(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Fri 30 May 2025 18:30, UK
Half of the battle when it comes to rock and roll is having a certain degree of confidence in what you’re playing. It might not be the most technical thing in the world, but anyone who’s willing to play their hearts out and sound halfway decent while doing it is always going to have a good shot at becoming a legend in their own field. But for as much gusto as John Lennon had, he wasn’t always the same boisterous presence whenever he got behind the fretboard to play a guitar solo.
Then again, you wouldn’t think that from looking at how Lennon conducted himself onstage with The Beatles. There were many opportunities for him to work off his bandmates, and you can hear him pushing and pulling the band on the rhythm side of things whenever they locked in with Ringo Starr. But when it came to soloing, he knew he could never hold a candle to what George Harrison did.
But looking at the occasional moments when Lennon played lead, he did have a bit of fire in him. Since Harrison wasn’t around when they were putting the finishing touches on ‘Get Back’, Lennon’s solo is a lot more bluesy, to the point where it’s a shame that he never got to flex that muscle that much during his lifetime. At the same time, he knew there was no sense in competing with the real bluesmen of the world.
Since The Beatles had already been chastised at their early club gigs for not being authentic blues artists, Lennon knew that he wasn’t going to reach the same kind of heights that Muddy Waters or Jimi Hendrix could in their prime. When it came to the biggest and the best in England, Cream would have made any other rock and roll act look like amateurs when they started playing.
Despite only having three people, their sound was the template for what everything from hard rock to heavy metal would sound like. Eric Clapton did come around to perform on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ and even sat in with the Plastic Ono Band when Lennon first went solo, but the former Beatle knew that there was no point in him trying to return the favour in Clapton’s outfit.
In an interview given right before his death, Lennon said he was nowhere good enough to keep up with anyone in Cream, saying, “Whereas George and Paul would go around to everybody’s session, playing with people all the time, I never played anywhere without The Beatles. I couldn’t go in a session and play like George plays because I have a limited vocabulary on the guitar and the piano. What could I do going in with Cream? So I never hung out in the clubs playing.”
At the same time, most people would have given their left arm to be able to perform any number of Beatles tunes with Lennon if they had the chance. And while Elton John and David Bowie were among the lucky few to have a jam session with Lennon behind the scenes, it’s not like he couldn’t hold his own, either, whether it was making the guitar scream or bringing in the right vocal hook to tie a song together like on ‘Fame’.
So while Lennon himself saw himself as a bit of a lost cause when it comes to playing lead, he was far more technical than he gave himself credit for. He could make a band jump, and looking at how much he brought to The Beatles, he would have been a godsend had he decided to work with newer acts or even joined the Traveling Wilburys later on in life.
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