Lennon's Wife

LONDON (AP) — John Lennon's first wife says the late Beatle had a violent temper and once hit her in a fit of jealousy, according to excerpts from a new book published in a newspaper Sunday.

Cynthia Lennon met John in the late 1950s in Liverpool, where they were both art students. They married in 1962 and had a son, Julian, before divorcing in 1968.

Cynthia Lennon writes in "John," that he was prone to violent tantrums, according to an excerpt published in The Sunday Times, which is serializing the book. "I could put up with his outbursts, the jealousy and possessiveness but not the violence," she writes.

Gee, what a surprise.

Don't get me wrong; I love the Beatles. Especially the 1964-66 Beatles -- which you might conveniently define as "after pot, before acid." If you ask me, they brought the art of pop song writing to perfection in those few albums between "A Hard Day's Night" and "Revolver." They pushed and pushed that envelope. Even on a throwaway number like "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" the harmonics and the changes are just juicy. When I was in a combo, we used to play these songs over and over in rehearsals, just to discover the genius under the hood.

Finally, after 1967, they broke it, broke the pop song, and what followed was, too me, brilliant at times but it had stopped being a pop song. And most of the people who tried to follow them down that path made only mud.

And John was absolutely brilliant in this phase. "I'm a Loser," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," "It's Only Love," "Norwegian Wood," "What Goes On," "I'm Only Sleeping."

But there's a dark, dark undercurrent beneath especially the jauntiest melodies in his music. A soothing song like "Girl" is really sadistic if you just strip it down to lyrics. But perhaps nothing in all of pop music is more shamelessly mysogynistic than "Run for Your Life," the last song on "Rubber Soul." It's an open, boastful promise to abuse that would shame a Johnny Cash or an Eminem.

I’d rather see you dead, little girl,
Than to be with another man.
You’d better keep your head, little girl,
Or I won’t know where I am.
You’d better run for your life if you can, little girl,
Hide your head in the sand, little girl.
Catch you with another man,
That’s the end - ah, little girl.

Well you know that I’m a wicked guy
And I was born with a jealous mind,
And I can’t spend my whole life tryin’,
Just to make you toe the line.
You’d better run for your life if you can, little girl,
Hide your head in the sand, little girl.
Catch you with another man,
That’s the end - ah, little girl.

Let this be a sermon,
I mean everything I said,
Baby, I’m determined,
And I’d rather see you dead.
You’d better run for your life if you can, little girl,
Hide your head in the sand, little girl.
Catch you with another man,
That’s the end - ah, little girl.

And so on. Forget the melody, just pronounce the words.

So, yeah, John Lennon had deep dark places inside, and they informed his music, and I believe the genius of it was because of them, not in spite of them. You probably didn't want to be one of the women in his life. Then again, you didn't want to be one of the women in Shelley's life, either.