John Lennon Said He Was Half ‘Monk’ and Half ‘Performing Flea’ in Hamburg

After over half of his band was deported from Germany, John Lennon briefly remained in Hamburg. The Beatles had been playing shows there when authorities deported George Harrison for being too young to work. Almost immediately afterward, Paul McCartney and Pete Best were arrested and deported for arson. Lennon said he began feeling sorry for himself and withdrew from music afterward.

John Lennon felt torn between two identities after The Beatles performed in Hamburg

After Lennon’s bandmates left Hamburg, he remained for a time, playing with other musicians. 

“They were all deported and I was left in Hamburg, playing alone with another group of musicians,” he said in The Beatles Anthology. “It was quite a shattering experience to be in a foreign country, pretty young, left there all on my own. We’d spent our money as we went along. I didn’t have any to spare and being stuck in Hamburg with no food money was no joke especially just around Christmas.” 

Lennon said that he took a step back from music once he returned to Liverpool. He felt torn between his regular life and his pursuit of fame.

“Now, when George and Paul found out, they were mad at me, because they thought, ‘We could have been working now.’ But I just withdrew,” he said. “You see, part of me is a monk and part of me is a performing flea. Knowing when to stop is survival for me.”

George Harrison avoided John Lennon and Paul McCartney after Hamburg

Though Lennon said Harrison and McCartney were upset with him, Harrison wanted to avoid his bandmates, too. He was the youngest member of the band and was humiliated to have been deported.

“After Hamburg John didn’t contact the other Beatles for a couple of weeks, but when he did they decided to get back together,” Cynthia Lennon wrote in her book, John. “Poor George had been so embarrassed at having been sent home that he didn’t realize for some time that the others were back too. He’d got another job, and so had Paul, who, urged by his dad, had done a stint at the post office, then started at a delivery firm.”

John Lennon eventually had to convince Paul McCartney to rejoin the band

As Cynthia noted, McCartney also took a step back from the band. His father urged him to get a job.

“I started working at a coil-winding factory called Massey and Coggins,” McCartney said. “My dad had told me to go out and get a job. I’d said, ‘I’ve got a job, I’m in a band.’ But after a couple of weeks of doing nothing with the band it was, ‘No, you have got to get a proper job.’ He virtually chucked me out of the house: ‘Get a job or don’t come back.'”

He started work, but Lennon soon decided he wanted to get back into music. He convinced McCartney to perform with them again.

“One day John and George showed up in the yard that | should have been sweeping and told me we had a gig at the Cavern,” McCartney said. “I said, ‘No. I’ve got a steady job here and it pays £7 14s a week. They are training me here. That’s pretty good, I can’t expect more.’ And I was quite serious about this. But then — and with my dad’s warning still in my mind — I thought, ‘Sod it. I can’t stick this lot.’ I bunked over the wall and was never seen again by Massey and Coggins.”