I've haven't jumped into this too deeply yet, but I'm very interested in what a big Beatles fan friend of mine said about this interview, and fun fact: at one point John mentions the Walls and Bridges Quad "for the 20 people who buy quad". Hard to not be compelled by what is written below.
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From a Something About the Beatles post yesterday. I was vaguely aware of this interview and knew little about it until I read it. This little write-up is perfectly worded. This is the John that I choose to think of after the Beatles...and I just love the total vibe of the interview.
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OTD in 1974: John Lennon conversed with Dennis Elsas on WNEW in New York (https://tinyurl.com/ajs3bcz)
Beginning with the end of Chicago’s “Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon" suite (from Chicago II), as heard by listeners on that rainy Saturday afternoon as the studio readied John for going live.
He’d been invited to come sit in during Dennis’s show anytime, with little expectation that he actually would. What Dennis may not have known was that John was in fact using radio as a major promotional tool for his new album - an ideal forum for the loquacious ex-Beatle in lieu of an actual tour. Two days before this, he’d staged a “take over” of Los Angeles’ KHJ-AM; before he was through, he’d do similar appearances in a number of US cities, including Milwaukee, Detroit, and Cleveland, among others (plus Toronto) but these were all phoners.
As New York was his town, showing up in person completely enhanced the experience. In embracing the DJ role, he brought along a handful of favorite oldies records, including Derek Martin’s “Daddy Rolling Stone” and Bobby Parker’s “Watch Your Step.”
There is no shortage of John Lennon interviews caught on tape, during the Beatles and after, but THIS particular conversation, coming during the Lost Weekend™, stands head and shoulders above most. It captured the John that long-time fans missed: relaxed, funny, and bereft of a number of characteristics heard in pretty much every other conversation had before and after his separation: the chronic irritability, defensiveness, bluster and promotion of pretentious concepts that the earlier John would’ve mocked or deflated the pomposity of. He was fully in his element, talking up music old and new, and most captivatingly of all, at complete peace with discussing the Beatles: their collective history as well as the current and future status.
If you weren’t lucky (and local) enough to hear it live in real time, WNEW - recognizing that they’d captured something amazing - rebroadcast excerpts from time to time. And by decades’ end, enterprising bootleggers beautifully presented excerpts from the conversation by pressing it into the hot (at the time) format of the picture disc (or “picture record,” as the vinyl describes itself).
For anyone wanting the real story of where John was at the time of this conversation - still separated from Yoko but living with May Pang; seeing his ex-bandmates regularly as circumstance allowed, and about to achieve something he never had before - a number one single AND album - this is required listening, before hindsight descriptions of the “semi-sick” craftsman became the new narrative. The John of this period - rather than the psychological cripple he would have fans in 1980 believe he was - was out and engaged with the world, his fellow artists, and mastering his craft as an artist and as a producer. He was at last in the place where he began to entertain the notion out loud about working with Paul (at least) again. It was the very moment that the public had been dreaming about since 1969, but just as it began to manifest, the door would be slammed shut again just as quickly.
(EDIT) For the interview as posted on Lennon’s official site, transcribed and with remembrances from Dennis, click the link in the next post.
********
From a Something About the Beatles post yesterday. I was vaguely aware of this interview and knew little about it until I read it. This little write-up is perfectly worded. This is the John that I choose to think of after the Beatles...and I just love the total vibe of the interview.
********
OTD in 1974: John Lennon conversed with Dennis Elsas on WNEW in New York (https://tinyurl.com/ajs3bcz)
Beginning with the end of Chicago’s “Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon" suite (from Chicago II), as heard by listeners on that rainy Saturday afternoon as the studio readied John for going live.
He’d been invited to come sit in during Dennis’s show anytime, with little expectation that he actually would. What Dennis may not have known was that John was in fact using radio as a major promotional tool for his new album - an ideal forum for the loquacious ex-Beatle in lieu of an actual tour. Two days before this, he’d staged a “take over” of Los Angeles’ KHJ-AM; before he was through, he’d do similar appearances in a number of US cities, including Milwaukee, Detroit, and Cleveland, among others (plus Toronto) but these were all phoners.
As New York was his town, showing up in person completely enhanced the experience. In embracing the DJ role, he brought along a handful of favorite oldies records, including Derek Martin’s “Daddy Rolling Stone” and Bobby Parker’s “Watch Your Step.”
There is no shortage of John Lennon interviews caught on tape, during the Beatles and after, but THIS particular conversation, coming during the Lost Weekend™, stands head and shoulders above most. It captured the John that long-time fans missed: relaxed, funny, and bereft of a number of characteristics heard in pretty much every other conversation had before and after his separation: the chronic irritability, defensiveness, bluster and promotion of pretentious concepts that the earlier John would’ve mocked or deflated the pomposity of. He was fully in his element, talking up music old and new, and most captivatingly of all, at complete peace with discussing the Beatles: their collective history as well as the current and future status.
If you weren’t lucky (and local) enough to hear it live in real time, WNEW - recognizing that they’d captured something amazing - rebroadcast excerpts from time to time. And by decades’ end, enterprising bootleggers beautifully presented excerpts from the conversation by pressing it into the hot (at the time) format of the picture disc (or “picture record,” as the vinyl describes itself).
For anyone wanting the real story of where John was at the time of this conversation - still separated from Yoko but living with May Pang; seeing his ex-bandmates regularly as circumstance allowed, and about to achieve something he never had before - a number one single AND album - this is required listening, before hindsight descriptions of the “semi-sick” craftsman became the new narrative. The John of this period - rather than the psychological cripple he would have fans in 1980 believe he was - was out and engaged with the world, his fellow artists, and mastering his craft as an artist and as a producer. He was at last in the place where he began to entertain the notion out loud about working with Paul (at least) again. It was the very moment that the public had been dreaming about since 1969, but just as it began to manifest, the door would be slammed shut again just as quickly.
(EDIT) For the interview as posted on Lennon’s official site, transcribed and with remembrances from Dennis, click the link in the next post.
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