Remembering
John Lennon
It was 30 years ago today
Check out these audio recordings, interviews,
and Video of
John Lennon and Frank Zappa
performing at the Fillmore East Auditorium in NYC
Index
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Piano Compositions prior to Imagine Demo Tape |
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Studio Recordings
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April 25, 1971 |
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Radio Pre-Broadcast tape 1974 |
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June 8, 1971 radio interview |
September 28, 1974
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| KSAN-FM in San Francisco | September 1974KSAN-FM in San Francisco
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Lennon's interview with a 14 year old boy. Great interview!!! |
| With Frank Zappa at the Fillmore East |
Video Excellent (if you can stand Yoko's yowling )
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Misc. recordings 1970-1979 |
| Madison Square Garden | Aug 30, 1972. I attended this afternoon concert. featuring Sha Na Na, Roberta Flac, Stevie Wonder and John Lennon and elephant's Memory Band. |
| Sort of a Reunion | John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Harry Nielson and Stevie Wondoer 1974 This is the only known recording of Lennon and McCartney after the Beatles Breakup. |
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(click to listen) Piano Demo fall 1970 Excellent sound!
There's been requests for more Lennon, so here's some great fly-on-the-wall stuff: John Lennon working out songs alone at the piano in preparation for what would become the Imagine LP. The sound is great. If you're a Beatle fan, you need this. The flacs were made from my original copy of Vigotone's "Compostions" which was released as a CD-R (as all Vigotones were at the time). Over the top packaging leads me to believe this is an original, not a knock off. The original liner notes describe the tape better than I could, so here they are: After the emotionally exhausting Plastic Ono Band writing and recording sessions, it was time for John to exhibit a lighter compositional touch. Perhaps showing the strain from the amount of single-minded effort that went into that LP, John in contrast seemed to be all over the place with this batch of songs an noodlings recorded in the late fall of 1970 at Tittenhurst Park estate. A rare glimpse into a single Lennon piano demo session, Compositions reveals an artist trying to find his way to what would eventually become the Imagine LP. While John's not in the best voice of his career, it's still a fascination listening experience, and has never before appeared in its entirety. The tape begins with "Make Love Not War." This song did not appear in the next LP Imagine, but in rewritten form as the title track of 1973's Mind Games, after being combined with a song heard later on the tape, "I Promise." Both of these sound much better than the versions released officially on The John Lennon Anthology in 1998. "I'm the Greatest" also emerged in '73, but not as a Lennon track; it was the leadoff song on Ringo Starr's Ringo LP. At this point in 1970, the song was in embryonic form and had more John-oriented references than it would later have upon being handed over to the ringed one. The next three songs all showed up the next year on Imagine. "How?" is featured as a false start, then with a complete run-through. The first pass here is a very tentative attempt with John singing in the plural. "Child of Nature" was on its way to being "Jealous Guy," but it still held on to its 1968 "Beatles in India" origins at this point. There are three false starts prior to the full performance. Next comes "Oh Yoko!" On Imagine, it is a song of joy to his wife. Here, it sounds more like a dirge in the vein of "Mother." More confident takes appear later in the tape.
Track List 1-Omitted Commercially released |
Following these three eventually issued tunes, the next two songs went unreleased in John's lifetime. A track usually give the title "Sally and Billy" is up first in this duo, featured in a series of breakdowns; John never really gets the song down in this try, but he'll give it another attempt at the Dakota in 1976. Next is "Rock and Roll People," a song not released by John until the posthumous Menlove Ave. compilation in 1986, for good reason! A highlight of this tape is the reworking of "Help!," in a much slower version than the 1965 Beatles arrangement. Around this time, John was exploring the possibility of rerecording some of his more personal Beatles' songs. This might have been an attempt to work up a new arrangement. In any event, he abandons the effort after not being able to work out the chords for the chorus. An amusing moment occurs when Yoko makes a comment and John answers, "I don't care how you want to sing it dear, I'm singing it meself at the moment..." This is followed by an improvisation that didn't exactly go anywhere, but eventually turned into a christmas message which appears in part on Vigotone's The Ultimate Beatles Christmas Collection; two takes of the message are featured here in their entirety. Next, The Impressions' spiritual call "People Get Ready" leads into a second pass of "How?" now sung in the familiar first person singular. Over and over he repeats what he's written until the final structure of the song is arrived at: a series of searching questions aimed at himself. By this time, Yoko has made her presence know, and is heard in the background during yet another lengthy run-through of "How?." Don't worry, you'll hear more from her later. The next song, a fifties-style rocker a-la Fats Domino is unnamed but possibly titled "My Heart is in Your Hands." It's featured in a false start and a complete attempt. Too bad he never finished it, as it has some potential. John does however quickly move on to a song familiar to anyone who's bought the Beatles' Anthology 3. "Mailman Bring Me No More Blues," issued as the flip side of Buddy Holly's first solo single, "Words of Love." Next, in the fifties vein of "Oh Darling!" comes "I Promise," the kind of apologetic ode to Yoko that he was still writing until his final days. Finally, we come to the most difficult titles to enjoy: an untitled track by John with the line "You Know How Hard it Is" being a likely title to the song (and hard indeed it is to listen to!). The tape ends with two passes at a song apparently titled "I'll Make You Happy." Yoko recorded an answer song which can be heard on Bag's Lost Lennon vol. 30. Only the truly masochistic need apply. ...and so we come to the end of this particular demo session. John and Yoko would go on the make their individual LP's Imagine and Fly, the next year and would move to New York leaving Tittenhurst and England behind for good. This piano tape is an excellent example of the post-Beatle days of Ascot creativity and some of the last home recordings John made in his native land.
13-Help! |
John Lennon
the complete may pang tapes
recorded october, 1974
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John Lennon - Interview with Jerry Levitan Taped: May 25 1969 Toronto, Canada John Lennon talking with 14 year old Jerry Levitan about Love, Peace, America and more. It
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Video Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and John Lennon and Yoko Ono
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, This is the only known recording of Lennon and McCartney together after the Beatles breakup.
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John Lennon WNEW interview Sept 28, 1974 Another highlight among the John Lennon spoken word recordings. John promoted 'Walls & Bridges' quite heavily during his "lost weekend" period, at one giving an interview to 20 DJs at the same time in a chaotic conference call. John dropped by three radio stations in September, KSAN-FM in San Francisco, KHJ-AM in LA (with him taking calls as well, one of them from the guy who ran the Wizardo bootleg label and asked about "What's The New Mary Jane") and this most famous appearance. CD 1 01. Intro Dr. Winston O' Boogie 1:20 04. #9 Dream (Removed) 06. George Martin 1:07 10. Butcher Album / US Albums 4:48 15. Producing Pussy Cats / LA 3:27 19. I'm The Greatest (Ringo - Removed)
CD 2 01. More About Playing Oldies 1:07 03. What'd I Say (Ray Charles - Removed) 07. The Rolling Stones 2:12 09. Station ID / Immigration 5:47 11. Scared Outro 0:24 13. Doing Radio 3:23 Bonus Tracks: Interview with Howard Cosell on the "Speaking of Everything" Radio Show. October 6th, 1974. 21. Lennon Today 9:33 22. Monday Night Football 1/2 Time Guest 1:51 25. Walls And Bridges Televison Spot 0:25
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