The Beatles were massively successful and beloved worldwide, but John Lennon said he liked it when people criticized the band. He even took this position himself after the band broke up. For the most part, much of what the group did was well-received. This helped The Beatles become the biggest band in the world. While Lennon appreciated his success, he thought it would be boring if people didn’t criticize them.
John Lennon said he liked it when people criticized The Beatles
By 1964, The Beatles had become the biggest band in the world. Beatlemania swept through countries. Despite their across-the-board success, Lennon said he liked it when people disliked the band.
“I don’t mind people putting us down, because if everybody really liked us, it would be a bore,” Lennon said, per The Beatles Anthology. “You’ve got to have people putting you down. It doesn’t give any edge to it if everybody just falls flat on their face saying, ‘You’re great.’ We enjoy some of the criticisms as well, they’re quite funny; some of the clever criticisms, not the ones that don’t know anything, but some of the clever ones are quite fun.”
He added that he and his bandmates were able to have so much fun with each other that insults never seemed to stick.
“The main thing that’s kept us going when it’s been real hard work is the humour amongst ourselves, we can laugh at anything — ourselves included,” he said. “That’s the-way we do everything — everything’s tongue in cheek. We’re the same about ourselves; we never take it seriously.”
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John Lennon proved he wanted an image that The Beatles didn’t have
Lennon also seemed to like criticism because he wanted a tougher image than his position in The Beatles allowed. He spoke about feeling jealous that Mick Jagger was allowed to have a “rebel” image in The Rolling Stones. He, on the other hand, wore clean-cut suits and had a more pristine image.
After The Beatles broke up, Lennon appeared to directly attack the image of himself in The Beatles. He became outspoken against the war and insulted his work with his former band. Lennon gave many interviews in which he railed against his former bandmates and the work he did with the band.
It seemed that he wanted to separate himself as much as possible from The Beatles. By disparaging the band and, often, himself, Lennon tarnished his reputation. People saw him as rebellious, which is what he wanted all along. This is why he welcomed criticism while in The Beatles.
Brian Epstein worked hard to clean up the band’s image
The Beatles had such a gleaming reputation because of their manager, Brian Epstein. He didn’t want to fabricate stories about the band, but he did want them to seem friendly and approachable. He dressed them neatly in suits and presented them as polite, respectable young men.
“The Beatles were four local lads from down the street, the sort you might have seen at the local church hall,” press officer Tony Barrow explained in the book The Beatles: The Authorized Biography by Hunter Davies. “This was the essence of their personal communication with the public. This was the appeal. People identified with them from the beginning. Brian realized this and never tried to hide it.”
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