John Lennon discusses New Wave

[ghosty]

I recently listened to a 60 minute interview with John Lennon conducted on 12/8/80 the day before he died. New Wave popped up in the discussion. So for your amusement:

Lennon: I was at a disco and I thought I heard two records going at the same time and then I found out it was "Rock Lobster" by The B52's. I rang up Yoko and said "You won't believe this but they're doing YOU!".

later in the interview...

Lennon: A lot of this New Wave is straight out of the 50's. Like The Cars "Touch And Go". All that...(singing)uh..oh..oh..that's right out of the 50's but with an 80's approach.

Yoko: There's always new styles coming along and when New Wave is #1 than all the New Wavers will say it's old hat, you know?

Lennon: It's just another wave that will get swallowed up in the ocean of music. It's like Disco. Everybody is supposed to hate disco but I liked it right from the scratch. It was the same complaint we heard back in the 50's, "It's all the same beat". They said that about Fats Donmino and Little Richard, but it's influence is everywhere. You hear it in the country music now.

[andrewkstone]

Thanks for this, ghosty. I always love reading Lennon inteviews and it's especially cool getting his take on the Cars.

I've always known to Ric Ocasek to be a big fan of Buddy Holly, from the same glasses to the singing styles. Also, I remember reading the "in joke" on the Shake It Up album -- they used two Buddy holly song titles -- "Think It Over" and "Maybe Baby" -- to end the album.

Now, was Lennon so in love with Yoko that he was paying her a compliment by comparing Rock Lobster to her stuff (after initially thinking he was hearing two songs at the same time). Or was he being cheeky?

Andrew K. Stone
Author of
ALL FLOWERS DIE and DISAPPEARING INTO VIEW
read the first chapters at
http://www.sotherebooks.com