| Welcome to Two Sides of Lennon. Of course, John Lennon was a multi-faceted artist and man. But for the next hour, we will concentrate on the two latest sides, as records used to be called, of John Lennon's music that have just been released. One side of Lennon we will hear is a brand new compilation of John Lennon playing his songs on "Acoustic" guitar. It includes seven unreleased recordings and is called "Acoustic."
A second side of Lennon we will listen to is a just-released reissue, complete with remixing and additional artwork of John Lennon's 1975 classic return to his musical roots, the album "Rock and Roll."
I'm Jody Denberg. And to talk about these two new John Lennon CDs, I'm privileged to be in the Dakota building with the producer of "Acoustic," who also supervised the reissue of "Rock 'N' Roll," Yoko Ono Lennon.
Q: How and when did the concept for "Acoustic", a John Lennon album comprised almost entirely of just John and his guitar, come about?
A: Hi, Jody. Well, I want to say that first. But anyway, so the thing is, okay, with "Acoustic," it's good, isn't it? Yeah. anything that's good - good music, is good. You know, it's no sort of like hesitation for me to say that about this one. I think each (song) you almost hear his playing, rather than -- well, the song, you know the song. And he's singing well. But the stuff that he's doing on the guitar is incredible. And I thought, well, you know, put out "Acoustic" and maybe there is some kids who would like to learn from it. Because most kids are now playing guitars you know. So...
Q: Did you time the release of "Acoustic" to come out right at the same time as "Rock and Roll"?
A: Well, I didn't know that that was going to happen. But I thought it's good. It's always like timing is something that, you know, I don't decide and somebody else up there is deciding or something. But this is really two sides of John. They're extremely different from each other. And that, you know, is just amazing that he had that sort of talent -- versatile talent. And I really, really love listening to John's "Rock and Roll," because there again, I was surprised that he was so good. Wasn't it good?
Q: And it sounds better than ever with the remixing.
A: Thank you.
Q: It really comes to light.
A: Thank you. Thank you.
Q: The first song we're going to listen to from "Acoustic" is Love. Partly as a reminder, as John once sang, that love is all you need. The original version on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band has Phil Spector on piano and John on guitar. Here it's just John on guitar, I think recorded at EMI Studios. Was Love written for Plastic Ono Band or was it a song composed in India?
A: No it wasn't in India, no. Love was composed actually in L.A.. You know, we went through Primal Scream and all that. And that's when he wrote it.
SONG: LOVE
Q: Beautiful. John Lennon with the solo guitar version of Love as it appears on the new compilation "Acoustic," produced by Yoko Ono. And during this hour, we'll be listening to two sides of Lennon. First songs from the new compilation "Acoustic" and then tracks from the newly reissued "Rock 'N' Roll" album.
Yoko, some of the recordings on "Acoustic" appeared in 1998 on the "John Lennon Anthology" and some have never been heard before. Four engineers worked on this project, including your longtime collaborator, Rob Stevens. Did you have to do a lot of work to get these demos into the top audio quality for "Acoustic?"
A: (Laughs) Believe me, a lot of work. But it was worth it. Well, it's a planned thing that I was going to make it well, otherwise I wouldn't put it out. That's how I was thinking. And well, it came out so good that I just decided, okay, it's okay.
Q: Well, back in '97, you began the job of revitalizing John Lennon's CD catalogue. Now, we have "Acoustic." What made -- what motivates you to work on these CDs? It's not that just you're a workaholic.
A: I am a workaholic. But also, I feel responsible, you know. And in a way, yes, I'm thankful, grateful and proud that John left it to me to take care of them. And so, you know, I'm responsible. And I want to do the best I can. And because I'm an artist myself, so I know how terrible it is if something goes out there that is not good quality.
Well, I have to give credit to a guy named Hamada, Mr. Hamada, in Japan, who strung these things (together), you know, the "Acoustic" things and sent them to me and said, "Well, what do you think this is?" You know, "Is this okay?" I mean, "Do you think you can put it out or something?" And I listened to them. I said, "No. It's terrible. The quality is bad and John would have been terribly upset about that." And you know, I just said that. And then afterwards, I think, wait a minute, wait a minute. Maybe we can do something about it. You know, 'cause it's interesting. The only thing that stuck in my mind is the fact that his guitar playing was so unusually good and original. And it would have given other guitar players some ideas or inspiration. So I said, "Wait a minute, maybe I can fix it." And that's what I did.
Q: Well, the next song we're going to listen to from "Acoustic" is one of the CDs seven previously unreleased songs or tracks. It's never been heard like this. I'm talking about Cold Turkey.
It's hard to imagine a major artist today genuinely expressing their thoughts on heroin withdrawal. Did John think twice about releasing Cold Turkey? Did he originally want The Beatles to record it?
A: No, no. He would never have thought that The Beatles should record it. He didn't get into that sort of stuff until -- well, it sounds very bad, because, ah-ha, it's Yoko! No, but -- until we got together. So it was not The Beatle period, but it was after, in a way. It was still going on. The Beatles thing was still going on, but our thing was sort of like there as well. And he didn't have any hesitation at all. I really think that he wanted to say to the kids, you know, now this is how it is. And it's really bad, so don't do it.
SONG: COLD TURKEY
Q: Yoko, the last song we heard from the new album "Acoustic" was a demo of Cold Turkey. It sounds like your free-form style of vocalizing was adopted by John at the end there. Do you hear that?
A: Oh, of course. I mean, not only I hear that, but, I mean, I was there, so I knew. And John knew it too. I mean, it was, you know, kind of open thing.
May I tell you this: That I think that not only was it an open thing, but I think he was trying to top me. And I think he did, in his own way, yeah.
Q: The two songs we've heard so far from "Acoustic" were very personal. In 1971, you and John began making political statements in your songs, like "Acoustic's" The Luck of the Irish, Woman is the Nigger of the Word, and John Sinclair. But what was it about your move to New York City that sparked this rash of political songwriting?
A: Chicago Seven. We got together with them and, you know, it was a great time, you know, yeah…
Q: Just recently, a judge ruled that the FBI must turn over the remaining secret files on John Lennon to California professor Jon Weiner. He waged a 20-year battle to get them. The FBI thought that you and John had plans to disrupt the 1972 Republican Convention. What were your future plans when you went to Ann Arbor to perform John Sinclair at a rally to free this member of the MC5 from his imprisonment for marijuana?
A: Well, we thought that, you know, we've got to help. So we went. And I think it did help. Right now, I think that, you know, there's some people who want to really rewrite history and say, "Well, they weren't help at all. We decided to release him." You know, this is that sort of -- the side of the story by the City there, I think. But I think it did help a little, yeah.
Q: Were you going to go to the 1972 Republican Convention?
A: Well, first of all, we weren't going to go to any conventions. And I think that that was something that was spread around by our friends, in a way. You know, like they were so excited that we were there and they were hoping that we'd go, probably. So they say, "They're coming, they're coming" or something like that. And that became kind of like a story, idea or something like that. But it wasn't.
SONG: JOHN SINCLAIR
Q: Yoko, on the cover of "Acoustic," you say, "I dedicate this album to the future guitarists. John always played from his heart. I hope you will learn to do the same." And in the CD booklet, you have the lyrics to all the songs and the guitar chords and a guitar chart. Is this a way to carry on these songs in the folk tradition, almost?
A: Well, I didn't think of it that way. Yeah, well, the folk tradition. I forgot about that. I felt like we were doing something very original! Okay. No I'm not saying that it is. I'm just saying I just wanted to accommodate the guitarists, you know. Maybe to create more guitarists. I really think that guitar is a great security blanket for people who learn guitar playing, just like it was for John. It was a security blanket for John.
Q: Also in the booklet, there are two photographs of John and the largest "Acoustic" guitar I have ever seen in my life.
A: Yeah, right.
Q: It's about 10 feet tall. Tell me about this guitar. It was a gift from you?
A: No, no. That was John's artwork. He created that. And when I did a show in Syracuse, Everson Museum, and it was my first museum show, actually, and I kind of dedicated it to John, because we did the opening on John's birthday, or something like that. And John put his work in there and said, "Well, you know, I'm a guitarist and I'm going to do this." And he did a huge, huge guitar. And that was in the museum show, yeah. Exhibited.
Q: I was saying a minute ago, that with the chords in the booklet and the lyrics, this will help carry John's songs on, because that's how I learned to play guitar, through a book, with those chords, with John's songs…
The song of John's that's been ubiquitous of late is, of course, Imagine. What do you think about the way Imagine has taken on this life of its own?
A: Well, we never thought about it like that, you know. So it's great, yeah. I hope John is watching it. Hey, isn't that great?
SONG: IMAGINE
Q: John Lennon with Imagine. That version compiled on the new Lennon release, "Acoustic".
Yoko, again, looking through this beautiful booklet that comes with "Acoustic", there are some wonderful photographs of John in the studio with his guitar in 1980 and some drawings of guitars from John's artwork. Even the years when John was a house-husband and traveling around the world, did he always keep a guitar close by?
A: Yeah, he did. As I said before, you know, it was his security blanket. And I think, with the guitar, he finally managed to break out and come out of Liverpool. That's how I'm looking at it. |
Yoko discussing John's guitar playing
