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DVD
Hello Steve,I just received an advance copy of Eagle Rock's new Classic Album: John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band
The 'Classic Albums' series documents the making of seminal pop albums (Paul Simon's 'Graceland', Bob Marley's 'Catch a Fire', Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours', to name but a few of the previous releases) through interviews with participants and associates and the playing of master tapes (more on that later). This new 52' feature documents the making of John Lennon's first 'proper' (i.e. accessible to the public at large) studio album, 'John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band', recorded in the fall of 1970 and released in December of that year.
Although light on the rare video side of things there appears to be no available footage of the sessions, so the producers have collected little-seen (but previously circulating) clips of John attending the Alexandra Palace psychedelic event in London (29 April 1967) and sequences from the BBC '24 Hour' documentary (shown on 15 December 1969) , the real treat for Beatles videos collectors are previously-unseen excerpts of John and Yoko's appearance on 'Parkinson' (17 July 1971) which, to my knowledge, haven't been seen since the original transmission. Other clips from that show have been included in various programmes over the years, notably 'Imagine' (1972) and 'Imagine, John Lennon' (1988) but the ones on this DVD are different.
We also get new interviews with people involved in the making of the album (Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr, Klaus Vormann, engineers Phil McDonald and John Leckie), music critics (Jann Wenner, who interviewed Lennon at length in December 1970 for 'Rolling Stone,' and Richard Williams), the man responsible for inspiring the album (Dr. Arthur Janov, proponent of the primal scream theory, whose seminar John and Yoko had attended in the summer of 1970), Beatle historian Mark Lewisohn (author of the superb 'The Beatles' Recording Sessions' and 'The Complete Beatles Chronicles'), as well as Elliot Mintz, who was not involved with the album at all. My impression is that the latter's inclusion is due to the fact that he appears to be groomed, as Yoko's PR man, to take over as guardian of John's legacy the day she passes away. Here's someone else who'll be ready on day one
But the main drawing point of this DVD, and what makes it in my opinion an essential addition to any Lennon fan's collection, is the playing of the original multitrack tapes at Abbey Road by the engineers who worked on the album. As they isolate various tracks, we get to hear John's spine-chilling voice on its own or the various instruments on the very spare backing tracks (which usually consisted simply of John on guitar or piano, Ringo on drums and Klaus on bass).
We also get shots of various EMI Tape boxes, indicating the precise recording dates of various songs on the album. Up until now, the only known session date for a particular song was 9 October 1970, John's 30th birthday, when he recorded 'Remember'. Here are the dates we now have:
There is another session sheet, but the date is cropped out in the documentary. On that unspecified date (probably late September), they recorded 'Isolation' (takes 24-29) and 'Well Well Well' (takes 5-6 of a remake).
- 26 Sep 1970: 'Mother' (take 61 -- possibly an in-joke, as this was the first day of recording), 'Working Class Hero' (takes 1-9)
- 27 Sep 1970: 'God' (takes 1-2 of an alternate, acoustic guitar-based version), 'Well Well Well' (takes 3-4)
- 30 Sep 1970: 'Hold On' (takes 1-6)
- 7 Oct 1970: 'Look at Me' (take 1), 'God' (takes 1-8 of a remake, still guitar-based)
- 9 Oct 1970: 'Remember' (takes 1-4)
- 17 Oct 1970: 'Mother' (possibly a vocal overdub session)
- 24 Oct 1970: 'Mother' (another possible vocal overdub session)
In addition to the 52' documentary, there's 35' of bonus footage. On many DVDs, this is filled with boring stuff considered not good enough to be included in the main feature. Here, though, it's simply more great isolation mixes, two clips from John's 1972 concert at Madison Square Garden ('Well Well Well' and 'Mother'), and the 'holding up signs' version of 'Instant Karma!' (broadcast on for 'Top of the Pops' on 19 February 1970) in pristine quality.
* Spoiler alert! Don't read any further if you want to be surprised by the musical contents of that DVD! *
The multitracks played for that DVD:
Bamiyan
- - a mostly complete 'Remember' (with some stop-and-starts and a recent clip of Klaus playing the bass line at home) and an earlier (fun, faster) take, which was partially released on 'John Lennon Anthology' in 1998. This multitrack mixdown starts earlier, though.
- - isolated tracks of 'Well Well Well', 'Working Class Hero', 'God' (the released version and an alternate, acoustic guitar-based take), 'Mother', 'Isolation', 'Love.'
Beatles on DVD
The Beatles Archives
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