Jonathan Cott

Last updated

Jonathan Cott
Born (1942-12-24) December 24, 1942 (age 81)
New York City
OccupationJournalist, author, and editor
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Columbia University

Jonathan Cott (born December 24, 1942) is an American author, journalist, and editor. Much of his work focuses on music, embracing both classical and rock. He has been a contributing editor at Rolling Stone since the magazine's founding, and has written for The New York Times , The New Yorker , and other publications. [1]

Cott grew up in New York City, the son of television executive Ted Cott and Jean Cahan. He received a B.A. from Columbia University in 1964, and an M.A. from The University of California, Berkeley in 1966. [2] He spent the late 1960s in London, where he began a long friendship with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Cott was the last journalist to interview Lennon, three days before his death. [3]

In 1970, he became a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, where he specialized in interviews, many of which were later collected in his 2020 book Listening. Writer Jan Morris called him "an incomparable interviewer," and Studs Terkel is quoted as saying that "Jonathan Cott, as an interviewer, reveals truths of creative spirits." [4] Cott wrote often about Bob Dylan, eventually producing two books about Dylan. In The New York Times, Janet Maslin called Cott "arguably the most simpatico writer ever to converse with Mr. Dylan." [5]

In addition to rock music, Cott has also written extensively on children's books, editing the 1985 collection Beyond the Looking Glass: Extraordinary Works of Fairy Tale and Fantasy and writing the 1983 book Pipers at the Gates of Dawn: The Wisdom of Children’s Literature. He collaborated with Maurice Sendak on a collection of Victorian picture books, and later wrote a biography of Sendak, There's a Mystery There: The Primal Vision of Maurice Sendak (2019). [6]

Cott suffered for years from bipolar disorder. His mother's death in 1988 set off a period of clinical depression, which led him to two years of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). After 36 treatments, he no longer remembered anything from 1985 to 2000. He spent the next years of his life piecing his memories back together, a quest that he wrote about in his 2005 book On the Sea of Memory: A Journey From Forgetting to Remembering. Asked in a Salon interview whether he was shocked by anything he learned, Cott replied, "Well, I was overjoyed to hear about the end of apartheid. I was really upset, but more on a personal level, when I heard that Glenn Gould had died, or that John Lennon had died, or that Bob Marley had died – people whom I cherished, poets I had admired. I found out they had died at the same time. They all died at once." [7]

Works

Author:

Editor:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Lennon</span> English musician (1940–1980)

John Winston Ono Lennon was an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame as the founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. His work included music, writing, drawings and film. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yoko Ono</span> Japanese artist and activist (born 1933)

Yoko Ono is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.

<i>John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band</i> 1970 studio album by John Lennon

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band is the debut solo studio album by English musician John Lennon. Backed by the Plastic Ono Band, it was released by Apple Records on 11 December 1970 in tandem with the similarly titled album by his wife, Yoko Ono. At the time of its issue, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band received mixed reviews overall, but later came to be widely regarded as Lennon's best solo album.

<i>Double Fantasy</i> 1980 studio album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Double Fantasy is the fifth studio album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and the final one to feature Lennon before his death. Released in November 1980 on Geffen Records, the album marked Lennon's return to recording music full-time, following his five-year hiatus to raise his son Sean. Recording sessions took place at the Hit Factory in New York City between August and October 1980. The final album features songs from both Lennon and Ono, largely alternating between the two in its track listing. Other tracks recorded by Lennon from the sessions were compiled by Ono for release on Milk and Honey in 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plastic Ono Band</span> Rock band

The Plastic Ono Band was a rock band formed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1969 for their collaborative and solo projects based on their 1968 Fluxus conceptual art project of the same name.

<i>Milk and Honey</i> (album) 1984 studio album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Milk and Honey is the sixth and final studio album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, released in January 1984, three years after Lennon’s murder. It is Lennon's eighth and final album, and the first posthumous release of new Lennon music, having been recorded in the last months of his life during and following the sessions for his 1980 album Double Fantasy. It was assembled by Yoko Ono in association with the Geffen label.

<i>Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band</i> 1970 studio album by Yoko Ono with Plastic Ono Band

Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band is the debut solo studio album by Japanese artist and musician Yoko Ono, released on Apple Records in December 1970 alongside her husband's album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Ono's album features her vocal improvisations against backing by the Plastic Ono Band, with the exception of the track "AOS", which is backed by the Ornette Coleman Quartet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey</span> 1968 song by the Beatles

"Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles. It was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The lyrics contain sayings the Beatles heard from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, with whom they studied Transcendental Meditation in India in early 1968. In his subsequent comments on the song, Lennon said it addressed his bandmates' initial reaction to his relationship with Yoko Ono. Recorded early in the sessions for the White Album, the track typifies Lennon and the Beatles' return to a rock sound in 1968 after their psychedelic period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Girl (Beatles song)</span> 1965 song by the Beatles

"Girl" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1965 album Rubber Soul. It was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. "Girl" was the last complete song recorded for that album. "Girl" is considered to be one of the most melancholic and complex of the Beatles' earlier love songs.

<i>Lennon</i> (musical) American 2005 musical

Lennon is a musical with music and lyrics by John Lennon and book by Don Scardino, who also directed its premiere. The musical is about the life of Lennon and is notable for Scardino's choice to be almost exclusively based on Lennon's own words and to focus on Lennon's solo career, with no songs from the Lennon–McCartney catalogue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of John Lennon</span> 1980 murder in New York City

On the evening of 8 December 1980, English musician John Lennon, formerly of the Beatles, was shot and fatally wounded in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York, New York, United States. The killer, Mark David Chapman, was an American Beatles fan who was jealous and enraged by Lennon's rich lifestyle, alongside his 1966 comment that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus". Chapman said he was inspired by the fictional character Holden Caulfield from J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, a "phony-killer" who loathes hypocrisy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woman (John Lennon song)</span> 1981 single by John Lennon

"Woman" is a song written and performed by English singer John Lennon from his 1980 album Double Fantasy. The track was chosen by Lennon to be the second single released from the Double Fantasy album, and it was the first Lennon single issued after his murder on 8 December 1980. The B-side of the single is Ono's song "Beautiful Boys".

<i>Radio Dinner</i> 1972 studio album by National Lampoon

Radio Dinner is the debut album by the creators of the American satirical magazine National Lampoon. It was released on Blue Thumb Records in 1972 after RCA Records had declined to issue the record. The humor on the album is steeped in the pop culture and politics of the era. It includes "Deteriorata", a parody of Les Crane's hit rendition of the poem "Desiderata", and commentary on the 1972 presidential race. Among several pieces satirizing the former Beatles, "Magical Misery Tour" is a parody of John Lennon's primal therapy-inspired songwriting and his 1970 Rolling Stone interview, later published in book form as Lennon Remembers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yes, I'm Your Angel</span> Yoko Ono song

"Yes, I'm Your Angel", also known as "I'm Your Angel", is a song written by Yoko Ono that was first released on Ono's and John Lennon's 1980 album Double Fantasy. It was later released as the b-side of Lennon's single "Watching the Wheels." The initial release of Double Fantasy used the title "I'm Your Angel" but later releases as well as the single used the title "Yes, I'm Your Angel."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beautiful Boys</span> Yoko Ono song

"Beautiful Boys" is a song written by Yoko Ono that was first released on Ono's and John Lennon's 1980 album Double Fantasy. It was later released as the B-side of Lennon's #1 single "Woman."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Why (Yoko Ono song)</span> Song by Yoko Ono

"Why" is a song written by Yoko Ono that was first released on her 1970 Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band album. In the U.S. it was also released as the B-side of John Lennon's "Mother" single, taken from his John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Who Has Seen the Wind? (song)</span> Song by Yoko Ono

"Who Has Seen the Wind?" is a song written by Yoko Ono that first appeared as the B-side of John Lennon's single "Instant Karma!" It was later issued as a bonus track on a compact disc version of the Wedding Album.

<i>Lennon Remembers</i> Book by Jann Wenner

Lennon Remembers is a 1971 book by Rolling Stone magazine co-founder and editor Jann Wenner. It consists of a lengthy interview that Wenner carried out with former Beatle John Lennon in December 1970 and which was originally serialised in Rolling Stone in its issues dated 21 January and 4 February 1971. The interview was intended to promote Lennon's primal therapy-inspired album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and reflects the singer's emotions and mindset after undergoing an intense course of the therapy under Arthur Janov. It also serves as a rebuttal to Paul McCartney's public announcement of the Beatles' break-up, in April 1970.

Up Your Legs Forever is a 1971 film by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The film was made on 14 December 1970 on West 61st Street in Manhattan, New York City, though the couple did not have permits to work in the United States at that time.

References

  1. ↑ "Jonathan Cott". Simon & Schuster. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
  2. ↑ R. Reginald (2010). Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature Vol 2. Wildside Press LLC. p. 866. ISBN   0941028771.
  3. ↑ "Days With John and Yoko: A Writer Remembers". NPR. February 17, 2013. Retrieved December 29, 2021.
  4. ↑ "Listening". University of Minnesota Press. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
  5. ↑ Maslin, Janet (May 22, 2006). "How Does It Feel? Dylan on Everything, Everything on Dylan". The New York Times. Retrieved December 29, 2021.
  6. ↑ Griswold, Jerry (April 10, 2019). "Understanding Maurice Sendak". Medium. Retrieved December 29, 2021.
  7. ↑ Broudy, Oliver (October 17, 2005). "He Lost His Mind". Salon. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.