By the time John Lennon left The Beatles, he was completely burned out on being a rock and roll star.
The allure of being the next Elvis Presley or Little Richard looked great back when he started, but when you listen to the kind of records that he was making on Plastic Ono Band, he was trying to strip away every piece of celebrity he had accumulated over the years. He wasn’t the same person who had played on the Ed Sullivan Show, and if he was going to make any new music, he was going to be making it on his own terms.
He still may have had the same contract that Allen Klein set the non-McCartney Beatles up with on Apple, but his songs were always a lot more direct than anything else his former bandmates did. George Harrison could be open and honest in all of his tunes, and Paul McCartney could create stories that reflected his feelings, but you never doubted that Lennon was putting together tunes that were reflecting his state of mind. They were beautiful for what they were, but no one should have counted on hearing them live.
From the moment that the Fab Four left the stage for the last time, Lennon seemed desensitised to those massive audiences after a while. The stadium-rock scene wasn’t for him, and even if he did a few one-offs in his solo career, like his 1972 show in New York City, he would have much rather stayed at home and make the music that he wanted than worry about going out on another non-stop tour.
The age of Beatlemania had clearly done a number on him, but Harrison at least found a way to use his star power for good when working on The Concert for Bangladesh. Ravi Shankar may have been the catalyst for raising money for his home country, but when Harrison started bringing together as many icons as he could find, it finally felt like everyone could have fun again whenever they went onstage.
This was the kind of star-studded lineup that would have made Live Aid blush, but Ringo Starr remained the only other Beatle joining his guitar buddy. The tensions were still high between McCartney and the rest of the band, but even though Lennon liked the opportunity to work with some of his friends again, watching the show from afar made him realise that a life onstage wasn’t where he was meant to be anymore.
His friends could go around the world to their heart’s content, but Lennon felt that the massive charity shows eventually put a mountain of pressure on him than he ever really wanted, saying, “The Bangla Desh show started this big charity thing. Now people ring me and they think that if I say ‘yes’ then Dylan, George and God will appear, too. If Yoko appears anywhere, they automatically expect me to appear, so I now say screw it for the time being.”
Granted, there’s a good chance that Lennon could have done nothing but sing one note on one song, and crowds would have still gone crazy. The thought of any former Beatle being in anyone’s presence is cause for mass hysteria, but even if he was welcomed with open arms when jamming with Elton John, it’s understandable why he would eventually bow out and opt for a life at home raising his son.
Lennon had given more than his fair share of great shows during his Beatle days, and while it’s hard to think of him walking away from that kind of excitement, it was much better for him to take things one song at a time. Some days he might have felt like he was one of the greatest rock and roll stars in the world, but he was going to make sure that he could be authentic rather than putting on a happy face every single time he went out onstage.
