Yoko Ono is often blamed for breaking up The Beatles. A lot of people see her as someone who drove a wedge between the band, which subsequently led to their eventual split. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
John Lennon’s political views were something that manifested because he fancied a girl he met at an art gallery. He has always had these views, in fact, before The Beatles touched down in America for the first time, Lennon was terrified about how he might be perceived by the money-loving States because of recent comments he had made in favour of communism. Not many people were bothered, but this also marked the last time for years that Lennon would publicly discuss his political views.
The truth is, for the band to get as big as they did, there was a lot that Lennon had to compromise on, and the majority of this was genuine parts of his personality. He couldn’t dress how he wanted, do his hair how he wished, or talk about the things he cared for most, and he was at risk of getting in the way of record sales and impacting the band’s success.
“We weren’t as open and as truthful when we didn’t have the power to be,” admitted Lennon, “We had to take it easy. We had to shorten our hair to leave Liverpool. We had to wear suits to get on TV. We had to compromise.”
The more Lennon stayed a part of The Beatles, the more frustrated he became at the fact that he had to write as though he were a Beatles member. He wished to make music that gave listeners a better insight into who he was as a person, where he came from, how he felt, and what his beliefs were. When he met Yoko Ono, she reaffirmed his feelings, and it just made him want to express this more honest side of himself.
Ono felt equally as drawn to Lennon, and the two of them lived a happy life together, albeit it was unfortunately cut short, given that Lennon was assassinated in 1980. Even though he passed away four decades ago, Ono still uses their adoration of Lennon as inspiration, and one of the songs where his memory seeps through in an interesting way is the track ‘Ode to Meadow’, released on her 2016 album Home on the Range.
One of the last presents that Lennon bought his son Sean was their dog, Merry. Merry remained a reminder of John for the family, but sadly, he ran away as well. Ono barely discussed losing the dog with Sean as she thought it would be too painful for him, and she didn’t fully address what had happened until she wrote the song.
“Our dog, Merry, who was the last Xmas present from John to Sean just disappeared from our farm house,” recalled Ono, “We didn’t know what happened. We kept thinking ‘What could have happened?’ Sean and I never discussed it. It was just too painful.”
Ono continued, “Sometime after, Sean got a new dog, so I thought he had forgotten about Merry. But one day ten years later, Sean and I were looking at old family photos and there was Merry… looking so good, just as she used to. Tears rolled down from Sean’s eyes, though he didn’t say anything. Merry is still in our hearts.”