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TIRADE : Lennon, Yoko and the letter with which John returned his M 8 E to Harol Wilson.
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LENNON PUTS ON AN ART SHOW ... WITH LOVE TO YOKO IN the winter of1973, John Lennon quietly walked out of the life of Yoko Ono, his wife of five years. It marked, the beginning of a new and very private time in his life. „I went out for coffee and some papers and I didn‘t come back,“ was how he explained it later. „It‘s not a matter of who broke it up. It broke up.“ Soon he was living in a beach house in Santa Monica, California, that had once belonged to actor Peter Lawford. And he was recording an album of rock ‚n‘ roll „oldies“ with producer Phil Spector. But nothing was going Smoothly. Lennon was havingtrouble working, and he was getting increasingly sucked in to the Los Angeles cocaine-andcognac cycle. By the time he and Spector had put portions of nine songs on tape, things between them hadcollapsed. So did the „oldies“ album. ADAPTED by PETER DONNELLY „I was a bit disapapointed, deepressed,“ Lennon said, and soon he was in over his head with drugs and alcohol. Vegas and get drunk at Caesar‘s Palace and play number nine on the roulette wheel all night, usually losing. He did work too, though. He produced Harry Nilsson‘s Pussy Cats album and recorded, with the aid of gallons of warm sake, a number of Xrated songs. But John Lennon realised he was sinking, and he looked back to New York City and to Yoko Ono. EVEN while he was dissipating himself in Los Angeles, he called her frequently. Sometimes he would get past her answering service and, if he were sober enough, would convince Yoko to talk to him. „I‘m ready to come back,“ he would begin to tell her. But Yoko didn‘t think he was. ADAPTED from „The Ballad of John and Yoko,“ by the Editors of Rolling Stone. Edited by Jonathan Cott and Christine Doudna. To be published on October by Michael Joseph Ltd., price £6.95. ~ 1982 by Rolling Stone Press.
04
„I went out for the coffee and papers, and didn‘t come back“ DAY ONE of the story that tells how John shut himself away from the world.
It happened because Elton John had sungbackup on the single Whatever Gets You Thru The Night. And done, as Lennon said, „a damn good job*“ „So I sort of half-hear-, tedly promised that if it became Number One — which I had no reason to expect — I‘d do Madison Square Garden with him.“ By late 1974, when Lennon had struggled to pull his life back together from his „lost weekend“. —more than a year spent on the seamier side of the, ‘Los Angeles rock star world — the unexpected happened. The song became his first Number One in America. And he kept his promise. EVEN while he was dissipating himself in Los Angeles, he called her frequently. Sometimes he would get past her answering service and, if he were sober enough, would convince Yoko to talk to him. „I‘m ready to come back,“ he would begin to tell her. But Yoko
05
JOHN Lennon lies “dead” with the other Beatles crouched over him in this poignant scene. But the prank photo was taken 12 years before Lennon was really gunned down in New York by crazed fan Mark Chapman. It is one of 23 previously unreleased images by snapper Tom Murray captured in London during the Beatles’ last publicity shoot in 1968.
JOHN LENNON shot dead in New York Dec 8 1980
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A portrait of nothing, by Beatle John
THEY sang Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Whatever Gets You Thru the Night . and I Saw Her Standing There. It was a very emotional evening. Elton John later wept openly. He had been worried about John‘s health and was happy to see him again. Yoko was in the audience and was visibly moved by the sight of John. After the show she went backstage and she and John looked into each other‘s eyes. „Can we go out and have dinner?‘ he asked her. „Call me tomorrow and we‘ll talk about it,“ she said. He telephoned her and asked: „Tea at the Plaza?“ She took him back. The reunion was so successful that Yoko soon became pregnant — at the age of forty-two and after three miscarriages with John.
The pictures of Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison – worth an estimated £100,000 each – lay forgotten until Murray was clearing out his studio. He has now put them on display in an exhibition at the Three White Walls Gallery, Birmingham. Murray said: “I just feel privileged that I was part of this historic day. Getting close to the Beatles was a dream come true.” All he knew when the day began is that he was going to help photograph