29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
May Pang's account of her 18 months spent with John Lennon, March 3, 2005
This review is from: Loving John: The Untold Story (Paperback)
To find out the real truth on how/why John Lennon started seeing May Pang and then lived with her for nearly 18 months and lastly how he completely broke with everything in his past including his music to reunite with Yoko, read May Pang's book 'Loving John' aka 'The lost Weekend'.
May Pang was a young woman who had been working for John Lennon's manager, Allan Klein, back in the early 1970's when she became a personal assistant for the couple and worked at Yoko Ono's direction. Then, one day, Yoko told her that "it was OK for her" to start seeing John as a lover because Yoko and John weren't getting along and that Yoko would rather John sleep with her than with someone she doesn't know. May was in her early twenties and was rather naive and had no intention of starting an affair with her employer's husband but John started to pursue her once Yoko gave him the green light.
What started as a casual fling blossomed into a full fledged relationship in which May lived with John for 14 months out of the 18 months that she was seeing John. Their time together included the famous "Lost Weekend" in Los Angeles while John recorded two albums, "Rock n Roll" and "Walls and Bridges" plus the hit singles with Elton John "Lucy in the sky with Diamonds" and "whatever gets you through the night".
During the short 18 months with May, John Lennon began to hook up and see his old pals such as Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr. George Harrison visited John for the last time while John was living with May.
The book is a wonderful account of May's 18 months with John, their relationship, the recording sessions, and the inevitable but tragic breakup in which John goes back to Yoko and breaks with everything in his life, including May and his music pals and his music, in order to go back to Yoko and become a "house husband" for nearly 5 years to help raise Sean.
Much has been publicized about how JOhn went back to Yoko, but her book tells the real story of how Yoko plotted to get John back and succeeded. Before John went back to Yoko, John and May had been living together in their own apartment in NYC and John had picked out a house he was planning on buying so that they could live together in their own house. Before May's breakup with John, John and May were planning on meeting up with Paul McCartney in New Orleans because May had renewed John's interest co-writing songs again with Paul.
You'll have to read the rest of the book to find out what happens. May writes in a "tell-all" style but if you are a fan of John Lennon and want to know the truth of how he really lived his life, read this book to get the most accurate accounting of the real John Lennon.
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34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First hand account, April 21, 2005
This review is from: Loving John: The Untold Story (Paperback)
To believe or not to believe - well, the more you read on John's life the more disbelief befalls you. The Ray Coleman-Eliot Mintz book is nearly unreadable as it goes overboard often (i.e., many repeats of the "John was such a super macho guy" and the oft repeated "John and Yoko are artists", as though their positions were equal. Lennon's art changed the world, Yoko's got her slight notice). Also, the mild slighting of John's work with the Beatles and comparative building up of his solo output.
Here is the account of a woman who was put in a most ridiculous position. Yoko sends May off to be John's lover. First off, if this alone doesn't convince you who wore the pants and made the rules at the Dakota, nothing will. How did Lennon deal with that? Staying in bed getting stoned all day. Wasting time.
Well, John obeys, May ends up in love with John, and it sounds as though the feelings were mutual.
Oh, and by the way, during this period with May oddly called "The Lost Weekend", John manages to record some fine albums (May assisting), make the charts, and start to see his old friends again (nearly meeting up with McCartney for the recording of Venus And Mars), something he didn't or couldn't or wouldn't (because of his depressive stupor/drug use/and dare I say Yoko's will) do during the preceeding period at the Dakota. "Lost Weekend?" Sounds more like "The Productive Weekend".
May was an enabling cure for what ailed Lennon at the time, mainly fear and loathing of his life at the Dakota, it would seem. He was quite busy during their time together. Yes, he got drunk and stupid, but he was suddenly let out of his repressive cage. He got drunk and stupid before and during the Beatles. He got stoned and stupid at the Dakota.
The drunkeness and stupidity are a small, but focused upon fragment of the John and May story. The fact that May continued in the music biz attests that she was at least a small catalyst for Lennon to resume his art. It is she whispering John's name on the recording "#9 Dream".
Anyway, seems the folks at JohnandYoko, Inc. have continually done their best to demean May's account of what happened when she and John were a couple. That's another point in favor of the feeling this book is true, otherwise they'd have nothing to fear.
Word is John continued to pine for May up until the end of his life. It doesn't seem unlikely, for during the time he spent with May, it seems he was allowed to be, or at least not prevented from being John Lennon.
Hats off to Ms. Pang for taking all the crap from the promoters and believers of the "official" manufactured JohnandYoko myth.
I found nothing unbelievable in or about this book. Why does it upset people so?
A question for you all - if John had had access to the internet at he time, do you believe we'd still be reading the same "Official" stories?
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31 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Man, if this is true, Yoko was SICK!, December 11, 2002
This review is from: Loving John: The Untold Story (Paperback)
I like Yoko's early albums.I think she was a great artist at one time. But if what May Pang says in this book is factual, then Yoko Ono truly was a sick woman. Totally controlling, and totally after John Lennons money. After reading this book, I just wished John had stayed with May Pang. Who knows, things might have turned out a whole lot differently if he had.
Fascinating read for a Lennon fan.
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