Radioinfo is taking you back 50 years to the songs of 1974. It was a mighty fine year for music.
Late 1973 John Lennon’s relationship with Yoko Ono was falling apart with Yoko inviting John to hook up with their assistant and production coordinator May Pang. Pang was just 22. He and May moved to L.A. and so began what became known as Lennon’s ‘lost weekend’, 18 months of partying, reconnecting and soul searching.
This song is from an album of the same name, one that will never be mentioned among Lennon’s best. He produced the album and even made the cover art (which you can see above) which has Lennon out the front and a side on Yoko Ono in the background, like a mountain range, that John is walking away from. This song, while filled with make love not war messages, also is filled with the mess that was in John’s head.
On moving to LA, and in with May Pang, John reconnected with an old friend, Harry Nilsson. I adore Harry. He absolutely wouldn’t tow the record company line, unfortunately resulting in a career that never reached the heights it could have. Nilsson was already close with George Harrison (who yelled f*** you to start a sing along at his funeral – but that’s a story for another day) and especially Ringo Starr, who can’t speak about him to this day without getting emotional. Nilsson idolised Lennon and was totally thrilled when John agreed to produce his next album, which became Pussy Cats, also from 1974, and not amongst Nilsson’s finest work either. I’ve included Don’t Forget Me from that album below.
Lennon was letting loose for probably the first time in his adult life. He, Ringo and Harry got kicked out of the Troubadour for heckling the Smothers Brothers. Nilsson so pushed himself to impress Lennon during recording Pussy Cats that he ruptured his vocal cords, doing even more damage by not wanting to admit what he’d done to anyone.
Possibly the only good thing to come out of the experience was that on the first night of recording Pussy Cats, March 28, 1974, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney decided to pop in. Beatles fans will be aware that Paul and John weren’t on speaking terms at this point, and this very laidback recording environment became an olive branch between the two.
They all ended up jamming and singing, with the sessions released later as an album called A Toot and a Snore in ’74. It was the only time Lennon/McCartney would record together again.
In early 1975 John and Yoko got back together, with the story of the lost weekend and reunion the subject of books, documentaries and more. Lennon told Yoko at the time that, “The separation didn’t work out.”
Sean Taro Ono Lennon was born in October 1975 and the rest of that decade John devoted himself largely to being dad. In 1980 he began recording again with Double Fantasy released three weeks before his death. Within that album are some of my favourite Lennon lyrics:
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”, from Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy), his tribute to Sean.
And from Watching the Wheels, about the peace that came from taking a step back to savour family life:
I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and roundI really love to watch them rollNo longer riding on the merry-go-roundI just had to let it go
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and music trivia buff for Radioinfo.