(The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection) Ben Urish, Ken Bielen-The Words and Music of John Lennon-Praeger (2007) (24 page)

heard, especially near the end, and pulsing strings support the chorus.

As enjoyable as it is to hear this version, the rhythm box still intrudes—but,

unless some other performance by Lennon of this song surfaces, this is the

closest we will get to how he may have envisioned the song. A simple version

with only piano and voice by Mary Chapin Carpenter, stylistically much like

Lennon’s demonstration recording, became an adult contemporary hit in

1996.

As on
Double Fantasy,
Ono gets the last word in a production that is harsher

and fuller sounding than her other tracks on the album, more so in view of

the demo recordings that precede it. “You’re the One” sets a strident tone

with Ono vocally providing a percussion line. The song tells of a romantic

pair’s link having the strength of nature and the universe’s inevitability. At

first, the refrain of “how do I tell you you’re the one?” refers to the difficulty

of talking about the depth of the connection between the two. Yet a middle

stanza talks about the couple in the past tense, shifting the implications of the

questions considerably.

Curiously, the 2001 remastered and reissued CD version of the album

has bonus cuts that would have been more appropriate for inclusion on

Double Fantasy.
Lennon’s lead vocal version of “Every Man Has a Woman

Who Loves Him”—a song of Ono’s from
Double Fantasy
on which she sang

lead—is appended to the album after “You’re the One” as if it were part of

the continuing dialogue. This version of the song was originally released on

an album and as a single in 1984 and is discussed in the next section.

Also included on the
Milk and Honey
album is a home demo version of

Lennon performing “I’m Stepping Out,” simply called “Stepping Out” in

this form. A demo version by Ono of her
Double Fantasy
song “Moving On”

is also included, plus approximately 22 minutes of Lennon’s last interview,

given only hours before his death. In it, Lennon (and, to a limited degree

at the start, Ono) discuss how they composed some of the songs on
Double

Fantasy,
how they met, the social role of an artist, and their hopes for the

future. Strangely, it is taken not from a reedit of the original interviews, but

from an edit prepared for a radio broadcast that occasionally cuts to some of

the songs from the album. In the original broadcast, the songs were overlaid

with the interviews to blend from the speaking to the music, and musical

fragments still remain.

I Don’t Wanna Face It, 1981–1988 93

“Every Man Has a Woman”

The Lennon single “Every Man Has a Woman”—with the flip side being the

solo recording debut of his son Sean performing a composition of Ono’s titled

“It’s Alright”—was released in November 1984, along with an album of the

same name comprising Ono compositions performed by various other artists.

In the album’s liner notes, Ono explains that Lennon had planned an album of

other artists performing Ono’s work as a surprise present for her, and that he

had recorded the track without her knowing. The track does not sound like an

entirely new recording, and, since Lennon was reportedly remixing this song

for an Ono EP during the last weeks of his life, he may have remixed it for his

contribution to the future project as well, but this is conjecture.

This song was one of Ono’s more lackluster efforts on
Double Fantasy,

and here “Every Man Has a Woman” sounds like a remixed and reedited

version of the same track. A brief instrumental passage has been omitted, and

Lennon’s supporting vocals from the original have been mixed to the front.

Ono’s lead vocals have been eliminated, while her voice is clearly heard in

parts of the chorus. It also does not sound as though Lennon recorded an

additional new vocal track.

Like the original, the song traipses along well enough in counterpoint to

the melancholy tone and performance. Corresponding to the title, the verses

expound upon the inevitability of romantic pairing while the chorus voices a

fearful hesitancy in accepting the personal reality of such a generalization, stat-

ing “why do I run when I know you’re the one?” The music may have been

designed to straddle the two dimensions of hesitancy and inevitability, but,

instead of providing the needed supporting tension, it becomes droning.

In both Ono’s and Lennon’s versions, the track is an innocuous misfire,

and—regrettably, but not surprisingly—the single failed to chart. In the early

2000s, however, a series of remixes of songs throughout Ono’s career became

dance-track hits, and a lyrically revamped remix of this song—including refer-

ences to homosexual partnering and romance—was one of them. Ono also

included Lennon’s original version as a bonus track on the 2001 CD reissue

of
Milk and Honey.

Ono’s
Every Man Has a Woman
album also included a version of her

“Now or Never,” a song she had included on her
Approximately Infinite

Universe
album. This version was recorded during those sessions, and Lennon

is credited as co-producer with Ono. Rather than Yoko’s lead vocals, as on

the original, a children’s choir is featured, sounding much like the chorus of

“Happy Xmas (War Is Over).” The idea gives extra contrast and urgency to

Ono’s interrogative lyrics, as if a very aware child were chastising the adults

for what they were permitting the world to become.

Lennon’s Appearances on Other Ono Releases

After his slaying, recordings of Lennon appeared on multiple releases, legal

and otherwise. As the technique of electronic sampling began and intensified,

94 The Words and Music of John Lennon

fragments of Lennon’s voice and music, with and without The Beatles, were

used. This is by no means a comprehensive accounting, but rather a short

look at the more interesting examples used by Yoko Ono in the five years

after Lennon’s killing. Not surprisingly, Ono has used Lennon’s voice on

later occasions as well, and the more notable examples are mentioned in the

appropriate sections of this work.

Ono’s first posthumous use of Lennon’s voice was on “It Happened,” a

song of hers from the mid-1970s, which was reused as the flip side of “Walk-

ing on Thin Ice.” Ono used a fragment of dialogue recorded as she and Lennon

strolled through Central Park being filmed for promotional footage to be

used for songs from the
Double Fantasy
album. Sound from a few seconds

of the footage later turned up as a bonus cut on the CD reissue of
Double

Fantasy.
Lennon can be heard taking the part of a startled fan, saying, “John

Lennon! I can’t believe it!” He also jokes about the set up of the filming. He

comments, “Well, here we are, just two average people” and emits a short

laugh that seems to be looped to approximate the fake laughter engaged in

by The Beatles in the bicycle scene in
Help!
though it plays much briefer. The

spoken introduction to the song ends with Lennon directing the filming by

suggesting that he and Ono “bleach out into the sunset.”

Lennon’s voice next appeared on “Never Say Goodbye” from Ono’s
It’s

Alright (I See Rainbows)
album of 1982. In the middle of the song, Lennon

can clearly be heard yelling “Yoko!” from what sounds like a moment from

their “John and Yoko” piece that makes up half of the
Wedding Album.
He

says her name in a myriad of ways on that original recording. In this instance,

Ono selected a full-fledged scream, and, given the context of his killing and

this particular song, it is as harrowing as it is ironic.

As discussed previously, it is not precisely clear to what degree Lennon had

input into Ono’s recordings that make up the
Milk and Honey
album. “Don’t

Be Scared” was reportedly recorded with Lennon’s involvement and, on the

Onobox
set, Ono includes enough of the lead-in so that Lennon can be heard

asking Ono, “Mother, you listening?” In what might have been an attempt

to make Ono’s cuts from the
Milk and Honey
album better match Lennon’s

cuts by seeming less polished and to have been recorded when Lennon’s

cuts were, Ono added Lennon’s voice to the fadeout of her song “You’re

the One” recorded, according to the
Onobox
booklet, in 1983. He is heard

shouting in a near monotone, “Good night Sean, see you in the morning.”

Posthumous Releases, 1985–1988

Even though there were still numerous Lennon recordings in various

stages of professionalism and completion, all future Lennon releases would

consist of live performances, studio outtakes, and demo recordings. Some

would be excellent in terms of quality and content, others would be lacking

in both, and many would fall somewhere in between. Casual fans might only

I Don’t Wanna Face It, 1981–1988 95

have interest in the cream of the crop, but serious fans welcomed anything

they could get. Even the most esoteric piece had something to offer, and the

sheer amount and consistent quality only enhanced Lennon’s posthumous

reputation as a creative force of integrity and perseverance. Eventually, the

amount of material that emerged from his home recordings made Lennon’s

claim of creative dormancy from 1975 to 1980 true only if taken to mean he

did not complete any material in a professional recording studio.

Live in New York City

The 1986
Live in New York City
album was an edited version of The Plas-

tic Ono Band with Elephant’s Memory’s One to One concerts held in 1972

to raise money for and awareness of the situation of mentally handicapped

children in New York. The album is gleaned from portions of the afternoon

show, which Lennon half-joking calls “the rehearsal.” To create a single disc

album in 1986, Ono cut her feature numbers out, whereas two of her num-

bers (more were performed) are available on the video release. The encore is

also edited significantly. Why, in the ensuing decades, the best performances

of the concerts have not been reedited to fit a full CD (or parts of two)

is unfathomable. With the abbreviated Toronto appearance, these two per-

formances were Lennon’s only full-fledged post-Beatles concerts, and legal

issues—whatever they may be—should have been surmounted. The true joy

of the album is that, faults and all—and no one expects perfection at a live

show—it is both fun and interesting to hear Lennon perform these songs

live. The CD reissue sounds edgier than the vinyl and video releases, both of

which have a slightly muddy sound in comparison.

The album begins with the chant of “Power to the People,” which blends

into a rousing version of “New York City” that shows off the band to good

effect and once again puzzles the listener as to why the song was not a single

release at the time. In a nod to the journalist Geraldo Rivera, whose inves-

tigations spurred the event, Lennon changes the lyric “waitin’ for Jerry” to

“waitin’ for Geraldo.” “It’s So Hard” follows and is performed with a nice

rolling lilt with Lennon’s vocals having real emotional flourish.

The
John Lennon Anthology
collection featured three performances from

the second show, with all three numbers demonstrating that the later show

was tighter musically and that Lennon took more care with his vocals. “It’s So

Hard” is one of three on the collection and keeps a more solid rhythm while

losing none of the lilt. Lennon adds a few howls of emphasis to his vocals.

A live version of the couple’s 1972 single follows on the 1986 release,

with “Woman Is the Nigger of the World” and, on the video release, Ono’s

“Sisters, O Sisters.” On these, as throughout the album, Lennon’s rhythm

guitar work, where it is discernable, is top notch. Lennon switches between

guitar and electric piano later in the concert.

“Woman Is the Nigger of the World” is also available from the evening

show and is also a superior performance. In the first performance, Lennon

96 The Words and Music of John Lennon

had forgotten his lyrics “while telling her not to be so smart, we put her

down for being so dumb.” Instead he sings, “while putting her down for

being dumb, we put her down for being dumb.” This time he admits he is

defeated by his memory and sings, “this is the one that I can never remember

but you get the message anyway.”

“Well Well Well” is taken at a brisker pace than it is on the
Plastic Ono

Band
release, and, in the live setting, it is all the better for it. It is one of the

stronger numbers on the album. A perhaps too-ragged version of “Instant

Karma!” prompts Lennon to remark that “we’ll get it right next time” before

an equally ragged version of “Mother.” Lennon is straining at the vocals and

chokes off a couple of times before getting to the throat-wrenching finale.

The starkness of the studio version is a little undercut by the band, and Len-