Why John Lennon Refused To Listen To His Own Music

While most musicians listen to other artists’ songs to improve their own craft, John Lennon and Yoko Ono actually found it counterproductive to do so. They claimed the act made them scrutinize the songs, which led to unnecessary comparisons. “In fact, we really don’t enjoy listening to other people’s work much. We sort of analyze everything we hear,” Yoko said, with her husband, Lennon, having added, “Yeah, if it’s bad, we don’t like it; if it’s great, we’re angry that we didn’t come up with it.”

Also, the late “Imagine” singer explained that he felt the same with his own songs; he’d prefer not to listen to them unless it was totally necessary. “Are you kidding? For pleasure, I would never listen to them,” he said, noting that this was for a very specific reason.

John Lennon remembered every little detail of a song’s making

Lennon revealed that whenever he listened to any songs of his, instead of enjoying them, he remembered the circumstance surrounding the music’s production. “When I hear them, I just think of the session — the 48 hours Paul [McCartney] and I sat up putting The White Album in order until we were going crazy; the eight hours of mixing ‘Revolution 9‘ — whatever. Jesus, we were sitting for hours doing the bloody guitars. I remember every detail of the work,” he said.

Lennon, who was, of course, a member of The Beatles, married Yoko Ono in 1969 and, beyond a marital separation from 1973 to 1975, was with her until the time of his murder in New York City on December 8, 1980.

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