Sean Ono Lennon has had a versatile career, as a musician, producer, and songwriter. Asked what part of the musical creation process he likes the most, Lennon replied, “That’s easy: I love writing and recording, and I hate finishing.”
With his mother, Yoko Ono, now in her 90s, he’s added a new job: the custodian of his father’s legacy. “Yeah, technically,” he said, “but obviously the world is also the custodian of his legacy, I would say. I’m just doing my best to help make sure that the younger generation doesn’t forget about The Beatles and John and Yoko. That’s how I look at it.”
“Do you think that’s even possible?” I asked.
“To forget about it? I do, actually,” Lennon said. “And I never did before.”
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For his parents’ classic, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” Lennon looked for new ways for the song to be heard. “I wanted to see if I could get that feeling of maybe it sounds like you’re hearing it again for the first time, or at least in a new context, in a way that you’d pay attention, as opposed to, ‘Oh, there it is on the radio again.’”
Lennon collaborated with former Pixar animator Dave Mullins to make a short film, “War Is Over!” “We came up with this idea that two soldiers would be playing chess on opposite sides of a war,” Lennon said. “I’d also read an article that there were sort of heroic messenger pigeons from World War I and World War II.”
The 11-minute film, now on YouTube, won an Academy Award last year for best animated short. “It felt like a Miss Universe pageant or something,” Lennon said, “and I was just standing there kind of crying.”
He used the moment to shout-out his mom: “So, could everyone please say, ‘Happy Mother’s Day, Yoko!’”
“It’s a personal thing”
Lennon said, “My parents gave me so much that I think it’s the least I can do to try and support their legacy in my lifetime. I feel like I just owe it to them. It’s a personal thing.”
What does he see is their legacy? “Peace and love,” he said. “But it’s not just peace and love. It’s an attitude towards activism that is done with humor and love.”
That attitude is visible in the new HBO documentary “One to One,” about John and Yoko’s 1972 benefit concert at Madison Square Garden – the only concert John and Yoko had done together. “The only full-length concert,” Lennon said, “certainly the only concert I think that he played a Beatles song, too (“Come Together”), because I think he was just in a good mood.”
To watch a trailer for “One to One,” click on the video player below:
The concert occurred during Lennon’s first years in New York, when he was fighting a bitter deportation battle with the Nixon administration, in part because of his anti-war activism.
Featured in the film, said Lennon, were recordings he’d never heard: “They found these phone calls that my parents had recorded of themselves which, interestingly, was a response to the FBI tapping their phones. So, they thought, ‘Well, we need to tap our own phones. Because if they try to say we said something that we didn’t say, we’ll have our own record of it.’”
The documentary captures John and Yoko at a critical time in their lives. “Yeah, and you know, it’s my origin story actually,” said Lennon. “If you think about it, they came to New York, and that’s the only reason I exist.”
I asked, “Do you see something you maybe didn’t see before? Or have you seen it all before?”
“I hadn’t seen all of the home video footage in ‘One to One,’” he said. “I hadn’t heard those phone recordings before. It’s like getting more moments to spend with my dad. So actually, for me on a personal level, it just really means a lot.”
Sean produced the music (also released as a box set). He’s working on his own new album, too, his third with the Claypool Lennon Delirium, which he describes as “kind of a whimsical prog rock, experimental psych band. It’s fun!”
The Claypool Lennon Delirium performs “Blood and Rockets”:
Lennon and James McCartney (Paul’s son) have also been working on a new song with Zak Starkey (Ringo’s son), kindling hopes that the “Children of the Beatles” might unite.
Asked if they’ve been offered a gig to play together, Lennon replied, “Sure. I think people ask for that a lot, but I do think that would be ridiculous. But you know, the reason Zak and James and I made a song together is not because we’re trying to redo The Beatles, it’s just because we like each other. We’re not gonna do it because of some expectation or to, like, fulfill anyone’s expectation of what we should do. It has to be natural.”
Sean Lennon takes his new responsibilities very seriously: “I think the Beatles’ music, and John and Yoko’s legacy, is something important for the world to kind of cherish and be reminded of. So, that’s how I see my job.”
Asked how his mother is doing, Lennon said, “She’s good. I mean, you know, she’s 92, so she’s slowed down a lot, and she’s retired. That’s why I’m kind of trying to do the work that she used to do. That’s why I feel a lot of pressure, actually, to do my best, because she set a high standard for the way that she dealt with my dad’s music, and the Beatles stuff. She’s always been very singular. And I think my dad was less so. You know, he had Paul to write with, and then he was hoping that my mom would kind of be a writing partner. And I just think it’s really funny that, you know, there’s probably only one person in the world who would turn down John Lennon as a writing partner, and that’s my mom, you know?”
“That’s probably why he liked her,” I said.
“Yeah, exactly. No, that’s exactly right!” Lennon laughed.
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with Sean Ono Lennon (Video)
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Story produced by Amol Mhatre. Editor: Jason Schmidt.
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