John Lennon 1970

Its time to start clearing some of the audio files off of my hard drive, so I thought I'd start by trying to organize my JOHN LENNON stuff and posting it here before backing it up and deleting it. And 1970 seemed like a good place to start.

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I know I don't have everythng, and I don't claim that these tracks are from the best sources, I've just put them together from what I happen to have on my computer. They were downloaded from various sources and I'd like to thank all the fine folk at the different blogs, message boards, and other websites from which I got this stuff over the past couple of years.

First up, there are the demo recordings for some of the songs that would end up on Lennon's 1970 LP "John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band". From a cassette most likely recorded in California in the summer of 1970:

LOVE
MOTHER
MY MUMMY'S DEAD
I FOUND OUT 1
I FOUND OUT 2

And more demos, from a cassette dated July 28, 1970:

GOD
WHEN A BOY MEETS A GIRL
WELL WELL WELL

Back in London at EMI, John started recording the LP in late September with just RINGO STARR on drums, KLAUS VOORMAN on bass, and PHIL SPECTOR producing. Here are a few oldies they ran through during the sessions:

HONEY DON'T
DON'T BE CRUEL
MATCHBOX

And here are a few early acetates, with different mixes. Notice that "Mother" has a rhythm guitar track that wasn't used on the LP, and "Remember" is more than 8 minutes long:

MOTHER
REMEMBER
WELL WELL WELL
LOOK AT ME

Then there's the bootleg CD "Compositions", which consists of about an hour's worth of piano demos recorded by John in late 1970. "Eight Arms To Hold You", CHIP MADINGER and MARK EASTER's indispensible guide to solo Beatle recordings says it was recorded in November. Here's the link for the whole CD:

www.gigasize.com/get.php/492528/John_Lennon__Compositions.rar

And here's the track listing:

01 MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR
02 I'M THE GREATEST
03 I'M THE GREATEST
04 HOW
05 CHILD OF NATURE
06 CHILD OF NATURE
07 OH YOKO
08 SALLY AND BILLY
09 SALLY AND BILLY
10 ROCK AND ROLL PEOPLE
11 OH YOKO
12 OH YOKO
13 HELP
14 INSTRUMENTAL
15 HAPPY CHRISTMAS
16 HAPPY CHRISTMAS
17 PEOPLE GET READY / HOW
18 HOW
19 HOW
20 MY HEART IS IN YOUR HANDS
21 MAILMAN, BRING ME NO MORE BLUES
22 I PROMISE
23 YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS
24 I'LL MAKE YOU HAPPY
25 I'LL MAKE YOU HAPPY

And finally, here is audio of Lennon's legendary interview with JAN WENNER from December 1970 in New York that would be published in two parts in Rolling Stone Magazine in early 1971, and would eventually be released as the book "Lennon Remembers". This is not the BBC Radio "Archive Hour" special. Its supposed to be the complete tapes, and it totals more than three-and-a-half hours:

ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW PART 1
ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW PART 2
ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW PART 3
ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW PART 4
ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW PART 5