree with your assessment. I borrowed it from the library about a month and a half ago and I hope to own a copy someday. Cynthia’s an evocative writer.
parlance
6.51pm
Reviewers
29 November 2012
Offline One thing I’m enjoying is that she’s able to show she wasn’t just the meek, boring wife John was “stuck” with that she’s been portrayed as by so many. She was a real person with real aspirations and emotions, and John didn’t *have* to marry her and stick around for as long as he did, there was obviously something there between them, real and lovely (warts and all) until LSD and Yoko blew all of that out of the water.
"I know you, you know me; one thing I can tell you is you got to be free!"
Please Visit My Website, The Rock and Roll Chemist
Twitter: @rocknrollchem
Facebook: rnrchemist
9.39pm
14 January 2013
Offline DrBeatle said
I’m about halfway through this now and am enjoying it. Although I’m a big fan of John Lennon the musician (and certain aspects of John Lennon the man), I’m not a devotee like so many are…I know he’s flawed and was far from a perfect person, but I’ve always found him interesting. So far it’s a very informative book, both for the new bits of info that shed him in a more positive light, as well as those that reveal his very ugly, dark side.
I agree. I’ve been listening to the audio book on youtube and down in the description box said its advise for Lennon fan’s not to listen. As much as I love The Beatles and think they were brilliant, I know they were flawed just like everyone else, so its nice to hear her side.
5.36am
17 January 2013
Offline It would be interesting to read her story. I always felt bad for Cynthia, and for Julian. According to John himself, he didn’t treat her that well. He admitted that he used to hit her, so even just that is putting up with a lot.
"Please don't bring your banjo back, I know where it's been.. I wasn't hardly gone a day, when it became the scene.. Banjos! Banjos! All the time, I can't forget that tune.. and if I ever see another banjo, I'm going out and buy a big balloon!"
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