John Lennon

By now, the parade of early deaths of beloved musicians is long indeed; I remember being affected by the senseless assassination of John Lennon on December 8, 1980 nearly as much as that of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. 

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The impact of this one Elvis recording can hardly be overstated.  “Heartbreak Hotel” was one of the biggest influences on John Lennon that inexorably led to the formation of the Beatles.  In a quote given in Wikipedia, John Lennon speaks of his feelings about the song:  “When I first heard ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, I could hardly make out what was being said.  It was just the experience of hearing it and having my hair stand on end.  We’d never heard American voices singing like that.  They always sung like [Frank] Sinatra or enunciate very well.  Suddenly, there’s this hillbilly hiccuping on tape echo and all this bluesy stuff going on.  And we didn’t know what Elvis was singing about. . . .  It took us a long time to work out what was going on.  To us, it just sounded like a noise that was great.” 

John Lennon is not the only British rock legend who was similarly affected by “Heartbreak Hotel”.  George Harrison was only 13 and riding his bike past a friend’s house when he overheard the song being played in 1956; he said the song gave him a “rock and roll epiphany”.  The following year, Harrison auditioned to be the guitarist for John Lennon’s early band the Quarrymen. 

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John Lennon was even more blunt:  “If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.”  Ted Nugent has said:  “If you don’t know every Chuck Berry lick, you can’t play rock guitar.” 

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Both Paul McCartney and John Lennon have called Buddy Holly a primary influence on their work; Ian Whitcomb once said that “Buddy Holly and the Crickets had the most influence on the Beatles.”  The Beatles did a lovely cover of “Words of Love” that was released in late 1964 on their album Beatles for Sale.  During the recording sessions for the Let it Be album in January 1969, the Beatles recorded a slow version of “Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues” (a song popularized by Buddy Holly, though not written by him); the song was later released on Anthology 3.  Also, John Lennon recorded a cover of “Peggy Sue” on his 1975 solo album Rock ’n’ Roll.  

(June 2013/1)

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Phil Spector’s work with the Beatles on their final album, Let it Be is more controversial, with many contending that it was more overproduction than production in that case.  Ultimately, the album was re-released in 2003 without Spector’s production and overdubs under the name Let it Be . . . Naked.  Still, Phil Spector worked with John Lennon on several of his solo albums. 

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The Beatles performed a sort of mini-Wall of Sound at the close of their masterful Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, not long after Phil Spector came along.  Following the second symphonic build-up within “A Day in the Life”, the orchestra swelled into a crescendo, and then there was a thunderous piano chord (an E-major chord to be exact).  Many people who have been around a piano marvel at how long the instrument can hold a note; and here, the Beatles were dealing that expectation up in spades with a long, slow fade for nearly one full minute before the sound faded into background hiss. 

Actually though, it wasn’t just one piano:  John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and one of the Beatles’ roadies, Mal Evans were manning different pianos; while George Martin was playing the same chord on a harmonium.  What’s more, the gain was gradually turned up as the chord faded in order to prolong the effect – at the end (they tell me), it is possible to hear background sounds in the recording studio:  rustling papers, a squeaking chair, and the air conditioners. 

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After a few albums of (more or less) pure country, Linda Ronstadt perfected her sound when she connected with one of the top producers of the 1970’s, Peter Asher; he was also Ronstadt’s manager for several years.  Peter Asher and Gordon Waller performed as Peter and Gordon, a British duo who enjoyed several years of success, particularly with their #1 hit in 1964, “A World Without Love”.  The song was written by Paul McCartney but credited as Lennon/McCartney as was all of his music and that of John Lennon in the British Invasion period. 

(October 2013)

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Among the eulogies written about Lou Reed are some that compare his contributions to rock and roll to those of Bob Dylan and John Lennon, and I can’t really argue with that assessment.  

(December 2013)

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I have previously written of The Sound of San Francisco and quoted nearly all of Mick Farren’s liner notes for that album; Boyskout is the first (though not the last) UARB to be drawn from the roster.  My tribute to Mick Farren is coming up later this year; his death last year upset me as much as any I can think of from the music world since that of John Lennon. 

(January 2014)

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Mick Farren’s death last July affected me more than that of any musician since John Lennon back in 1980; he died a little shy of his 70th birthday, like three of my four grandparents. 

(March 2014/1)

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By contrast, the people at Gear Fab Records – one of the better reissue record companies – are quite enthusiastic about Homer; Galen Niles was brought in to write the liner notes for the 2012 CD, Homer.  (The record company name comes from two Beatles-era expressions for “cool”; both are featured in the background singing on “All Those Years Ago”, the 1981 George Harrison song honoring recently assassinated John Lennon and also featuring the other two living Beatles in the band). 

(April 2014)

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