Is It Any Wonder?

The new year began with the end of an old era, when the London High Court officially cut the legal ties binding The Beatles and Company on January 9th, 1975. John Lennon was at a bit of a crossroads, having an oldies album wrapped and ready to go and already composing material for a new solo LP.

He spent much of January at the Record Plant in New York working with other artists. On the 13th, he co-produced a session with engineer Roy Cicala for Roy's wife Lori Burton. Lori had sung backup on a couple of John's albums, and was being backed by a group dubbed "BOMF" (Band of Mother Fuckers). On the 22nd, John & Roy co-produced a few songs by the band, now renamed Dog Soldier after the lyric from a Lennon/Cicala composition, "Incantation". This and two of the Burton numbers ("Answer Me, My Love" and "Let's Spend The Night Together") were eventually released on a CD included with the book Beatles Undercover in 1998. The rest of the sessions remain unheard.

Far more prominent was John's work with David Bowie a couple of weeks later. The two had become casual acquaintances during 1974, and Bowie was currently finishing up his LP Young Americans at New York's Electric Lady Studios. He invited John to join him in a new rendition of "Across The Universe", and having enjoyed his experience remaking "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" with Elton John (and not being satisfied with either Beatles release of the song), John readily agreed, playing rhythm guitar on the number:

During the session, a guitar riff improvised by Carlos Alomar developed into a jam which reminded John of the recent disco hit "Shame Shame Shame". He began to sing "Shame", morphing it into "Fame", which inspired Bowie to pen a set of lyrics on the topic of celebrity. With John providing backing vocals, the new song was recorded, and a surprising number one hit was born:

One person John came close to working with that winter was, even more surprisingly, Paul McCartney. He and Linda passed through New York en route to New Orleans, where they would arrive January 16th and continue recording Venus And Mars with Wings. An open invitation to join them (whether to record or just socialize) was offered via May Pang, and John tentatively agreed.

The iteration of Wings recording at Sea Saint Studios was now sans English drummer Geoff Britton, who was fired early in the sessions and replaced with American drummer Joe English (I know, right?). The band soaked up the local atmosphere during Mardi Gras week, and although little of it is present on the final album, they did cut a number for the occasion, "My Carnival", which would remain unreleased until 1985.

Local TV station WVUE was allowed to film the February 12th session for their News Scene Eight (broadcast on the 24th). A day later, Wings held a press conference aboard a steamboat chugging along the Mississippi.

Ring Out The Old

December 1974 was turning out to be a pivotal month in the relationships among the ex-Beatles. I've already discussed John and George's prickly meeting at the Plaza, and John and Ringo had been socializing in Los Angeles earlier in the month. Paul and Linda were also in New York for a pre-Christmas visit with the Eastman family.

The Beatles' business partnership had been in limbo since the March 1971 court decision to channel all their joint income through a receiver, but four years of negotiations had finally resulted in a dissolution agreement everyone could agree to. December 19th was chosen as a date to sign the papers, since George was in New York for his Madison Square concert that night and John and Paul were both in town.

Paul and George met up at the Plaza Hotel that afternoon, along with Ringo's representative (the drummer had returned to England for the holidays), and waited for John to arrive. And waited. And waited some more. Eventually a balloon arrived with a note attached: "Listen to this balloon".

That was all George could take, and he phoned John, angrily demanding an explanation. The only response was that John has consulted his (more accurately, Yoko's) astrologer and that "the planets weren't right" for him to sign anything that day. In truth, John had gotten cold feet at the last minute, and perhaps wanted to stick it to George after their earlier disagreement.

Paul and George went ahead and signed the agreement, the latter muttering "Krishna Krishna" to calm himself down:

An irate George then sent word to John that his presence at the Madison Square shows was now unwelcome, which must have come as a relief to John. George went on that night and vented some of his frustration at the audience, admonishing them for smoking "reefers":

The tour concluded December 20th with two more concerts at the Gardens. By now, George was in much better spirits (and his voice was mostly healed), and the tour was able to end on a high note. Paul and Linda were even present in not-so-subtle disguises:

Julian Lennon was in New York visiting his father for Christmas, and attended George's concert in proxy for his ostracized dad. Now that two of the things which had been weighing most heavily on his mind, the tour and the legal matters, were behind him, George was in a far more relaxed state. He met with Julian backstage and offered a peace branch, inviting John to his end-of-tour party at the Hippopotamus Club late that night.

The two old mates socialized at the club and then returned to George's hotel room, where at 5AM, a lucky radio reporter was able to talk with two Beatles, although as it was a Harrison interview, John mostly kept his distance, only joining in when invited by George. After looking back on the tour, George chatted about his improved opinion of Texas, meeting Gerald Ford, writing "My Sweet Lord", and his favorite Beatle songs.

Just as quickly as New York had been full of Beatles, it emptied of them. Paul returned to Scotland, George to England, and John and Julian flew to Orlando where they spent Christmas at Walt Disney World (and where John finally signed the Beatles dissolution papers). George closed 1974 with a New Year-themed single, "Ding Dong Ding Dong", released December 23rd in the US and accompanied by a Pythonesque promo filmed at his home:

Magic In The Air

The week of November 16th, 1974 marked a commercial high point in John Lennon's solo career, as the single "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night" and album Walls And Bridges both topped Billboard's charts. All his promotional efforts of the past two months had paid off handsomely, and the album was certified gold in the US on October 22nd.

On December 7th, John and May flew to Los Angeles for a few days, stopping by Billboard's office on the 9th where John accepted an award from the magazine's chart director, Bill Wardlow. That evening, at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, John fulfilled a promise made to Howard Cosell back in October by appearing live during halftime of the Redskins-Rams game on ABC's Monday Night Football. The interview was brief and charming, if unenlightening, but would have a sickening echo nearly six years later:

John had been following the progress of George's hapless North American tour closely, well aware that he would be expected to join his ex-bandmate onstage when it reached New York. A meeting between the two at the Plaza Hotel on the 14th ended in anger when a frazzled George lashed out at Lennon for years of perceived slights. John refused to rise to the bait, and the two made amends the next day, with John and May attending George's performance at the Nassau Coliseum that night, but remaining offstage.

The tour was scheduled to conclude with three shows at Madison Square Garden on December 19th and 20th, and John offered to participate on the final night. He hinted at the reunion during a live interview on NBC's Today December 17th. Reporter Jim Hartz led off with the usual reunion questions before shifting to the immigration case (with John offering yet another lively and entertaining account of his 1968 drug bust):

John also took a moment to plug his new single, "#9 Dream", released the previous day in the US, where the song would peak (of course) at #9 on Billboard (I guess Bill Wardlow had a sense of humor). This turned out to be John's final live TV interview.

My Sweet Ford

George's 1974 tour continued to slide downhill as it trudged from city to city. Things went okay in Baton Rouge on November 26th, in Memphis the following night, and Atlanta the night afterwards:

The problems began after two shows in Chicago on the 30th:

Following the evening performance, Ravi collapsed backstage and was taken to the emergency room with a suspected heart ailment. It turned out to be severe indigestion brought on by stress, and he would miss the rest of the shows until December 19th in New York City.

The rest of the band carried on, but the next scheduled shows in Cleveland on December 2nd had to be cancelled due to a snowstorm. The tour continued north, hitting Detroit, Toronto, and Montreal by December 9th, when the Dark Horse LP was finally released in the US. Boston and Providence followed, and December 13th found George and company in Landover, Maryland.

At the Salt Lake City stop back in November, George had met with Jack Ford, son of US president Gerald Ford. Jack invited George to visit the White House during their Maryland visit, so prior to their matinee show on the 13th, George, Ravi, Tom Scott, Billy Preston, George's father Harold, and his budding sweetheart Olivia Arias congregated in Washington to meet the Prez:

After that peculiar summit, it was back to the Capital Centre for two more shows. At the tour's conclusion, Jack Sheridan of Baltimore station WCAO aired this hatchet job on the concert (and George in general), which was sadly representative of the mainstream rock press's feelings.

A Joyous Occasion

All the events of 1974 in John Lennon's life came to a head on Thanksgiving night, November 28th, at Madison Square Garden. To backtrack a bit, when Elton John had participated on "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night" back in July, he had semi-jokingly extracted a promise from John that if the song hit #1, the two would perform it together at one of Elton's concerts.

Unlikely as it seemed (John hadn't reached the top 10 since "Imagine" three years prior), the single did indeed top Billboard's chart for the week ending November 16th. John agreed to fulfill his end of the deal, so he and Elton's band met up at the Record Plant a couple of days before the gig to choose and rehearse the numbers for John's appearance:

Things were changing in John's private life as well. He and May had been going through some rough times, exacerbated by John's November 5th assignation with another female companion at the Bottom Line following a Jerry Garcia show. After a photo of the couple was published in Cashbox, May was understandably outraged, and John ended up spending the night of November 16th back at the Dakota (sleeping in the living room while Yoko participated in an Arts Festival at Shea Stadium).

So John was understandably on tenterhooks the night of November 28th, knowing that Yoko had a ticket to the Elton show, that May would also be there, and that he had never performed (albeit as a guest) without his own band or at least Yoko before.

Towards the end of the show, Elton paused to make the dramatic introduction; a buzz was already in the building as rumors of John's attendance and sightings of May and Yoko made their way through the crowd, which absolutely exploded when John strolled onstage, guitar in hand:

John's mini-set was short but memorable, playing guitar and singing on "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night", "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" (Elton's new single, also headed for #1), and a song usually associated by his "estranged fiancee", "I Saw Her Standing There". John also returned for the encore, "The Bitch Is Back", to shake a tambourine.

As legend has it, John and Yoko decided to reunite after meeting backstage following the concert. In reality, the wheels had been in motion for their reconciliation for a long time, and it wasn't until 1975 that John finally returned to the Dakota for good. Thanksgiving 1974 should really be remembered as the last night of John Lennon's live performing career, and it's gratifying to observe that he went out on a high note.

Hari's On Tour (Depressed)

George Harrison's 1974 North American tour kicked off November 2nd in Vancouver, Canada. Fans' expectations were through the roof, with the Concert for Bangla Desh setting a high bar, never mind the ex-Beatle mystique and reunion rumors which dogged George at every stop on the tour.

The setlist began with a new instrumental, "Hari's On Tour (Express)", from the Dark Horse LP, which nobody in the audience had heard yet. The one-two punch of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Something" followed, but any thrill of hearing George sing these Beatles numbers was dampened by the state of his voice, and the lyrical changes he insisted upon ("while my guitar tries to smile", "something's in the way, remove it!"). Worse was to come with a dirge-like "In My Life" ("I love God more") and two unfamiliar songs from Living In The Material World which George was smart enough to drop from the setlist after the first night.

A lengthy set from Ravi Shankar and Friends occupied the last half of Act 1, and while the performances were top-notch, with participation from Tom Scott and the rest of George's backing band, 30 solid minutes of Indian music tried the patience of many audience members. The unquestioned highlights of the tour were Billy Preston's solo numbers, which brought the crowd to its feet each night.

The tour moved on to Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, and Long Beach, before reaching Los Angeles on November 11th and 12th for three shows at the Forum. Reporter Ben Fong-Torres interviewed a rather testy George backstage on the 12th for the Rolling Stone News Service radio series. Fong-Torres tried to challenge George about meeting the audience's expectations, but he deflected all criticism by either claiming it was in God's hands, or telling disappointed fans to go see Wings instead.

From there, it was on to Tucson, Salt Lake City, Denver, St. Louis, and Tulsa, where friend and Bangla Desh cohort Leon Russell made a special guest appearance on November 21st:

The "Dark Horse" single finally came out in the US on November 18th, peaking at #15 on Billboard's top 40. On the 24th, George played two shows at the Hofheinz Pavilion in Houston. The following night (actually closer to 1AM on the 26th), he made a surprise appearance on local station KLOL-FM, sitting in on Levi Booker's overnight shift. He seemed to be in much better spirits, chatting freely about finances, meeting John & Paul, Sgt. Pilcher's arrest, the concept of happiness, Ravi, Monty Python, and Lord Buckley, as well as playing a rough mix of "Maya Love" from the (still-unreleased) Dark Horse LP.

PS - Thanks to TFM for uploading a substantially more complete recording of George's October 23rd L.A. press conference. It can be downloaded here.

You Better Not Fight

In November 1974, Paul McCartney and Wings settled in at EMI's Abbey Road Studios to begin recording their next album, Venus And Mars. On the 6th, the day's "session" was actually a ruse to lure boxer John Conteh to the location in order to spring Eamonn Andrews and his big red This Is Your Life book on the pugilist.

Paul and Linda had been close friends with Conteh, who appeared on the Band On The Run album cover; in turn, they had attended his Empire Pool bout on March 12th, congratulating him on his victory afterwards. So it was easy enough to convince him to participate in a photo shoot at Abbey Road, where the TV camera crew waited. Wings went through the motions of rehearsing "Junior's Farm" as John entered:

The EMI sessions only produced a few numbers for the LP, such as "Letting Go", "Love In Song", and Jimmy McCulloch's "Medicine Jar". Part of the problem was that drummer Geoff Britton wasn't a good fit with the other band members, whose recreational drug use ranged from casual to heavy. Britton was a health fanatic and a karate practitioner who frowned on such activity. In fact, his participation in an Amateur Karate Association tournament on November 11th was filmed by MPL in London. The film, titled Empty Hand, included a soundtrack of "abstract percussion" contributed by Paul. It was completed in 1976 or 77, but doesn't circulate.

One gem from the November Abbey Road sessions was this superb alternate take of the song "Rock Show":

Wings' other task that month was to promote their new single "Junior's Farm", taping a TV appearance on Top Of The Pops November 20th for airing the following night. This clip was considered lost until it surfaced in the 2001 Wingspan documentary; the full performance was released on the McCartney Years DVD in 2007.

Paul and Linda closed out the month on November 27th by making a surprise guest appearance at Rod Stewart's Lewisham Odeon concert. The show was being filmed for the US TV series Midnight Special (aired April 25th, 1975); their cameo amounted to brief backing vocals towards the end of "Mine For Me", Paul's song for Rod's recent LP.

Fancy Bumping Into You, Basingstoke

Goodnight Vienna, the eagerly-anticipated follow up to the smash Ringo, was released November 15th in the UK and three days later in the US. The first single was a cover of "Only You (And You Alone)", an oldie made famous by the Platters. Ringo's version featured John Lennon on acoustic guitar and Harry Nilsson providing smooth backing vocals.

As John had a month earlier, Ringo sat down with EMI's Bob Mercer in Los Angeles around the beginning of November for a chat to promote the single and LP. Their brief conversation was issued on a white-label promo single for EMI's British sales staff, with "Only You" on the flip.

The single came out November 11th in the US, where it peaked at #6; the UK release (simultaneous to the LP) scraped into the top 30 for a couple of weeks, then disappeared. Ringo went all-out to promote the song, filming a humorous and elaborate promo on November 14th at the Capitol Tower building in Hollywood. Harry joined Ringo for the shoot, which carried out the LP cover's Day The Earth Stood Still theme to ridiculous proportions:

↵ Use original player

Ringo Starr Only You

By XXSteven80XX

YouTube

• 360p
• 240p FLV

← Replay

X

i

Footage from the day's shoot was also used in the TV advertising campaign, with a voice-over assist from John:

↵ Use original player

Goodnight Vienna - 1974 Ringo Starr TV Commercial

By loomyaire

YouTube

• 360p
• 240p FLV

← Replay

X

i

Perhaps inspired by John's September DJ stint, Ringo spent three hours on November 19th co-hosting Billy Pearl's evening shift at KHJ-AM in Los Angeles. He proved to be a natural on-air personality, reading local ad spots, interacting with hysterical callers, and spinning discs by Neil Diamond, the Rolling Stones, Little Richard, Jim Croce, Chuck Berry, Harry Nilsson, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Elton John, America, Billy Swan, B.T. Express, the Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, Jim Stafford, Olivia Newton-John, Harry Chapin, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Lennon, Wings, and of course... "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas.

Soundstage Of Mind

With Walls And Bridges now finally in his rear-view mirror, John could focus on completing his oldies album. Having realized that only a few of the songs taped with Phil Spector were salvageable, he reenlisted the Walls studio band to record the rest of the tracks.

The musicians spent October 18th and 19th rehearsing the material at a farm in upstate New York owned by music publisher Morris Levy. Levy's company, Big Seven, owned the rights to Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me", a lyric from which Lennon had appropriated in "Come Together". As part of an agreement with Levy, John agreed to record some songs from the Big Seven catalog in his oldies project.

In exchange, Levy loaned the band use of his dairy in Ghent for the rehearsals, which were recorded. Among the numbers tried out were several that didn't make the final cut, including "Thirty Days", "C'mon Everybody", and "That'll Be The Day":

The band made quick work of the sessions at the Record Plant in New York, completing the basic tracks for the rest of the album in five days of sessions from October 21st through the 25th. Overdubbing and remixing continued through November.

On the other side of the country, George was rehearsing his own band for the Dark Horse tour, scheduled to begin November 2nd in Vancouver. George officially launched the tour during a press conference October 23rd at the Beverly Wiltshire Hotel in Los Angeles. His comments about "going back in his cave for another five years" foreshadowed the troubles ahead.

The truth was that George had been simultaneously rehearsing on a soundstage at Hollywood's A&M Studios and still recording the Dark Horse LP throughout October, with sessions running as late as the 31st. The result was an album and tour marred by George's croaky, raspy vocals, as heard in this promo clip for "Dark Horse" filmed during rehearsals:

That's Entertainment

Believe it or not, John Lennon wasn't the only ex-Beatle doing things in the early autumn of 1974.

Two songs from Paul McCartney and Wings' Nashville sessions were released as singles in October. "Walking In The Park With Eloise", credited to the Country Hams, came out October 18th in the UK (on EMI, not Apple) and unsurprisingly failed to chart anywhere. "Junior's Farm", backed with "Sally G", fared much better. It went on sale October 25th in the UK (where it peaked at #16), and November 4th in the US, which took the A-side to #3 and then found the B-side creep into the top 40 when it was promoted as a country crossover.

Ringo had spent most of the summer recording Goodnight Vienna, which received final overdubs and mixes in September and October. He also worked on a live action/animated film with Harry Nilsson, Ringo And Harry's Night Out; it was never completed, but brief glimpses were seen in the documentary Who Is Harry Nilsson?

Inspired by Dark Horse, Ringo was in the process of starting his own label, Ring O'Records. Its first signing was David Hentschel, who had been an engineer at Trident Studios (working on All Things Must Pass and Red Rose Speedway) before branching out into music. He played synthesizer on numerous albums, and Ringo commissioned him to record a synth-based remake of the Ringo LP (akin to Paul's Thrillington remake of Ram). This odd project was taped during September 1974 at the home studio Ringo had installed in Tittenhurst after buying it from John. Startling Studio provided the LP's name (Sta*rtling Music), and Ringo reprised his role of finger clicks on the cover of "Step Lightly". Phil Collins played drums on several of the songs:

George was running himself and his throat ragged recording the Dark Horse LP, working with Ravi Shankar, and rehearsing his own band for a US tour, the first by an ex-Beatle. At some point, he sat down by a roaring fire at his Friar Park home with DJ Alan Freeman and recorded a lengthy interview for syndication on the US series Rock Around The World.

The exact recording date is uncertain, as the show was apparently first aired in October 1975 to promote Extra Texture. But there is no mention of that album, and George plays solo acoustic renditions of both sides of the first US single from the 1974 LP ("Dark Horse" and "I Don't Care Anymore"). He also drops in brief performances of "Awaiting On You All" and "Far East Man" in response to Freeman's questions.

Most of George's replies early in the conversation ("force-grown rhubarbs in a hothouse", "if there's a God, we must see Him", "Ravi's the only person I met who impressed me") will be familiar to interview collectors, but as time passes, George opens up about his inspirations ("One Meatball", Buddy Holly, "Heartbreak Hotel"), calls Beatles songs "80% overrated" but explains how they revolutionized studio recording, touches on his recent separation from Pattie, and in one breath claims that Paul "ruined" him as a guitarist, and in the next talks of how he and Paul have recently begun to reconnect as friends and enthuses about doing the same with John as soon as possible.

Speaking of John, he had one last bit of promotion to do for Walls And Bridges, namely shooting a promo clip for "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night", which was rapidly climbing the US charts, to be shown on Top Of The Pops. On October 17th, John and a BBC film crew wandered around New York filming John's interactions with fans and kids in Central Park.

Thirty years later, the raw footage was re-edited to create a video for the 1973 song "Mind Games":

New York Talk

John Lennon spent the first half of October, 1974 in pre-production for the Rock And Roll LP. Having retrieved the tapes from the late 1973 Phil Spector sessions, he spent several days in the Record Plant listening to the material, remixing and editing and overdubbing (for instance, replacing his drunken lead vocal on "Just Because" with a fresh take that referred to the New York studio).

After celebrating his 34th birthday, John took one final lap in the Walls And Bridges promotional marathon. On October 10th at Capitol Records' New York offices, he spoke with Jim Ladd for the syndicated radio series Innerview. The finished broadcast includes plenty of Lennon and Beatles songs, and finds John reflecting on broad topics such as peace, philosophy, drugs, meditation, charity, and art. Another recording dated October 10th circulates, labeled Rock World, that mostly overlaps this one (which may indicate Ladd's interview was used in other shows); here is a unique bit from the alternate source.

On October 11th at the Record Plant, John took a phone call from Australia (showing up late to the 2PM appointment). This interview, with John O'Donnell of Melbourne's 3XY Radio, was more prosaic than the Innerview, basically describing each song on Walls And Bridges track-by-track. The interview exists in two forms: a very good quality (but heavily truncated) broadcast with O'Donnell's original questions, and a lesser quality (but complete) airing on Sydney's 2SM, with disc jockey Ron E Sparks dubbing in the questions. I've combined both sources into a full composite; John also read a station ID for 3XY, plugging "Rocktober".

Many Vicissitudes

John's promotional campaign took an odd turn on October 3rd, 1974 when he visited the New York headquarters of ABC Radio. He was there to appear on media icon Howard Cosell's syndicated talk series, Speaking Of Everything.

In typically loquacious fashion, Cosell elicited thoughtful conversation from John about his immigration case, the Beatles as cultural leaders, the state of relations among the ex-group, and intellectualism in music. John and Howard got along so swimmingly that John agreed to appear on Monday Night Football a couple of months later.

Meanwhile, John was still phoning disc jockeys across the USA to plug the new album and single. Sometime during late September-early October (exact dates unknown), he chatted with Ginger Sutton at WEBN in Cincinnati and John Houghton of WZMF in Milwaukee. The latter interview is particularly interesting, covering musical influences, John's acceptance of his Beatle past, the Plastic Ono Band album, comparisons with Van Gogh, Dylan Thomas, and Brendan Behan, his Dick Cavett Show appearances, Allan Klein, reunion rumors, and his current feelings about Yoko.

Listen To This Blog Post

After appearing in local markets from California to Texas to Canada, John Lennon finally appeared live on his hometown radio. Late in the afternoon of September 28th, 1974, he showed up at WNEW-FM's studio for a surprise appearance during Dennis Elsas's Saturday shift.

Armed with a stack of singles, John spent the next two hours spinning tracks from Walls And Bridges, and deconstructing songs old and new by Bobby Parker, ELO, Marvin Gaye, Harry Nilsson, Splinter, Ringo Starr, Richie Barrett, Ray Charles, the Rolling Stones and Derek Martin, often playing "spot the influence".

The tape has been rebroadcast with some regularity over the years, and most of it was included in the Lost Lennon Tapes radio series; here is the complete broadcast (minus commercials):

Hour 1
Hour 2

Walls And Bridges was officially released in the US on September 30th, trailed by an extensive promotional campaign consisting of radio and TV ads, buttons, billboards, posters, matchbook covers, T-shirts, bumper stickers, and more, all labeled "Listen To This [X]":

Flight Of The Butterfly

September 27th, 1974 saw two McCartney-related titles go on sale in the UK.

First was the LP McGear, which Paul and members of Wings had worked on at the beginning of the year. Paul had co-written most of the numbers with his brother Michael, and played and sang backing on many of the tracks.

Released the same day was Rod Stewart's album Smiler, featuring the song "Mine For Me". Paul had written it specially for Rod and added a harmony vocal.

Also in stores (released September 20th in the UK) was Adam Faith's new LP, I Survive. Paul contributed synthesizer parts to four numbers (uncredited on the sleeve), singing backup on one of them, "Star Song":

Last but not least was Peggy Lee's album Let's Love, released October 1st in the US. Paul had brought the title song to a dinner with Peggy as a gift (in lieu of a bottle of wine) and played piano on the track, recorded in Los Angeles during the spring.

John Lennon was not idle on September 27th, either, continuing his Walls And Bridges radio phone-ins with a call to Mark Parenteau at WABX in Detroit. The two chatted about John moving to Toronto (a false rumor spurred by his CHUM interview the previous day), "Steel And Glass", Aunt Mimi, the UFO sighting, and Eddie Lawrence, the performer who had narrated the Pussycats TV spot.

Also dated September 27th (I'm not sure if it's the recording or air date) is John's appearance on BBC Radio One's Rock Speak. Tape of a Lennon interview was played, with DJ Michael Wale overdubbing the questions; topics covered include nostalgia, the inaugural Beatlefest, Mind Games, and a track by track description of the new LP.

It Was 38 Years Ago Today

Thus far, John Lennon's promotional radio tour for Walls And Bridges had taken him to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Rather than continue to drag himself across North America, he consolidated his efforts by doing phoned-in interview appearances with FM stations from his base in New York, taking 10 or 20 minutes to talk with disc jockeys in major markets.

On September 26th, 1974, John's busy day began at Capitol Records' offices, where he spoke with EMI's British managing director, Bob Mercer. The recording was meant for the ears of EMI's sales staff, to inspire the troops in promoting the new single and album; it was pressed as a white-label promo single (with "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night" on the flip) and included on the remastered Walls And Bridges CD.

John then sat down at the telephone and began doing the radio phone-ins. First up was WMMS-FM in Cleveland, whose Denny Sanders asked John about the latest trends in lavish rock stage and studio productions, his duet with Julian on "Ya Ya", the chances of doing benefit shows, and the recent Beatles fan conventions held in Boston and New York.

For Toronto's CHUM-FM, John talked about paying taxes, choosing musicians for his projects, his trip to Colorado to record with Elton John, his UFO sighting, and most interestingly, the status of his relationship with Yoko, which he sums up as "we're just good friends".

Alan Stone from WQRS in Minneapolis also spoke with John; their conversation touches on Little Richard, driving across the USA, immigration, Elephant's Memory, Badfinger's new album, and John's imminent 34th birthday.

PS: I've realized that the mysterious "1975 RKO interview" I posted yesterday actually consists of excerpts from the 1977 RKO radio documentary series From Liverpool To Legend. I do have this in better quality, so I may post John's interview pieces again when I get to 1975 (or 1977).

Bloody Giraffes

OK, here's a bit of a puzzler. I had this John Lennon interview identified as an RKO Radio broadcast from September 25th, 1974.

It circulates in two versions: here is the unedited recording, complete with questions, from a rebroadcast in 2005 (on Black Cat's CD Oh Yeh?). There is also a much shorter and lower-quality version, with questions removed and music included, presumably from the original airing.

Internal clues date the interview to the first few days of August 1974. So far so good, right?

Well, there is another interview out there claiming to be a September 25, 1974 RKO broadcast. It does indeed contain a couple of snippets from the above (which I have removed). But the bulk of it seems to be from a completely different date (or dates), possibly 1975, based on the reference to Allan Williams' book. Several pieces of it will be familiar to viewers of the Beatles Anthology documentary.

Can anyone clear up just what was recorded and/or broadcast when and where? We may have to wait for Lennonology to solve this mystery.

Len & Horses

Let's see, where were we...

Oh yes! John Lennon was in the first stage of a massive media campaign promoting his new album, Walls And Bridges. The first single, "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night" came out September 23rd, 1974 in the US, with the album following a week later. On September 21st, John traveled from Los Angeles to San Francisco and stopped by KSAN-FM to appear during Tom Donahue's evening shift.

In addition to plugging the album heavily, John played a number of songs by other artists, old and new, often to illustrate a musical point or highlight some of his newer favorites. During the three-hour show, John talked about the title and cover art of Walls And Bridges, his work with Phil Spector, his invitation by WNET to introduce Monty Python's Flying Circus, the deportation case, George's upcoming tour, recording Sgt. Pepper, Doc Pomus, and the Maharishi.

Speaking of George, back in England he was busy starting up his new record label, Dark Horse, officially launching the project with a press conference on September 6th. He had begun to record his solo LP of the same name back in the winter of 73-74, but most of the sessions took place in a rushed fashion during August and September amidst other projects.

The most important to George was producing an album and arranging a concert tour for Ravi Shankar and a host of Indian musicians. His home studio, FPSHOT, was used to record the LP Ravi Shankar's Music Festival From India (eventually released by Dark Horse in 1976), as well as being a base for tour rehearsals.

On September 23rd, the concert at London's Royal Albert Hall was filmed by Dark Horse, with George present to introduce the proceedings:

Karate Chaos In The Backyard

Following their successful Nashville trip, Paul decided to continue rehearsing the new Wings lineup in London, this time in the familiar surroundings of Abbey Road's Studio 2.

With Geoff Emerick engineering and an MPL camera crew filming the proceedings, Paul, Linda, Denny, Jimmy, and Geoff ran through 20 or so numbers. Shooting actually began August 24th with Paul performing a solo acoustic set in the Studios' small garden courtyard. The result was a short film which came to be known as The Backyard:

None of the backyard footage was used in the completed hour-long production, titled One Hand Clapping. Live band performances were shot on August 27th and 28th, including this smoking version of "Soily":

Paul bookended the filming with another solo set on August 30th, this time at the piano:

One Hand Clapping was never screened in finished form, although most of it was included on a bonus DVD with the 2009 Band On The Run remaster. The Yellow Cat CD featuring excellent stereo mixes from these sessions is a must-listen, showcasing Wings at its tightest, performing some of Paul's best material.

Back in America, John was about to begin the biggest promotional push yet for any of his solo albums, and his most concentrated series of media appearances since the Bed-in days. The Walls And Bridges blitz began in Los Angeles early in the morning of September 20th. KHJ-AM was hosting "Superstar Week", with a different celebrity filling in each day for DJ Charlie Van Dyke.

John was the Superstar for the Friday slot, and managed to drag himself to the studio at 6AM (or perhaps he just stayed up all night) to begin the morning shift. His energy level remained high for the next 2.5 hours as he took requests and chatted with callers, did time checks and read local ad copy, and plugged the new album by spinning several tracks and airing a specially-taped radio spot he'd done with Ringo a couple of weeks prior.

Later on the 20th, John spoke via telephone to his old pal Kenny Everett, now working at Capital Radio in London. It would be Kenny's last interview with John.

At The Starting Gate

While he had been typically quiet in the public sphere throughout 1974, George's private life and musical activities had kept him busy. His eight-year marriage to Pattie Boyd had disintegrated following infidelities on both sides, and George found himself alone at home with a lot of time on his hands.

In March, he spent a few days in the studio producing an LP for Ravi Shankar in Los Angeles; Shankar Family & Friends featured short individual songs on one side and an ambitious ballet suite, composed by Ravi, on the other. The first single from the album was the lovely Indian-flavored pop song "I Am Missing You":

On May 23rd, George finalized a deal to found a new record label, Dark Horse Records, to be distributed worldwide by A&M. With Apple now pared back to a bare-bones staff, the company couldn't focus on promoting anything more ambitious than ex-Beatle product. George figured it would be easier to start his own company to cultivate artists such as Ravi Shankar and the duo Splinter.

As we've seen earlier, George had produced a song by Splinter for a film soundtrack, and he was so taken with their ability that he agreed to produce a full album at his home studio, FPSHOT, that spring. George played guitar on nearly every number, and used friends such as Gary Wright, Billy Preston, Jim Keltner, and Alvin Lee to provide musical support. The LP, The Place I Love, was issued on Dark Horse in September, trailed by the single "Costafine Town":

In mid-August, George sat down with DJ Nicky Horne and recorded an interview to launch the Dark Horse label and promote the first two signings. Issued to stations as Dark Horse Radio Special in September, the disc finds George discussing Splinter, the film Little Malcolm, his home studio, the Material World Foundation, the new label, Indian music, and the concept of karma. He also drops a couple of clues to his now-rabid Monty Python fandom by quoting the Lumberjack sketch and making a downright obscure reference to David Niven's fridge!

Surprise Surprise

Once he had moved back to New York and wrapped up the Pussycats sessions, John began to clean up his act. He accompanied Harry Nilsson to a meeting with RCA records executives, strongly insinuating that if they signed Harry, John would not only join the RCA roster when his EMI contract expired in 1976, but might bring some other ex-Beatles with him. The ruse worked, and Pussycats came out August 19th on RCA, accompanied by a TV ad:

Having written a new batch of songs that were his strongest in three years, John was ready to start recording another solo album at the Record Plant. Accompanied by a core band of Jesse Ed Davis on lead guitar, Ken Ascher on keyboards, Klaus Voormann on bass, and Jim Keltner on drums, John ran through all the new material on July 13th and 14th, recording the rehearsals and whipping the arrangements into shape:

Tracking sessions for Walls And Bridges began the following day, and wrapped up in a productive nine days, with overdubbing and mixing continuing into August. Ringo had been in Los Angeles since May recording his new LP, Goodnight Vienna, and John wrote and taped a demo of the title track using the Walls And Bridges band:

On August 6th, John flew back to Los Angeles (accompanied by May, Cynthia, and Julian) to participate in the Goodnight Vienna sessions. As well as playing piano on his own composition, John suggested Ringo record the Platters oldie "Only You (And You Alone)", laying down a guide vocal for Ringo to follow:

John and May left California on August 10th and flew to Colorado, meeting up with Elton John at Caribou Studios, where the latter was recording his LP Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. Elton had contributed backing vocals and piano to "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night" and "Surprise Surprise" on Walls And Bridges, and now he and John teamed up to remake "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" in a reggae style.

It didn't fit in with the autobiographical concept of Captain Fantastic, so Elton released "Lucy" as a stand-alone single in November, backed with another Lennon cover, "One Day (At A Time)" (from Mind Games). John played guitar on both sides of the single, which shot to the top of the charts, as had most everything from Elton lately:

During all this musical prolificacy, John still had the threat of deportation hanging over his head. In fact, on a taxi ride to the Record Plant July 16th, John heard a radio news bulletin that his latest appeal had been rejected by the INS, and that he once again had sixty days to leave the country. His response was to facetiously tell the cabbie to take him straight to the airport.

Good news came down August 8th while John was in L.A., as Richard Nixon resigned, taking most of the steam out of his administration; all that remained now was for the wheels of bureaucracy to grind slowly to a halt. On August 30th, John appeared in court again; with the widespread corruption of the Nixon government now common knowledge, John and his lawyer Leon Wildes were trying to cross examine high-ranking officials in an effort to prove that the deportation push was politically motivated.

Outside the courthouse, John spoke with reporters about his odds of staying in the US, and afterwards was cornered by some fans with a tape recorder and camera. He posed for photos and sang a bit of "Hello Dolly" before changing out of his "civvies" and heading to the Record Plant to finalize the Walls And Bridges lineup. From this point on, things would only improve in John's life over the next 24 months.

Take Me Down, Jimmy!

On May 23rd, 1974, news leaked that Paul and Wings would be flying to Nashville for a six-week visit to rehearse the new band lineup and record a few numbers. The McCartney clan arrived June 6th, followed the next day by the rest of the group.

They all stayed at a farm owned by songwriter Claude "Curly" Putman, Jr., giving Paul the inspiration to write "Junior's Farm"; its B-side, "Sally G", was influenced by the local nightlife. Paul and family also ventured out during the day a few times, visiting the Grand Masters Fiddling Contest at Opryland on June 16th, where they met Dolly Parton and Porter Waggoner. They also socialized with Johnny Cash at his home.

Recording sessions at Soundshop Studios took place over the first half of July, and produced an interesting batch of songs:

In addition to the "Junior's Farm" single, Paul recruited Chet Atkins, Floyd Cramer, and other local pros to record an instrumental number written by his father, Jim McCartney, back in the 1950's. "Walking In The Park With Eloise" would be credited to the Country Hams when it came out as an EMI single in October.

Wings also recorded a country-tinged Denny Laine composition, "Send Me The Heart", and added overdubs to some earlier unreleased recordings, including "Wide Prairie", "Hey Diddle", and "Bridge On The River Suite" (which ended up as the B-side of the Country Hams single). Paul's plan was to gather the various Wings outtakes and rejects on a budget-priced package called Cold Cuts.

Meanwhile, Band On The Run showed no signs of slowing down; it was in the UK top 20 for every single week of 1974, and hung around the Billboard top 200 until May of 1975. A third potential single from the album, "Mamunia", was dropped in favor of the newer "Junior's Farm", but a promo film was created and aired on ITV in August:

What's The Use Of Worrying?

Before flying back to London from Los Angeles, Paul received a gold record for Band On The Run, which was proving to be the sturdiest seller in his solo career. It had entered the Billboard chart back in December 1973, and it took until April 13th (helped by the "Jet" single) to reach #1. The title track was issued as a single April 8th, and it too would top the chart by June, bringing the album back up to #1 twice more that summer.

All this success meant Paul had a chance to take a break from recording and touring while he recruited new Wings members and stockpiled fresh compositions. Jimmy McCulloch had already won the lead guitarist role, and after a series of auditions in April and May, Geoff Britton was elected to fill the vacated drummer's seat.

Although Wings issued only one single and no albums in 1974, Paul wasn't exactly hard to find on store shelves if you knew where to look. Back in 1971 during the Ram sessions in New York, he had sat in on bass with singer/guitarist Leslie Fradkin. Paul's contribution to the song "God Bless California" came out June 17th, 1974 on the LP Pass On This Side, credited to Thornton, Fradkin & Unger and the Big Band.

In early '74, during the McGear sessions, Paul also produced and played on a single for the Scaffold, a music/comedy/poetry group Mike McGear had co-founded. "Liverpool Lou" was released May 24th, and climbed to #7 in the UK:

During his and Linda's visit to the US, Paul also dropped by James Taylor's sessions for the LP Walking Man, which came out June 1st. Paul, Linda, and Carly Simon provided backing vocals on two numbers, "Rock 'N' Roll Is Music Now" and the anti-Nixon tune "Let It All Fall Down":

One of Paul's least-known compositions (co-written with Linda) was "4th Of July". It was written at least as early as the spring of 1973 (he strummed a bit of it while taping James Paul McCartney), but ended up being donated to singer John Christie. His version, produced by Dave Clark (of DC5 fame), came out as a single June 28th, perhaps too close to the holiday to make an impact on the charts:

Guaranteed To Keep You Alive

Riding high on the success of his Ringo LP, which had just spawned its third top 10 single, Ringo was eager to get back into the studio with producer Richard Perry and his musical mates such as Harry Nilsson to record a follow-up album.

Sessions for Goodnight Vienna would begin at the end of May, 1974, but Ringo was plenty busy in the weeks leading up to them. On March 29th, he and Keith Moon taped an appearance on ABC-TV's In Concert, introducing the UK band Sparks to an American audience. The show was aired November 11th:

On April 14th, Ringo and Keith made a live appearance on KROQ radio in Pasadena, sitting in on the Flo & Eddie Show. Ringo knew the duo from his work with the Mothers of Invention on 200 Motels, and the obviously inebriated drummer sang a bit of his current hit single, "Oh My My", and took calls from befuddled listeners. Legend has it that Ringo came on the show and dropped 14 f-bombs during the first 90 seconds, leading to the show's cancellation, but the truth is a bit less sensational than that.

A few days later, Ringo, Keith, and Harry flew to Atlanta for the long-delayed April 19th premiere of their film Son Of Dracula, which had sat unseen in the can since 1972. To say the film was a flop would be an understatement, as it closed soon after the gala opening night, and rarely showed up on any other movie screens. Ringo (sounding drunk yet again) did a bit of promotion for the movie during an April 27th interview for the Dutch pirate station Radio Veronica, of all places; there's no evidence the film ever opened in Holland.

Meanwhile, John and Harry had been taping Pussycats at the Record Plant, but as events spiralled out of control, they opted to ditch the Los Angeles scene and return to New York, where they could finish the sessions in relative peace. They also decided to counter the negative press their drunken exploits had been receiving with a bit of positive PR.

On April 28th, they appeared briefly at a Central Park rally for the March Of Dimes charity. WABC's Cousin Brucie introduced John and Harry to the throng of marchers, and they sang a bit of "I'm Walkin'" and fielded a few questions from the crowd:

Spoiled Soup

On March 8th, 1974, Paul and Linda were interviewed at MPL's offices in London for the US morning news show Today. Scott Osborne conducted the filmed interview, which covered the standard reunion topics and touched on Paul's songwriting technique (using "Picasso's Last Words" as an example). The film was aired in two segments on NBC March 12th and 13th.

A week later, Paul and Linda flew to Los Angeles, where they would attend the Academy Awards on April 2nd (and watch "Live And Let Die" lose to "The Way We Were" for best song, as well as seeing David Niven deal effortlessly with a streaker). Of course, John and Ringo were both in Southern California that spring, stoking the reunion fire once more.

Tired of waiting around for Phil Spector to resume the oldies sessions, John had agreed to produce Harry Nilsson's next album, Pussycats. The duo were already making headlines for their drunken antics, most notably being thrown out of the Troubadour on March 12th for heckling the Smothers Brothers.

There was a large pool of session musicians to choose from in Los Angeles (Spector had used dozens of them the previous fall), and whoever was around the Record Plant on Sunday nights would often join in a loose weekly jam dubbed the "Jim Keltner Fan Club". On one such night just prior to the Pussycats sessions, Mick Jagger was present and decided to cut a song with John producing and the "Fan Club" providing a tight backing. The result, "Too Many Cooks (Spoil The Soup)", remained unreleased until the Very Best Of Mick Jagger collection in 2007:

While that session produced admirable results, there was no better illustration of the adage about too many cooks than the events of March 28th. It was the first night of the Pussycats sessions, and after cutting the first song, a cover of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues", a drunken (and likely cocaine-fuelled) John and Harry were joined in the studio by Paul and Linda, along with Stevie Wonder.

What could have been a memorable, if not mind-blowing, jam session was spoiled by nerves, intoxicants, and the bizarre decision to stick Paul behind a drum kit. Unable to settle on a song everyone could play, John vented his frustration by bitching about the level in his headphones; his and Harry's voices were pretty shot anyway, and the results of the sole 70's Lennon/McCartney reunion are not pleasant to hear:

By that time, John and May were living in a beach house in Santa Monica along with Harry, Klaus Voormann, and Ringo (with other musicians and partygoers such as Keith Moon, Mal Evans, and Jesse Ed Davis coming and going at will). Paul and Linda dropped by on April 1st (just missing Ringo's presence), when the above photo was taken. It was the last time John and Paul were photographed together.

Ten Years After at Strawberry Studios

The first single pulled from Band On The Run was "Jet", issued January 28th in the US with "Mamunia" on the B-side, but quickly withdrawn when Paul changed his mind and switched the flip to "Let Me Roll It", matching the UK B-side. The song reached #7 on Billboard and #4 on Melody Maker's chart.

Paul spent the first two months of 1974 at Strawberry Studios in Stockport (just outside Manchester) producing an album for his brother, Mike McGear. As well as writing or co-writing most of the songs on the LP, Paul played bass, guitar, and keyboards throughout. He, Linda, and Denny also provided backing vocals, making it a de facto Wings LP with Mike as the lead singer:

The sessions were also sort of an audition process for the new Wings lineup, as Jimmy McCulloch played lead guitar, and Gerry Conway played drums. On February 7th, Paul spoke via telephone from Liverpool to Jay Stone of KSLQ in St. Louis; despite his assertion during the interview, Gerry Conway would not join Wings, and the search for a new drummer would continue.

February 7th, 1974 also happened to be the 10th anniversary of the Beatles' momentous first arrival in New York, and Capitol Records put together a campaign celebrating the "Beatles Decade". 30-second and 60-second radio spots were produced, along with a TV commercial pushing the group and solo back catalogs.