Chewing gum addiction - was it to calm him down ?

[Berkeleyan]

And Dingle,

P.S.2 - I believe Al Capp did the same when he showed up at the bed-in to attack John: like John and Ono, Capp wanted plenty of EXPOSURE, media attention, and he got it !

[Amazing Grant]

Lennon quite famously chewed gum at all of his live shows. Check out the earliest Beatle footage you can, you'll find he's chewing gum.

I think there's even pictures of his Hamburg days chewing gum while singing. It was one of his things.

[Berkeleyan]

Hmmm, I gotta pay more attention to those old tapes then....

But you know something - his gum chewing must have been discreet then. From the point when the Beatles were almost finished (1969)onwards his chewing became more and more "showy". Just watch him on the 1972 concert in NYC !

P.S. I think it was dubbed the "one to one" concert, with Stevie Wonder and others participating.

[theDingle]

Berks, I just this weekend saw a documentary on John & Yoko's "year of peace". Yoko was interviewed looking back on the Al Capp incident and she said something like,"...that Al Capp thing was OK--it was just all part of the game." It seems that afterward Lennon thought that confrontation more of a hoot than an embarrassment, seeing that he didn't mind it being broadcast.

This documentary did, however, skip the part of Capp bringing up and criticizing those nudie pics.

[Berkeleyan]

Hey Dingle,

Amazingly enough (to me), I've got to agree w/ Yoko Ono : regarding the Capp incident. (I wonder if he's still among us).

John, Yoko, Capp, the others hanging around, they were all "doing their thing". But Capp could have sent Ferdinand over there to represent him !

[grade4]

I think Yoko (or was it John himself?) once said the gum made him remember the words to the songs. You can definitely hear him chewing in All You Need is Love, and if you listen closely, you can also hear the gum in I Am the Walrus. If anyone has a Bose player, that filters the sound, it's easier to hear.

[Berkeleyan]

That's interesting. And what you wrote goes in favor of what I wrote - gum chewing had a calming influence on John.

[Harrythebannister]

Yeah definately!! It gave him that outer arrogance that we love!!!!

[Berkeleyan]

So chewing gum fit his personality.
Did he use gum in his scenes as private Gripweed on "How I won the war" ?

[Ringo_Marr]

I chew gum during all of my gigs because it keeps my mouth from drying out...our shows last up to 4 hours, so it's a great little trick...
also my tribute to Lennon...