(The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection) Ben Urish, Ken Bielen-The Words and Music of John Lennon-Praeger (2007)

The Words and Music

of John Lennon

Ben Urish,

Ken Bielen

PRAEGER

The Words and Music

of John Lennon

Recent Titles in

The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection

The Sound of Stevie Wonder: His Words and Music

James E. Perone

The Words and Music of Frank Zappa

Kelly F. Lowe

The Words and Music of Carole King

James E. Perone

The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen

Rob Kirkpatrick

The Words and Music of Bob Marley

David Moskowitz

The Praeger Singer-Songwriter

Collection

The Words and Music

of John Lennon

Ben Urish and Ken Bielen

James E. Perone, Series Editor

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Urish, Ben.

The words and music of John Lennon / Ben Urish and Ken Bielen.

p. cm. — (The Praeger singer-songwriter collection, ISSN 1553–3484)

Includes bibliographical references (p. ), discography (p. ), and index.

ISBN-13: 978–0–275–99180–7 (alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0–275–99180–6 (alk. paper)

1. Lennon, John, 1940–1980—Criticism and interpretation. I. Bielen,

Kenneth G. II. Title.

ML420.L38U75 2007

782.42166092—dc22 2007007815

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.

Copyright © 2007 by Ben Urish and Ken Bielen

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be

reproduced, by any process or technique, without the

express written consent of the publisher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2007007815

ISBN-13: 978–0–275–99180–7

ISBN-10: 0–275–99180–6

ISSN: 1553–3484

First published in 2007

Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881

An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

www.praeger.com

Printed in the United States of America

∞
TM

The paper used in this book complies with the

Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National

Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

In 1967 we were living in Springfield, Missouri, and I had just turned

nine. I was riding in the car with my mother and “Strawberry Fields

Forever” came on the radio. I was terrified. It didn’t sound like any-

thing I’d ever heard before with its odd pulsing tones and droning,

nearly monotonous vocals. It seemed nightmarish. To reassure me, my

mother started to explain what the lyrics meant and how the sounds

were supposed to approximate what was going on with the singer’s

emotions and in his mind.

It was one of the pivotal moments of my life.

I dedicate my work on this book to my mother, Sue. Mom: thanks for

helping to keep me from living with my eyes closed.

—Ben Urish

Contents

Series Foreword

xi

Acknowledgments

xiii

1. In My Life: The Early Years

1

Lyrical Influences

2

Musical Influences

2

Beatle Moonlighting

3

2. The Ballad of John and Yoko, Late 1968 to Early 1970

5

Two Virgins

5

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus

6

Life with the Lions

7

“Give Peace a Chance”

8

Wedding Album

10

“Cold Turkey”

11

Live Peace in Toronto

13

“Instant Karma!”

15

3. Gimme Some Truth, 1970–1973

17

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band

17

Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band

24

viii Contents

“Power to the People”

25

The Elastic Oz Band: “God Save Us”/“Do the Oz”

26

Imagine

26

“Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”

33

Fly

34

David Peel:
The Pope Smokes Dope

35

Sometime in New York City

37

Live Jam

42

The Elephant’s Memory Band:
Elephant’s Memory

43

Approximately Infinite Universe

44

4. What You Got, 1973–1975

45

Ringo Starr: “I’m the Greatest”

46

Feeling the Space

47

Mind Games

47

Collaborations I

54

Walls and Bridges

56

Collaborations II

63

Rock ’N’ Roll

65

5. Cleanup Time, 1975–1980

71

Shaved Fish

72

A Final Collaboration: Ringo Starr’s “Cookin’ (In the

Kitchen of Love)”

72

Present in Absentia

73

Double Fantasy: A Heart Play

74

6. I Don’t Wanna Face It, 1981–1988

83

Posthumous Releases, 1981–1984

83

Posthumous Releases, 1985–1988

94

7. Gone from This Place: The Continuing Legacy

105

Lennon

105

Playground Psychotics

106

Onobox

106

Lennon Legend

106

Liverpool Sound Collage

107

Covered #1

107

The Beatles Anthology

107

Contents ix

John Lennon Anthology

110

Wonsaponatime

115

Working Class Hero
(Covers Collection)

115

John Lennon’s Jukebox

115

Acoustic

116

John Lennon: The Musical

117

Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon

118

The U.S. vs. John Lennon

119

“Cambridge 1969”

119

Afterword

121

Discography

125

Notes

135

Annotated Bibliography

139

Index

179

Series Foreword

Although the term
singer-songwriters
might most frequently be associated

with a cadre of musicians of the early 1970s such as Paul Simon, James Tay-

lor, Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, and Carole King, the Praeger

Singer-Songwriter Collection defines singer-songwriters more broadly, both

in terms of style and in terms of time period. The series includes volumes

on musicians who have been active from approximately the 1960s through

the present. Musicians who write and record in folk, rock, soul, hip-hop,

country, and various hybrids of these styles will be represented. Therefore,

some of the early 1970s introspective singer-songwriters named above will be

included, but not exclusively.

What do the individuals included in this series have in common? Although

some have collaborated as writers and some have not, all have written and

recorded commercially successful and/or historically important music
and

lyrics at some point in their careers.

The authors who contribute to the series also exhibit diversity. Some are

scholars who are trained primarily as musicians, while others have such areas of

specialization as American studies, history, sociology, popular culture studies,

literature, and rhetoric. The authors share a high level of scholarship, accessi-

bility in their writing, and a true insight into the work of the artists they study.

The authors are also focused on the output of their subjects and how it relates

to their subject’s biography and the society around them; however, biography

in and of itself is not a major focus of the books in this series.

Given the diversity of the musicians who are the subject of books in this

series, and given the diverse viewpoints of the authors, volumes in the series

will differ from book to book. All, however, will be organized chronologically

xii Series Foreword

according to the compositions and recorded performances of their subjects.

All of the books in the series should also serve as listeners’ guides to the music

of their subjects, making them companions to the artists’ recorded output.

James E. Perone

Series Editor

Acknowledgments

Jointly we would like to thank series editor James Perone for his support

for our project in particular and for the series overall. And we are grateful

to Acquisitions Editor Daniel Harmon for his insights, patience, and under-

standing.

Our special thanks go to Jim Cummer, formerly of Madhatter Music (mad-

hattermusic.com), for his help in getting information regarding rare Lennon

recordings clarifying Beatle rumors. And we are indebted to William L. Schurk

and the Music Library and Sound Recording Archives of Bowling Green

State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, for access to materials as well.

Ken thanks Ben Urish for dragging me into this project; Judy Bielen Smith

for sharing Beatlemania with me; Neocles and Vassiliki Leontis for friendship

and encouragement; Stan and Fran Bielen for support; Joyce Bielen McNally

for concern and the vinyl; and Mary, Kelly, Alex, and Dylan Bielen for help-

ing me to be who I am.

Ben would like to thank Shari Barbour for providing safe haven literally

and spiritually, and to my sister Georgia and niece Savannah (get it?) for

understanding why it matters. Of course, immense gratitude and respect go

to my coauthor Ken Bielen. Quite simply this book would not exist without

him.

John Lennon showed artistic talent and leaning at an early age. The double

punch of British skiffle music and American rock and roll in the mid-1950s

turned his creative impulses to performing music. The Quarry Men, a group

named after Lennon’s school and formed and led by him at age 16, devel-

oped over the next three years into The Beatles, the most significant of all

rock music combos. Key among this development was Lennon’s meeting and

forming a musical partnership with Paul McCartney. At McCartney’s sug-

gestion and with his example, the two young men began composing songs

jointly and separately.

Lennon enrolled in Liverpool Art College as The Beatles honed their skills

by performing in the Liverpool area and then in Hamburg, Germany. By late

1962, Lennon and The Beatles were on the British music charts, and within