John Lennon: The Life

by Philip Norman

Despite his continued abstinence from Billboard magazine, John still kept abreast of what was happening in pop music. He admired the professionalism of the Bee Gees, would-be Beatles in the Sixties now riding the disco wave with their sound track to Saturday Night Fever. Among the newer British bands, he liked the Electric Light Orchestra, even if their symphonic-electronic style felt like “son of I Am the Walrus.” He watched the continued transatlantic success of Bowie and Elton John without rancor, was amused by the way the Stones somehow still kept on rolling, surprised and scornful when Bob Dylan became a born-again Christian, and amazed that an apparently heterosexual band could have the nerve to call itself Queen. His main source of information was Bob Gruen, who photographed almost every major rock act that came through town and often urged him to come out and see some hot new attraction like Blondie or the New York Dolls. But putting Sean to bed always took precedence. “At one point I said, ‘Am I bothering you by telling you about all this?’” Gruen remembers. “John said, ‘No, I like to know what’s going on. And some night, you never know, I may want to change my mind.’”