In one of his last interviews, John Lennon reminded legions of fans that when it comes to his work with The Beatles—and, by extrapolation, his solo efforts—the music will always be the thing that matters most. Indeed, it will be Lennon and The Beatles’ musical achievements that go down through the centuries. The rest, frankly, is just noise.
With "We All Shine On: John, Yoko & Me," author and publicist Elliot Mintz fashions a heartbreaking portrait of Lennon’s life and times beyond the recording studio. In so doing, he explores the reality behind the effort that it required for artists such as Lennon to find their mettle as musicians. In this sense, Mintz’s memoir is not for the faint of heart. The psychological toll of Lennon’s addictions is palpable, as is the personal toil that was required for him to will yet another album into being. As Mintz’s book makes indelibly clear, the cost that it exacted upon the songwriter’s relationships was considerable.
As a California DJ and television personality in the early 1970s, Mintz found himself in Lennon’s orbit during an era in which rock ‘n’ roll was gingerly feeling its way after the majesty and tumult of the 1960s. Not surprisingly, there is an inherent sadness behind Mintz’s memories regarding Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono—and not merely because of Lennon’s senseless murder in December 1980 at age 40. As "We All Shine On" reveals so powerfully, Lennon struggled for years to define himself under the bright lights of The Beatles’ particular brand of superstardom.
In one of the book’s most despairing instances, Mintz finds himself as the object of Lennon’s wrath during his infamous Lost Weekend. Readers will understandably recoil at the musician’s callousness, especially given Mintz’s sublimation of himself in the service of Lennon and Ono. “I believe that, in a sense, I was married to John and Yoko,” Mintz admits. Eventually, this observation takes on remarkable proportions as their lives subsume his own after he begins handling their public relations concerns.
But as history well knows, all of their lives would be torn asunder by Lennon’s assassination. As this absorbing book reveals, the tragic ramifications of that heinous act would echo for years afterward. In the immediate aftermath of Lennon’s death, Ono tasks Mintz with taking an inventory of the fallen artist’s possessions. Later, he will broadcast "The Lost Lennon Tapes," an overview of Lennon’s unreleased recordings, as well as Mintz’s finest contribution to our understanding of the ex-Beatle’s creative legacy.
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Yet for Mintz, his complicated life with Lennon and Ono finds him invariably reflecting back on the moment he first met the couple on his radio show in 1971. “If only I had learned to say no—if only I’d had the strength to resist the undefinable magnetic pull both of them had on me for so many years,” he writes, “I might have discovered a very different destiny for myself. I might have ended up living a more balanced, traditional existence. I might have married, had children, or even made some ordinary friends who didn’t hold extraordinary secrets I had to keep from the prying eyes of the entire world. If friends are even the right word for John and Yoko.”
As "We All Shine On" makes resoundingly evident, Mintz has devoted a lifetime to contemplating the hypotheticals, the “what ifs” that characterize our existence.
