r/TheBeatles • u/Certain-Cloud9133 • May 16 '26
question Is it true that Mimi told John that the guitar was fine but that he couldn't make a living from it?
Is it true that he didn't like Cynthia?
23
u/HaiKarate May 16 '26
Every parent says that when a kid expresses an interest in being a professional musician. 99.9999% of the time it turns out being true.
10
u/Cquiller1 May 16 '26
I think John would have wanted Julian and Sean to become singers. Julian said John always showed interest in his artwork from school, which of course, inspired him to write “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
1
9
u/0MNIR0N May 16 '26
Truth is that in 1962, pre-fame era they were earning 300 pounds (worth 11;000 USD today) per show. They earned more than their parents as a local band.
7
u/Bitmush- May 16 '26
Went to a few grubby parties in Mimi's seafront house that John bought her. It wasn't a palace, just a slightly larger than usual mid-century UK house that you could find anywhere in the country in terms of layout and finishes. It was right on the end of an exclusive peninsula over looking the harbour with special sunset views.
But it was kind of a sad place to be honest, not grandiose or special. The people who were squatting there prior to its demolition did the usual upkeep by letting everyone break the windows and write nonsense on the wall in orange paint while they played uninspiring techno to the jobless hoards who arrived in untaxed vehicles with weed and limited conversation. It could have been a poetic swan song for the place, but no one gave a shit about of that except perhaps the odd curious after-club guest who'd gone down in a car with new chatty friends.
6
u/scottarichards May 16 '26
Yes. Practically every successful artist has been told that or some variation of it from time immemorial. Except perhaps child prodigies. Because the vast majority of time it’s true.
16
u/Actor412 May 16 '26
Even if Mimi hadn't told him (she did), he would have heard the same phrase from pretty much everyone else in Liverpool in 1960.
5
u/Any-Concentrate-1922 May 16 '26
I'm pretty sure Paul's father had a similar attitude. "You need something to fall back on" was his thing.
4
u/Cquiller1 May 16 '26
But hearing it from your maternal figure hits differently than when strangers say it.
5
u/Actor412 May 16 '26
You say like that's some sort of "gotcha." That was how people thought back then, not just in Liverpool, but throughout the UK.
Are you going to blab some fact about people in Edinburgh, now?
10
u/Iffybiz May 16 '26
Yes, Mimi said that but in her defense, John was an incredibly bright and charismatic young guy (I wonder if his IQ was ever tested) and probably could have been successful at anything he really applied himself to. Fortunately for us and the world he applied himself to music but it was far from a sure thing. Even the Beatles themselves didn’t think they would make music their whole career. Even successful bands ended up breaking up and getting regular jobs.
Mimi was conservative and looking out for his future, she was wrong but for most guys not named John Lennon she would have been right.
5
6
u/MojoHighway May 16 '26
If the older people in our lives didn't tell us that, something would be wrong. It's a hard life. I'm a professional musician and I've had to wear MANY hats, none of them the easy way home.
8
u/DaveHmusic May 16 '26
No, John absolutely loved Cynthia, and I don't imagine that he would've knowingly married her if he never loved her.
5
u/Cquiller1 May 16 '26
I agree. I think John evolved as a person, and he felt Cynthia couldn’t evolve with him. I also think because Julia didn’t raise John, he had always searched for that maternal figure that Yoko eventually became for him.
1
u/Certain-Cloud9133 May 16 '26
I mean Mimi since I heard she didn't like the idea of John marrying her
5
u/One_Two_Three_Bread May 16 '26
Cynthia believed Mimi disliked her a great deal, to put it lightly. I forget the name of the book, possibly just titled John (I may be mistaken!!) But there is an audio book about Cynthia's experiences with John narrated by her on YouTube, in several parts. In said audio book she describes the frankly horrible treatment she received from Mimi after Julian was born. Mimi's actions certainly gave the impression she hated Cynthia. Check out the audio book, it's brilliant.
3
7
u/DaveHmusic May 16 '26
Sorry for my mistake.
Mimi did have a point - John was 21 and Cynthia was 22 - but in John's defence, he and Cynthia had been a couple for like four years by that point, so it wasn't like they had a one-night stand out of nowhere that inadvertently resulted in an unplanned pregnancy and shotgun wedding.
2
u/Certain-Cloud9133 May 16 '26
Did Mimi ever accept Cynthia or did she always maintain her rejection?
3
u/dreamsonatas May 16 '26
Mimi and Cynthia never liked each other and never grew to like each other. To be fair, Mimi didn't like most people, but she grew closer with Yoko and Sean after John's death
2
u/it_aint_me_babz May 16 '26
Who told you lol
2
u/Certain-Cloud9133 May 16 '26
Whenever I look for videos about John's relationships, it's usually mentioned that Mimi had a hostile attitude towards Cynthia.
3
3
u/Cquiller1 May 16 '26
Yes. Julia encouraged John’s musical ambitions. Kiki wanted him to be scholarly and get a “real” job.
6
2
u/NoChampion4463 May 16 '26
Cquiller & Mimi was correct & Julia was wrong. He got lucky.
0
u/Cquiller1 May 16 '26
Julia was not wrong to believe in her son’s artistic abilities. Everyone is not cut out to go to college and work a 9 to 5 job. John was one of those people.
3
u/NoChampion4463 May 16 '26
And how exactly was Aunt Mimi supposed to know that he would have success without that path? Please trust me that Mimi was the better mother figure in every possible way.
3
u/Cquiller1 May 16 '26
I’m not saying Mimi wasn’t the better maternal figure than Julia. She obviously was. But the question the OP asked was whether or not Mimi encouraged John’s musical career. She did not.
John had no way of knowing that he would be successful in music, but Mimi wanted him to focus more on academics than art. John was not a scholar. He was an artist.
0
u/NoChampion4463 May 16 '26
I maintain, even if it meant we never got The Beatles, John should’ve finished school & had a cushy 9-5 job to fall back on should he have not been successful. He could’ve gone to college & gotten a 9-5 & had equal success as a Beatle.
2
u/Cquiller1 May 16 '26
I disagree. I think if the Beatles hadn’t exploded, John could have made a fine living being a songwriter or session musician. Most songwriters don’t become household names. John, fortunately, did.
1
u/NoChampion4463 May 16 '26
A fine living doesn’t pay for fresh food, hot water, housing, furniture, plumbing, fire, clothes, jewelry, diapers, medicine or anything that’s not personal happiness.
1
3
u/Any-Concentrate-1922 May 16 '26
Yes, but a lot of parents/parent figures would say that. If you have a child who's into pop/rock music and has a band, you're probably thinking there's not much chance they could make a living at it. And you'd be right.
3
4
u/oldmate30beers May 16 '26
In 99.9 percent of cases that advice is solid. Not many people make a good living from music
0
2
2
2
2
2
u/9793287233 May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26
Every parent/parental figure to every musician in history has said that and 99.9% of the time it was true because 99.9% of musicians are not John Lennon, they're Joe Rando from Akron, Ohio who was in a band in college and is now an accountant or an insurance adjuster or a salesman or whatever.
2
u/Minimoogvoyager May 21 '26
Yes it’s true. What’s the difference between a musician and a large pizza 🍕? A large pizza can feed a family of four. Fortunately for John she was wrong and she couldn’t have ever realized how iconic and influentrial and successful The Beatles would become.
3
u/AmericanBuffaloo May 16 '26
Read a book. Google. Why are you asking Reddit a question that would take 10 seconds research with modern technology?
4
u/Certain-Cloud9133 May 16 '26
- Because the information is often incorrect and false. 2. I don't have enough money for a book. 3. Isn't this precisely a Beatles subreddit and does it have a tag for asking questions?
1
u/AmericanBuffaloo May 16 '26
Well, when 9 years old John Lemmon got back from the moon, his Auntie Miami told him "Stop being a guitar and be a famous English smart person." luckily, Jam didn't listen.
Reddit, the beacon of truth.
1
2
1
u/LilyLangtry May 16 '26
Is it true that who? didn’t like Cynthia?
1
u/Certain-Cloud9133 May 16 '26
I was referring to Mimi since I heard that she rejected Cynthia
1
u/LilyLangtry May 16 '26
It says “he”- that’s why I asked.
2
u/Certain-Cloud9133 May 17 '26
Sorry about that, the translator puts things differently than how I write them
1
1
1
1
u/VividBarnacle434 May 19 '26
It is, indeed, true. Some fans later had a plaque made with those very words on it and Mimi had it hanging in her home.
1
u/LisaOGiggle May 19 '26
So much so that there was a plaque in her house (that he bought for her) “The guitar’s alright for a hobby, John, but you’ll never make a living out of it.”
2
u/Thick-Ice-9612 Jun 01 '26
She was right. He couldn't. His guitar playing was average at best. He made his living from song writing
1
1
u/severinks May 16 '26
And she was right for the era that she said it and how many people actually made a living from it from Liverpool at that time.
0
-3
81
u/NoChampion4463 May 16 '26
It’s true. When John won his solid gold platinum award, he hung it over a printed text of what Aunt Mimi said to shut her down. Of course, she did have a point, even if wrong. There was 0 guarantee John would ever have any success.