Monday, January 26, 2009

Lennon: He Hated the Sound of His Voice

It is an undesputable Beatles fact that John Lennon was a harsh critic when it came to both his voice and some of his songs. In many interviews, especially the 1980 Playboy interview from 1980, Lennon mentioned several songs he'd written that he thought were "crap." The example he used most was "It's Only Love."

He was also dissatisfied with the quality of his own voice. Lennnon once told biographer Ray Coleman that "I can't say I ever liked hearing myself." He asked George Martin many times to "do something" to his voice to mask its normal sound. This may explain why so many Beatles tracks altered Lennon's voice through engineering techniques, such as on "Strawberry Fields Forever," Tomorrow Never Knows," and many others. John's opinion of his voice may also be a reflection of his lifelong, self-confessed insecurity. As for George Martin's opinion, he thought Lennon's voice to be one of the best he'd ever heard. Tens of millions of fans agreed.

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