WI: One of the Beatles went Schizophrenic?
- Thread starter Emperor Norton I
- Start date
Was that substantiated? I remember reading about a very brief conversion in 1977, but I wasn't sure whether it actually occurred, since such an event seemed slightly out of character for Lennon.
John Lennon was by far the most emotionally unstable of the four. Paul McCartney was a robot in comparison, while George was more focused on his spiritual stuff and Ringo appeared to be just a normal bloke having a good time.
Lennon did go off the rails from 1966 onwards. You can see that by the increase in hits from Paul and a decline from John.
I feel really really cruel doing this as I'm not entirely unsympathetic to the woman. But during the Abbey Road sessions I believe, John and Yoko were in a car accident. Car accidents, especially in that time period, are dangerous things. So there's certainly a possibility that Yoko Ono could have died in the accident. Now this was at the height of Lennon's infatuation with Ono. So if she were to die, there might be a good chance that he might descend into a nervous breakdown of sorts. The situation would probably be reminiscent of when Julia Stanley/Lennon/Dykins died. Of course, this probably kills Abbey Road, or at least Lennon's contributions to the album, as we know it depending on the date of the accident.
It's touched upon in the Dylan bio I mentioned in the Dylan thread.
Basically, by the mid-70s many in the rock scene were reacting to the various excesses of the late 60s and early 70s. The deaths of the famous, the near famous, and those known only to those in the industry had been piling up along with varying levels of personal and professional dissolution for many of the same who didn't die. It's only natural that many in the industry began looking around spiritually.
The Dylan bio mentions an evangelical church in southern California which had a huge number of rock & roll types in the congregation for a period. It's the church Dylan attended for a while and many others, like the Eagles, were members too.
Anyway, many folks toyed with fundamental Christianity of varying types, for varying periods, with varying levels of conviction, and with varying results. Dylan "converted" for a while, although that conversion seems to be wrapped up in his relationship with the woman who'd become his second wife and lasted roughly as long as that relationship did. Others converted similarly and then drifted away too.
The Dylan bio points to the huge similarities between the born again Christian fad which swept the industry in the late 70s and the eastern religions fad which did the same in the mid to late 60s. Everyone played around with the idea because it was hip, very few actually kept up any interest beyond a few years, and even fewer did so seriously.
What this all boils down to was that Lennon was curious, was exploring his spirituality, and no more became a born again Christian in the late 70s than he did a Buddhist after visiting India in 1968.