Loving John: The Untold Story

by Charles Henry Edwards, May Pang, Henry Edwards

Book Overview

May Pang was 22 when she began to work for John Lennon and Yoko Ono as a personal assistant. This is her story of life with John and Yoko. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B000YLU0BY
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: Warner Books, Incorporated
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A very good read.

I found this book to be a true personal account of events as she saw it. Although she is not a profession author it reads well and flows. I found it to be more of a tragedy than a fun book to read, some parts are just flat out sad. I believe her original intent was to include more information of her as professional in the music bussiness and not just her social and love life with John Lennon. I am glad I read it.

Too good to be out of print

I wasn't aware of May Pang's contribution to the Lennon tale until recently, after having read about her newly released collection of photos titled "Instamatic Karma". So it was mostly by accident, searching for other books that she may have written, that I discovered a pricey used hardcover of her 1983 book, "Loving John". I don't feel that I need to recap all the storyline that's been discussed above, but I have to say - this book hit me hard. May Pang appears as a level-headed island of love and stability for John, despite being pressured into the most awkward of awkward situations by a scheming Yoko who was fighting a rearguard action to hold on to what was left of their marriage. Yoko's solution? Rather than risk losing John to an unknown future female, she sets him up with a naïve young office assistant that she hopes to be able to use as a tool. And if this doesn't seem creepy enough, it's just scratching the surface when you read more about the wheels-within-wheels logic of psychological manipulation that, unlike art, is Yoko's true calling. Yoko is to John Lennon what Dr. Eugene Landy was to Brian Wilson - and May, bless her soul, took part in a foolish game indeed - while revealing much about John as a good-intentioned, but flawed and frail human being. Excellent stories involving all the players of the day, including ex-Beatles, ex-wives, various progeny, Phil Spector and Elton John.

First hand account

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?

May Pang's account of her 18 months spent with John Lennon

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.

Man, if this is true, Yoko was SICK!

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.