In a moment of serious selfdoubt , I reached a point where I just coudn't justify art anymore.
What is the use of expressing your emotions in a lyrical way? Why not just 'tell it like it is'?
I mean, is art really too expensive? Would this world be a better place if we would all just be very straight forward? Does this world really need artists to express ideas ? Or should artists just stick to entertaining ?

By John Lennon on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 07:03 pm:

My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, was to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all. I still don't know how to express the really delicate personal stuff. People think that Plastic Ono is very personal, but there are some subtleties of emotions, which I cannot seem to express in pop music, and it frustrates me. Maybe that's why I still search for other ways of expressing myself. Songwriting is a limiting experience in some ways - writing down words that have to rhyme. But songwriting is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won't let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you're allowed to sleep. It's always in the middle of the night, or you're half-awake or tired, when your critical faculties are switched off. So letting go is what the whole game is. Every time you try to put your finger on it, it slips away. You turn on the lights and the cockroaches run away. You can never grasp them... The idea of being a rock and roll musician sort of suited my talents and mentality.

By Alex on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 08:20 pm:

I haven't any Freudian reasons to make art, as far as I can tell. Bands aren't just about music, they're about everything you care about when you're sixteen- good haircuts, your mates, sex, smoking, drinking and just looking good.

By Graham on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 08:24 pm:

Damon and I used to hang around the music block, mainly because that was where the lads never went. They've be off in the field playing football (soccer) and beating people up. I suppose we were the school freaks.

By John Lennon on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 08:27 pm:

I was never going to change the way I looked or the way I felt to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I was a freak all my life and I had to live with that, you know. I was one of those people.

By Alex on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 09:02 pm:

I think art is unnecessary and too expensive. I would advise you to stop painting and start gardening or rock climbing, remember to eat lots of greens.

By Alex on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 09:07 pm:

You have to make your life into a piece of art, really, don't you? I love the touring. I can't think of anything better to do, really, than see the whole world, and play my guitar and drink beer. I'm just trying to get the best pizza in each town. And talk to the prettiest girls.

By Thom on Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - 09:13 pm:

I got into the music business thinking it was really radical, that it wasn't really a business at all, that it was a lot of people being artistic and creative. Not true, and it made me very depressed.

By Alex on Thursday, March 28, 2002 - 12:52 am:

I had an omelette and chips. Cheese omelette. I always have cheese omelette and chips.

By Kurt Vonnegut on Thursday, March 28, 2002 - 04:13 pm:

If you really want to hurt your parents and you don't have nerve enough to be homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts.

By Damon on Thursday, March 28, 2002 - 09:15 pm:

Pop music is my chosen thing, it's what drives me on and I want to be at the centre of things.

By Nathallie on Friday, March 29, 2002 - 10:34 pm:

I don't think we need words at all. Wouldn't it just be nice to lay with someone, somewhere far away, and live in silence except for the laughter and crying, soft whispers and looks? You could listen to the music instead, and to what the world says, and only feel its interpretation.

I think that'd be nice.

By lampoon on Saturday, March 30, 2002 - 02:43 pm:

oh cut the crap nathalie, you stoned little whore

bitch.

By Lucky on Saturday, March 30, 2002 - 03:30 pm:

Yeah, no words'd be cool, that way addictive message boards wouldn't exist. And arguments would be over in a matter of seconds because you wouldn't have to stall with clever lines or mud-slinging. Give a them a quick bonk and you're off. Interpret 'bonk' any way you like ;)

By Nat on Saturday, March 30, 2002 - 08:24 pm:

Haha, I think I love the lampoon ...

Hey Luckster. You been good?

*wishing great days to everyone ... *

By Alex on Saturday, March 30, 2002 - 10:08 pm:

What you've got to do is look in your cupboard, see what's there, put it all in a big pot, sprinkle some grated cheese on top and bung it in the oven. That's what pop music is all about.

By Alex on Saturday, March 30, 2002 - 10:30 pm:

I love the lampoon, too.

By Dave on Saturday, March 30, 2002 - 10:39 pm:

I have no desire to be very well known or go out front and sing and throw shapes.

By thom on Saturday, March 30, 2002 - 10:47 pm:

i wake up on a normal day and I go out for a meal with my girlfriend but someone is sitting there watching me for a while. then he comes up and asks me for my autograph and it's like 'well, yeah, i could give you my autograph but, as far as I'm concerned, i'm not going because i'm here with my girlfriend - this is my space and you're invading it'. i mean, i don't want to be seen as malicious or nasty but it gets too much sometimes.

By Damon on Saturday, March 30, 2002 - 10:49 pm:

I've got people camping outside my place in Kensington. In sleeping bags. It's not that irritating, except we haven't got any curtains in the front room, so we can't walk round in the nude.

By Liam on Saturday, March 30, 2002 - 10:52 pm:

They're off their tits here.

By Graham on Saturday, March 30, 2002 - 10:53 pm:

The obsessive psychos that are our original fanbase, you know, they're the ones I like... Our original audiences, they're the people I'm the most fond of, not the people who just do what the TV tells them to do.

By thom on Saturday, March 30, 2002 - 11:08 pm:

the freakiest thing about all of this, is the idea that you would be one of those bands to somebody. that in itself is the reason to keep going. the rest is bullshit.

By Graham on Saturday, March 30, 2002 - 11:11 pm:

I used to not be able to walk up Parkway. I'd completely avoid it because I thought people would be making comments about me. I suppose that's what comes with being a slightly recognisable figure around here, you wonder what people are gonna be saying.

By thom on Saturday, March 30, 2002 - 11:13 pm:

i can be very drunk in a club in oxford on a monday night and some guy comes up to you and buys you a drink and says that the last record you made changed his life. that means something.

By Quintal on Wednesday, August 21, 2002 - 02:22 am:

Art is telling it like it is. Often there is no better way of saying something.

By ikras on Wednesday, August 21, 2002 - 02:23 am:

so dos that mean i should do an artistic interpretive dance to tell sarki how much i wanna fuck him..?

By Quintal on Wednesday, August 21, 2002 - 02:27 am:

Yes ikras. I, for one, will be applauding.