(The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection) Ben Urish, Ken Bielen-The Words and Music of John Lennon-Praeger (2007) Read Online Free Page B

fast-paced jam featuring Ono, tentatively titled
    “Her Blues” and later titled “Whole Lotta Yoko.”4 Had the film been released
    in 1969 as originally planned, it would have furthered Lennon’s stance as a
    performer away from The Beatles, clarified The Beatles’ dissolving nature,
    and showcased Lennon and Ono’s artistic partnership for a much larger audi-
    ence than their joint albums received. However, the film was unreleased for
    decades, by which point it was a time capsule and curio, though no less
    welcome for being so.
    life wiTh The lions
    The couple’s next collaboration, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the
    Lions, is more varied, more successful, and yet slightly more derivative than
    Two Virgins in that it utilizes ideas from the Fluxus art collective of which
    Yoko had been part. The title makes a pun on the old British radio program
    Life with the Lyons starring performers Ben Lyons and his wife Bebe Daniels,
    and is a wry commentary on the media circus in which Lennon and Ono
    found themselves embroiled at the time. The back cover is the now-famous
    photo of their arrest on drug charges, and the front cover set the tone for
    the album—Ono is pictured in her hospital bed (shortly after she suffered
    the first of three miscarriages) with Lennon leaning on cushions at her side
    on the floor.
    The album opens with a live recording titled “Cambridge 1969” docu-
    menting Lennon’s second professional non-Beatles music performance since
    their formation. Since the Rock and Roll Circus performances of “Yer Blues”
    and “Whole Lotta Yoko” would remain unreleased for another quarter cen-
    tury, this was the first available on-record public performance of Lennon’s
    free-form guitar playing. It was more assured and developed than it was in
    its formative stage on Two Virgins. The focus, however, is on Ono’s vocals;
    Lennon’s work, unexpected and fascinating, remains in support and coun-
    terpoint to her efforts. Other musicians join in eventually, and the effect is to
    clarify Lennon and Ono’s work in juxtaposition to them.
    “No Bed for Beatle John” follows and is the standout track on the album.
    It begins quietly as Ono reads / chants / sings newspaper articles detailing
    her hospitalization and the scandal over Two Virgins. Soon, Lennon joins in
    a whispery semi-falsetto voice performing a news article about his and his
    8    The Words and Music of John Lennon
    first wife Cynthia’s divorce. Lennon’s voice is in the background of Ono’s as
    a harmonic countermelody of sorts. The simple fun of the appealing idea is
    countered by the mournful tones of the vocals, and the pair’s erratic phrasing
    that undercuts the rational structure of the news reports. The effect is uneasy
    and disconcerting; yet, as “unfinished” music, it is assumed that the listener
    is encouraged to grab some reading material and chant along, perhaps chang-
    ing the overall effect.
    Intriguingly, in a bootleg recording from The Beatles’ Get Back sessions
    of January 1969, a couple of months after “No Bed for Beatle John” was
    recorded, Lennon and the band jam to “Good Rockin’ Tonight” singing the
    lyrics of “I heard the news” while Paul McCartney reads a negative news-
    paper account of The Beatles’ recent exploits. This does not appear to be a
    conscious development of the idea, but rather both Lennon and McCartney
    engaging in a little passive-aggressive communication. A humorous variation
    of the idea is included in the John Lennon Anthology set that was released in
    1998. Lennon imitates Bob Dylan by reading newspaper passages in a Dylan-
    esque voice while accompanying himself on guitar.
    Next is “Baby’s Heartbeat,” which is a fuzzy-sounding loop of the heart-
    beat of their unborn and ultimately miscarried child. It becomes trance-like,
    in an odd parallel to the ending of Lennon’s Beatle track “I Want You (She’s
    So Heavy)” released on the Abbey