Recording from Mimi to John

[beatlepaul]

This apparently is a transcript of a tape recording made by Johns Aunt Mimi to John.
I'm not entirely convinced that its legit, it cropped up on a facebook group that has nothing to do with the Beatles.
What do you guys think.


'You're not the second Messiah..' (directed at John Lennon)
Early 1970s: After John sends Aunt Mimi a letter asking after their family genealogy, Mimi replies to him in the form of a tape recording, and takes the time to address his media-courting behaviour since the breakup of The Beatles...
MIMI: Now, you needn’t, for a start, send any B. S. genealogist down here, giving him a fine old holiday tramping around graveyards. What a good old time he must have had! This thing must have cost you a fortune.

Now, it’s in front of me, and I’m going to read it out to you, and you can’t deny it because every word in it is true: Alfred Lennon married Julia Stanley. He was born the 14th of December, 1912, and Julia was born on the 12th of March, 1914. And of course, they produced John Winston Lennon, who married Cynthia, daughter of Charles Edwin Powell. Married the 23rd of August, 1962, at South Liverpool.
What’s this rubbish you’re talking about? “You wouldn’t mind donating your money to a real socialist government?” For heaven’s sake. Use your nut. There’s no such thing. None at all. Not where money’s concerned. Money corrupts.

You watch yourself, my lad. You’re digging your own grave, and in no uncertain manner. Idealism is not the exclusive prerogative of English, Welsh, Irish, or any other nationality. It just happens. And you will wake up one of these days disillusioned and sad. You’ll be the tool of unscrupulous people who’ll exploit your idealism. And it will be a sad day for you, I’m telling you.

My dear boy, you are not the second Messiah. You are never likely to be. And that’s the way you’re behaving these last few years. Would you please understand that you are a speck in the ocean, and the only possible importance you can be is to people who are trying to get money out of you. And that’s perhaps why they’re – they’re around you. There’s no other reason, John. [laughs; bleak] None whatever. Do wake up, John. And remember the old saying: “The cobbler should stick to his last.” And your last is music.

And get out of this little – circle, that you’re in. It bodes no good for you, I’m telling you. Why do you think you’re having such trouble trying to get this permit to stay in America? It’s not for smoking a bit of cannabis. George Harrison smoked cannabis, but he was allowed in. It’s your activities there, boy, and you’re digging your own grave. And it makes me very very sad, because I know, in the end, you’re going to be hurt. Bitterly hurt.
For years, I’ve heard you yelling and shouting about love, but it seemed to me your heart was full of hate. And it showed in your face. I had an American reporter here about three months ago, and he was telling me that you had put it out that you were never wanted, that you were never loved. And this newspaper were willing to pay me to give my opinion of you – my personal opinion of you and your behaviour over these years – and told me I would be well paid for it. Since when has money healed wounds? I soon sent him packing.

I’ve been hurt. Cut to the quick. What do you think I felt like, when I’ve been with those Beatle parents, and have heard what they’ve done, for them? I was foolish enough to think, as I had you, and waited for you to be born, that I was father and mother to you. But my goodness, John, you didn’t want me. [laughs; bleak] You didn’t want anything to do with me. And a lifetime’s work was just thrown on one side as nothing.
And you say The Beatles were dumb. They may have been… but in many respects, they could’ve taught you a thing or two. The first thing they did was to make their parents secure. Forever. Knowing very well that they would always get it back. But oh no, you, right, left, centre – anyone could have in. And then I had to ask you, this year, to help me out – a terrible thing for me, I’m telling you, it nearly killed me. I’d had the same money from 1962, and anybody with a little thought would have known that what I had was melting away, during that eleven years.
And it seems as though you hated the sight of me. You couldn’t bear the sight of me, and you never missed an opportunity to cut me down dead – in front of other people as well, which was even worse. But it didn’t do you any good, for people noticed. But you were very kind to Alfred Lennon, taking him round the West End and having him in your home. I don’t suppose it ever once crossed your mind that that would hurt me. Especially when you couldn’t stand the sight of me.

In your teens, I was hard to live with, and if I had to go through it again, I would still be hard. And you know why, too. You were determined to do things which you knew were wrong, and I was determined that you wouldn’t, and if I hadn’t been interested, I would have let you do exactly as you liked – and you know how those children turn out...

[rons1010]

It's on Some Old Interviews V4.0

viewtopic.php?t=47

1973: www.drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kmC ... sp=sharing

1973-00-00 Mimi Remembers - Audio Tape Letter From Mimi Smith-Stanley

[Gringo557]

Wow, it's fascinating to hear all those separate Mini interviews edited together. There's a lot of fascinating information there . . . the talk about Alfred planting the Kentucky Minstrels story (of his father), etc. This is one of those tapes that requires many listens, thanks for posting this.

[Lord Reith]

I remember the very last few lines from a Lost Lennon Tapes epsisode but had no idea the full tape was in circulation.

This is very harsh stuff. It must have cut deep with John, not just for its savage content but for the fact that Mimi was the only person in the world left who could speak to him that way. I mean we've all done things to hurt our parents when we were young but I doubt many of us have had a dressing down like this. It is very harsh indeed. He would have been very upset.

Did John deserve it? Who can say. He was an artist, and you could argue that even if he had never become famous he would still have ended up in the same place, hanging out with weird people on the fringes of society and adopting weird ideas. Clearly John as a person was a force of nature and balked at Mimi's attempts to tame him. You had two great iron wills going head to head.

On the other hand as I've always said, Mimi was to all intents and purposes John's mother and ultimately his salvation. He could have stayed with Fred or Julia but would have ended up like them in the end, working as a dishwasher or an usher. Without Mimi there would have been no Quarrybank, so no Quarrymen, no Paul, no George. Without Mimi there would have been no Art College, so no Stuart and no Astrid and Klaus. No Beatles, no Beatle haircut, no Hamburg, no Ringo, no anything. And we wouldn't be here now, and there'd be no such thing as The Beatles.

We owe Mimi a lot!

[fabwill]

How did this tape reach us? Lost Lennon Tapes?

Mimi and John clearly had a difficult relationship and given the circumstances, it's hard to see how it could have been any other way (absent father, mother perhaps not fully capable, husband/uncle died when John aged just 14, his mother died just 3 years later). Seems to me he probably needed her strong voice in his life, but seems equally clear that she wasn't an easy woman to get along with, as this tape evidences. She seems to have completely the wrong idea about his relationship with Alf.

Also intrigued by the idea she was a poor relation to the other Beatles parents. He bought her a house in what's now probably the most exclusive part of the UK, way back in 1965, but seemingly didn't give her much of an income. But I have absolutely no idea what the others did for their parents (there are wikipedia pages for all 4 of John's 'parents' but none for the others). Do we know?

[BDJ]

How did this tape reach us? Lost Lennon Tapes?

Mimi and John clearly had a difficult relationship and given the circumstances, it's hard to see how it could have been any other way (absent father, mother perhaps not fully capable, husband/uncle died when John aged just 14, his mother died just 3 years later). Seems to me he probably needed her strong voice in his life, but seems equally clear that she wasn't an easy woman to get along with, as this tape evidences. She seems to have completely the wrong idea about his relationship with Alf.

Also intrigued by the idea she was a poor relation to the other Beatles parents. He bought her a house in what's now probably the most exclusive part of the UK, way back in 1965, but seemingly didn't give her much of an income. But I have absolutely no idea what the others did for their parents (there are wikipedia pages for all 4 of John's 'parents' but none for the others). Do we know?

John did actually buy a house for Mimi to live in. But he didn't give the property to her, it remained his property. So later it went into John's inheritance, and Yoko decided to sell it, even though John's nieces were now living there.

[beckman99]

On the other hand as I've always said, Mimi was to all intents and purposes John's mother and ultimately his salvation. He could have stayed with Fred or Julia but would have ended up like them in the end, working as a dishwasher or an usher. Without Mimi there would have been no Quarrybank, so no Quarrymen, no Paul, no George. Without Mimi there would have been no Art College, so no Stuart and no Astrid and Klaus. No Beatles, no Beatle haircut, no Hamburg, no Ringo, no anything. And we wouldn't be here now, and there'd be no such thing as The Beatles.
We owe Mimi a lot!

this is very speculative. there are so many cirumstances that arrived that u can´t break it down to mimi. what if the beatles would have signed with decca? they probably would have got the wrong producer, would have made one album as beatles or silver beatles selling badly and the band would have been buried and all four would have gone different ways. to nail it down to mimi is a bit too simple.

[Lord Reith]

On the other hand as I've always said, Mimi was to all intents and purposes John's mother and ultimately his salvation. He could have stayed with Fred or Julia but would have ended up like them in the end, working as a dishwasher or an usher. Without Mimi there would have been no Quarrybank, so no Quarrymen, no Paul, no George. Without Mimi there would have been no Art College, so no Stuart and no Astrid and Klaus. No Beatles, no Beatle haircut, no Hamburg, no Ringo, no anything. And we wouldn't be here now, and there'd be no such thing as The Beatles.
We owe Mimi a lot!

this is very speculative. there are so many cirumstances that arrived that u can´t break it down to mimi. what if the beatles would have signed with decca? they probably would have got the wrong producer, would have made one album as beatles or silver beatles selling badly and the band would have been buried and all four would have gone different ways. to nail it down to mimi is a bit too simple.

I see what you're saying but I'm not saying Mimi was responsible for The Beatles, just that if John hadn't gone with her then he never would have met Paul or any of the others. She surely hated him being a musician and tried every way to stop him playing in a band, but in a strange way her existence was key to The Beatles forming.

[beckman99]

on the other hand it was probably julias lust for life and her genes that made john the person he was. she was open minded showing john that it is not important what other people think and that he should not listen to people who tell him how he has to life his life like "a guitar is allright john, but...." u know what I mean. I think it´s more the combination of julia "breaking rules and breaking through barriers" on one side and mimi setting an example to be consistent and disciplined on the other side.
I always felt a bit sorry for julia as she was definitely born 20 years too early. she would´ve enjoyed the swinging 60ies, but john did it for her.

[Choking Smoker]

John always needed a strong woman in his life and respected those who would stand up to him. Mimi had a sharp mind combined with a bluntness of expression that seems to have rubbed off on John