With a cordovan hatwrapped in a bullfighter cape and with a wrench in your hand. This is how it appeared John Lennon on the cover of his second book, 'A spaniard in the works'. A compendium of surreal writings and drawings. Some so absurd that not even he understood. But they were “bottled” in his brain and he wanted to get rid of them. He did it on June 24, 1965.
1965 It was a very busy year for those of Liverpool, who lived and suffered the Beatlemania in its fullness. They did his second tour of the United Stateshis second film, 'Help!', and they acted for the first and only time in Spain. It was also the year in which John Lennon public his second book'A spaniard in the works'. 96 pages of crazy stories and drawings similar to the previous one, 'In his own writing'from 1964. In the United Kingdom it hit bookstores on June 24 at the price of ten shillings and sixpence.
John captured his delirious texts throughout 1964. Neil Aspinal, the Beatles' road manager, remembers that he saw him writing in Paris in January 1964. And his partner and friend George Harrison It also reminded him of being very focused, pen in hand, when both I would ben on vacation in Tahiti with their respective partners, Pattie Boyd and Cynthia Lennon, in May 1964.
WECB Classic
WECB Classic
Harrison, Boyd and Cynthia contributed with some ideas when Lennon asked them to suggest words that fit a particular phrase. During that vacation, John was busy reading books that were on his private boatincluding a complete collection of the novels by Arthur Conan Doyle about sherlock holmes.
When most of the work was complete, the editor, Jonathan Cape, asked him for more material. To encourage him, she sent him an Italian dictionary, which he read aloud and found “his own bark.”
Despite other publisher requirements for change or delete any writingLennon did not give in. It had to be kept as it was. for preserve spontaneity of his work. Less inhibited than the previous one, some of its pieces They took up five or six pages. For example, his parody of Sherlock Holmes, “The unique experience of Miss Anne Duffield, which took three weeks to write, spreads nine pages. In total, the book contains 56 piecesincluding 12 prose, six poems and 38 drawings.
Contains numerous references to racial minoritiesas well as to characters with deformities and disabilities. The title piece of the book, for example, begins like this: “Jesús El Pifco was a foreigner and he knew it… a garlic-eater, smelly, little Spanish Catholic yellow greasy fascist bastard.”
Among the drawings, there was one of two street musicians, both carrying signs, one of which reads 'I am blind' while the other reads 'I can see clearly'. Another drawing depicts a large man with glasses, sitting in a chair looking at a four-legged green monster.
Robert Freemanphotographer and designer of the covers of the Fab Four for three years (between 1963 and 1966) was in charge of the book cover in which it appears Lennon with a Cordoban hat, wrapped in a bullfighting cape and with a wrench in his right hand.
The title, 'A spaniard in the works' is actually a play on words of the English expression 'a spanner in the works' what does it mean “an obstacle in the way” or “putting spanners in the wheels.” Literally, 'spanner' is spanner.
The criticism, in general, was half-hearted. They considered that The book was similar to the previous one, 'In his own writing'. Come on, which was more of the same. Even so, It immediately became a best seller. They became cfour editions in its first four months on sale. sold 100,000 copies in three months, less than the first.
The author himself recognized in 'Anthology': “Ok, it's not as good as the firstbut what second book is better than the first? In any case, I had a lot of stories bottled up in my system and It was good for me to get rid of them – 'better outside than inside'. The book is more complicated; There are some stories and fragments that even I don't understand.”
He dedicated a copy to Ringo Starr. “John's dedication on my copy of 'A spaniard in the works' when it went on sale in 1965, read: 'To Ringo with love, your little bastard.'
Was his latest collection of writings that Lennon published during his lifetime. And he explained why in 'The Beatles Anthology: “The second book was more disciplined because I started it from scratch. They told me, 'You have many months to write it'. I had done 'In his own writing' – at least in part – when I was still in school and it was spontaneous… But now I could only start writing with a bottle of Johnnie Walker and I thought, 'If it costs me a bottle every night… that's why I didn't write anything else.'
