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Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music - the Definitive Life

Page 84

by Tim Riley


  1. Ryan’s wife had died of cancer. Now largely forgotten, Ryan epitomized the stony male reserve through characters like Deke Thornton in Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch; a Hollywood staple in his time, he shared a sensibility with leading men like Robert Mitchum and Sterling Hayden.

  2. Philip Norman, John Lennon: The Life (New York: Ecco, 2008), 706. Norman drapes the Dakota in faded chic: “Once the acme of luxury, the Dakota was no longer in Manhattan’s premier real-estate league and had become the haunt of middle-range actors, film directors, and similar bohemian types.”

  3. Badman, The Dream Is Over, 101.

  4. Bangs and Marcus, 214.

  5. Chris Charlesworth, Mind Games review, Melody Maker, November 3, 1973, 37.

  6. Badman, The Dream Is Over, 117.

  7. Ibid, 98.

  8. Badman, After the Break-Up, 95–96.

  9. Ibid, 94.

  10. Coleman, 489.

  11. Author interview with Jack Douglas, August 2008.

  12. Author interview with Bob Gruen, August 2008.

  13. Ibid.

  14. New York Times, September 30, 1973.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Mark Ribowsky, He’s a Rebel: Phil Spector, Rock & Roll’s Legendary Producer (New York: Dutton, 1989), 266.

  17. Author interview with Dan Kessel, June 2007.

  18. Ribowsky, 268.

  19. Author interview with Dan Kessel.

  20. Nicholas Schaffner, The Beatles Forever, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978, 161.

  21. Ribowsky, 259.

  22. “Random Notes,” Rolling Stone, Issue 154, February 14, 1974, 24.

  23. All Jack Douglas quotes from author interviews, 2008.

  24. Badman, The Dream Is Over, 127.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Ibid, 128–29.

  27. Ibid.

  28. All quotes, CLJ, 255.

  29. Author interview with Bob Gruen, 2008.

  30. Ben Gerson, “Together Again: Walls and Bridges,” Rolling Stone, November 21, 1974, 44–46.

  31. Author interview with Bob Gruen, 2008.

  32. PB, 46.

  Chapter 23: Get Back

  1. One of the great late themes of Lennon’s development is his immersion in blues forms, beginning with “Yer Blues,” “Come Together,” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” and progressing through “Well Well Well,” “It’s So Hard,” and “I’m Losing You.”

  2. Of the four, Ringo Starr refused to take himself seriously and wound up singing “Yellow Submarine” and “With a Little Help from My Friends” at summer shows for the rest of his days. He remains the band’s most underrated musician.

  3. Lisa Robinson, Hit Parader, December 1975, http://beatlesinterviews.org/db1975.1200.beatles.html.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Jerry Hopkins, Yoko Ono (New York: Macmillan, 1986), 124.

  6. Fawcett, 139.

  7. Jon Landau, “Lennon Gets Lost in His Rock ’n’ Roll,” Rolling Stone, May 22, 1975, 66.

  8. In the continuing song volley between ex-collaborators, McCartney closed side one of Band on the Run with “Let Me Roll It,” which had the uncanny air of a Plastic Ono Band outtake. Turns out McCartney impersonated Lennon far better than the other way around (“One Day at a Time”). At least until “Beautiful Boy.”

  9. Geoffrey Giuliano, Lennon in America (New York: Cooper Square Press, 2000), 71. “Fame” provides the model for the James Brown track “Hot (I Need to Be Loved, Loved, Loved).”

  10. Badman, After the Break-Up, 153.

  11. Ibid, 160.

  12. Author interview with Larry Kane, August 2007.

  13. PB, 74.

  14. Ibid, 73.

  15. Ibid, 75.

  16. Badman, The Dream Is Over, 169–70.

  17. Author interview with Bob Gruen, 2008.

  18. Elliot Mintz, in Yoko Ono’s Memories of John Lennon, 170.

  19. PB, 75.

  Chapter 24: Three of Us

  1. CLJ, 256. Robert Christgau also makes this connection in a 1983 review of May Pang’s Loving John, http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bkrev/rockbios-83.php.

  2. All Bob Gruen quotes from author interview, September 2008.

  3. DCH, 10.

  4. Badman, After the Break-Up, 181–82.

  5. Ibid. Later that fall, when Monty Python’s Eric Idle hosted the show, Michaels returned to the gag to introduce Idle’s short film, The Rutles, which became All You Need Is Cash.

  6. Ibid, 182.

  7. The Saturday Night Live story turned into a 2000 Michael Lindsay-Hogg made-for-TV movie called Two of Us, much distorted in Mark Stanfield’s script.

  8. BJY, 165.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid, 141.

  11. Ibid, 166.

  12. Dorothy Hansen, ed., The Art of John Lennon: Drawings, Performances, Films (Cantz Verlag, 1995). One of the entries in the closing Biographical Notes sounds like it was dictated directly from Ono: “17 November 1980—Lennon and Ono’s joint album Double Fantasy is released to unprecedented critical acclaim for Yoko Ono: she is applauded for contributing the best tracks.”

  13. Starr, 82.

  14. SS, 190–200. Shotton’s memoirs are riddled with calendar errors, but he describes Lennon carrying Sean as an infant, and the Sally Field TV movie Sybil dates the visit to 1976.

  15. Ibid, 200.

  16. BJY, 173.

  17. Yoko Ono, Lennon: His Life and Work (Cleveland: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2000).

  18. Starr, 85.

  19. Yoko Ono, Memories of John Lennon, 167–69.

  20. Dave Marsh, “An Open Letter to John Lennon,” Rolling Stone, November 3, 1977, 50.

  21. “A Love Letter From John and Yoko: To People Who Ask Us What, When, and Why,” New York Times, Sunday, May 27, 1979, 20E.

  22. Dave Marsh, “Another Open Letter to John Lennon,” Rolling Stone, August 23, 1979, 28.

  23. Norman, Lennon, 788. In addition, Lennon never mentions his reaction to Paul McCartney’s Japanese marijuana bust in January, 1980.

  24. PB, 92–93.

  25. All Jack Douglas quotes come from author interview, August 2008.

  26. All Bun E. Carlos quotes from author interview, July 2008.

  27. David Geffen, “A Reminiscence,” Rolling Stone, Issue 335, January 22, 1981, 59.

  28. Ibid, 61.

  29. Robert Palmer, Blues and Chaos (New York: Scribner, 2009), 251.

  30. Geoffrey Stokes, “The Infantalization of John Lennon,” Village Voice, January 7, 1981, 31.

  31. Charles Shaar Murray, in Sutherland, 132.

  32. Author interview with Andy Peebles, London, 1985.

  33. Annie Leibovitz, Rolling Stone, Issue 335, January 22, 1981, 61.

  34. David Geffen, “A Reminiscence,” Rolling Stone, Issue 335, Jan. 22, 1981, 59.

  35. Ibid.

  36. Yoko Ono, quoted in New York Times, December 10, 1980, 1.

  37. BJY, 203.

  38. Ibid.

  Epilogue

  1. Author interview with Elliot Mintz, September 2008.

  2. JLE, 587.

  3. BJY, 205.

  4. Ibid.

  5. Ibid, 207.

  6. Badman, After the Break-Up, 276.

  7. “Silent Tribute to Lennon’s Memory is Observed Throughout the World,” New York Times, December 15, 1980, 1.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Jonathan Schell, “Talk of the Town,” New Yorker, December 22, 1980.

  10. BJY, 61.

  11. Author interview with Bob Gruen, August 2008.

  12. BJY, 291.

  13. All Jack Douglas quotes from author interview, September 2008.

  14. Harrison had actually started the song before Lennon’s death and reworked the lyrics once he decided to issue it as a tribute record. He fought off a knife attack by his own delusional fan in his Friar Park home in late 1999.

  15. Mikal Gilmore, “The Mystery of John Lennon,” Stories Done: Writings on the 1960s and Its Discontents (New York: Free Press, 2008), 158.
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  16. Anthony Elliott, The Mourning of John Lennon (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 6.

  Index

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

  Abbey Road, 283, 370, 397, 434, 450, 453, 458–60, 462–63, 465, 466, 478–79, 491, 493, 495, 496, 526

  album cover of, 459–60, 478

  “Across the Universe,” 377, 495, 601–2

  Adler, Lou, 576

  “Ain’t She Sweet,” 125

  Alexander, Arthur, 194, 243, 599

  Alfie, 285

  Ali, Muhammad, 246–47, 297

  Ali, Tariq, 375, 376, 515–18

  All Things Must Pass, 480, 482, 524

  “All Those Years Ago,” 653

  “All You Need Is Love,” 368, 371, 376, 421, 531, 537, 649

  Animal House, 293

  Anthology series, see Beatles Anthology, The

  Apple, x, 341, 359, 384–85, 404–5, 406, 408, 411, 412, 420, 427, 433, 439–42, 450–51, 452, 462–63, 464, 483, 486, 488, 518, 548–49, 572, 613

  Klein and, 433, 439–42, 450–51, 464, 469, 486, 487, 512, 513, 519–22, 559–60, 564, 566, 595

  logo of, xiii, 410–11

  McCartney and, 384–85, 441, 464–65, 512, 513–15, 519–22, 560, 595

  Approximately Infinite Universe, 538, 553, 590, 653

  Asher, Jane, 73, 284, 301, 334–35, 347, 364, 398, 402

  Asher, Peter, 399, 404, 486

  Ashton, David, 32–33

  Aspinall, Neil, 127, 177, 180, 184, 240, 256, 311, 321, 385, 397, 399, 400, 431, 434–35

  Associated Television Ventures (ATV), 447–48, 464, 603

  Attica State Prison, 534–35, 546, 547

  Avengers, The, 286

  Bach, Barbara, 644

  Backbeat, 115, 165

  Bag Productions Ltd., 452

  Baird, Julia Dykins, 14, 24, 29, 47, 48, 50, 56–57, 59, 60, 186, 624, 658

  Julia’s death and, 82–83, 84

  Baker, Barbara, 31

  “Ballad of John and Yoko, The,” 449–50, 456, 646

  Ballard, Arthur, 86, 87

  Bancroft, Robert, 32–33

  Band on the Run, 476, 601, 602

  Bangladesh, Concert for, 524–26, 536, 560, 564

  Bangs, Lester, 250, 561, 565

  Barber, Chris, 45, 46, 359

  Barrow, Tony, 155, 259, 260

  BBC, 43, 44, 45, 77, 149, 162, 168, 173, 174, 180, 195, 198, 203, 213, 220, 247, 253, 286, 311, 344, 350, 369, 376, 377, 445, 597–600, 637–38

  Beach Boys, 265, 266, 267, 294, 311, 347, 380, 381

  Beatlemania, 122, 181, 198–201, 217, 220, 228, 232, 235–38, 244–45, 254–55, 260–61, 289, 291, 294, 298, 300, 317–19, 370, 417

  Beatles:

  American arrival of, 228–31, 232–47

  Best dismissed from, 183–86, 188

  breakup of, xi, 322, 333, 398, 452, 458, 463–64, 469, 475–79, 483, 488–91, 493, 494, 519–20, 561, 659

  Candlestick Park show of, 318–19

  death threats made against, 312–13, 315, 317, 330, 649

  drugs used by, 104–5, 108, 117, 272–73, 288–89, 443

  on Ed Sullivan Show, 222, 228, 229–30, 236, 237, 238, 240, 241–43, 245, 246, 254, 279, 280, 319, 357, 597

  Epstein becomes manager, 145–46, 148

  first recording sessions of, 124–25, 128, 167–68, 173–75,

  first songs of, 72

  Grammy Awards won by, 276, 602

  haircuts and suits of, 113, 114, 149, 152–53, 180, 212, 285, 293

  in Hamburg, 97–98, 104–21, 124, 125, 127, 130–32, 152, 153, 156, 157, 162–63, 176, 192–95, 201, 229

  in India, 366–67, 377–84

  influence of, 265–68, 292, 474, 476

  interviews with, 220–21, 269, 292

  islands bought by, 359

  Lennon’s withdrawal from, 333, 370, 397, 430, 458, 463–64, 469, 475–77, 483, 489, 490

  Liverpool gigs of, 121–23, 127–30, 132, 135, 153, 179–81, 211, 217

  Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and, 272, 360–67, 380–85

  MBEs awarded to, 278, 280–81, 302, 313, 462, 479, 566

  naming of, 96–98

  publishing arrangements and catalog of, xii, 191, 201, 275, 360, 447–48, 464–65, 476, 483

  reissues and compilations, 276, 564

  remastered catalog of, xi–xii, xiii–xiv

  retirement from touring, 284, 318–19, 320–21, 332, 335–36

  reunion rumors, xi, 539, 560–61, 564–67, 612–13, 627

  in Scotland, 96–97, 201, 202, 253

  second U.S. tour of, 268, 269, 279–80

  semi-reunions of, 482

  singles charts topped by, 252–53

  Sutcliffe’s leaving of, 126, 130–32

  television appearances of, 202, 203, 220–21, 223, 224–26, 228, 236, 240–43, 245–47, 253, 254, 260, 279, 280, 319, 357, 358–59, 411, 412

  Beatles, The: The First U.S. Visit, 233

  Beatles and Co., 346–47, 595

  Beatles Anthology, The, x, xi, 79, 81, 108, 119, 183, 224, 226, 274, 281, 358, 382, 452, 488, 597, 599, 657, 660

  Beatles at the Beeb, The, 597

  Beatles for Sale, 254, 268, 276, 278, 282, 286

  Beatles VI, 276

  Beatty, Don, 50

  Beaucoups of Blues, 480

  Beecher, John, 70

  Bennett, Estelle, 226, 227, 234

  Benson, Harry, 234, 246

  Bentine, Michael, 86, 171

  Berlin, Isaiah, 4

  Berns, Bert, 207, 208, 282

  Bernstein, Sid, 269, 279

  Berry, Chuck, 50, 68, 70, 94, 129, 137, 221, 267, 461

  Beatles and, 79, 106, 109, 135–37, 159, 189, 193–95, 206, 222, 224, 231, 238, 242–44, 255, 260, 317, 585, 599–600

  JL and, 67, 159, 329, 347, 454, 462, 543, 574, 596, 598

  Levy suit and, 585, 595, 613–14

  Best, Joe, 78

  Best, Mona, 78, 184

  Best, Pete, 78, 98, 122–25, 127, 146, 159, 167, 179, 181, 193, 361

  dismissed from Beatles, 183–86, 188

  in Hamburg, 106, 109–11, 114, 116–21, 162, 164

  Best, Rory, 78

  Billboard, 252–53, 276, 651

  Black Jacks, 60

  Blackpool, 18–20, 22, 23, 24, 164, 252, 289, 401, 502, 661

  Blair, Tony, 656

  Blake, Peter, xiii, 36, 346, 391

  Blow-Up, 285

  Boast, Bob, 161

  Bolt, Fred, 31

  Boone, Pat, 49

  Bowie, David, 474, 601–2, 656

  Boyd, Joe, 429

  Boyd, Pattie, 253, 272–73, 284, 310–11, 348, 360, 379, 414, 443, 655

  Brambell, Wilfrid, 248, 250

  Bramwell, Tony, 44, 71, 118, 122–23, 187, 341, 344, 347, 348–49, 367, 407

  Branch, Taylor, 372–73

  Braun, Michael, 199, 237, 239, 248–50, 261, 479

  Brodax, Al, 336

  Bron, Eleanor, 271

  Brower, John, 460–61, 487

  Brown, Ken, 78–79

  Brown, Peter, 148, 364, 396, 400, 444, 447, 457, 465

  Browne, Tara, 340

  Bush, George W., 425, 656

  Byrne, Johnny, 80

  Cadbury, Peter, 453

  Caen, Herb, 36

  Cage, John, 323, 390–94, 416, 579

  Cale, John, 299

  “Can’t Buy Me Love,” 252

  Capitol Records, ix, 228, 229, 232, 236, 252–53, 276, 307, 315, 328, 497, 560, 572, 581, 590, 599, 613

  Capp, Al, 455–56

  Carlos, Bun E., 630–33, 654

  Carney, Ray, 37

  “Carry That Weight,” 398–99, 458, 459, 479, 495

  Carter, Jimmy, 620

  Casey, Howie, 97, 106, 107

  Cash, Rosanne, 655

  Cavern Club, 73, 92, 119, 127–29, 132–33, 135, 141–45, 150�
�52, 155, 157, 160, 161, 177, 179–81, 186, 190–93, 203–5, 211, 217, 222, 514, 645

  Cavett, Dick, 527–29, 534, 540, 551, 568

  Cellarful of Noise, A (Epstein), 141

  Chandler, Chas, 338

  Charlesworth, Chris, 563

  Cheap Trick, 629–32, 654

  Checker, Chubby, 207, 209, 440

  Chicago Seven, 492, 528, 537–38, 542, 545

  Choba b CCCP, 598

  Christgau, Robert, 351, 505, 651–52

  Churchill, Winston, 4, 11, 413, 452, 468, 469, 504

  Cirque du Soleil, xi, 660

  Civil, Alan, 302–3

  Clapton, Eric, 67, 107, 338, 408–9, 425, 432, 433, 461, 463, 466–67, 482, 525

  Clark, Dick, 341

  Clayson, Alan, 46, 95

  Cleave, Maureen, 290–91, 292, 306, 321

  Cochran, Eddie, x, 62, 70, 95–96, 135, 136, 189, 217, 414, 593, 598

  Coe, Melanie, 346

  Cohn, Nik, 364

  “Cold Turkey,” 355, 461–62, 463, 467, 474–76, 479, 481, 484, 485, 489, 492, 501, 502, 631, 655

  Coleman, David, 247

  Coleman, Ray, 88, 148, 281, 433

  Coleman, Sid, 161, 174

  “Come Together,” 459, 460, 466, 473, 478, 556, 585, 613

  Complete BBC Sessions, The, 597

  Condon, Terry, 311

  Connolly, Ray, 489, 490, 526

  Cook, Peter, 263–64

  Cooke, Sam, 440, 599, 601

  Cooper, Michael, 346

  Cosell, Howard, 642

  Cott, Jonathan, 414, 423, 425, 637

  Cox, Anthony, 323, 348, 349, 387, 393, 418, 422, 446, 484, 499, 565

  Cox, Kyoko Chan, 323, 387, 393, 418, 422, 446, 457, 484, 499, 540, 565, 575

  Crawdaddy, 548

  Creem, 506, 554

  Crenshaw, Marshall, 246

  Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, 492–93

  Cullen, Peter, 640

  Daddy Come Home (Lennon), xiii, 9, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

  Daily Express, 376–77, 466

  Daily Howl, 34, 134

  Daily Mail, 339, 340, 341, 346, 378, 431, 489

  Daily Mirror, 218–19, 277, 419

  Dakota, The, 559, 570, 638–39, 644–45, 650

  Darin, Bobby, 440

  Davies, Hunter, 76, 87, 88, 148, 345, 432

  Davis, Doreen, 637

  Davis, Jesse Ed, 117

  Davis, Rod, 31, 39, 40, 41, 47, 59, 61, 62

  “Day in the Life, A,” 295, 329, 332, 339–43, 346, 353–57, 370, 377, 436, 503, 520, 533, 561, 592

  Day John Met Paul, The (O’Donnell), 60–61

  Dean, John, 549–50

  “Dear Prudence,” 381, 410, 654

 

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