I Met the Walrus_ How One Day With John Lennon Changed My Life Forever - Jerry Levitan [25]
JERRY: This is probably a dinky question to ask you but the Maharishi, I was wondering, do you think he was just a farce? I want it right from the mouth.
JOHN: He wasn’t a farce. I still meditate now and then. I just found that I couldn’t do it every day. It’s like exercising, you know. I couldn’t get up and touch me toes every day. But the meditation was good and the three months in India produced all them songs on the album [the White Album], not the fact that I was just in India, the fact of what I was doing, the meditation, and how I felt. So they all thought he conned us out of money. He never got a penny out of us. All he got was publicity. And he was for peace, so we gave him publicity, that’s okay. He’s a good guy, you know. And if he did con other people out of money I don’t know. Somebody will find out and so what. Money’s only paper so let him have it. But he gave me a lot. He gave me an experience and he tripped me out in India and I don’t regret it one bit. I’m here now, and that’s the end of it really.
JERRY: Was it George…the only thing I can get to know what’s happening really is to read what I can get out of the papers and one of these magazines with pictures…and all I can get is that George is sort of the only one who’s thinking of breaking out of the Beatles…he’s the one who’s sort of dwelling into his own little laurels, writing his own kind of music, like Wonderwall Music…
JOHN: What do you think I’m doing with Yoko?
JERRY: I never thought of that [laughter].
JOHN: What would you think I’m doing? They’re always blaming me for that. Ringo Starr is making these films all the time. I’m writing songs, you know. We’re all doing, I mean, I was writing them books years ago. We’re all doing our own gig as well as Beatles. You know, one is the Beatles and the other is four individuals.
DEREK: The Beatles are five entities, the Beatles and its four members.
JOHN: Yeah. One is the Beatles and the other is four individuals.
JERRY: I read your book The Penguin [In His Own Write]; I borrowed it out of our library. Our school is pretty hip, they have a whole bunch of Beatle books. And there’s one poem of yours…“Poor Nigel.”
JOHN: Arf! Arf!
JERRY: It keeps on driving me buggy and I’ll keep on remembering it.
JOHN: That’s great [laughter]. It drove me buggy too till I wrote it down.
JERRY: I wanted to finish this…about your double LP, the first side was mainly about people. And the second side I sort of get the feeling it’s about love—“Martha My Dear,” about Paul’s dog, and “Julia” about your mother.
JOHN: Yeah.
JERRY: And the third side sort of got into the feelings of sensation. “Birthday” gave me a really crazy kind of feeling.
JOHN: Yeah.
JERRY: And the fourth side, it was all about life. “Revolution” then “Revolution 9,” which I could go on about for ten years, that’s the most greatest thing you ever did…
JOHN: Good.
JERRY: Number nine, number nine. Anyway, you put all these together and you get People, Love, Sensation of Life.
JOHN: Well, you just get what four guys are going through at that time, where the Beatles are at or what they are feeling at that time. And that’s four guys’ experience all trying to get it on one hour’s plastic, you know, you got it all out of it. And we didn’t constantly say, “Now this side is going to be about that and this side is going to be that.” We set it out like a show and juggled with it for about twenty-four hours and listened to all them tracks over and over saying, “No, that one kills that one if you have them next to that one.” And we’re laying it out like that. And it turned out like you said. It’s just four guys’ experience and we’re singing about it. We reflect where we’re at at the time and how we’re feeling the moment we’re making the record.
JERRY: In “Revolution 9,” it seems to be about what you’re bringing a child into.
JOHN: Yeah.
JERRY: But at the beginning, and this I could only pick up with a good stereo, and it had something near the end, “Yes, you fucking